“Passport” broadcast from 12.17.07
with special guest Victor Axelrod aka TICKLAH

“Passport” broadcast from 01.07.08
with special guest Marcos Garcia aka Chico of CHICO MANN

“Passport” broadcast from 01.14.08
BEST of 2007! (all new releases)

“Passport” broadcast from 01.21.08
nothing special here, just good old Passport funkiness…

Playing catch up on the radio show podcast tip. I know some of you are still too lazy to click your way over to WNYU.org, so I’m doing the work for you. However, if you want to get the complete playlists, you’re gonna have to search through the playlists calender over there.

Been really lucky with the guests lately. Two members of Antibalas who have their own kickass projects that their working on these days. You should already be familiar with their music if you’re a regular reader here, but now you get a chance to glimpse inside their highly creative minds. Who woulda thunk, that two of the world’s heaviest Afrobeat players list “Off The Wall” and Lisa Lisa as some of their biggest musical influences?!?

Specks Williams: We Gave the Drummer Some
From 7″ (Jax, 196?)

Little Hooks w/ Ray Nato and the Kings: Give the Drummer Some More
From 7″ (United Artists, 1972)

Nothing too elaborate here – I picked up this Specks Williams 45 recently and automatically thought of the Little Hooks song; thought the two made sense to pair together. As it turns out, there’s an interesting coincidence b/t the two, insofar as Baltimore’s Little Hooks w/ Ray Nato and the Kings were first signed, back in the 1950s, to the Jax imprint, same label as Newark’s Specks Williams put his single out on. The Little Hooks song, however, came out on the Hollywood label, Enjay before getting picked up for wider distro by United Artists.

Of the two, I’m actually more partial to the Williams single, 1) it has the better drum break and 2) I like how it opens loud but then slides into a slick little guitar jazz number; not what you’d quite expect from it. “Give the Drummer Some More” wins for the better intro though, no question.

Charles Bradley: The World (Is Going Up In Flames)
From 7″ (Dunham, 2007)

Anthony Hamilton : Do You Feel Me
From American Gangster Soundtrack (Def Jam, 2007)

Jay-Z: 99 Problems (Royal Edit)
From Armed Snobbery (2007)

Look…I know that it already seems like I’m on Daptone’s payroll or something but frankly they’re just in an amazingly productive period right now and alas, most of it is great so the more good sh– they put out, the more likely I will be to write about it. And look at it this way: this post is Crackhouse free!

The Charles Bradley is one of the new 45s on the Dunham subsidiary (you’ll recall that excellent Menahan Street Band single was another one) and this copy of the 45 was given to me at the Sharon Jones show in L.A. by the guy who wrote it. Maybe that biases my opinion but *whistle* this single is easily one the best things I’ve heard from the Daptone’s camp yet. Just a beautiful, powerful song and personally, I like Bradley better on his ballads than doing the uptempo funk swang.

A Soul Sides reader put me up on the Anthony Hamilton – the Dap-Kings are backing him here on this cut off the American Gangster soundtrack (the Jay-Z free version, dig me?). Definitely a Memphis vibe on this one, especially infusing the song with a Hi Records flavor. I like that slow thump and Sunday organ sermonizing. (It’s also a better tune than the more JB-esque Hamilton song off the soundtrack).

Ok – Jay-Z IS back on this last cut; it’s a remix by the “Prince of Ballard” who runs the Armed Snobbery blog. After hearing the 50 Cent meets Sharon Jones mash-up, he sent me a few tracks in a similar fashion. You can peep the whole spread of his “Royal Edits” here. Out of the batch, I dug this and the Eazy E the best but his “99 Problems” edit is the better produced between the two: he fits Jay’s verses with the Dap-Kings instrumental track impressively well. Peep how those horns drop in when Jay-Z asks for the “hit”.