Nina Simone – Funkier Than A Mosquito’s Tweeter
Nina Simone – The Pusher
Nina Simone – Obeah Woman

I’m pretty sure the first time I came into contact with this record from Nina Simone was at Groove Merchant. I’d been a fan of Simone’s but didn’t own any of her records (a true sin, I know…) and I was drawn to this one because it had one of Cool Chris’ attention grabbing notes on the front to check “Funkier Than A Mosquito’s Tweeter.” When you see albums with a note from Cool Chris, you just know the track has to be killer and that’s definitely the case with this monster.

“Tweeter” is a really interesting track. Like a number of songs Nina Simone covered, she puts such a distinctive stamp on it that you’d never know that the original came from Ike & Tina Turner. The pieces come together slowly, first upbeat African styled percussion, some notes from the electric bass, later on some fine funky drumming. It’s not until the final line where Nina growls, “…always rapping about the same ole thing,” that finally everything is together, the percussion, the tight drums and that rumbling soulful bass, for just 20 seconds and then it’s gone. The rhythmic build up is part of what makes this song so exceptional, the majority has to do with Nina’s delivery, especially of the punchlines in the lyrics where the rhythm completely drops out, she gives us a sassy “boring” or a whispered, “things you do ain’t never really pleasing” leading to a defiant “can’t believe nothing you say…” in the chorus. Beyond badass, pure Nina Simone.

The other tracks I’ve provided here are also covers, and also better than the originals. “The Pusher” is a significantly more soulful version than Steppenwolf’s original. In Nina’s hands the song seems less like a joke from a drugged out hippie band and more like a real indictment of drug culture. “Obeah Woman” is actually the second Exuma track on this record as Nina also covers his song “Damballa.” “Obeah Woman” is a bravura performance, deserving of the final place on the album and as a final statement for an artist who, as the title of the record references, had just finished her contract and was about to take a hiatus from performing and recording for several years. When she takes hold of the audience during this song, you never doubt that the “Obeah Woman” is Nina, this fierce, spiritual, powerful, elemental force, and an artist who’ll likely never be matched in her intensity of performance, her emotional volatility and the inspiration she continues to provide as the years go passing by.

Cheers,

Michael

…p.s. Recently my former KCRW homeboy Anthony Valadez guest hosted the station’s signature show Morning Becomes Eclectic and played “Tweeter” which then found its way into one of my Wife & I’s favorite summer Reality TV competition shows, “So You Think You Can Dance”…I think a boy/girl pairing might have been better considering the lyrical matter, but there is some nice dancing (especially the little JB inspired bit during the chorus) and it was nice to see dancing to this track. I’ve never had the guts to drop the needle on this record in a club because of the unconventionalness of the rhythmic changes…maybe I’ll give it a go if I get another chance to guest at Funky Sole, just to see how the dancers respond.

Freddie Robinson – Off The Cuff
Freddie Robinson – Smoking
Freddie Robinson – River’s Invitation

First came into contact with this super fine album by guitarist Freddie Robinson at Groove Merchant many moons ago. Recently tracked it down again thanks to Records LA. “Off The Cuff” is one of my favorite all time songs, maybe because it could so easily be a theme song for me, especially much of my approach as a DJ. Though the beat is mid-tempo, it has this seriously laid back vibe that all comes from those gorgeous guitar lines from Robinson. If it had just been an instrumental it would have been cool enough, but then when Robinson sings in his sly southern drawl, “Everything I do, I do it off the cuff y’all…Heh!” It moves into legendary status, at least in my book.

For those that don’t know Robinson had quite a stellar career, even if it never led to major success or stardom. He began as a straight blues guy, even backing up Howlin’ Wolf on some classic sides before striking out as a soulful and bluesy jazz guitarist in the late 1960s and early 1970s. During this period of time Robinson was also apart of maybe the most soulful incarnation of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. It’s likely that his work on Mayall’s albums led to his ability to record his two albums on the Enterprise label (the other, 1971’s At The Drive In, is also highly recommended if you dig this sound, especially “It’s The Real Thing”).

Instrumentally he mines somewhat similar territory as Phil Upchurch, though Robinson’s sound for me has an earthier, more soulful feel. That sound is on display on one of the few instrumentals on this album, “Smoking.”   Most of the record is more in the blues-funk vein, a lot of it very sample worthy including “Medicine Man,” and his cover of Percy Mayfield’s “River’s Invitation.”  All in all, a record worth tracking down, even though you don’t see too many copies of it around.

Cheers,

Michael

Gil Scott-Heron – Alluswe
Gil Scott-Heron – Offering
Gil Scott-Heron – Winter In America

Given that I almost played every single song from this album on the tribute to Gil Scott-Heron, it goes without saying that this is my favorite record of his. “Winter In America” is a close second, with “Pieces Of A Man” coming in third, but this one always comes out on top. Perhaps it’s because this was the record that cemented my love affair with Gil, back in the mid to late-1990s (at least as I remember it now…) I was DJ-ing at Album 88 during a “regular” shift and I’m pretty sure I got a request for Gil Scott-Heron. I’d known the name, heard tracks from him and had a couple of CDs (yes this was when I STILL bought CDs, I was just getting into vinyl back then). I knew “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” but at this point hadn’t listened to his material recorded from 1974-1977, which for me is his best work (Winter In America, this album, From South Africa to South Carolina, It’s Your World and Bridges). I’m fairly sure that those records were all out of print and unissued on CD which for me at the time meant they basically didn’t exist. On our vinyl wall at Album 88 we had a compilation of tracks from Gil, that included “Ain’t No Such Thing As Superman.” The song was so much deeper and more soulful than anything I’d heard previously from Gil that I became obsessed with tracking down the album it came from which eventually led me to The First Minute Of A New Day.

Over the years, as I tracked down the rest of Gil’s catalog, this record was the one I always kept coming back to. Thinking about it now, in these days since Gil’s passing, I still regard it as his best work. The record was recorded on the heels of his most popular success, “The Bottle,” which moved Gil and his band from the artist controlled Strata East to the same label as Barry Manilow, Arista records. You’d think that kind of change would have spelled an end to Gil’s social commentary, spiritual soul jazz leanings and fiercely strident vocal stances, but instead the opposite happened. The music, the band and the man all were more focused on this album. The music on “First Minute” could and should be rightly described as a sequel to “Winter,” and like the “Empire Strikes Back,” it is a stronger statement than the prior record. With “Liberation” and “Guerrilla,” not to mention the cover art, Gil and his group laid down lyrics that would be unthinkable in 2011 for a mainstream artist, but were firmly in line with Black liberation rhetoric of the time. “Pardon Our Analysis (We Beg Your Pardon),” continues the truth-telling Gil started on the “H2O Gate Blues,” “Must Be Something,” focuses people made apathetic to keep on pushing for freedom, while “Ain’t No Such Thing As Superman,” gets people focused on the reality of social change and hero worship. But the three songs that standout to me above the rest are the three I’ve chosen here.

“Offering” opens up the album in a fitting fashion. The song sets a deeply spiritual tone and presents music, the particular sounds provided by Gil and the Midnight Band as well as all conscious “healing” sounds, as something that links us together in the present with our past and those who will come in the future. When I returned to radio at KCRW after a 3+ year absence I knew that this was the song I wanted to open with, as my own statement of purpose for what I’d try to accomplish in my return, something that I feel more successful doing now on my show at KPFK.

You would think that “Winter In America” would have found its way onto the album with its title, but in some ways it seems better placed here. It’s a sad statement on the place of America in the wake of the 1960s, a decade that held such promise, but had so few of the promises truly fulfilled, partially because as Gil notes, “all of the healers have been killed or betrayed.” It’s a bit frightening to think how similar the period of time we are currently living in sounds like this song. I often wonder why they aren’t more protests connected to the many many injustices that occur in America and elsewhere, put perhaps it’s because as Gil says here, “ain’t nobody fighting, cause nobody knows what to save…”

Finally we have “Alluswe,” my single favorite track from Gil Scott-Heron. In contrast to the suspicion, regret and resignation that marked “Peace Go With You Brother,” on Winter In America, “Alluswe” is Gil’s attempt to bring wayward brothers back to the table. It’s a touching affirmation that where ever we go, there remains a place with those who know us best and love us most. It’s a song that I’ve sung countless times and been nearly brought to tears over the sentiment it expresses.

Gil Scott-Heron – “Alluswe”

Like the waves he’s got to ride on,
On the sea he must command,
Like the answers to every question,
That’s what he need understand,

Black man come down and sit beside us,
You can share all we that we have,

And like the stage he’s got to play on,
Life is a role he’s pinning down,
Life attracts him just like a magnet,
Or was that, or was that the other way around.

Black man come down, come on down and sit beside us,
You are welcome to all we own,

Outside the walls and in the corners,
Of the rooms, where we live,
Love is stronger with every heartbeat,
And it’s love we’ll gladly give,

Just come on down and sit beside us
Can your mind believe your heart?
Black man come down, yeah come on down,
Come down

The song seems like a plea, not just for specific men, perhaps artists, to join with Gil in a movement focused on liberation and uplift, but for black men that feel they are lost as they make their way in a world that does not see them as deserving of the positions they may occupy or that they strive to occupy. I feel like it’s Gil’s most passionate and strongest vocal performance, the best song he ever wrote and will forever be my lasting memory of him.

Rest in peace Gil,

Michael