Jeremy Steig – Howlin’ For Judy
Jeremy Steig – Rational Nonsense
Jeremy Steig – Waves

Wanted to make sure to give proper respect to Adam Yauch aka MCA this past week, leaving his tribute post as the top post. One of the other best ways I felt to pay tribute to his legacy and the legacy of the Beastie Boys was to highlight music that I never would have discovered without their help. With so many fantastic samples over the years, which shaped my musical sensibilities from searching and tracking down so many of them, it’s hard to choose a particular breakbeat used by the Beastie Boys to highlight. Personal favorites have always been the massive drums that serve as the beat for “Lookin’ Down The Barrel of A Gun,” from the Incredible Bongo Band’s “Last Bongo In Belgium” and the multiple ways the band used Jimmy Smith’s “Root Down” on a their own track of the same name. I don’t own those records anymore, but I was lucky enough to run into this collection of flautist Jeremy Steig which includes the immediately recognizable “Howlin’ For Judy,” later sampled by the Beastie Boys in “Sure Shot.”

Even since this was sampled, Steig remains somewhat underrated. Most diggers I don’t think realize that he recorded a lot of material in the late 60s and early 70s that was just as funky if not more so. This collection compiles some of the best tracks from three records, This Is Jeremy Steig, Legwork (both released originally on Solid State) and Wayfaring Stranger (originally released on Blue Note). Most of the tracks feature his usual rhythm section, Eddie Gomez on bass and Don Alias on drums, and the band really knows how to lay down some slinky funky, as they do on “Waves,” but as is the case with most of Steig’s music, things rarely just stay in the pocket for long. Steig and his players are constantly playing around with sounds, quite a lot of “Rational Nonsense,” moving in a variety of unexpected places and spaces, just like MCA and the Beastie Boys did musically. For this, and all the rest of the music I never would have heard without them, I have the Beastie Boys to thank, Adam Yauch especially…may you rest in peace.

Cheers,

Michael

On yesterday’s Melting Pot, Guest host Oliver Wang of Soul-Sides.com broadcast this 48 minute tribute to MCA and the Beastie Boys, with a mix of classics and rarities from their entire career.

Tribute to Adam “MCA” Yauch of the Beastie Boys: Mixed by O-Dub of Soul-Sides.com

Shocking news in the music world today that Adam Yauch, better known as MCA of the Beastie Boys, passed away at the age of 47. Yauch had been battling cancer for the last several years, but the news still came as a shock to me. Growing up in the 1980s, the Beastie Boys were a favorite band of mine, both in their party-hard early days and their conscious prankster later years. Tracking down samples from Beastie Boys records broadened my tastes and my appreciation of Hip-Hop production as much as any other groups, save the Native Tounges. MCA’s conversion to Buddhism expanded my curiosity into a variety of philosophies and helped me to find greater calm and patience at times when I was dangerously close to losing both. Here are 5 of my favorite tracks that MCA cut with the Beastie Boys, and the 5 I’ll remember him most for.

Beastie Boys – Brass Monkey

My first experience with the Beastie Boys, I can still remember a crew of four of five black kids at my elementary school in the halls singing the lyrics to this song, at a time where Hip-Hop was still thought of as purely “Black Music.” I’m not sure if they even knew the Beastie Boys were white, or if the fact they made Hip-Hop was enough for them to claim them as their own, but that moment is forever etched in my brain, as well as  MCA’s classic line that was probably the first time I’d even ever heard of Brooklyn.

“I drink Brass Monkey and I rock well
I got a Castle in Brooklyn – that’s where I dwell”

Beastie Boy – Sabotage

Quite possibly the single most entertaining music video of all time, “Sabotage” marked the emergence of Spike Jonze and got me to appreciate 1970s genre cinema. Even though you don’t really hear MCA’s voice in this track, that fuzz bass is so important to the sound, especially when everything breaks down in the second half, that it’s impossible to imagine this song being a success without that rumbling sound.

Beastie Boys – Jimmy James

A tribute of sorts to Jimi Hendrix, featuring 5 or 6 separate Hendrix samples, I’d never known until today that this was originally just an instrumental track and that all the cuts were by Adam Yauch himself.

Beastie Boys – Sure Shot

Aside from the blistering Jeremy Steig sample and one of my favorite lines, “I Strap On My Ear Goggles And I’m Ready To Go,” which caused me to refer to headphones as “ear goggles” for about a year, “Sure Shot” was also the song where MCA publicly denounced the misogynistic lyrics and behavior of his past and called for other artists to follow suit.

“I Want To Say a Little Something That’s Long Overdue
The Disrespect To Women Has Got To Be Through
To All The Mothers And Sisters And the Wives And Friends
I Want To Offer My Love And Respect To The End”

That kind of mea culpa and statement of solidarity, affected my own thinking on issues of gender, and likely helped to put me on the path where today I educate other men and women on the influence of popular culture on our ideas of gender, race and class.

Beastie Boys – Bodhisattva Vow

There are so many songs the MCA had great lines and rhymes, but this track from Ill Communication remains what I think is his signature song. A deeply personal and sincere take on his Buddhist faith and who his beliefs have affected his character.

“If Others Disrespect Me Or Give Me Flack
I’ll Stop And Think Before I React
Knowing That They’re Going Through Insecure Stages
I’ll Take The Opportunity To Exercise Patience
I’ll See It As A Chance To Help The Other Person
Nip It In The Bud Before It Can Worsen
A Change For Me To Be Strong And Sure”

The backing track was also stunning, with its use of Buddhist chant, drums from “Kissing My Love” and what sounds like the doors of a monastery crashing and closing. Hearing it the first time was like a revelation, one only made possible because of Adam Yauch, Rest In Peace.

Pierre Raph – Gilda & Gunshots

{LA People there’s a special Jean Rollin event at Cinefamily May 7th, featuring an special remixed screening of La Vampire Nue (original trailer below) and new score by Demdike Stare!!!}

Jean Rollin was a french film-maker best known for his horror/gore/exploitation films of the late 1960s and 1970s. Given his filmography, it’s not a surprise that music associated with his films would be right in the wheelhouse of B-Music and Finders Keepers and they’ve recently compiled a bunch of it for this collection. The spot on appropriately titled “Gilda & Gunshots” stands out for me, just because of the absurdity of it all. I’m sure seeing the visuals would make this song make more sense, but hearing it, with those driving drums and bass line, a woman in pain or ecstasy and all those gunshots, it sounds like pure mayhem is going down.

As a further taste of Jean Rollin’s style, here’s the trailer to his 1970 film, La Vampire Nue, a heady mix of wild visuals for sure:

Currently getting a set together for Elevation,  an incredible DJ event with fellow KPFK DJs Morgan Rhodes, Mark Maxwell, Carlos Nino, Santana Westbrook, Teddy Robinson, Abraham Beltran, the Breakbeats & Rhymes crew, Kristi Lomax and our special guest Marques Wyatt!  Tickets cost $15 or $25 for VIPs and all the proceeds go directly to KPFK.

I’m thinking of doing a set of classic breaks and sampled funk, we’ll see what I come up with when I go on at 10pm tonight! I’ll be sure to share the playlist and maybe the set itself with you all in the near future.

Hope to see you tonight!

Had expected to have a guest DJ, Alberto Sol, but unfortunately he wasn’t able to make it (you can catch him at Funky Sole’s Cinco De Mayo fiesta), so that meant I had to bring a little extra vinyl but I’ll never complain about that. Only thing that I knew I wanted to play for today’s show was something to commemorate the LA Uprisings of 1992, since Sunday was the 20th anniversary. I mention a bit of what I remember living in Atlanta at the time of this historic event and decided to play Ben Harper’s “Like A King,” which I think is probably one of the better songs written in the wake of the riots. When I was at WRAS, Album 88, we had a 7 minute long acoustic version of this that he’d performed at the station, I really wish I still had that somewhere, it was just amazingly raw and beautiful, as good as the studio version is, it’s always paled in comparison. From there we have a couple more songs that seemed fitting for the date, “A Tree Never Grown” from the short lived, but very necessary, Hip-Hop For Respect project and “The Creator Has A Master Plan” from Leon Thomas. After that first set, all bets were off as I went all over the map, from some funky funky sounds from La Clave and Soul Toranodoes, to psychedelic tunes from Edip Akbayram, John Howard Abdnor and spiritual jazz from Charlie Haden & the Liberation Music Orchestra. Next week I’ll be at KPFK’s Hero Awards, so Oliver Wang of the legendary Soul-Sides.com will be filling in for me…see you back on the air in two weeks!

Melting Pot on KPFK #83: First Hour
Melting Pot on KPFK #83: Second Hour

Playlist: 04-29-2012

{opening theme} Boris Gardiner – Melting Pot – Is What’s Happening (Dynamic)

~~~~ Break ~~~~

Ben Harper – Like A King – Welcome To The Cruel World (Virgin)
Hip-Hop For Respect – A Tree Never Grown – Hip-Hop For Respect 12” (Rawkus)
Leon Thomas – The Creator Has A Master Plan – Spirits Known And Unknown (Flying Dutchman)
El Chicano – Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child – Viva Tirado (Kapp)

~~~~ Break ~~~~

La Clave – Latin Slide – La Clave (Verve)
The Hook – Homes – The Hook Will Grab You (UNI)
Charlie Musselwhite – 4 p.m. – Stand Back! (Vanguard)
Natural Gas – Live & Learn – Natural Gas (Firebird)

~~~~ Break ~~~~

Ranil & his Tropical Band – Cumbia Sin Nombre – Ranil’s Jungle Party (Masstropicas)
The Soul Toranodoes – Go For Yourself – 7” (Magic City)
Edip Akbayram – Ince Ince Bir Kar Yagar – 7” (Sayan)
Muddy Waters – Herbert Harper’s Free Press – Electric Mud (Cadet Concept)
Nancy Priddy – You’ve Come This Way Before – You’ve Come This Way Before (Dot)
Zoo – Mammouth – Zoo (Mercury)

~~~~ Break ~~~~

The Moon People – Happy Soul – Land Of Love (Speed)
Ohio Players – Funky Work – 7” (Westbound)
Clarence Reid – Masterpiece – 7” (Alston)
BW Souls – Marvin’s Groove – 7” (Round)
Jorge Ben – A Historia De Jorge – Africa Brasil (Philips)
Johnny Lytle – Daahoud – Be Proud (Solid State)

~~~~ Break ~~~~

Uniao Black – Geracao Black – Uniao Black (Mercury)
Jeremy Steig – Nardis – Portrait (UA)
John Howard Abdnor Involvement – Relaxation – Intro To Change (Abnak)

~~~~ Break ~~~~

Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra – La Santa Espina / Els Segadores – Ballad OF The Fallen (ECM)

~~~~ Break ~~~~

{closing theme} Joe Henderson – Earth – The Elements (Milestone)

Johnny Lytle – You've Got To Love The World
Johnny Lytle – Sit Tight
Johnny Lytle – Daahoud

Here’s another record that I basically walked into and then just had to have. In this case it was at Scott Craig’s Records LA a few months ago. Someone was buzzing through a couple of records just as I walked in, and a few moments later they dropped the need on “You’ve Got To Love The World.” At first I was thinking it was just pretty straight ahead 60s swinging jazz with vocals, nothing too noteworthy, but then the the song got to the bridge and that manic drumbeat with the banging organ and vibes completely floored me with how hard it was. When I hear moments like that it makes me really consider buying an MPC and getting started making beats. I could literally listen to thos moments where everything breaks down after the vocalists hold the “the” part of “you’ve got to love the world” for a series of beats and then the drums and organ lay out as they say “world.” Clearly there’s much more to dig on with this LP, but I keep coming back to those brilliant moments, particularly in the last 45 seconds of the track when they hit on it without the vocals. Absolute brilliance, that I hope you’ll dig too, just watch your neck…

Cheers,

Michael

The Soul Investigators – Creepin' Part 2

It seems like it’s been a long minute since the Soul Investigators dropped music, but they’ve been busy since the breakthrough LP with Nicole Willis (STILL waiting on Myron & E’s debut to come out after a series of fantastic singles in 2009 & 2010). “Creepin’” is their latest release, put in the spring on the Timmion record label, and it is a gritty and tough bit of wax, in two parts, each with a little different feel. I dig on Pt. 2 a bit more with the nice hard drums at the beginning and the organ that bubbles up slowly (dare I say creepin’ up on you…pun intended). Can’t wait for more from one of Europe’s most consistently fantastic modern soul groups.

Josh Haden of Spain performs "Spiritual" at KPFK.

It was my distinct pleasure to welcome Josh Haden and Spain to our studios at KPFK for an interview and performance last week. As I mentioned in the interview I can still remember the first time I heard Spain’s music, when the music director at Album 88 played, “Ray Of Light” from their debut release Blue Moods Of Spain back in 1995. They’ve been one of my most cherised favorite bands since then. Back in 2009 I was overjoyed to hear that Josh had put the band back together and they’d released some new music. On my one and only time as a guest host on Morning Becomes Eclectic I played a track from the new Spain and was surprised to later get a thank you message from Josh. He’s kept in touch making sure that I had new music and when he offerred to bring the band in for a performance, there’s was absolutely no way I was going to say no.

The band plays four songs, two from the brand new release The Soul Of Spain, “Sevenfold” and “Without A Sound,” and the interview closes with renditions of two songs from that debut release, “Untitled #1,” and perhaps Josh’s most famous composition “Spiritual.” During the interview we talk about why it took so long, over 10 years, for the world to hear a new record from Spain and spend a bit of time discussing Josh’s frustrations with the music industry, how the new group got together and plans for the future of Spain. Big thanks to Stan Misraje for working his magic on the sound to get everything just right. I sincerely hope you enjoy this as much as I did, this was definitely one of my favorite moments in my entire radio career.

Spain on KPFK’s Melting Pot: Recorded 04-16-2012

Sunday was notable for a number of reasons, first off it was Earth Day, I’d hoped to play a short Happy Birthday greeting to the Earth that Captain Beefheart recorded many moons ago, but left somewhere in the deep recesses of my hard drive at home. Secondly, April 22nd is Charles Mingus’ birthday, and that is a national holiday in my household so I definitely made sure not to forget to play several tracks from Mingus, including the very first thing I ever identified as coming from the man, first heard almost 20 years ago, “Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting.” All the emotion that was in the playing has hooke me ever since.

Sunday we also played an amazing performance and interview with Josh Haden and Spain, (separate post upcoming), that takes up just about all of the second hour. In between the tribute to Mingus and the Spain interview I played a few newer things that have come my way, almost all of which were pretty funky, including new music from the Sugarman Three, a group out of SF named Monophonics, a brand new group from LA called Jungle Fire, African Electronica from Batida and some interesting reissues from Funky Rob and Jean Rollin. Next week we’ll be on all vinyl, and we’ll likely have a special guest DJ in the second hour.

Melting Pot on KPFK #82: First Hour
Melting Pot on KPFK #82: Second Hour

Playlist: 04-22-2012

{opening theme} Booker T & the MGs – Melting Pot – Melting Pot (Stax)

~~~~ Break ~~~~

Charles Mingus – Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting – Blues & Roots (Atlantic)
Charles Mingus – Old Blues For Walt’s Torin – Tonight At Noon (Atlantic)
Charles Mingus – Mood Indigo – Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus (Impulse!)
Charles Mingus – Don’t Let It Happen Here – Music Written For Monterey 1965, Not Heard, Played In Its Entirety at UCLA (Sunnyside)

~~~~ Break ~~~~

Monophonics – There’s A Riot Going On – In Your Brain (Ubiquity)
Rob – Make It Fast, Make It Slow – Make It Fast, Make It Slow (Soundway)
Pierre Raph – Gilda & Gunshots – The B-Music Of Jean Rollin (Finders Keepers)
Jungle Fire – Comencemos – Single (Self-released)

~~~~ Break ~~~~

Georgia Anne Muldrow – Birth Of Petey Wheatstraw – Seeds (Someothaship)
Batida – Tirei O Chapeu – Batida (Soundway)
Pure Essence – Wake Up – Soul Cal (Now-Again)
Sugarman 3 – Got To Get Back To My Baby – What The World Needs Now (Daptone)

~~~~ Break ~~~~

Spain – Performance and Interview – Recorded Live At KPFK (KPFK Archives)

~~~~ Break ~~~~

Gil Scott-Heron – Must Be Something – First Minute Of A New Day (Arista)

~~~~ Break ~~~~

{closing theme} Dungen – C. Visar Vagen – Tio Batar (Kemado)

Nancy Priddy – You've Come This Way Before
Nancy Priddy – Ebony Glass
Nancy Priddy – We Could Have It All

Sorry to have once again seemingly disappeared on you all. Been a very busy time on the home & work front but I should be back to normal after this week. Thought I’d come back strong here on Record Store Day with a real deep LP that I recently ran into at the mecca of all things funky, the venerable Groove Merchant in San Francisco. On the rare occassion these days that I make it to Groove Merchant I try to spend as much time as I can perusing the various bins before checking out the super rare records that are on the wall as a finale before I get ready to split. This record caught my eye not because I knew anything about it, but because it seemed a little out of place. It really doesn’t look like much, just a standard 1970s singer-songwriter kind of looking cover, you’d expect acoustic guitars and maybe some soft strings.

After passing by the unassuming record several times, and finally concluding, “well if Cool Chris has this on the wall, there must be something good on it,” I decided to drop the needle on the LP and promptly had my mind blown. This record could be the poster child for why it’s so important to never judge a record by it’s cover. I don’t even know how to accurately describe the variety of sounds contained on this album, they are undeniably funky, clearly sample worthy (I’m sure Madlib has made great use of this already), at times off the wall, but always interesting. Musically, the songs float from sort of late-sixties hippie funk, as on the title track, to darker tracks like “Ebony Glass” that could have easily found their way onto a David Axelrod album. Priddy’s voice also does a lot of interesting things, going from a seemingly innocent girlish-ness to a bit of backwoods country phrasing to projecting assured womanly confidence. While there are clearly additional singers used at times on the album, (including a pretty creepy kid on “Ebony Glass”) it’s amazing how many different voices it seems Priddy uses throughout the album.

What’s even more interesting is the story of Nancy Priddy, who Chris would tell me is actually the mother of well-known actress Christina Appelgate and apparently the inspiration behind the Buffalo Springfield song “Pretty Girl Why.” She had a varied career, working as a model, actress and a singer, first with the Bitter End Singers, and then on her own. Unfortunately Priddy didn’t record much more than this LP, a few vocals on some Astrology albums are all the credits I can find after this recording, and she spent a long time away from music, only to pick up recording again somewhat recently (likely after finding out how revered her sole album was amongst collectors).

A remaining mystery is who are the players on this album. I’m not familiar enough with Dot records to know who their favored sidemen were. The record has been reissued on CD, so perhaps there are some clues in there. All I’ve read is that Bernard “Pretty” Purdie makes an appearance (incidentially, it’s too bad Nancy & Bernard didn’t form a group called Pretty Priddy Purdie, THAT would have been outstanding!) and the drums on the LP do sound as if they could be him or a similar heavyweight. I’m just surprised that I’d never heard this record before, I’m sure over the years of digging in stores all over the country, I’ve passed this record over thinking it wasn’t anything special…which just underscores yet again what a treasure a fantastic record store, like Groove Merchant, truly is for music aficionados. Support your local Record Stores and keep “Record Store Day” going throughout the year.

Cheers,

Michael