Here’s the first official post for my new audioblog, Melting Pot.  In the coming months and years you’ll find notes on a variety of sounds from funk and soul to latin and psych to punk and jazz and back again (select About Melting Pot in the list of categories for more details on the different features of this audioblog).

I thought I’d start the festivities off with a song, one of my favorites that share the title of this blog.  The original is a classic B-boy cut by Booker T & the MGs from 1971, something that should be in every DJs collection.  The version I’m posting here was done shortly after that by Jamaican Boris Gardiner on his record Is What’s Happening, which I got on a crunchy Jamaican vinyl reissue of the original album, bought at Amoeba Hollywood some time ago. 

Here's the label to Boris Gardiner's Is What's Happening featuring "Melting Pot"

Boris Gardiner – Melting Pot

While this version retains much of the original’s funky feel, Gardiner does add some mean tambourine and fuzzy guitar into the rhythm, plus there’s a massive drum break towards the final third, something that always seems about to happen in the MG’s version, but never really materializes (at least not to my satisfaction, though I do love the original). 

If you’re new to Gardiner’s music, there’s an excellent retrospective put out by Vampi Soul that you should definitely check out.

Onwards and Upwards,

Michael