Assagai : Barazinbar
taken from the album “Afrorock” on Sounds Superb (1971)

Makhona Zonke Band : The Webb
taken from the album “The Webb” on Soul Jazz Pop (1976)

Your boy Cap’n P is now officially a full-time man. I’ve been avoiding this type of serious commitment for quite some time now, but rushing head-on into another unemployed summer of Craigslist part-time hustling and humiliating subway station performances kinda gave me the willies. So yeah, there goes the last scraps of my free time. But the blog must go on.

I was going to go ahead and break the single rule that I had just laid out for myself last week by posting the live recording I made of Bryan Vargas on my radio show last Monday. He sings in Spanish so Ant stopped me, but stay tuned. Soulful FIRE! Then I DJ-ed at Kush on Saturday night and met up with Wunmi this morning (to finish details for the upcoming ByWayOf.net feature) so I was thinking of posting some Afro-club tunes. But gosh darned if at the last minute I didn’t get that same ole voice calling me back to the ROOTS. So here are some funky South African grooves from the 70’s that are only really connected in that they look for inspiration outside of Africa- it could also be said that they share relentlessly steady bass riffs.

Assagai recorded this material in England after effectively being exiled for performing as an interracial band. This super-heavy genre fusing combination is the product of saxophonist Dudu Pakwana (bummer of a name) and white South African Chris McGregor. There’s a bunch of other cool stuff on this LP, it all sounds a bit like it was recorded in a dust cloud, but for now that’s all yer gonna get.

“The Webb” = “The Ghetto”. For anyone who has never heard this Donny Hathaway track, read no further, it’s a required prerequisite. Naw, I ain’t snobby like that, but seriously, “The Ghetto” from Donny Hathaway Live is one of my all time favorite soul songs. When I first heard this South African group doing a cover version, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. It’s nowhere near as mind blowing as Donny’s version, but you know that if heads in Jo’burg were feeling this same bassline as much as folks over here, then there must be a higher power. I had to perform a little edit on this one- the LP version rolls on for another 4 minutes at least, taking up half of the A-Side ’cause they dug the groove THAT much. Don’t know why they added the second “b” to the title though.

Michael Longo : Ocean Of His Might
taken from the album “900 Shares Of The Blues” on Curcio (197?)

Joe Thomas : Polarizer
taken from the album “Feelin’s From Within” on T.K. (1977)

Last week’s Cinco De Mayo festivities at Bembe went down PROPER. Big up once again to Busquelo, who (keep your fingers crossed) will hopefully be contributing a lil’ bit to this here collective crate. It was an ole skool Latin throwdown: funk, descargas, boogaloo, and salsa mixed with fresh broken beat tracks and accompanied by live conga mastery from Isabelle. Dancefloor went absolutely buckwild around 2:00 AM. I still feel dehydrated from sweating so much! Later on tonight (Monday) I’ve got Bryan Vargas and members of his group Ya Esta! coming on the radio show. If you’re near a computer (wnyu.org) or you live in NYC and own a radio (89.1 FM) tune in at 8pm EST to hear a live performance and some knowledge being dropped.

In the midst of all this Latin music, it would probabally make more sense for me to put up a couple timbales ‘n cowbell grooves, but I promised myself- no more Spanish numbers for at least a few weeks. Instead, a couple of mellow jazz-funk bombs to nod your head to.

I had heard of Michael Longo, but this is the first record of his that I’ve acquired (courtesy of a dollar dealer at this past weekend’s flea market). The original pressing (’74) of this album, on Groove Merchant, has a much cooler cover and can be purchased as a reissue. My copy is #48 in an Italian series of jazz giant re-issues. The music is the same, so I’m happy. This same album has the uptempo banger “Like A Thief In The Night”, but I’ve seen that on a couple comps and I’m feeling a bit more in the laid back mood right now. That’s Ron Carter on bass, with Joe Farrell and Randy Brecker on horns. Unfortunately, I realized too late that this Longo record needed a good cleaning, so you get the version with crackle and pop- suck it up.

Polarizer, better known to most as “B-Boy Document”, is a pretty nasty piece of work as well. Not as badass as some of Joe’s earlier funk, but nicely chopped syncopation with a darting flute line and a synth solo that kinda makes me laugh. The keyboard solo sounds like a really short guy getting all worked up in an argument- Danny DeVito or Joe Pesci maybe. This album was also originally issued on Groove Merchant in ’76, so there’s the connection for you; two nice Groove Merchant items that came to me through other labels.

Oh yeah, and in case you hadn’t noticed, the Crate takes comments now, so let me know what you think…

El General : Bunduff Kun-Kun
taken from the album “Muevelo” on BMG (1991)

El Comandante : Mi Gente Latina
taken from the compilation album “Latino Power” on Rota (1997)

Vico C : Bomba Para Afincar and Yogurt
taken from the album “Sentimiento Hispano” on Cassetera (198?)

My trip to the D.R. was most highly excellent. Quite a piece of paradise we found down there. Yes, there’s plenty of poverty, lack of jobs, corruption, pollution and the like; but when you have the extreme privilege of being able to temporarily experience that type of environment- when you know that you’ll be getting on a plane and bouncing back to first world comfort in a matter of days- you’re able to appreciate the sun and scenery a lot more than the locals do. No day passed without an ice cold Presidente, and we spent a good bit of time playing cards with a mellow Swedish couple. Emil, a drummer with a shaggy, practically albino-blond 70’s doo, is in a dope rock band. He didn’t dig the everpresent sounds of merengue, bachata, and reggaeton nearly as much as I did. Sorry brah, I don’t really dig the rock as much as you do- but we can still be friends.

Now that Daddy Yankee, Don Omar, & Tego Calderon, are getting serious play on pop stations (at least here in NYC), I’ve been making a lot of connections between the current Latin music boom and what happened in the sixties when “salsa”- ingeniously marketed by Jerry Masucci– first became a term. Salsa removed the specific stylistic titles (like “Son”, “Guaracha” and “Plena”) and mashed it all together under one easily digestible lable. I recently copped this ridiculously dope documentary made in ’74 about the salsa explosion. Featuring the Fania All-Stars, Manu Dibango, and a young Geraldo Rivera, the film also splices in clips of traditional African dances and disturbingly humorous, early-Hollywood portrayals of Latinos. I want to figure out a way to get video clips up on here.. maybe soon. Until then, get yourself a copy.

I’ve been into reggaeton for a minute; ever since my big sister spent a year down in the D.R. and hooked me up with some original hits by Tego. As soon as I started backtracking I learned that like “salsa”, the “reggaeton” title is pretty new. This music I’m giving you today is from the days before “reggaeton”, when music like this was called “underground” or “reggae espanol”. Vico C (from Brooklyn & P.R.) and El General (from Panama) are some of the godfathers of the music, and they’re both still putting out semi-hits (nothing in comparison to the sales of newer artists like Zion Y Lennox or Don Omar). Expect to see some exclusively reggaeton labels popping up under Sony and Universal really soon.

A lot of the tunes from that time (like “Yogurt”) were heavily influenced by early house and techno too. You can hate if you want, but everytime I’ve dropped this C + C Music Factory meets El General track, the party goes buckwild. Try it yourself. The other tunes I selected are more directly coming out of Jamaican reggae, dancehall and hip hop. I don’t know much about El Comandante, but the dude got mad flow. “Bunduff Kun-Kun” uses that synth horn sound that can be deadly- it usually is- but here it sucessfully becomes a trance inducing bounce generator. The two Vico C tracks come from a CD that sounds like it was dubbed from a cassete tape- kinda weird. He looks like he’s 13 on the cover of the album. I’m not sure about the date, but I have another record from him that dates 1990, and by that time he had grown a stache and acquired a lot of gold.

The LTG Exchange : Corazon
taken from the 7″ single on Fania (1973)

Joe Quarterman & Free Soul : (I Got) So Much Trouble In My Mind Pt. 2
taken from the 7″ single on GSF (1972)

Ahhhh. Warmth has returned to the city and I can’t stop feeling high. It also helps that I’m leaving for the Dominican Republic on Saturday. Palmtrees and sandy beaches for a week, jugo de lechosa, chillin’ out with my girlfriend in a tent. It don’t get much better than that. Just to make you that much more jealous, this is the beach we’re going to be camping on. Sorry folks.

But for a beat digger such as myself, cherry blossoms and popping leaf buds also signal the return of the Flea Market. Sure, for the die hards the market runs year-round, but come on, how much fun is it to pick through a couple of tables with mittens and earmuffs on? The essence of the flea experience is a laidback sun-drenched weekend afternoon spent languidly strolling through the overcrowded mayhem, bumping into friends, haggling, and most importantly, digging up treasures from the trash. That pretty much sums up my Sunday. If you weren’t out enjoying the honey glazed glory, then let these two funk bombs brighten your regretful despair. I got them both, along with a stack of reggae and ska oldies, from a Dominican no less! I’m crazy busy right now, so I’m not about to school you on these folks, but get off your ass and dig up the background yourself. Anybody remember “El Tiburon” by Proyecto Uno? They use that same volume gag at the end of their track too- makes the crowd get involved.
“un poco mas duro… Y UN POCO MAS DURO….. Y UN POCO MAS DURO!”

Oh, and by the way, the Toque party last week was ILL. Big up to Busquelo, go peep that shiz…

Tito Puente : Batuka
taken from the album “Para Los Rumberos” on Tico (1972)

Armando Peraza : Viva Peraza
taken from the album album “Wild Thing” on Skye (1968)

I was guest hosting the Friday night dance music spot on 89.1 this past Friday, and I had a happy listener write to me wanting to link up after enjoying the set (which I’ll put up in MP3 segments under Loose Tape real soon). Turns out this listener is a sick DJ in his own right, hosting a classic latin and broken beat night at the Williamsburg hotspot Bembe. DJ Busquelo has a bunch of nice mixes on his website– check out the one with Martin Perna (of Antibalas and Ocote) playing flute on top. The “Soulnado” mix will also be a treat for anyone who digs funky broken beat. So, tonight I’m going to the Zap Mama show @ S.O.B.s, but tomorrow I’ll definitely be heading to check the vibes provided by Busquelo. In light of that, a couple of latin jammers for ya.

I first picked up “Para Los Rumberos” on cassette tape last summer, which as we all know, can be as painful as it is rewarding. The whole album is classic material, but I downright flipped when I heard “Batuka” for the first time. Of course, any time I wanted to play it for someone I had to search the whole tape- FF, REW, wait, ahhhhh. As much as I wanted to sample the heckfire out of the ridiculous repeating break, I knew deep down that an inescapable hiss would interfere. So I was thanking the gods when it turned up in its original vinyl form at a local record spot. I’m not about to try and tell you much about Tito, there’s no shortage of coverage on this guy, but I will say that I saw him perform live (with Cachao and Poncho Sanchez) in the last year of his life and it still stands as one of the top 5 musical performances I’ve ever experienced. I know this track has been remixed by several folks (including Masters at Work) inna house style. Makes perfect sense, the form of the tune, with repeating gradual build-ups and drop-outs, is really similar to a lot of house music. Climax and false stops always makes a dancefloor happy… it’s like playing a game.

Armando Peraza is a highly respected conga/bongo player with only one album title to his name; that kinda makes this piece of wax special. That also made me feel lucky when I was walking away from the fleamarket with it under my arm this past weekend. Coming outta Havana, Peraza worked with legends like Mongo and Patato before moving to Cali. Stateside he hooked up with Cal Tjader, Gabor Szabo and a buch of other cats in the worlds of jazz, latin and beyond. Backed here by giants like Johnny Pacheco, Sadao Watanabe and Chick Corea, this album also features the boogaloo bomb “Red Onions” that can be found on this highly recommended compilation. The track that I’ve picked for you has been compiled on this great collection from the groovy folks at HiTop. Gotta keep on dancin’.