“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.

Smokey Robinson: Just My Soul Responding and Silent Partner In A Three-Way Love Affair… Plus a BONUS! Virgin Man
Taken from the albums Smokey and Pure Smokey on Motown (1973 and ’74)

If there’s one thing more impressive that an unmined soul gem by a nobody group on a podunk label, it’s an unmined soul gem by one of the most prolific R&B acts of the 20th century on perhaps the most influential label of the last, uh, millenium…

Introducing, for your delectation, Smokey Robinson and a few of his lesser known miracles.

There are so many things that slay me about Mr. Robinson, I’d be doing my fanaticism a disservice by trying to dissect them all. But here are three good reasons that you, too, should adore this man and his music:

1) No joke: sometime in the 60’s Bob Dylan called Smokey “America’s greatest living poet”… And you’re like , Uh, come again? And then you start listening–I mean really listening— to Smoke’s music and it’s like Dozier-Holland-who?

Even if the tender-hearted bard had stopped cold after penning “Tracks of My Tears” (god forbid!) I might have been sustained through many a lonesome night. But he didn’t stop; he kept right on going. In addition to masterminding a catalogue of hits for himself (and by proxy the Miracles), he also penned classics for The Temptations, Mary Wells and a handful of his other label-mates, that would ensure for Motown not only popular longevity but a true creative legitimacy that many labels of that era and of that size couldn’t have hoped to support.

2. When I was in high school in the Bay Area–perhaps still?– Smokey hosted a weekly call-in program on 98.1 on which a person so-inclined could ring up the station to discuss romance issues with none other that the love doctor himself. For clarification: once a week you could call Smokey Robinson on the telephone to consult him in regards to your relationship woes. Top that.

3. Finally. Al Green understood it. D’Angelo got it. Smokey wrote the formula: falsetto falsetto falsetto.

Both of these albums can be found for a buck or less at a flea market near you.

And now I can’t write anymore. I’m listening to these tracks on repeat and I think I might cry myself to sleep. ‘Til next time.

Leon’s Creation: This Is The Beginning and Until You Were Gone and Mirage
Taken from the album This Is The Beginning on Studio Ten (196?)

O, The irony! The injustice! Under any other title this album may have served as a stepping stone into a fruitful career in popular music; with another title it may have passed safely into the annals of music history, heralded for its sonic ingenuity and sheer fuzzed-out fonkiness… but no. The title–This Is The Beginning (so full of promise!)–stood, a hex was laid, and the group’s (justifiable) optimism notwithstanding, Leon’s Creation disappeared before they had even begun.

Leon Patillo burst out the Yay Area in the late sixties, locked and loaded with a killer band and some serious native funk and flash. He dropped a pair of promising 45’s followed by a debut album that seemed poised to make dramatic inroads into the budding commerciality of the psychaedelic soul movement… Too bad that Sly Stone couldn’t stomach the presence of the new kid on the block. Beseiged by jealousy or intense paranoia (or maybe acting on his notoriously bizarre whimsy; see Grammy’s) Sly quickly stepped in at Studio Ten records, bought the whole shebang and promptly shut down ol’ Leon and his creation. And that was the end of The Beginning.

(Reminds me of a story I heard (hearsay? maybe.) about another famous wierdo: a certain R. Kelly, abruptly yanking the rug out from under his eminently talented protege, Raheem DeVaughn, (SUPPORT TALENT) when he realized that Jr. may just have been a little too dope for his own good. It’s a damn shame I tell ya.)

At any rate, enjoy the tunes. It’s not every day that you find an album whose opening three tracks constitute fire, FIRE, and MORE FIRE!

Two last notes: Continue to the support the Cap’n (a.k.a.-Chewy Chewbaka, Duff-duf, et al.) by copping a FREE DOWNLOAD of the Building Bloc album (see below). Also, if you are interested in being part of some next level upliftment, get hip to One Self. I’ve been loving their music for a minute, but I saw these cats at the Root Down here in L.A. last night, and um… I’m in love with Yarah Bravo. There I’ve said it. Happy Friday.

Building Bloc : Playback
taken from the album “Sound Foundation” on VIA Media (2006)
and yes, you can download the whole thing for free HERE

As some of you may know, I’ve been writing rhymes and making music for a while now. Well, these doods have been my partners in crime since we were all 18 and lived in the same college dorm together. Kinda crazy that it took us this long to put all the pieces together, but finally (most of these songs were recorded more than a year ago) the album has taken shape, been mastered, and is DONE. Also, it’s FREE and available for you to download. All we ask is that you let us know if you like it. We get by on just a little bit of love…

Send feedback to: bloc.building@gmail.com
check the website (which isn’t much) at: www.buildingbloc.com
and be our buddy at myspace/buildingbloc

And in case you couldn’t figure it out or were perhaps a bit confused, I also go by Chewbaka sometimes.

Cal Tjader: Big Noise From Winnetka
taken from the album Mas Ritmo Caliente on Fantasy (1957)

Mongo Santamaria: Cold Sweat
taken from the album Soul Bag on Columbia (1968)

Boogaloo Joe Jones: Right On
taken from the album Right On Brother on Prestige (1969)

The Juju Orchestra: Funky Nassau
taken from the 12″ on Gema (2005)

I have this idea that everybody in England dances; that the clubs in Brighton or Brixton or wherever else in that soggy gray land, on a Saturday night fill with thousands of pasty bodies writhing in manic ecstasy. Tweaking, crumping, jerking and generally doing the do…

But that’s not all. In the England that I imagine (Does it exist? Am I fabricating this Dionyssian utopia from nothing?) a packed discoteque might, on any given night of the week, jump off the proverbial chain, whilst the P.A. bumps… jazz?

I don’t know. Maybe Giles Peterson just got me thinking that anything’s possible. If I’m wrong (Union Jacker’s, where you at?!), let me know. Otherwise, I’ll keep supplying tunes like these, thinking I may have a fertile career waiting for me on the other side of the pond.

Quickly: Early Cal Tjader with Willie Bobo on drums and Mongo on percussion (and a dirty lil’ whistlin’ that absolutely slays ish). Mongo covering James Brown with Bernard Purdie rocking the breaks: what more do you want? Boogaloo Joe gets nice. And finally, big up Germany, ’cause these cats is gettin’ LIVE!