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!

Freddie McKay : Love Is A Treasure and
Linval Thompson & The Revolutionaries : Rock Me Dub
taken from the compilation “Creation Rockers 4” on Trojan (1979)

Nicky Thomas : Have A Little Faith and
Sang Hugh : No Portion A Gal
taken from the compilation “Feelin’ High” on Columbia House (1975)

Phyllis Dillon & Hopeton : Right Track
taken from the compilation “Hottest Hits Vol.1” on Treasure Isle (197?)

Being that the temperature outside is steadily dropping each day and there’s no sign that global warming is going to obliterate this winter (soon, just not quite yet)– I figured it would be appropriate to post some warm, sunny, roots music. Plus, I realize it’s been way too long since any reggae has appeared on this page. Expect more from the Caribbean in the coming (cold) months… not just Jamaica, I’m thinking Trinidad, Haiti, and The Antilles too.

All of these songs come off random compilations that I’ve picked up over the years. I’m thinking these are mostly one hit wonders, because aside from Linval Thompson & The Revolutionaries, I haven’t heard of any of these cats. The “Feelin’ High” collection (what a great cover!) is kind of a mystery to me. First of all, I didn’t even realize that Columbia House (still owe those doods some dollars) was around back then. But secondly, although the record inside the sleeve corroborates the album title and record lable, the tracklisting is completely different from the one printed on the cover. Maybe it was a multi-record series and some previous owner got ’em mixed up? Not really sure, but very happy to have the tunes regardless– and props to the uncredited compiler who pulled a great selection!

Anyone recognize the “Rock Me Dub” track? A few years back, Nick Holder’s “Moments In Dub” was a crate staple… dub-house, check it out.

Also, finally updated my BLOGROLL! Check the newbies: Loronix (BRAZIL!), Loaded, Darcy, Naps… keep you procrastinating for daaaaaays.

Andy Bey : Celestial Blues, You Should’ve Seen The Way I Made Love To You, and Tune Up
all taken from the album “Experience & Judgement” on Atlantic (1974)

For the past three years I’ve been practicing yoga. I have to give credit here to a certain lovable partner of mine (who happens to be a yoga teacher) for pushing me into it at first. But at this point, I don’t see myself ever stopping. Part of the reason why it was so easy to embrace “yogic” teachings and philosophy is because it falls right in line with what I had already basically come to understand about the world since about 5th grade. I’m not trying to sound like a kiddie guru here, it’s just that the fundamentals are really simple. For me, at least, it’s about not harming others, not harming yourself, and working hard to be your absolute best– liberated, content, and healthy. Just makes sense, don’t it?

It definitely made sense to Andy Bey. This album is nearly a soundtrack to the Yoga Sutras. But funkdafied, and not in sanskrit. Amidst the bass slaps, synth swells and sparse snare snaps, Bey’s voice undulates with spiritually driven individuality. Listening to his unearthly moans, I can see why the cover artist decided to put Saturn’s rings around his monkish dome. His lyrics speak about vegetarianism, meditation, difficult physical postures, and the resulting increased “concentration– waves and waves of positive vibration”. And yes, it is a good thing for lovemaking too. ; )

Orchestre Du Baobab: Kelen Ati Len
Originally released on the album “Visage Du Senegaal” (1975) and re-released as a 7″ on Soundway (2006)

Manny Corchado: Pow Wow
Originally released on the album “Aprovecha El Tiempo” on Decca (196?) and re-released on Jazzman (2006)

In general, I like to see myself as the architect of my destiny. There’s that lovely quote from Invictus (the poem not the record label, dorks), which I carried around with me for a number of years: “I am the captain of my fate, I am the master of my soul.” But on the other side of the coin, there’s that old adage: “What’s done is done.” A bit trite, to be sure, but founded on a substantive (albeit fatalistic) truth: that what’s behind us is now beyond our control, with what lies before us–our immediate future–the ineluctable result.

Maybe this is wierd, but I’ll just come right out and say it, Oprah-style: I worry less about myself and my own bunglings than the petty mistakes of others. I fret deeply about the imperiled course of my fellow man, and, to be perfectly frank, from time to time I actually lose sleep over the inane gaffes of strangers.

For example. The mighty Soundway Records recently reissued this Baobab track, which, granted, is one of the most LAVA-HOT BANGERS in the history of space and time. However. There is simply no excuse for dropping a hard-earned Benjamin Franklin for a re-pressed 45 that came out fewer than six months ago–and I don’t care how limited the pressing. Such was the inexplicable boner executed by some credulous Ebay-er a few weeks back, and I’ll be damned if I’m not thinking about it still. What a knuckle-head! Get the CD you big dope! Or, while you’re at it, flaunting your Big Willie cheddar, why don’t you just make it two bills and buy a nice copy of the original LP? But then, what’s done is done…

Anyhow, this post is for that kid: a hundred dollars poorer, and, I hope, pleased as goddamn pie with his acquisition. Way to go, buddy!

Ps. The Manny Corchado joint is another recently repressed classic that, hopefully, nobody is selling their kidney to purchase. Enjoy that.

Pps. I fully recognize that to spend this much time both perusing Ebay and thinking about other people’s finances legitmately qualifies me as a loser. But f— it. I’m the master of my soul, bitches.