Ramsey Lewis: Kufanya Mapenzi and If Loving You Is Wrong, I Don’t Want To Be Right
Taken from the album Funky Serenity on Columbia (1972)

Ramsey Lewis: Aufu Oodu
Taken from the album Salongo on CBS (1976)

One of the great thrills of a record hunt is the occasional stowaway find. Out at the flea market, digging at a garage sale, you spot a desirable record, pay the crumpled dollar, get home, dip your fingers into the dusty sleeve and remove–what’s this?!? This isn’t Roberta Flack! Why, it’s… SALONGO!

So it was that I discovered Ramsey Lewis at his mid-seventies easy listening/pop-jazz-funk fusion best. It would be another several years before I would actually acquire the record in it’s proper jacket, and only then that I would realize just how indispensible this album really is. Take a closer look, people: that’s Ramsey, in tribal paint, unabashedly beaming… in braces.

Truth be told, Salongo is actually kind of a wack album, full of banal groove, mood music and flaccid synthesizers. That said, the cover is amazing and Aufu Oodu is one of those delectable Afro-centric mid-seventies cuts that you just can’t help but love. If you hear a sonic resemblance to some of Earth, Wind & Fire’s contemporaneous work, it’s because EWF’s frontman/producer, Maurice White is behind the mixing boards.

Far more substantive as a whole album, “Funky Serenity” epitomizes the early seventies fusion sound. (The heavy drum presence, the Rhodes work, and the Zulu track titles are a good tip-off.) This album, which preceeded the much more successful “Sun Goddess” by a year, is easily my favorite of Ramsey’s work from this era.

The highly rhythmic uptempo cut, “Kufanya Mapenzi” was a happy suprise after listening to the “If Loving You…” cover about thirty times in a row. Damn! That song kills me every time. Stay tuned for the Millie Jackson and/or Bobby Bland version in the near future. PEACE!

Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66 : Mais Que Nada
taken from his self-titled album on A&R (1966)

Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’77 : Promesa De Un Pescador
taken from the album “Primal Roots” on A&R (1972)

Sergio Mendes (ft. Q-Tip & Will.I.Am) : The Frog
taken from the album “Timeless” on Concord (2006)

I gotta admit, I was really getting my hopes up about this Sergio project. Sure, the guy has had plenty of leanings towards the ever expanding empire of cheesy-dom, but I still have much respect for Will.I.Am (I can hear you folks jeering in the bleechers, but come on now, listen to how he flipped Jorge Ben’s “Comanche” back in ’98 and tell me that ain’t siiick) and I just kept hearing about more and more artists getting on the album (Erykah, John Legend, Pharoahe Monch, Marcelo D2, and even STEVIE for cryin out loud!), so I was honestly expecting some hotness. Well, “Timeless” doesn’t quite make the grade in my opinion. It’s comes across kind of like a lighter version of the Red Hot + Riot album, but not as badass (Sergio just doesn’t compete with Fela), not as diverse (I would have loved to hear Bugz freak some of this material), and it’s just not as much “Brazilian” as it is “Hip Hop”. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, Hip Hop is good, we love Hip Hop, but I wish Sergio could have exploited his uniqueness a lot more. The sad thing is, whenever he does step up to solo, I usually wince and wish he hadn’t… I don’t want to get old like that.

This old school version of “Mais Que Nada” highlights the type of swinging, groovy, pop originality that I had hoped to see more of. When Sergio’s first A&R album (produced by highly herbie Herb Alpert) dropped in the U.S., it shook. It still shakes. That track is timeless. He continued swinging through the 60’s, fusing latin sounds with British and American pop and soul. There were a lot of cool, jazzy, swingin tunes that came out of it. The early seventies saw Sergio getting a bit funkier. “Promesa” has that nasty drum break (used by none other than Madlib on one of his many side projects) but it also has those elements of Afro-Brazilian music that make it so unique.

This new album ain’t bad, aside from a couple forgettable tracks and some very cheesy soloing, but it doesn’t have anything to really get me excited – so that’s dissappointing. “The Frog” is very playable, same with “Yes, Yes, Y’all” and a few others, but it’s basically just a hip hop track (is Sergio anywhere on this?) with a catchy Brazilian hook. I want to hear Quantic do a track on this album, and Ursula 1000, and Dangermouse could have really flipped one of these songs… oh well.

Bossa 70 : Think
taken from the compilation “Jeff Recordings on Crippled Dick Hot Wax! (2002)

Bappi Lahiri & Salma Agha : Come Closer
taken from the compilation “Indiavision” on Buda Musique (2005)

Some really cool stuf on these two collections. The first one features 16 tracks all engineered by a German chiller named Jeff Nieckau. Not really feeling the scene in early 60’s Germany, he took off for sunnier, funkier places. First stop was Tanzania, but that proved to be so much fun that he decided to keep on trekking. All the recordings from this comp were made between 1972 – 1976 while he was working/living in Peru and Trinidad. The album has some great liner notes and cool pics that help paint the picture of this groovy man’s musical (and technological) adventures. Turns out he engineered a record I have by Lord Shorty which Jeff claims was the first Soca (soul + calypso) record ever – dope stuff.

If you’ve been checking my blog for a while, then you know I like to slip in a little bollywood stuff here and there, thing is, the really sick tunes are so hard to come by. That’s why I was psyched when Buda Musique (the same French cats that keep putting out bangers under the Ethiopiques series) decided to do this awesome collection of Hindi film songs. They’ve got a bunch of songs from the more well known soundtracks (at least to beat diggers), but then they dig up some gold like “Come Closer” (from the soundtrack to Kasam Paida Karnewale Ki, 1984) which is kinda in a league of its own. Smooth drum machine porno preparation music. When the horns slide in, just after the sitar solo, I’m definitely ready to get it on with melady – good thing she digs the bollywood too, haHA!

Ray Barretto Tribute Mix
Part 1 (mixed by DJ Busquelo)
Part 2 (mixed by Captain Planet)

I’ll post some new stuff soon, sorry to keep you hanging, but for now enjoy this Tribute Mix. It’s about as much Barretto as could possibly fit onto an 80 min CD. Part 1 is Busquelo bringing you many heavy oldies and the full length version of ‘Cocinando’ – bonkers. Part 2 is my handiwork, more oldies and some of the funk and soul as well. Enjoy the tunes and share with friends. Oh yeah, I guess you’ll want a proper tracklisting… well once it’s up in the “Loose Tape” section (gimme a minute) you’ll have that as well.

PEACE

Ray Barretto 1929 – 2006 :
Descarga Criolla
taken from the album “El ‘Ray’ Criollo” on United Artists (1966)

The Soul Drummers
taken from the album “Acid” on Fania (1967)

Hard Hands
taken from the album “Hard Hands” on Fania (1968)

Right On
taken from the album “Barretto Power” on Fania (1972)

Pastime Paradise
taken from the album “La Cuna” on CTI (1981)

Somehow I can’t imagine Ray Barretto “resting in peace”. The man was all about causing a raucous, stirring things up and making it funky. From his younger years in the jazz scene as a session musician (appearing on records with Art Blakey and Lou Donaldson among many others) ’til his more recent efforts, Ray made the conga clap like few others in history have. O-Dub and Jeff Chang have teamed up on a proper homage piece that you can find at Soul-Sides.com. I can’t really add too much in the way of historical significance, but on a personal note, this man is one of the main reasons I got into Latin music in the first place. Being a DJ that relies heavily on afro-latin music, people often wonder what the hell a whiteboy like me is doing digging so deep into salsa. I can always say “Look at Larry and Andy Harlow, look at Symphony Sid, whiteboys have always been into salsa”, but really it has to do with the fact that the music is simply irresistable; that the first time I heard “Soul Drummers” I could barely contain my excitement. Barretto was one of those rare geniuses, regardless of genre or era or location on the planet, that knew how to bang out a rhythm so contagious it’s nearly impossible not to enjoy- my weekly TOQUE sessions are definitely a testament to this. You hit ’em with boogaloo and latin soul, then drop the serious descarga jams, the dancefloor will be moving.

Ray was in it from the early days, shaping the Nuyorican Sound, giving the salsa its sabor picante, consitently putting out records with proud positive messages and thunderous breakbeats. I’m gonna try to finish a Barretto Mixwith Busquelo in the upcoming week, but until then, here’s a few of my favorites (to add to the ones that O-Dub’s already got up).

Paul Humphrey and The Cool Aid Chemists: Detroit and Funky L.A.
Taken from the album Paul Humphrey and The Cool Aid Chemists on Lizard (1971)

MURPHY’S NOTE: Check out Loose Tape for live mixes from the VIA CREW. Also, leave us some feeback, y’all. We don’t do this for nothing but the love. Show love back. Peace.

Now…

With Jay Dee’s death last week, Detroit lost one of the great syncopators it had produced in a very long time. A truly original sound. The father of that hard, soulful boom-bap that became his trademark. In fact, it is possible to say that not since Paul Humphrey had a single artist contributed so much to the rythmic identity of Motor City.

Humphrey, like Dilla, was truly a master of his craft. One of the great session drummers of the sixties and seventies, he worked with everyone from Marvin Gaye to Frank Zappa, Bobby Hutcherson to Steely Dan— the man was everywhere. Motown, Blue Note, it goes on and on. I couldn’t access a single comprehensive listing of his studio work online, mainly because I think it would have crashed my computer.

In these tracks you can begin to see why the man was in such high demand. Hard, fast, crisp like a Vermont morning and, my god, what precision! You can almost hear the metranome asking him to take it easy. As a solo artist he only ever hit the charts with one single, “Cool Aid” (taken from the same album as these), before falling back into the relative obscurity as a background player.

He continued doing studio work through the eighties without too much fanfare, but it wasn’t until just a few years ago that his eminent talent would be highlighted once again (along with James Gadson and Earl Palmer) by the Keeping Time documentary and accompanying discs.