With the World Cup winding down to it's last couple of weeks, I thought I would share Soccer's 1979 disco gem "Come And Get It On". This funky track was just one of the many classic disco tracks produced by Tony Valor. This dancefloor friendly cut was originally released as a Salsoul Records twelve-inch single before making it's way onto the 1979 self-titled Soccer LP. I was lucky to find a used copy of the single a couple years ago, and I've continued to play the record out often ever since. Enjoy!
Here is a funky Latin track titled "Rompe Cocorico" by legendary Cuban trombonist, composer and arranger Juan Pablo Torres. This track originally appeared on Torres' 1977 album Con Todos Los Hierros, and has later been included on many great compilations including Waxing Deep Records' Si, Para Usted and Mr Bongo's 2000 release of Latin Beats: A Tribute To Tito Puente. If you enjoy Latin funk and jazz music, I highly recommend checking out more of Torres' releases, as he was at the forefront of some of the best music to come out of Cuba during the mid to late seventies. Enjoy!
I'm going to start off the week with another personal favorite in Chicago's disco gem "Street Player". Say what you want about the seventies/eighties soft rock band (am I'm sure there is plenty to say), however this 1979 single has "disco classic" written all over it. This song was obviously a result of the group trying to cash in, as many bands did at the time, on all the disco craziness that surrounded the final years of the seventies. This nine-plus minute track has a number of fine disco "breaks", and has consistently been a signature track that I like to play out when deejaying. My favorite part about playing this track out is the reaction I get from those people who ask me, "Who is this playing?", and I respond "Chicago". Enjoy!
Finishing up the second part of this week's feature on Randy Weston, I thought I would post a more recent version of "Portrait of Frank Edward Weston" that Weston and his African Rhythms Trio recorded for an album titled Zep Tepi that was unfortunately only release in CD format. Another version of the track was released on vinyl as part of the excellent compilation series titled Wildflowers: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions. One of the many fascinating things I came across while researching Weston's music career was that after the pianist's 1967 tour of Africa, he decided to establish a jazz nightclub in Morocco called the African Rhythms Club. Weston ran the nightclub for six years from 1967 to 1972 while studying African music. His time running the nightclub and studying in Morocco truly had a huge influence on his own music going forward and has since helped lead him into becoming one of the pioneers of African jazz music. I'm sure when he performs this Saturday night at Stanford University as part of the Stanford Jazz Festival, it will almost be worth taking notes. I usually don't do two-part features on this site, however I thought I would make an exception because I thought it was important to pay tribute to a musician who has been one of the most pivotal players in the history of African jazz. I'm very much looking forward to Saturday night's performance, as it will be such an invaluable experience to have a legend like Randy Weston performing before me. Enjoy your weekend!
One of my favorite jazz musicians of all-time is pianist Randy Weston. Throughout his brilliant and long career the Brooklyn born native has written and performed some of the world's finest African-influenced jazz compositions of the past century. His compositions often blend together traditional jazz music with African rhythms and grooves to produce a compelling and captivating signature sound. His music and recordings were partly responsible for turning me on to jazz, as his music tends to crossover nicely with other forms of African music that I enjoy like Afrobeat and Afro funk. Therefore you can imagine how excited I was when I learned that the acclaimed jazz musician, along side his African Rhythms Trio, would be performing at this year's Stanford Jazz Festival. The performance will take place this Saturday night (June 26th) inside the Dinkelspiel Auditorium at the Stanford University. To help shed some light on this exciting upcoming performance I thought I would do a two-part post leading up to Saturday night's performance and share a couple of my favorite tracks by this incredible jazz artist.
One of my favorite compositions by Randy Weston has to be the title track from his 1972 album African Cookbook. This jazz piece, which is slightly over twelve minutes in length, consists of Weston's smooth piano playing backed by some funky percussion rhythms that help define the compositions overall groove. The track is rounded out nicely with Booker Ervin on the saxophone(tenor) and Ray Copeland on trumpet. For those who have never heard Weston before, or are less familiar to jazz music in general, I find that African Cookbook is a great starting point, especially for those, like myself, that tend to enjoy the more funkier side of music. Overall, this will probably be just one of the many great jazz compositions that Weston and his African Rhythms Trio perform during his much-anticipated Saturday night set. Overall, it's not everyday that one of the most influential musicians of the last century, like Randy Weston perform in the city where you live, therefore if you like in the bay area I highly recommend checking out this performance.
I'm not spending much time in front of the computer today, therefore I thought I would just go ahead and re-post the classic disco gem "On The Road Again" by Rockets. This funky cut was included as the title track to the group's full-length album back in 1978 and was released off of Tom Moulton's excellent label Tom N' Jerry. Moulton is also noted on the record for it's overall mix. Just as the album's artwork might suggest, the song has a bit of an early italo and cosmic disco groove, blended together with the group's overall sci-fi theme. Overall, "On The Road Again" is a classic cosmic disco masterpiece that resulted in the group's most defining song during their long career. Enjoy!
You know it's been a long day when you're looking forward to it being over at 2pm in the afternoon. A track that always helps lift my spirits is the soulful disco gem "Janice (Don't be so blind to love)" by Skip Mahoney. This funky "feel-good" classic was released in 1980 as a twelve-inch single off of Salsoul Records. The track was mixed by legendary deejay Bobby "DJ" Guttadaro, who was a fixture at Fire Island's The Ice Palace and later went on to be a resident at Manhattan's Le Jardin and Infinity disco nightclubs. Overall, it's a classic Salsoul release that always has the ability to make any one's day, regardless of how it's going, that much better. Janice!
Often I receive email from readers, who are visiting my city, requesting recommendations as to the best parties and events that are taking place during their out of town visit. By living in a city with such a thriving nightlife like San Francisco, most of the time I can point them in the right direction and give them a few good options. That being said, this is not always an easy question for me to answer because I find the best dance parties and evenings, personally, are the ones that are spent at home in my living room while sharing a few drinks or a bottle of wine with my wife. This is probably due to a few obvious reasons including 1) I control the music and can play whatever I want 2) the drinks are a lot cheaper 3) I can avoid the sometimes large and annoying crowds. Maybe many of you can relate where I'm getting at. It's not that I don't like going out and enjoying a great party, because I do. However, I can't underestimate the enjoyment that one can have from hanging out in your own living room, having some drinks, and listen to same great records. Anyways, the reason for bringing all of that up is because I wanted to share a disco track that often seems to get played while my wife and I are enjoying one of those many low-key evenings hanging out in our living room in True Example's "As Long As You Love Me". This funky and soulful disco classic was released as the B-side to the group's "Love Is Finally Coming My Way" twelve-inch single. The single was released by Norman Harris' Gold Mind Records and distributed by Salsoul Records. The record was also mixed by legendary DJ/producer Walter Gibbons. Overall, it's a great track that works perfectly for those cool-down moments on a disco dancefloor or during any of those evening that you just want to enjoy a bottle of wine while hanging out in your living room.
I'm away from my computer for most of this beautiful Friday, so I'm going to keep it short and sweet with a Afro funk gem, titled "Atwer Abroba" by Ebo Taylor. This funky track was originally featured on Taylor's 1977full-length album Twer Nyame. The track can also more easily be found on Soundway Records excellent Ghana Soundz Vol.02 compilation, which I highly recommend purchasing. Overall, a great Afro funk track to end the week with. Enjoy your weekend!
Today, I thought I would post another great cut from Ray Mang's excellent Mangled Again release. This track, titled "Cereal Lover" has an overall cosmic disco groove that is primed perfectly for the dancefloor. Unfortunately I haven't been able to figure out who did the original. Therefore, hopefully one of the readers of this site can help me out a little bit on this one. Before appearing on the Mangled Again CD, the edit was first included on a twelve-inch release back in 2008. This edit continues to be one of my personal favorites from Mang, who certainly has quite a selection of great edits to choose from. Regardless who produced the original, Ray Mang has used his re-working magic to produce another quality dancefloor gem in "Cereal Lover". Enjoy!
Side Note: I am a true "cereal lover", who eats about one bowl of cereal a day. My favorite cereal has to be Cinnamon Toast Crunch. For fun, are there any other true cereal lovers out there?
My wife and I have been spending the last few nights going through drink recipes that feature rum in this new cocktail book that we bought. I find there is nothing better than an evening enjoying some tropical rum drinks with some funky Latin music, which brings me to today's featured track by Gnonnas Pedro, titled "Yiri Yiri Boum". This laid-back tropical gem was released back in 1981 off his album El Cochechivo. Pedro was a Benin born multi-instrumentalist who was known in that region for his Cuban influenced music. He played in the Benin based group Los Panchos before starting his own band which was called Les Dadjés. If anything can be certain when it comes to the tropical music that Gnonnas Pedro produced throughout his career, is that the songs should be complimented with a solid dose of Cuban rum. Enjoy!
Every since the release of the mind-blowing Moustache twelve-inch a few years back, I've been a big supporter and fan of the "disco-house" group Blackjoy. Since that release back in 2005, the group has gone on to release some other solid singles including my favorite twelve-inch release of 2009 titled Blackjoy Disco Jams. In 2010, Blackjoy is at it again with a new full-length album titled "Erotis". This album which is currently available digitally and will also be available on vinyl at the end of June (roughly June 28th), is clearly one of the better releases of the year with a diverse group of funky tracks that blur the lines between many different sub genres of music. On tracks like "Djomani", "52 Devil's st", and "Jenny's disco" the group showcases a more disco sound, while on cuts like "Monilola", "Downtown Jenny", and "La Disco" feature a more classic House groove with vocals provided by Aqeel, Sandra Nkaké, and Lisa Spada. The record also consists of some funky slower tempo gems like "Games" and "Safado (part2)". With all of Blackjoy's releases, the group is consistently expanding it's own boundaries musically, and this record continues along that same path of exploration. Overall, Erotis is a solidly produced and diverse album that I highly recommend checking out.
Here is a recent re-edit I did of Black Jack's 1979 disco cut "I Am The Disco Machine" off the group's hard-to-find album Hot Passion. I really enjoyed doing this edit and I'm thinking of actually releasing it later on in the year on a new re-edit series tentatively titled Athlete Edits. My main focus right now is working on finishing the next Cabana Disco record, however I think I would enjoy putting out another re-edit record or series that focuses on some of my unreleased disco re-edits, that don't neccessarily fit in with the whole tropical Afro-theme of Cabana Disco, that I have featured on this site. I will let you know more about this possible new re-edit series as I get closer to getting things finalized for an actual release. Until then, I would love to hear everyone's feedback on this new edit. Enjoy!
Let's start the week off with a feel-good summertime Beatconductor re-edit of everybody's favorite Lionel Richie song "All Night Long (All Night)". This version of the edit was featured on the Beatconductor's 2006 album A Collection Of Reworks. An slightly different version of the edit was also released a year prior as a twelve-inch single. Overall, it's a clever edit that is absolutely perfect for these current warm summertime backyard BBQ parties. Enjoy!
I thought today I would re-post one of my favorite re-edits by Danny Krivit. This classic reworking of Betty Wright's 1974 classic "Where Is The Love" can be found on Krivit's hard-to-find album "Mr.K Edits", which as the title suggests, is a collection of classic Krivit edits. The album also features some other great re-edits including Diana Ross' "No One Gets The Prize", Lenny Williams' "You Got Me Runnin'", Ecstasy, Passion & Pain's "Ask Me", The Sisters Love's "Give Me Your Love", as well as many others. When Strut Records, who originally released "Mr.K Edits", put out a press release earlier in the year, it mentioned that there would be a follow up re-edit album by Krivit. I haven't heard anything since, however hopefully the plan is to release the second volume of the series at some point in the coming months. Until then, we will have to continue to enjoy some of his classic edits like "Where Is The Love". Enjoy!
A few weeks back, I mentioned that I was going to be visiting Paris this July. During this visit, I will be deejaying three straight nights. I've listed the dates and venues below. The last time I was in Paris,I deejayed a couple of nights that went over really well, therefore I'm really excited about these upcoming nights. It will probably be a couple of years before I make it back to this amazing city, therefore I highly recommend checking out these three nights. I will be spinning everything you hear on this blog including disco, Afro beat, Latin funk, and jazz. These nights should be a lot of fun, so don't miss out!
Here are the dates: July 13 - Chez Moune (54 Rue Jean-Baptiste Pigalle) w/ Guido and Pierre Wax July 15 - Curio Parlor (16 Rue des Bernardins) July 16 - Tape Bar (21 rue de la Roquette) w/ Guillaume Galuz
I'm going to share something a little different today and focus on one of my favorite jazz artists of all-time in drummer Art Blakey. There is probably at least a few novels worth of information you could say about Blakey, his music, the musicians he performed with, and his increadible influence he had on jazz music in general. However today I thought I would focus on one of the record's I recently picked-up, titled "The African Beat". This album, which originally was released in 1962 features Blakey going in a bit of a different direction and abandoning his usual backing group, The Jazz Messagers for one album, and playing with a slightly different cast of musicians that included Ahmed Abdul-Malik on bass, Yusef Lateef on horns and piano, Curtis Fuller on tympani, percussionists Solomon G. Ilori and Montego Joe along with a host of others which where given the name The Afro-Drum Ensemble. As the title of the album suggests, this record's overall sound blends together jazz with African-style percussion. Some of the record's many highlight's include "Tobi Ilu", "Ife l'Ayo", and "Obirin African" and my personal favorite "Ayiko, Ayiko". If your looking for a good crossover African jazz record, Blakey's "The African Beat" could be a great starting point as the record has a heavy leaning towards the more African percussion side. Overall the album is just another classic release from one of jazz music's finest. Enjoy!
A track that has personally been a consistent favorite over the past few years is the African disco gem "Kaloule Woman" by the Malinga Five. This song was featured on the group's hard-to-find 1977 album Rock Africa. The song features some smooth soulful vocals that blend nicely alongside the song's funky African disco groove. My only complaint is that the song ends a bit prematurely, totaling in at just three minutes in length. After listening to the track over the years, I've always believed that there is some room for the song to include a few more long instrumental breaks. Regardless, "Kaloule Woman" is a solid track and one that will continue to be in constant rotation whenever I get in the mood to hear some really funky African music, which happens quite frequently. Enjoy!
I thought I would start off the week with one of my favorite tracks from the legendary funk band Mandrill titled "Funky Monkey". This heavy-hitting disco-funk gem was released off the group's 1977 full-length album We Are One. When it comes to Mandrill, personally they can be a bit hit-and-miss with their music. I tend to enjoy tracks like "Funky Monkey" that have a bit more of an uptempo dancefloor feel. That being said, there are plenty of tracks that I enjoy by the Brooklyn based group like "Hang Loose", "Can You Get It", and "Lord Of The Golden Baboon" to name a few. Overall however, "Funky Monkey" is the song I tend to enjoy the most with it's huge upbeat Afro-funk influenced sound. I would have liked to have seen the group move more in that direction, especially during their latter albums during the late seventies. Regardless, it's a classic cut from one of funk music's most notable groups. Enjoy!
Let's end the week with a disco gem titled "Freakin' Time" by Asphalt Jungle. This funky cut was released as a twelve-inch single in 1979. The two sides of the record consists of two slightly different versions, Part 1 and Part 2 of the song. I heard this track the other night when I was at the Grow Up disco party and it has consistly been a personal favorite of mine for quite sometime. Enjoy your weekend!
The fourth volume of the Cabana Disco series continues to receive great reviews and press. I've decided to do a re-pressing of the record as the twelve-inch has been selling quickly in many of the record shops. You can still find a few copies at Piccadilly and Phonica. Even as the release of volume four is less than a month old, it's never too early to start planning on the next volume in the series. One of the tracks that I plan on including on the next Cabana Disco record is a re-edit I recently did of Ashra's 1979 cut "Bamboo Sands". This edit is a slight departure from many of the edits that I've included on the past few records, however I've been wanting to do a re-edit of this track, which has a great overall cosmic feel, for quite sometime. For those that might not know, Ashra was a group that cosmic mastermind Manuel Göttsching played in during the late seventies. As always, I would love to hear everyone's feedback. Enjoy!
As the weather begins to show signs that the summer is upon us, it's time to break out those warm feel-good summertime jams for all those pool side parties, hot summer nights, and backyard BBQ parties. One of my favorite summertime feel-good disco gems is Eastside Connection's "You're So Right For Me". This funky track was released as a twelve-inch single in 1977. The group went on to release a few more singles and one full-length album during the late seventies, however in my opinion, "You're So Right For Me" represents the group's best work. Enjoy the sun!
I hope everyone enjoyed the three-day Memorial Day weekend. For me, it was nice to get some much needed time off. Let's start off the shortened week with a disco classic titled "Touch to Touch" by Timmy Thomas. This funky King Sporty produced gem served as the title track off of Thomas's 1977 full-length album, which also included the Afro funk flavoured classic "Africano". Both of these tracks were also released as singles off the legendary Miami disco label label "T.K. Disco". The album as well as the two singles, remain to be some the hardest to find releases from the soul singer's catalogue. I would also state that the music that was included on "Touch to Touch" represents a bit of a departure from Thomas's more soulful side, which was replaced with a more overall disco friendly feel. Overall, a solid disco release from one soul music's finest artists. Enjoy!
The latest issue of Wax Poetics was just released. The 41st issue focuses on the early and defining age of Hip-Hop music. Now I don't cover hip-hop on this site, however as of all their issues, Wax Poetics will be certain to take things back to the genre's roots which was arguably influenced directly by a lot of the funk and soul that has been covered on this site. As a huge supporter of this magazine, which seems like the only one these days shining a light on the pioneers, musicians, and releases from the classic ages of disco, funk, soul, hip-hop, jazz, and world beats, I highly recommend picking up a copy of this latest issue.
I would also love to know if the readers of this blog tend to be consistent Wax Poetics readers and subscribers. And if so, what was your favorite past issue?
With the World Cup winding down to it's last couple of weeks, I thought I would share Soccer's 1979 disco gem "Come And Get It On". This funky track was just one of the many classic disco tracks produced by Tony Valor. This dancefloor friendly cut was originally released as a Salsoul Records twelve-inch single before making it's way onto the 1979 self-titled Soccer LP. I was lucky to find a used copy of the single a couple years ago, and I've continued to play the record out often ever since. Enjoy!
