Apple & the Three Oranges – Curse Upon The World
L.A. Bare Faxx – Super Cool Brother
When the first two volumes of Luv ‘n’ Haight’s Bay Area Funk collections came out, a DJ friend of mine remarked dismissively, “they haven’t even scratched the surface.” At the time I thought that was a bit of a harsh assessment, but now I realize that it just means that there is indeed a mountain of funky gold waiting to be dug up in California. This new collection from Now-Again/Jazzman, put together by Jazzman Gerald and Malcolm Catto, gets even deeper into the vinyl archeology of rock solid funk from the Golden State.
At 21 total tracks, it is indeed quite a motherlode with a wide variety of sounds, from dance floor burners like “The Honeydripper,” and “Smokin’ Tidbits” to the super cool but cautionary “Super Cool Brother,” and “What Goes Around Comes Around” or the righteous, just let it all hang out, get loose and get together vibes of “All Bundled Into One,” “I Who Have Nothing (Am Somebody),” and the “North Richmond Breakaway.” There’s even a bit of the slightly bizarre and psychedelic in Billy Larkin & the Delegates’ “Funky Fire” and the 4th Coming’s “Cruisin’ Down Sunset.”
What’s especially interesting to me about many of the tracks on this collection is how instead of a single or specific sound (something you can hear on the more label specific Eccentric Soul series), many of the songs represent a mish-mash of soul style, a trait that’s likely because of the migratory nature of CA’s population, particularly its African-Americans. It’s pretty clearly heard in many of my favorite tracks on this comp., including Rhon Silva’s “Get It Right” with its funky drums straight out of an Eddie Bo NOLA production matched with some Memphis blues styled guitar (though according to the singer, it’s supposed to be “Hippie-style” and “psychedelic for the Haight-Ashbury”), or the straight country funk for the city in Leon Gardner’s “Farm Song.”
Perhaps best exemplifying this “soul stew” dynamic, and also probably the best track on this collection, is Apple & the Three Oranges’ stomper “Curse Upon The World.” New Orleans is all over this one, from the special and particular way “Curse” is phrased to the massively tight drumming coming from Edward “Apple” Nelson. Apparently that group recorded at least an additional 8 sides and Now-Again is thankfully working on releasing them in the near future. It’s a dynamite sound and, like so many of these obscured artists, one that deserves to be heard.
Way back in the 1990s when these types of compilations started coming out, I was convinced it meant that the original 45s/LPs on the collections would decrease in value. My thinking was something along the lines of, “now that everyone could hear the song why would anyone be willing to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for rare funky?” I couldn’t have been more wrong. Instead I think, especially because of the more recent injection of Serato and other “Digital DJ” technology into the culture, these collections work to continually raise the value of the originals by showing just how special they are. For students of crate-digging it also provides a serious tutorial on what to search for when you’re digging deep looking for lost gold, as well as giving old-timers 20+ reasons to take another look at all those 45s they’ve been keeping in storage.