where do i go from here?!

peachy pie

hey, have been listening to the likes of aretha franklin, wilson pickett al green, koko taylor and betty lavette and james brown for a time now but feel there's loads of soul/blues that i'm missing out on!! if anyone can lemme know of any good soulful albums i can't afford to miss please let me know!! thanks!! :D

Pidgeonhouse

peachy pie wrote: »

hey, have been listening to the likes of aretha franklin, wilson pickett al green, koko taylor and betty lavette and james brown for a time now but feel there's loads of soul/blues that i'm missing out on!! if anyone can lemme know of any good soulful albums i can't afford to miss please let me know!! thanks!! :D

It always felt to me that the rhythms and instrumentation offered by soul/funk/r'n'b had so much potential, and yet I wasn't hearing enough of a result that I really liked. I also find that there's a cutoff point of about 1973 - after that, the bass slapping and synthesizerss and technology usually gets too much for me.

You mention Al Green - his early stuff on Hi Records was a major discovery, but the one artist/band that I keep coming back to is Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band - try the album "Express Yourself" to start - you probably know the title track - it's been used in films and ads etc. I can't get over how much I like this material. There's so much going on, especially in some of the longer jam-type songs - it's open, uncluttered, melodic - the musicianship is outstanding, drums and bass in particular...

Another band with a harder edge is The Fatback Band - again there's this jamming musical freedom that's totally infectious. There's a few dodgy covers in there too, but all good fun and worth a listen...

You probably know at least some Curtis Mayfield material, but try his Curtis/Live! album from 1970 - I can't get over this one either...

There's also Darondo - he only has one album, but it's a gem.

The documentary film "Wattstax" should interest you.

If you like jazz, there's the whole soul-jazz genre that's forgotten nowadays - the hammond organ stuff is terrific. If you want a few suggestions, let me know...hope you find something in the above for starters...

peachy pie

thanks a million for gettin back, you're a gem!! just listened to a bit of that darondo stuff on utube there and have to say i like what i hear..!! it sez on wikipedia (undeniably a reliable source,ha ha) that he was originally a pimp!! thanks for the pointers anyway..would love to hear your suggections on the soul-jazz stuff too if u wdnt mind!! thanks :)

Pidgeonhouse

peachy pie wrote: »

thanks a million for gettin back, you're a gem!! just listened to a bit of that darondo stuff on utube there and have to say i like what i hear..!! it sez on wikipedia (undeniably a reliable source,ha ha) that he was originally a pimp!! thanks for the pointers anyway..would love to hear your suggections on the soul-jazz stuff too if u wdnt mind!! thanks :)

No bother! Darondo is a bit of a character surely, he only regarded singing as a hobby. He used to work as a janitor in a hospital at one time, used to arrive in his beloved Rolls Royce with the bar in the back, and the police radio scanning equipment built in, his white mink full length coat, the jewellry, the cane, and then head for the locker room to change into his janitor gear. He always denied the pimp accusation...who knows... He had a "nervous breakdown" or whatever at the end of the 70s, all because he was "moving to fast", so he headed for Europe, wandering around Paris and London for months, and then got a job playing the guitar on a cruise liner. Here's some audio clips of an interview he gave last year:

http://thomas-thecorner.blogspot.com/2008/04/conversations-with-rolls-royce-darondo.html

and he actually did a couple of gigs last year aswell - there's stuff on youtube.

My favourite song on the compilation that was put out of his known material (Let My People Go) is probably "Listen To My Song"...

Regarding the soul-jazz hammond organ stuff, there's some great compilations out there, you could start with "So Blue So Funky" Volumes 1 & 2, and in terms of more soul/funk sounding and not necessarily hammond organ stuff, try "Funky Beats", which actually focusses on great drummers of the genre. "Jungle Strut" on this compilation is a great number, they're all great...

Other stuff that crossed my mind since then - if you like James Brown, then maybe you've come across the stuff that his backing musicians have done over the years with/without his involvement, including the solo work of his female singers (try Lyn Collins, e.g., "Think", and Marva Whitney). The JBs compilation "Funky Good Time" (double CD) is outstanding, as is the Maceo and All The King's Men album "Doing Their Own Thing".

If you like early Al Green, you'll probably like the other singers that used the same backing band at Hi Records - the Hodges brothers - Teenie on guitar, Leroy on bass, Charles on organ. More or less the same sound can be heard behind Ann Peebles, Syl Johnson, Otis Clay and OV Wright...

If you check out Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band stuff I mentioned to you in the first post, you might be interested to know that the core of the backing band are the same guys who backed Bill Withers (and Bill Cosby!) years ago. An early incarnation of the band was involved with Dyke & The Blazers - the compilation album "So Sharp!" is great. They sound like early James Brown, and in fact were playing funk almost as early as he was...

I just noticed you mentioned Blues aswell - what kind of Blues do you like? I could throw a few suggestions your way!

That site allmusic.com is great for previewing stuff and getting info on musicians and who played with who...

Hope you find something interesting in the above! Enjoy it if you do - it makes me sad that so much of this kind of music and the people who made it seem to be forgotten or consigned to the archives, but that seems to be the nature of black or african-american music - it keeps changing, staying one-step ahead of the posse, never really engaging in revival (presumably reviving the past doesn't have quite the same appeal for black people as for whites!)...

Real_Sircharles

Hi Peach, and Pigeon. A scene you may not be aware of Peach and by the sounds of the stuff your mentioning is the northern soul scene, which I myself have recently come across. Alot of great artists that weren't picked up on the big labels back in the day.

Artists from Edwin Starr (War), Betty Lavette, Willie Hutch, Bobby Womack to name a few of the biger names. I could go on.

But, Id recommend going to a night called sleepless nights. Monthly in Dublin.

Graham, Cork

peachy pie

thanks a mill!! will look ou 4 all that. huge fan of betty lavette anyway,she's so amazing. unfort im livn n cork..do u kno of any gud places n cork 4 soul mus?? don't think there is any but i'd love to be wrong

Real_Sircharles

Nothing unfortunate bout living in Cork. We actually started doing monthly nights in Cyprus Avenue. If you'd like to try it out, I can organise a free pass for ya? No worries if not.
Graham
>
www.thenorthernnights.com
>
Sorry for the blaytant advertising, was'nt my intention.

peachy pie

Real_Sircharles wrote: »

Nothing unfortunate bout living in Cork. We actually started doing monthly nights in Cyprus Avenue. If you'd like to try it out, I can organise a free pass for ya? No worries if not.
Graham
>
www.thenorthernnights.com
>
Sorry for the blaytant advertising, was'nt my intention.

hey..are ye an actual band?? none of your recordings would play on my laptop whatevers wrong with it!! sounds class though..whens ur next nite planned?

Real_Sircharles

No, we're a club night. We collect northern soul records an throw a night once a month. Next one is Feb 7th. Dont know why the samples would'nt work. But there are mixes down the bottom you should be able to save.

Hope to see you in there sometime.

Oh, and by the way... There's soul wed in the Pavillion and Sundays Ian Richards in the Slate.

Graham.

franamico

peachy pie wrote: »

hey, have been listening to the likes of aretha franklin, wilson pickett al green, koko taylor and betty lavette and james brown for a time now but feel there's loads of soul/blues that i'm missing out on!! if anyone can lemme know of any good soulful albums i can't afford to miss please let me know!! thanks!! :D

Hey,
I just discovered an amazing blues course called Playing Through The Blues. Check it out if you want to develop a blues vocabulary...

Francesco