The Notations: It Only Hurts For a Little While
From S/T (Gemigo, 1975)

Bonus: The Flamingos: Why Can’t Susie Go to School With Lucy
From Today (Ronze, 197?)

I’m working backwards here since this was my original, introductory post to the Pick Six series. Note: I’m fond of starting new series that promptly go nowhere so just be warned. The idea behind the series was based around the relative little time I have these days to get more posts up and throwing up six at a time seemed like one way to clear the slate faster. However, it also gave me an opportunity to think of my own music library more thematically, hence each Pick Six post will have some kind of thread that ties all them together. Last time, it was Louie Ramirez and for this post, I was going through a stack of soul records and realized that, of late, I’ve been acquiring a grip of LPs by R&B groups built around harmonized singing, ala the Chi-Lites or Stylistics.

Most of these groups were influenced by multi-member gospel singing and not surprisingly, many in these groups could trace their musical histories back to gospel singing prior to their R&B excursions. Especially in a city like Chicago, it’s not hard to guess that a group like the Notations probably took their inspiration from both gospel as well as The Impressions, whose three-part harmonies were incredibly influential. The Notations were first signed with Twinight but by the 1970s, had shifted over to Curtom (via the Gemigo subsidiary), Curtis Mayfield’s label. “It Only Hurts” is one of those sweet soul classics, especially because of that memorable string melody that opens the song. i like the dramatic flourishes throughout the song and the interplay in the quartet’s voices (Clifford Curry, LaSalle Matthews, Bobby Thomas, Jimmy Stoud) work well against one another.

The Temprees were a trio out of Memphis, TN, first signed to We Produce, a Stax subsidiary (same label Ernie HInes’s “Our Generation” came out on). The three, composed of Jasper Phillips, Harold Scott and Deljuan Calvin, were young – high schoolers – when they first met and there’s a charming swagger to them naming their first album Love Men when they probably weren’t that many years out of their peachfuzz yet. “Explain It To Her Mama” kicks off with a pounding little breakbeat and then shifts into a rich, mid-tempo ballad that showcases Phillip’s falsetto.

The Persuaders’ “Trying Girls Out” may be familiar to some of you as the source for the “Girls, Girls, Girls” remix off Jay-Z’s The Blueprint and it makes you appreciate how keen an ear Kayne had back in 2001. The original has a sly humor to it – this is no sentimental love song for certain – but even if it is a players’ anthem, the Persuaders sure do make it sound sweet. This is from their self-titled album, the follow-up to their hit Thin Line Between Love and Hate, featuring Douglas Scott, brothers Willie and James Holland and Charles Stoghill.

Like the Persuaders, the Modulations were another four-member group, formed in Philadelphia and you can hear that classic “Philly sound” draped onto this nostalgia-suffused track. I’m guessing it’s Larry Duncan on falsetto here but surprisingly, it’s pretty damn hard to figure out who else was in the group (besides Glenn Lewis). For real: the album credits the musicians by name but not the singers…whoops.

The Moments are arguably the most famous ’70s vocal group out of New Jersey though they probably went through enough personnel changes to staff two or three groups. By the time they recorded “Love on a 2-Way Street” their membership could either have been the best known combo, with William Brown, Al Goodman and John Morgan, but it could also have been Mark Greene, Richie Horsley and Morgan). Regardless, the Moments were impressively consistent no matter what the line up and this was one of their classics from the last ’60s.

The Montclairs were a short-lived, four man group out of East St. Louis who never really broke it big despite having some serious vocal talent. Signed to Paula for their one and only album, the group was comprised of Phil Perry, Kevin Sanlin, David Frye, and Clifford Williams. “Dreaming Out of Season” was their biggest hit and it’s so good, it’s a shame the couldn’t find the footing to put out even more than they did.

The bonus cut comes from The Flamingos – you remember, of “I Only Have Eyes For You” fame – but this comes from an early ’70s album (hence the “Today” part of the title) where the doo-wop group is trying to stay current with, y’know, the kids. The song is obviously funk-influenced (and not sweet soul) but I thought it’d make a fun bonus cut to hear a classic soul harmony group trying on a different genre. Personally, I think the song does ok though for a social consciousness tune (the title is a clear reference to integration), it’s overly vague despite sounding pretty obvious.

Johnny Johnson: Love Is Blue
Taken from the album Soul Survivor on Bell (1970)

Third Guitar: Lovin’ Lies
Taken from the 7″ on Rojac (19??)

The Parliaments: Your Goodies Are Gone
Taken from the 7″ on Revilot (1967)

Eddie Holman: Four Walls
Taken from the album I Love You on ABC (1969)

O, wracked wail of heartache. O, plaintive moan of sorrow. How the heart strains!

The selections today are born of the kind anguish that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. The kind where the knees buckle and the heart cramps. The kind that can reduce a grown man to pathetic teary desperation. The kind of abject grief that can drive a guy to the loony bin… or, if fortune prevails, to the recording booth.

We got lucky with the latter.

Leading off with the Johnny Johnson track: um, I mean, WOW. How about this joint. Forget about the folk guitar that gives way to the meanest orchestral onslaught since Beethoven’s Fifth. Forget about the Ghostface sample. Forget that this track has been recorded by a bunch of heads. THIS IS THE VERSION. Listen to ol’ boy holding that note in the last bar of the song. That, my friends, is suffering.

Third Guitar are best known for making a highly noteworthy appearance on Shadow & Chemist’s Brainfreeze, but listen to these cats digging deep on “Lovin’ Lies”. When was the last time heard such ballistic hand drums, breaks and heavy emoting crammed into a track that clocks in at under two minutes?

Then there’s George Clinton in his pre-Funkadelic days cranking out a hard-hitting soul number with the Parliaments (drop the “s”, add acid, and you’ve got one loked out 70 year old with technicolor dreadlocks). A recent flea market find that I can’t seem to get enough of.

And lastly, a repeat of one of the first posts put up on this blog. A song that I have ADORED since the moment it entered my life and will likely continue to adore until the day I die. What a shame that Eddie Holman will only ever be remembered for “Hey, There Lonely Girl” because, as far as I’m concerned this is as good as it gets. Wail on, brother man. Wail on.

Louie Ramirez: The New Breed
From In the Heart of Spanish Harlem (Mercury, 1967)

Bonus: Beatfanatic: Cookin’
From Adventures in the World of No-Fi Beats (Raw Fusion, 2006)

My most recent Side Dishes was on Latin arranger/composer/musician Louie Ramirez and the recommended Louie’s Grooves anthology. I’ve been wanting to write something on Ramirez for a while and though the Side Dishes post allowed me to riff on some of his work, as the comp’s liner notes acknowledge, it just brushes the surface of how deep his catalog can run. I’d suggest folks read that post first and then come back here.

My pick six for Ramirez focuses mostly on albums not already covered by Louie’s Grooves, beginning with arguably the easiest of his solo albums to acquire: In the Heart of Spanish Harlem. This was recorded for Mercury; I find that interesting since Mercury didn’t have a ton of Latin recordings (that I know of) on the label but I suspect it may have had something to do with producer Richard Marin who was doing some A&R work for labels like Mercury and Verve at the time. Marin’s brother Bobby – another Latin soul giant and fellow composer – is on this album as well; he was a frequent collaborator with Ramirez and it’s not at all unusual to see them on the same projects together. In fact, for this album, Bobby appears on the cover photo alongside Richard and Louie

I was always struck at how Ramirez was able to work on so many different labels at the same time; not long after that Mercury album, he must have been working with Fania on the Ali Baba LP (several of the songs from that rare title are on Louie’s Grooves and then he was also working for Morty Craft’s Speed imprint. I wrote about The Latin Blues Band for the Happy Soul Suite piece and I enjoy revisiting it – any Latin album that has Bernard Purdie as your studio drummer is bound to be rather interesting though instead of the funkier fare I could have nodded to, I went with “Oye Mi Guaguanco,” a solid piece of classic Cuban style by Ramirez, feat. (I think) Luis Aviles on vocals.

Like the Latin Blues Band, the Dianne and Carole album was also on Speed. Speed packed, in my opinion, the biggest bang for the buck – their catalog wasn’t more than a dozen titles or so but what was there was almost all exceptional. This Dianne and Carole album is especially notably since it had one of the few examples of female singers heading a Latin soul album (La Lupe excepted of course). There’s very little known about the two singers – their surnames aren’t even credited on the album! In any case, “The Fuzz” leads side 2, where 4/5 of the songs are arranged by Ramirez and I suspect that most of the same players from the Latin Blues Band played on here as well.

Not long thereafter, Ramirez was also helping compose, play on (and possible arrange?) for the great Puerto Rican bandleader Kako and his Live It Up album on Musicor. Personally, I’ve never figured out what separates a shingaling from a boogaloo and “Shingaling Shingaling” certainly displays many of the stylistic characteristics of both. I’m feeling this – and the whole LP is exceptional.

Ramirez was multi-talented as a musician – known to rock both the timbales and vibes – and I wanted to include an example of the latter by including one of his salsa era performances, playing vibes on Cheo Feliciano’s classic “Esto Es El Guaguanco.” He’s a big reason the opening is so memorable and Ramirez comes back to solo towards the second half of the song.

Last in the pick six is this cool lil cover of “Cisco Kid” that Ramirez arranged for the La Crema album, a one-off project that involved him, Bobby Marin and some other familiar folks but in the Latin funk era of the 1970s.

Bonus: As for “Cookin'”, that might have been the first time I “heard” any Louie Ramirez song since it liberally borrows from “The New Breed.” Slammin’ Latin club cut – trust me on this one.

Stephanie McKay : Jackson Avenue & Oh Yeah
taken from the upcoming album that needs to be OUT!
but if you like this, DEFINITELY check her first release and her myspace with more tunes, videos & tour dates.

Chico Mann : Dilo Como Yo & Zumba Mama
taken from the upcoming album “Analogue Drift” that also needs to be out already!
But check the myspace for more tunes and get that first album

King Khan & The Shrines : Burnin Inside & I Wanna Be A Girl
taken from the new album The Supreme Genius Of… on Vice (2008)

Flying Lotus : Roberta Flack (Ft. Dolly) & Melt!
taken from the new album Los Angeles on Warp (2008)

In the face of too much mediocre blandosia and overhyped saltine steezoni (sorry, I’m not hating for hate’s sake, but come on…), here’s a hearty helping of freshy-fresh audible produce for your summer mixes. Some of these tunes aren’t officially out yet, but as long as a few of you readers catch on and support these artists by picking up their other releases (Stephanie’s first album is NECESSARY), then I figure they won’t get mad at me for sharing this little taste.

I’ve been feeling the Estelle album a lot, and a couple of the Aunt Jackie tracks, but honestly, Steph blows these chicks out the water. She smashes the reggae tunes (“Take Me Over”), destroys the retro soul (“Say What You Feel”), and comes with some otherly space-funk for the ears of tomorrow (“Money”). I’ve had the pleasure of doing a bunch of live shows with her and can testify to her ability to K.O. the crowd too. Like way too many other top-notch underrated artists, she’s been bucked around by labels with the usual drama, and thus this masterpiece of an album (which has been DONE for more than a minute) is still not out. It’s a total crime how the industry works sometimes, but at least we can support her by copping the first release and can keep spreading the good word until this one is officially released- check for the live shows too!

Chico Mann is no stranger to the Crate. When I posted the Antibalas remix of “Dilo Como Yo” a couple weeks back it reminded me that Chico’s (somewhat more danceable) version of the same song should be shared as well. He’s got more music to download on his myspace page and an album from a year or so back that’s definitely worth checking- but holy greatness, his new album is really gonna knock some heads around! Stay tuned.

King Khan was purchased on the strength of the cover art alone, and it delivered twofold what was hinted at on the packaging. I don’t know where they recorded this album of catchy psychedelic garage-rock-soul, but it sounds convincingly like they discovered a wormhole to the year 1968. A thoroughly enjoyable and lively record from the opening chords of “Torture” to the last fuzzy notes in “No Regrets”. Highly RECOMMENDED!

Finally I leave you with the beautiful noise poetry of Flying Lotus. This record is abstract and earthy at once. Layered with cosmic dust and static, the album takes shape like a primordial organism from deep space that crash landed alongside the 405 and now shimmers in a blanket of neon steam emitting radioactive waves. Need I say more?

Ananda Shankar: Streets of Calcutta + Dancing Drums
From Ananda Shankar and His Music (EMI India, 1975)

Manteca: Afro-Funky + Gozando Tropical
From Ritmo + Sabor (GRC/Sound Triangle, 197?)

The thing about funk’s entry in pop music in the late 1960s and forward was how artists would find ways to work in its rhythmic signature when you least expected it. (See this for a great example). Hearing the Ananda Shankar for the first time just blew my mind, probably because I assume Ananda’s sound would be more like his uncle Ravi’s but clearly, Ananda was on some experimental, world fusion tip by blending his training in classical Indian music with some Moog and a killer trap set drummer. Both of these cuts above are well-comped at this point but they still don’t fail to impress. Sitar funk for real.

Manteca is the nickname for master bongosero Lazaro Pla, a Cuban legend who used to play with Ernesto Lecuona and the Cuban Boys. His Ritmo + Sabor is one of the holy grail Latin funk LPs given its ridiculously funky percussion. It’s an interesting album for Manteca since he didn’t record out of Cuba much as a solo artist yet this album has been pressed up three times: GRC (Miami), Sound Triangle (Colombia) and Desca(?). And despite that, you’ll still end up forking over a few Franklins, unless you’re my man Adam M. who managed to cop one for $3 from Amoeba in Berkeley (that story still kills me). “Afro-Funky” is the outstanding cut here: the interplay between the basslines (which some opine might have been Cachao) and the percussion section is ridiculously funky not to mention pure rhythm – notice, there’s no melodic composition in the song at all. “Gozando Tropical” is more in a conventional Cuban dance style with its piano montuno riff but even here, the hard timbales (alas, uncredited) still put percussion first…sometimes I feel like the song is mis-engineered and should have cooled down the timbales a bit but then I shrug and figure if the drummer wants to get some, who am I to deny? This has been out of print on CD for a while but luckily, they’re about to bring it back later this month.

Gabo Brown & Orchestre Poly-Rythmo : It’s A Vanity
taken from the compilation African Scream Contest on Analog Africa (2008)

Action 13 : More Bread To The People
taken from the compilation Nigeria Rock Special on Soundway (2008)

Asiko Rock Group : Lagos City
taken from the compilation Nigeria Disco Funk Special on Soundway (2008)

Sir Shina Peters and His International Stars : Yabis
taken from the compilation Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump on Strut (2008)

With the recent onslaught of African music compilations coming out, I found myself wondering if the genre of afrobeat, after 40 years of relative obscurity, had finally become mainstream? There was the anomaly of Manu Dibango’s 1972 hit “Soul Makossa” which actually made it big abroad (to the extreme of being re-worked years later in Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Starting Something”), but for the most part, even the biggest names in African music were completely unknown to most audiences off the continent. Fela Kuti was certainly low on the radar in his time, but today, I feel like his name (and certainly the genre of “Afrobeat” as a whole) actually bears some weight in popular consciousness. I suppose recognition 30 years too late is better than none at all. I know that I, for one, am not complaining about the vast, continent-wide vinyl archeology dig that seems to be taking place.

Analog Africa have found a particularly overlooked niche within the world of Afrobeat – Togo & Benin. Holy hotness is this shit ever raw! Out of all the comps, this one’s probably my favorite. Aside from Poly-Rythmo and The Black Santiagos, I was unfamiliar with all the names on this collection. Nothing on here sounds like it was recorded after 1972- and ALL of it draws heavily from the power James Brown’s early 70’s material (which is about as good as it gets for me).

With the recent Soundway comps coming out back to back, it’s honestly a little difficult to discern clear distinctions in sound from one to the next, but again, when the material is this solid, I’m not putting up an argument. Both Action 13 and Asiko Rock Group are new discoveries for me- and mindmelters to boot. The drums on “Lagos City” are just about the hardest thing I’ve heard since maybe this.

Meanwhile, Strut records continues their resurgence on the scene with this second West African installment – the first Nigeria 70 initiated my ears to these beats back in 2001 or so. This one focusses more on the traditional highlife and juju side of things, but there’s some heavy funk cuts on here as well. One little thing that irks me about the Nigeria 70 records though: both this one and the original comp feature artists on the cover that aren’t even represented on the tracklisting! I mean, they’re cool photos and all, but I’m sure that there’s some good pics out there of the artists that are actually a part of the collection (the first one had Prince Nico Mbarga on the cover and this one is Oliver De Coque– I know cause I have the LPs- neither of whom make a musical appearance anywhere here). Still worth it for for the music though.