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!

Sidney Owens & The North South Connection: Sputnik
Taken from the 7″ on Movin’ Up (197?)
Guitar Red: Hard Times
Taken from the 7″ on Mod-Art (1976)
Mitch Mitchell & Gene King: Never Walk Out On You
Taken from the 7″ on Prix (1973)

I’m not for a moment going to pretend like I own any of these records. So let me just stand right up and say it at the outset: I’m posing like I’ve got some serious heavy-hitter wax that is, in fact, only the digital byproduct of having enough time on my hands that I can idly surf the internet hunting around for this stuff.

Some of you may take issue with this–this plundering of others’ bounty. Some may argue that the recycling of already-posted material looted from another blog is a bogus practice. Distastful and crass. And, in general, I’d have to agree. But until some kind of Music Blogger Manifesto outlaws it, and considering that the recycled music in question was lifted from a now 8-month static site, and considering THE SHEER MAGNITUDE OF THE DEVASTATING-NESS OF THESE TUNES… I think exceptions can be made.

The site in question is HERE. The bad news is that the site hasn’t been updated for daaaays. The good news is that the entire archive of the blog is still available for download. (DON’T SLEEP!) And let me tell you, that’s no small thang.

Here’s the little I know: the Mitch Mitchell track was incorporated into the best mix of 2006; and that the Sputnik tune, which borders on un-fugg-witt-able, was written up (albeit rather abstractly) in this issue of Wax Poetics. As for ol’ Guitar Red: prehistoric moog rumblings + early drum machine programming= magic.

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)

Los Pasteles Verdes: Angelitos Negros, Reloj, Recuerdos De Una Noche and Te Amo Y No Soy Correspondido
Taken from the album Recuerdos De Una Noche on Gema (197?)

I don’t know how it happened. One minute I’m wilin’ out chez moi, eating luke warm lentil soup and ruminating on the finer things in life; next minute my homie Dave is on the phone: Yo, Willis…–Mumble, mumble–…to the movies…–Unitelligible–…my treat…–Ambulence Passing–…calypto…

“Sure thing!” I say. Like a fool, like a goddamn fool.

Here’s what’s wrong with Apocalypto: EVERYTHING. Plotless, pointless, exploitative, gimmicky, dull, trite, nauseating. Here’s an abbreviated list of sources that Melly Mel grossly misappropriates or outright marauds on the course of this dizzyingly uninspired warpath: The Last of The Mohicans, Midnight Cowboy (think Ratzo’s touching departure minus the touching part), Indian Jones and The Temple of Doom, The Exorcist/Shining/6th Sense (Come on, possessed children? Really?), The Princess Bride (My name is Inigo Montoya.. Jaguar Paw…whatever), Run Lola Run (minus the red-haired femme and pulsing techno–which is to say a lot of running), Night of The Living Dead (Zombie head squirts, anyone?) and Tintin in South America (No joke.)

Just. Plain. Awful. And sure, I might have guessed as much– but, as always, the hype machine worked wonders and a handful of beguiling critics tricked me into… well, hoping for the best.

All of this has a point (I think).

After the movie came to its merciful end, I returned home. Haggard. Angry. Depressed. (It’s a sorry state of global affairs, when a guy as effed-up as Mel Gibson can not only get a picture as bad as this one made, but actually trick people into buying into it.) The more I thought about it, the worse I felt. I needed to find some respite. Some comforting bastion to reaffirm my faith in life, in love, in mankind… and, most importantly, in the magic of America Del Sur, as disassociated from Mel Gibson’s Hollywood taint.

(I used to dream about Mexico. And Chile, Peru, Venezuela. Idealized visions of great lands. The music, the culture, the language… Hell, I had been thinking about taking a trip down that way sometime in the near future… And now? Now what?)

A cold hollow of bitterness had descended into my heart. How could I regain that mystical connection to the faraway equatorial lands of my dreams, that now only conjured to my mind the disturbing image of a ghastly, soused bigot on a deserted stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway?

I’ll tell you how to regain it: the compressed vocals of a sympathetic balladeer delicately crooning in his native tongue; the gentle wah’s of psychaedelic guitar emanating from a dusty P.A. in Lima, Peru circa 1972; echo, reverb, and a loping snare. That’s how.

So I set the needle running on this disc and guess what? Peace. Utter, blissful, glassy-eyed peace.

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…