"favorite music blogs" via nbr

Greenwood Rhythm Collective: Guajira 78
From 7" (NYC Trust, 200?)

Greenwood Rhythm Collective: Salsa Verde (snippet)
From 7" (NYC Trust, 2008)

Orquesta International: Mucho Control
From El Barrio: Back on The Streets of Spanish Harlem (Fania, 2008)

Damn, I need a late pass for not realizing that the great Monk One - NY DJ and Wax Poetics contributor - helps run a label alongside E's E, NYC Trust. It's new become one of my favorite sites to peruse - there's a wealth of good-goodies here, including custom mixes by folks like Jared Boxxx (look for "Big City Soul") and Prince Paul ("6 Yrs. High and Rising") and a slew of free tracks by Monk, E and Oneman (look on the right column, especially Monk One's "Got To Give It Up" reggae remix).

Monk and E have two different bands (so far) that they've put together on the label - the more downtempo Midnight Lab Band and the Latin-flavored Greenwood Rhythm Coalition. The GRC's last two 7"s have been exceptionally strong - the "Guajira 78" is especially caliente fuego, a fast-paced, charanga style dance track with a darting flute.

The group's new "Salsa Verde" is equally infectious, built around the distinctive riff that originates with Orquesta International's popular "Mucho Control" hit (also covered by Ismael Quinones). I could be wrong, but I also pick up a distinctive Colombian salsa flavor off this but I'm still a neophyte in the genre. Regardless: it sounds fantastic. I can't wait to play this one out at Boogaloo[la].

For kicks, I also threw in the aforementioned "Mucho Control" which seems to embody so much of the aggressive, brassy style of '70s salsa that's been recently reborn into the so-called salsa dura movement. This was featured as part of Fania's new El Barrio series which includes excellent compilations on classic salsa, Latin soul, boogaloo and a recent Latin funk edition. (I'll be writing more about these in the weeks to come).

I really love D-Nice's second act as an artist-turned-documentarian. Gives you hope that there's life after the stage and one can still contribute meaningfully. Respect due.

HIs "True Hip Hop Stories" series are great; they're like video versions of Unkut.com. (Robbie, holla!)

Masta Ace on "The Symphony."


YZ on his career and deafness.

Mophono: The Shuffle
From 7" ("Tighten Up") (CB, 2007)

Mophono: The Edge Remix
From 7" (CB, 2008)

Mophono, aka DJ Centipede, is a Bay Area DJ and producer whose put out three very cool 7" projects on CB Records so far. His first was more of a downtempo experiment from 2005, the I Cry EP but his last two have both been remix projects. My favorite has been his reworking of Bob and Earl's 1963 hit, "Harlem Shuffle" which strips down the song's basic parts and reassembles them with a funk (and psych) edge that gives the song a completely new feel - far more raucous and dark than its original inspiration. I liked it even more than the A-side, a remix of Archie Bell's classic "Tighten Up."

On his latest 7", Mophono tackles two hip-hop classic sample sources - including "Groovin" by Allen ToussaintWillie Mitchell which should be familiar to Wu Tang fans the world over. On the A-side, he plays with "The Edge," by David McCallum (but produced by David Axelrod) but first begins with an impressive chop job of Sly Stone's pre-Family Stone single "Rock Dirge" and its glorious drums.

Quantic Presenta Flowering Inferno: Westbound Train
Quantic Presenta Flowering Inferno: Make Dub Not War
From Death of the Revolution (Tru Thoughts, 2008)

Should have been on top of this back in the summer when it first dropped but consider the new Flowering Inferno album to be good, warm listening for the chilliness of winter. This is Quantic's latest incarnation, a close kin to the Quantic Soul Orchestra's Tropidelico album from 2007 except here, it's Quantic himself handling all of the musical duties.

The sound this time is out notably influenced by reggae and dub - the Latin touch still trails in the background but most songs are unmistakably built on dub's viscous rhythmic signature. I was originally thinking this new album would be packed with tracks to play out and there are some more uptempo cumbias, such as the title track, but instead, I was pleased to find that where the album excels is really in the downtempo tracks that Quantic builds around drizzles of melody and druggy rhythms. "Make Dub Not War" for example, is a masterpiece of simplicity in contrasting the bright drops of acoustic piano against the echoing slap of snares. With "Westbound Train," Quantic is working with any number of different samples in here - the most obvious to me was the pygmy flutes from Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man," and a guitar melody borrowed from Al Green's "Love and Happiness." It reminded me of some of the remix/edit tracks from the early '90s (just minus the Fatman Scoop style shout outs)..

With "Westbound Train," Quantic remakes the Dennis Brown song by the same name (thanks to DRev for schooling me) which, as most should note, picks its guitar line from Al Green's "Love and Happiness". From there, Q throws in a bit of the pygmy flute melody from Herbie Hancock's groundbreaking "Watermelon Man" and builds another winning slow-tempo track for you to get grind on to.



If you really want to get hardcore, there are three different 7"s available from the album.

Byron Lee and the Dragonaires: Slow Run
From S/T (JAD, 1968). Also on Very Best of the Reggae Superstars.

Byron Lee and the Dragonaires: My Sweet Lord
From Reggay Splashdown (Dynamic, 1971). Also on Hot Reggae Splashdown.

Byron Lee and the Dragonaires: Live and Let Die
From Reggae Fever (Dynamic, 1972). Also on Trojan Beatles Tribute.

I am really derelict for not getting to this sooner. Byron Lee, one of most prolific artists in Jamaican history, died on November 4th, 2008 (alas, not long after one of his contemporaries, Alton Ellis, also passed away). I should have had a dedication post up weeks ago but it slipped my mind until recently.

Lee's always had a special place in my heart since he was one of the first reggae-artists-not-named-Bob that I ever discovered and his album, Reggae Splashdown was probably one of my early introductions to reggae soul (it doesn't hurt that he was also half-Chinese). It's one reason why I wanted to put Lee's cover of "Express Yourself" on Soul Sides Vol. 2.

"Slow Run" comes from Lee and the Dragonaires' self-titled album from the late '60s - long after the band had become legendary in the Caribbean but before the founding of Lee's own Dynamic label where most of the albums in the '70s and beyond would appear. It captures well the burgeoning "funky reggae" sound sweeping through Jamaica in the era; a real slick instrumental.

"My Sweet Lord" is one of my favorite of Lee's covers - a beautifully rendered version of an already classic song. And heck, since we were already on a Beatles tip, I figured I'd throw in another cover - this of "Live and Let Die" (best James Bond song ever?). First time I heard this, I figured it'd be kind of cheesy but the reggae-reworking of the main melody is surprisingly effective.

One of the upsides to Lee's prolificness was that his albums are still easily found in any record stores with a half-decent reggae section. Find your own and celebrate this late great's catalog.

While you're waiting for the next (real) post, enjoy this blast from Soul Sides' past (originally posted July 2004).


The Lost Generation: The Sly, Slick and the Wicked

For every beginning break collector, especially those coming out of the 1990s, it was inevitable that you'd end up with more than a few Freddie Hubbard records. As a trumpeter player, his work - especially for CTI - was such an essential part of the soul-jazz sound of the 1970s that would find renewed resonance two decades later.

Hubbard died today, only age 70, from a heart attack. Here are a few personnel favorites:

Red Clay


Povo

DJ O-Dub is joining Matthew Africa for the 3rd anniversary party for Hubba Rock:


Bar Kitty's
6702 Hollis, Emeryville
10pm-2am


(That'd be tonight, Friday)

James Brown: Bring It Up
From 7" (King, 1967)

Throw out that Xmas music and get down with the Godfather.

Two years gone but like it says above, his groove never dies.