Gnarls Barkley (Cee-Lo & Dangermouse) : Smiley Faces and Crazy
taken from the upcoming album St. Elsewhere on Downtown/Atlantic (2006)

Cee-Lo : I’ll Be Around and All Day Love Affair
taken from the album Cee-Lo Green… Is The Soul Machine on Arista (2004)

Cee-Lo : Gettin’ Grown
taken from the album Cee-Lo Green And His Perfect Imperfections on Arista (2002)

First off, I was really really really having a good good good time watching this movie. I think I would be happy just watching Questlove drum for 2 hours straight, but seeing all these cats together was just outta control. It was so good that it almost made me not be mad at myself for missing the concert in person- where was I?

Perhaps the only person missing was my man CEE fuckin’ LO to the mutherfuckin’ GREEN! If you haven’t been travelling through the Siberian backcountry for the past 5 years, then you’ve heard his music. You very well might have all these songs in your iPod already, but on the off chance that somehow you have missed the absolutely brilliant career of one of our greatest contemporary soul music geniuses (yup, I ain’t afraid to say it!) then you will be thanking me for this revelation.

From Goodie Mob to Dungeon Family to solo steez to countless sideprojects (“Sugar” by Trick Daddy or “Don’t Cha” by Tori Alamaze if you need to be reminded), this man has never ceased to deliver TOP quality music while still managing to actually make it sucessfully (at least somewhat) in the industry. “All Day Love Affair” can bring me to tears, no joke. Plus, dude writes mad songs that make it to the Billboard charts without most of us ever knowing it. To me, that’s genius.

As much respect as I had for the Cee, I really didn’t think I could be as blown away as I was when I first heard “Crazy” a while back. But there’s just nothing else like it. Not sure how or when Cee-Lo first hooked up with Dangermouse to form Gnarls Barkley, but the match seems to fit just right. Simple, haunting, raw, organic… the man has a voice worthy of delivering the gospel. Then just this week I got my hands on “Smiley Faces”, holy crapoli. I’m really feeling tunes at this tempo right now, it’s that ole’ tyme side to side sway shizzz. Makes you clap your hands and bounce and bob yer freaking head and shake your hair and just WILE OUT! I’ve heard some other songs of theirs on the internet (including a really interesting cover of Violent Femmes’ “Gone Daddy Gone”), check it out for yourself. You know I don’t usually post music that is easily available for download from any file sharing network, but this is an exception, this needs to be everywhere. This needs to be what gets played non-stop on the top 40. This needs to go triple platinum. Sadly, it’s very unlikely that it will. Thank you Cee-Lo. and Dangermouse too.

Natalie Gardiner: Trouble In Mind
Taken from the Trouble In Mind EP on Ramjac (2004)

Natalie Gardiner: Can’t Quit You Now
Taken from the 12″ on Ramjac (2005)

It’s easy to get lost in old soul tunes. (When I say lost, I mean literally lost. My living room looks like the forgotten underbelly of the New York Public Library.) Part of it owes to the high quality of the music that came out of the 60’s and 70’s, and part of it, as any wax fiend knows, is the hunt itself–the quest for that hithertofore unknown or long forgotten gem that will set the heart and/or dancefloor afire.

But every now and again it’s important to remember–and I believe this deeply–that we are living in an immensely rich musical period right now. Truly great (and innovative) soul music is being created as we speak. Steve Spacek, J*Davey, Badu–this is the real deal ish. So what if it’s not getting radio play. It’s our jobs as music lovers to seek it out for ourselves. You wouldn’t blame a crack dealer for not reaching his market; the onus is on the fiend to get his fix.

All this is just to say that, dipping back into some of my more contemporary finds, I rediscovered these Natalie Gardiner tracks and was reminded like WOAH! This is some heavy soul music.

These tracks come from two separate 12 inches released prior to her debut LP (which dropped last year, I believe). I haven’t actually heard the whole thing, but I think it’s pretty safe to say it’s well worth your $15–that is, if you can find it. Sadly, few publications (print, internet or otherwise) have offered much in the the way of hype.

The producer, a Swede by the name of Ramjac, obviously knew what he was going for with Ms. Gardiner: super stripped-down, moody, broken beat instrumentals that accomodate the purity of her melancholy vocals. Just plain good stuff.

Dig on!

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