Ocho : Hot Pants Road
taken from the album “Numero Tres” on UA Latino (1974)

Dave Barker & The Upsetters : Prisoner Of Love
taken from the album “Prisoner Of Love” on Trojan (1970)

Ravi Harris & The Prophets : Gimme Some More/Hot Pants Medley
taken from the album “Funky Sitar Man” on BBE (1997)

James Brown : Give It Up, Turn It Loose (Latin Reconstruction)
taken from a whitelable 12″

Just now emerging from the dizzying vortex of the past 2 weeks– it was family crashing on couches, going broke on presents, eating and drinking too much, partying like mad, and DJ-ing until 9am on New Year’s Day. It was also the death of JB. I’ve already seen a lot of great tributes and heartfelt write-ups about the Godfather. I also spent a good deal of time just watching all the electrifying vintage footage of Soul Brother #1 on youtube.com (this website keeps reminding me, perhaps more than any other single site, that we’ve entered a new era of media). And now, this late in the game, there’s little for me to add. Still, considering all the hours I spent as a young teen bumping James Brown’s music, how he inspired me to make music of my own, how digging his records pulled me into the world of DJing, and even provided the instrumentals for my first freestyles… I owe him RESPECT.

So does much of the world in one way or another. What I wanted to add to the recent outpouring of JB appreciation is a little glimpse at the global reach of his work. The covers and rip-offs are countless. Dudes were jacking his style in Ethiopia, and in Brazil too. So I put together a few tracks that I think demostrate some of the more interesting fusions and mutations of the JB signature sound. From Nuyorican Harlem, to Funky Kingston, all the way to India, JB made waves. I also threw in a recent and mysterious remix that has been a crate staple and continues to work magic on the dancefloor. Definitely the highlight of my DJ gigs this past week was looking out on a seething crowd (there were AFROs bouncing!) getting sweaty and loose with a newly kindled appreciation for hard, popping FUNK. Keep on dancing! Funk will never die!

Ricardo Eddy Martinez : Te Quedas
taken from the album “Expreso Ritmico” on Egrem (197?)

Grupo Los Reyes 73 : Un Lamento Hecho Cancion
taken from the album “Nuevo Cuba 1” on Barclay (1976)

Pearly Queen : Quit Jivin’
taken from the compilation “Diggin’ The Crates for Afro-Cuban Funk” on Empire (2001)

Willy Chirino : Papote’s Theme (Edit)
taken from the album “Chirino 3” on Grand Artists (1976)

With Castro actually out of commission, the island of Cuba is looking at some major changes in the very near future. Perhaps our Caribbean tour will be making legal stops there next year (no more of this going through Mexico and Canada bull). Question is, what’s going to happen to Cuban culture? Seems like 50 years (almost) of rebellion and embargo has come to define how we think about the culture and country. Something tells me that when the option of buying a new Ford becomes available, a lot of those beautiful oldies will finally be put to rest. Will this little bastion of communism go global like China? Will they grow the next 8ft. man and use him to save dolphins?! Sorry, on to the music…

Despite the attempts to shut-off Cuba from the rest of the world, this bunch of dirty funk tracks bears proof that Cubans were indeed reaching out beyond the Island’s shores (and if you know anything about Cuban hip-hop, you know that they’re still reaching out). We all know and appreciate the beautiful mastery of Cuban Son & Guajira, but few have witnessed the devastating effect of mixing Bata drums into breakbeats. I recently found out about a certain upcoming compilation of Cuban funk, and now I’m fiending like a Bush on the hunt for oil.

Do I know anything about any of these groups? Sadly, no. Except maybe Willy Chirino, who was born in Cuba but couldn’t return after he left for education in his youth. Chirino 3 contains a pretty dope, conga-heavy cover of “Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love”. The edit that I performed on Papote’s Theme above is due to a 16-bar region of cheesy strings that no one wants to sit through- you won’t even notice it’s gone. The Expreso album was a recent score, and I highly reccomend hunting for it. There are multiple other bangers to be found amidst its grooves. Pearly Queen = raer. Diggin’ compilation = not so raer. Viva la FUNK!

“Passport” broadcast from 12.04.06 every monday, 8-9PM on 89.1 FM WNYU

In the future I’m going to try to be posting these sooner after the fact. I been busy.

Playlist
Artist (location) — track title — album — (label):

1. Zuhura Swaleh (Zanzibar) — “Ya Zamani” — Zanzibara 2 — (Buda Musique)
2. Khun Kan Chwain (Burma) — “Naung Ywe” — Guitars Of The Golden Triangle: Folk And Pop Music Of Myanmar Vol. 2 — (Sublime Frequencies)
3. Hovanes Grigorian (Armenia) — “Por Eir Astvatz” — Erevan — (Parseghian)
4. Tim Maia (Brazil) — “Voce” — S/T — (Polydor)
5. Hugh Masekela (South Africa) — “Been Such A Long Time Gone” — I Am Not Afraid — (Blue Thumb)
6. Fairuz (Lebanon) — “Al Bosta” — Wahdon — (Zida)
7. Lord Shorty (Trinidad) — “Drum Spirits” — Endless Vibrations — (Shorty)
8. Sapo (USA) — “Ritmo Del Corazon” — S/T — (Bell)
9. Ricardo Eddy Martinez (Cuba) — “Tambo Iya” — Expreso Ritmico — (Egrem)
10. Selda (Turkey) — “Ince Ince” — Love , peace & poetry: Turkish psychedelic music — (Normal)
11. T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo (Benin) — “Kokoriko” — The Kings Of Benin Urban Groove 72 – 80 — (Soundway)

Shleu-Shleu : 3 Forces
taken from the album “Les Shleu-Shleu A New York” on Mini (197?)

Djet-X : Oh Mayeye
taken from the album The Rising Stars on Marc’s (197?)

Alix Jacques Cole Cole Band : Tessa’s Theme
taken from their self-titled album on Macaya (197?)

Continuing my Caribbean exploration, I pulled out these Hatian oldies this week. The music is very hard to describe, in part because it keeps changing throughout the track. Like Bollywood in some ways, the songs on these records tend to last way past the six-minute mark, often changing tempo and style altogether (occaisionally multiple times in one song!). The most straight-forward of these tracks is definitely 3 Forces, which sounds to my ear the most directly tied to West African music. There’s also touches of montuno and a smooth rolling calypso feel that comes from the sax. Once the groove gets going, it’s a steady swinging ride ’til the end of the tune. Don’t know what you call this style of music, but I’m loving it.

Oh Mayeye and Tessa’s Theme are more typical of other Haitian records I have from the same time period. Nasty opening funk or soul grooves which then break into this “booom – ka-boom-ka” Haitian bounce at around one minute into the track. Is this “Cadence Rampa”? Someone who knows more about Haitian funkiness, please school me. More style switches ensue, keeping my interest for the eight-minute-plus length of the jam. I’ve heard that there are some record stores out in Queens that still have a bunch of this stuff. One of these days…

“Passport” broadcast from 11.27.06, hosted by yours truly…

After producing my Monday night radio show for close to 4 years, a major technological advance has been made at the Station!. My weekly, hour-long program is now automatically recorded and archived online, so if you miss it live (cause you’re lazy or live in Australia) then you can still tune in. I’m not sure if I’ll post every week’s show right here in the crate (is that easiest?), but for now at least, listen to last week’s broadcast right here. And check the playlist- which includes Turkish Psych, Afro Funk, and Bollywood Disco among other things- RIGHT HERE.

Oh yeah, and if you’re not lazy, or don’t live too far away, you can always tune in live at 89.1 FM in NYC or online at www.wnyu.org

Ronnie & The Ramblers : Echoes Of My Mind
taken from the album “An Evening With Ronnie At Ronie’s Rebel Room” on R&RR (196?)

Andre Tanker : Swahili and Lena
taken from the album “Afro Blossom West” on Atman (196?)

Trying to bring myself back to life today with a little imaginary sun soaked escape. My nose is dripping incessantly and I swear there’s a golf ball sized mucus lump lodged in my temple. Sounds pleasant, don’t it? In the effort to provide us all with a much needed vacation, I’ve pulled out these near-lost Caribbean gems. Sadly, I know very little about either of the artists except that they are both close to un-googleable. What little info exists on the interweb is less than satisfying. I’ve been searching (to no avail) for more music and information about these guys, so if any reader out there has something to contribute, please share. I should say first that I’m not all that interested in the more traditional Carnival/Soca music that Tanker produced in his later years- that stuff just doesn’t really do it for me.

Apparently “the Grandfather of Bahamian Music”, Ronnie Butler formed his Ramblers band in ’62 and played regularly in Nassau hotels. The only other record I’ve seen from him was recorded at a different hotel a year earlier. I guess the tourist-based economy meant that hotel sponsorship provided one of the few recording opportunities. His cover version of Nilsson’s “Everybody’s Talking” (from the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack) absolutely slays me- just listen to that guitar solo! Nice chorus vocals too. Kinda ironic that this Bahamian superstar is singing about finding escape in a sunny place, the escape that Jon Voight finally found in Florida just as his beloved cohort Dustin Hoffman tragically died on his shoulder!

I was first introduced to the Trinidaian Vibist/Drummer Andre Tanker via Brooklyn’s greatest pirate radio station. It was a fierce afrobeat sounding track with an open drum break in the intro. Been searching for more Tanker ever since. I got my hands on a couple of beautiful fusion tracks that he recorded in the 70’s from this excellent Crippled Dick compilation. And then, just recently I picked up this pearl of a record. Afro Blossom West also features a fiery cover of “Wachi Wara” and a nice boogaloo called “Party In The City”. But for me, it was the powerful building progression of “Lena” and the dancefloor friendly “Swahili” that stuck out most prominently. Both are Tanker originals. If you’re not convinced by “Swahili’s” rumbling beginning, then hold out for the backbeat to come clamouring in at 2:20! Clearly, the man was doing his own thing and experimenting liberally. If and when something turns up, rest assured you’ll hear about it.