Dr. Lonnie Smith - Live At Club Mozambique / Grant Green - Live At Club Mozambique

During the 90's I spent a lot of time and money at used CD stores.  I have to say, I am definitely one of those folks that is lamenting the death of the record store.  Honestly, I've been so broke in the last few years that I have been unable to purvey even those few stores that do still exist, but for a long time it was my hobby of choice.  I never really got into collecting LPs mostly because I never had a decent record player or the storage space for them, and also since I spent more of my youth with cassettes and CDs, to my ears CDs sound better than vinyl.  There, I said it.  Yeah, there's something cool about the crackles and pops of an old record spinning on the stereo, but I just can't bring myself to be an elitist/hipster who's into vinyl just for the sake of being "different".

Anyway, I digress: at the time I was shopping a lot I had a bit of cash to burn, so I would spend my week making trips between the local Circuit City (had the best music selection for new discs at the best prices), CD Revolution, which was a dedicated used CD store, and occasionally Cutler's Music in New Haven, which was grossly overpriced but had a lot of cool, hard-to-find music.  I was starting to get heavily into funk, and I was branching out into funky R&B/Soul and funky jazz.  That's when I started to discover the Blue Note Rare Groove series.  I started out by picking up a couple of Rare Groove compilations, but then I started to seek out the entire discs by the artists I dug.  The great thing about most of those old Blue Note discs is that they list the players and the year recorded on the back, so after a while I was buying discs based entirely on the those facts.  I figured out that all the good funk was from '67-'73-ish.  Pre-1967 soul jazz was much more straight ahead swingin' and post-1973 tended to be smoother, more produced and potentially more disco.  It was in this climate that I came upon Dr. Lonnie Smith's Live At Club Mozambique.

Dr. Lonnie was one of those dudes that I had heard about in passing but hadn't ever really listened to until I got to meet him.  I was working at Mars Music in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and the store hosted a clinic by drummer Steve Smith (Journey, Vital Information) that Dr. Lonnie showed up at.  After maneuvered myself into a position to tell him I was a fan, I had to go out and buy some of his music so that I wasn't exactly lying to him.  This disc met the label and year requirements, and although I only recognized one player besides the good doctor (George Benson on guitar!) I knew it had to be good.  And guess what: I was right (you're welcome)!

Recorded at Club Mozambique in Detroit on May 21, 1970, Live At Club Mozambique is a funky little ride featuring Dave Hubbard (tenor sax), Ronnie Cuber (bari sax), George Benson (guitar, duh), Joe Dukes (drums), Gary Jones (conga) and Clifford Mack (tambourine).  That they have a dedicated tambourine player is actually pretty badass if you think about it.  The set starts us off right with I Can't Stand It, a groovy little cover of James Brown's I Can't Stand Myself (When You Touch Me).  Dr. Lonnie starts singing right off the top and actually has a really cool voice that's the perfect match for the vibe of the night.  His solo is just great; it sounds like he's fighting with the organ just to get sound out of it, and you can hear all his grunting and groaning in the background.  So funky.  Benson takes a nice solo in the middle as well.

Expressions blasts us into straight-ahead territory, and DAMN are they just cookin' straight off the top.  Anyone who doubted these players because they opened with a funk tune beware: Expressions is not for the faint of heart.  Ronnie Cuber's solo at the top is just excellent, and Benson just burns this track to the ground when his turn comes up.  Y'know, with all his smooth R&B-ness, I often forget how much of a true badass he really is.  Joe Dukes is killing it behind them all, and when Lonnie comes to bat it's all over.  How do they follow this up, you ask?  Scream is straight back to funk school, and class is in session, kids.  I love it when jazzers remember that jazz was originally music to dance to, and dropping a bit of backbeat on a crowd always gets my feet tapping.

This formula continues Play It Back, a blues tune set to a great groove.  Joe Dukes gets a chance to stretch out underneath a very simple bass and guitar ostinato and how have I not seen his name on more records?  Never thought of that until now, but man he's good.  Love Bowl was the one tune from this disc that I didn't have ripped into my library, and now I'm wondering why I had skipped it... what was I thinking?  This one has got a very 70's TV show theme song vibe to it, especially in the bridge.  The Greyboy Allstars, one of my favorite bands that I'll cover here soon I'm sure, plays this sort of groove a whole lot.

Stop for a second and breathe.  Dr. Lonnie brings it down a bit, and decides to preach to you before singing the incredibly sexist and awesome Peace Of Mind.  Right on, Brother Smith.  I can't say that I would ever have the balls to sing this potentially outrageously offensive tune myself, but the sheer fact that it's 1970 and he doesn't give a shit is just fantastic!  And if you're going to be an asshole, at least be amazing and Lonnie is certainly that.  Add another smokin' George Benson solo here and what else could you ask for?

To round it all out they cover I Want To Thank You by Sly & The Family Stone which is a bit sloppy but another solid groover and finish off the evening with an deceptively explosive Seven Steps To Heaven.  Lonnie starts it off all sweet and then goes right ahead and tears your face off at about 240 bpm or something.  Damn, guys.  Damn.

First off, what EXCELLENT cover art.  Trust me when I say that it looks much better in person than in the photo, but you get the idea.  Only eight months after Dr. Lonnie and company leave town, Detroit resident Grant Green shows up at his local Club Mozambique and crushes it.  He's got the always outstanding Idris Muhammed on drums, Houston Person on and Clarence Thomas on saxes, and Ronnie Foster on organ.  Recorded on January 6 & 7, 1971, this one sat in the Blue Note vaults until it's release in 2006.  I came upon this one while shopping for a birthday or Christmas gift for a buddy of mine which I had turned onto soul jazz.  He got Jack McDuff's Moon Rappin' (another great album I'll be writing about) and I kept this one for myself.

The disc opens with the ever popular funk standard Jan Jan.  Idris lays down a great bubbling groove with Ronnie Foster, Grant digs in right off the bat.  I could listen to him solo all day: his tone is so pure and he's so funky.  Houston Person handles his solo well and so does Foster, but Grant is the star here.  They drop into Farid, a dark little groove with another bubbly part by Idris.  It's a nice breather before we get to Bottom Of The Barrel.  This one is similar to Dr. Lonnie's Seven Steps To Heaven in that it starts all quiet and deceptive and then blasts off about a minute in.

Walk On By starts off like a sweet ballad which kicks into a poppin' groove in the middle.  I love Idris' ability to be light and funky all at the same time.  Not many others outside of Curtis Mayfield's band made that kind of groove a speciality.  More Today Than Yesterday is actually an inspired performance of a tune that really isn't my bag.  Covering pop songs in a funky jazz setting was such a staple of that scene and while I've heard a lot of interesting covers, most of them are very samey.  It's nice to hear a bit of soul injection on this one.

I'm not sure what I think of One More Chance.  The Jackson 5 had so many better grooves to bite, and the bubblegummy-pop-ness of this is just too cheesy to bear.  Then, just when I've lost faith, Grant takes a solo and Idris & Foster take the groove to a whole new place.  The lame back beat is dropped, and Idris lets loose on the funk, playing up all the off beats underneath both the guitar and sax solo.  Finally, when my faith has been restored, the lame comes crashing back with a soaring soprano sax solo.  Yikes!

Patches is another tune I could pretty much do without.  It's not that I mind ballads, but the cheese factor here is pretty high.  Again, they save the day with the solo section, but for as good as these middle bits are, why bookend them with such cheese?  Even in the 70's, wasn't cheese cheesy?

If you can manage to swallow the cheddary bits, the band returns to the good stuff for the closer, I Am Somebody.  Solid groovin' and solos all around; a nice funk jam to finish out the set.

I don't think that Grant Green's album is as accessible or consistent as Dr. Lonnie's, but both are most definitely worth investing your time.  I love this era, and soul jazz is one of those things I come back to again and again, these albums in particular.  It's unique combination of musicianship and danceability is what gets me; there aren't too many other styles of music that give me that blend.

Stay funky, world.  I'll have more useless info and opinions for you soon, I promise.

fIREHOSE - Ragin', Full On

I got into fIREHOSE when I was in high school, way back in the early 90's.  Remember the 90's - grunge, flannel, Converse All-Stars, torn jeans, long hair, Bill Clinton, the first Gulf War, Friends, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and The X-Files?  I was in a band for a while called Rhythmic Noise <sigh>, and the guitarist was a good friend who introduced me to all sorts of cool underground bands like Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Infectious Grooves, Jesus Jones, Sonic Youth, and Nirvana pre-Smells Like Teen Spirit blowing up the Earth.  I trusted that he knew what I liked so much that I'd give him $10 at a time and tell him to go buy me a cool tape.  More than a few of those will end up here, I'm sure... but I think that he was the first guy to play me fIREHOSE.

For a long time, all I knew from them was a crappy copied tape I had of their second album, if'n.  It wasn't until I was in college, had a car of my own, some money and a <gasp> CD player that I picked up Ragin', Full-On.  This continues to be my favorite of all their stuff, and the disc that I keep coming back to.  The feel of the album is so strange: Ed fROMOHIO's jangly clean guitars with Mike Watt's insanely complicated fretless bass lines and George Hurley's spastic drumming.  How many arms and legs does this Hurley guy have, anyway?  There's this nutty frantic energy to most of the album that they manage to channel into these great tunes.

fIREHOSE was born from the ashes of The Minutemen.  When singer/guitarist D. Boon died in 1985, Watt and Hurley were directionless for a bit until they met Ed (who is credited as Ed fROMOHIO in the liner notes) who convinced them to keep going.  I had a Minutemen album, but I was far more lit up by fIREHOSE.  Ragin' Full-On really ignited my passion for this band.

What, too much?

Brave Captain is a great story (I love the "There are doubts in your ability, there's too many blanks in your analogies" chorus) set to such a three-headed groove I'm almost surprised it works.  Ed jammin' on those chords while Watt slaps and slides all over the place over the flurry of Hurley's beat... thanks, Track 1, for kicking my face in.  And now for the pummeling of Track 2, Under The Influence Of Meat Puppets.  I've only ever listened to one Meat Puppets album (Too High To Die), but apparently they influence a lot of people.  Nirvana covered three Meat Puppets songs in a row at their MTV Unplugged show.  The weird part is that I don't think this sounds remotely like the Meat Puppets at all...  and how many more times can I find an excuse to write the words Meat Puppets?

It Matters keeps up the ass kicking; Watt's little counter melodies and Hurley's drum break towards the end are smokin'.  I just had a thought, actually: dynamically this band is so much like early Primus, having a lead-bass player, a rhythm guitarist and a frenetic drummer.

Chemical Wire is the most straight forward tune so far, giving Ed a chance to sing his ass off.  With the album shifting gears, I end up focusing on the lyrics more and really appreciate Ed's simple poeticism.  Another Theory Shot To Shit is a perfect example: a quiet spoken word piece that's both cryptic and straightforward, with a very visual backing track.  This idea continues for most of the rest of the record with On Your Knees another great lyric punctuated by a killer track and Locked-In a bit more upbeat pop than anything we've seen before.  Mike Watt's bass melodies are so gorgeous, and they play such beautiful counterpoint to Ed's vocals and lyrics.  The faux flamenco jazz of The Candle & The Flame is just fantastic.  Watt and Hurley bubble just below the surface of "Exchange conversation if you dare, share an empty bottle or laugh."  It's kinda haunting, actually.

Choose Any Memory is back to the pop, and Perfect Pairs is brilliant with the Country/Western breakdown in the middle of a psycho-Disco groove.  This... is a beautiful singer/songwriter moment for Ed, and Caroms is back to the pop.  Relatin' Dudes To Jazz is my favorite tune on the disc.  The urgency of the groove is spectacular, and they shove Ed's voice right out in front.  And then it's all over... a 1minute 38 second burn.  They cap it all off with Things Could Turn Around, a nice comedown from all that intensity.

fIREHOSE went on to record three more albums, then split.  I'm not sure what they're all doing now, but I do know that Mike Watt shows up in the bass magazines from time to time.  Their followup album if'n definitely shows a band that is a bit more focused, but nothing will match the fire of this first album.  C'mon, I had to throw in one more at the end...

Jungle Funk - Jungle Funk

For those of you that don't know, I'm a bassist.  I've been playing for over 20 years, and for a while I was an avid reader of Bass Player magazine because, well, if you want to be in on the whole bass player scene, you've just got to know all the newest and coolest players and gear, right?  And that was me.  Not that I still don't want to know all the newest and coolest, I just can't afford to subscribe to Bass Player anymore (oh well).  Anyway, at one point there was a cover story on Doug Wimbish and the project he was currently involved in, and it was Jungle Funk.  The author of the article gushed so much over the CD that I knew I had to hear it.  I couldn't find it at any of the local stores (not even the cool ones!) so I had to <gasp> order it.  I was not really prepared for what I was to find.

Jungle Funk is three dudes: Vinx on vocals and percussion, Doug Wimbish on bass and Will Calhoun on drums.  That's right: no guitar, no keyboards, just percussion, drums, bass and vocals and they manage to pull it off and then some.  Through the use of triggers, pads, and all sorts of modern (circa 1997 modern, that is) tech, this extremely non-traditional power trio makes some unbelievable music.  I've never been a big electronic music fan; it's not that I don't like electronic music, it's just that it has to be something truly exceptional to get my attention.  Guess what: this CD is truly exceptional.

Vinx has got an incredible voice: a really meaty and strong baritone.  There's this guttural quality to it that is so magnetic, I can't really put my finger on it.  Doug Wimbish is pretty much the star of the show here since he's really the only melodic instrument in the group, so he has to carry the bulk of each tune.  At the time the whole looping thing was just starting to gain momentum, and he was one of the first to use it as an integral part of his music.  He's got this incredible range of stomp boxes at his feet when he plays:

Are you kidding me?!?!?!  I mean, seriously, what the hell, dude?  He must get an amazing cardio workout from jumping around on them all night.  In spite of Wimbish's total gear overload, what he is able to do with all this is so incredibly musical.  He's constantly shifting the timbre of his sound and layering them together and it ceases to sound like a bass or even just one instrument anymore.  To be fair though, he's not the only one:

Excuse me while I bury my head in the sand for awhile....  drums and keys simultaneously?!?!  Freakin' jerk.  Here's Will Calhoun, who lays down the mean funk the entire time, tying it all together while still adding his own sauce to the mix.  Wimbish and Calhoun are 1/2 of Living Colour, Wimbish having replaced the original bass player Muzz Skillings.  This CD is just miles away from anything LC ever did, it's crazy to think that these are the same players.


Ok, enough of my yappin': let's talk about the music:

The disc opens with Ugly Face, a mid-tempo groover that is admittedly an odd choice for an opener, but it manages to wiggle under your skin like some freaky burrowing worm that drills straight to your brain (not sure where I was going with that one, but ok).  For the longest time I couldn't figure out how Calhoun manages to sound like two drummers here until I read somewhere that they're playing to a programmed drum track.  But check it out: he doubles the programmed drum part and plays all these subtle little variations that simultaneously make the drums double thick and ultra-funky.  It's pretty cool that a machine plays the beat and the drummer just adds the flava.

Worship starts out all drum 'n bass, and then morphs into a strange trance-like R&B tune when Vinx sings.  Goddammit, I LOVE this guys vocals.  So soulful, so much yearning in his voice.  And then there's Wimbish still holding it all down.  Trance is super deep, dark and groovy.  This album doesn't sound like anything else I own, from the writing to the performances to the production.  Every tune is so moody and there's the underlying darkness to the whole deal...  I can't help but get drawn in with every listen.

Headfake is all drum n' bass, with a bit too much of the filter effect, but it's still cool, especially in the context of the rest of the tunes.  September is just beautiful, with Wimbish's nutty distorted opening that makes it's way into a groovy wah bass part a la Bootsy Collins.  So much subtlety with all the players on such a beautifully melancholy tunes.  Vinx's vocals layers at the end are just gorgeous.  Torn is definitely the tune where all the lighters come out, or I guess nowadays, the cell phones <ugh>.  Call me a traditionalist, but the lighter thing at a concert with a few thousand people is so much cooler than everyone whipping out their phones.  Wimbish's playing on this song is truly something special.  So much feeling, and his effects really take the tune to a new place.

The next tune is one of my two favorites on the disc: Temporary Love.  Holy hell, boys, talk about dropping the funk BOMB on this track.  Wimbish and Calhoun's pocket is so damn deep, I'm still pulling myself out.  Listen to the way Calhoun swings the crap out of the hi-hat... man alive these guys are slaying it.  Yet again, Vinx brings us home with the voice that stops me heart dead.  But this isn't the track that truly does me in.  I usually skip by Cycles, which is actually another beautifully moody track (check out the "guitar" solo about 2/3 of the way in) and Perculator, because I can't wait to get to Still I Try.

This is the top of the mountain.  Every track after this is a slow but inevitable downward spiral, but Still I Try really speaks to me.  I get tears in my eyes every time I listen to it.  Truly: no lie.  The opening line is so beautiful, and Calhoun's drumming is so damn funky!  Damn, man.  That beat makes the whole tune so bouncy and it contrasts so beautifully with Vinx's incredibly sad and yearning melody and lyrics.  Talk about tearing my heart out...  and then your got the break: come on!  What great tone, Doug!  Then right back to the bounce.... listen to the swinging ride cymbal... then the voice...  yep, I'm spent.

Check out the rest of the disc, please, and pick your own favorites.  Every player has a showcase here, but the tunes where they play off each other are the best.

Vinx ended up leaving the band and went solo, and Wimbish and Calhoun still tour with Living Colour, but this is by far my most favorite of all their projects.  I searched out Vinx's first album which had the original cut of Temporary Love on it, and while it was very good, it doesn't speak to me the way this CD does.  I love the blurring of the line between the electronic/programmed/triggered instruments and the live performances.  Oh and by the way, every once and a while when you hear the audience cheer, remember: this entire album was performed live.  Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, sir.

Stay tuned for more digging, both through my CDs and through the back alleys of my brain.  I'm not sure which is more terrifying a prospect....

Curandero - Arás

This is one of my all time favorite albums.  Top five for sure, a definite desert island disc.  Here's the story:

I have been a fan of Béla Fleck since I was in high school.  I borrowed a tape of something from my buddy Rob, and on the back side was the Flecktones album UFOTofu.  Funny that I have no idea what was on the A-side of the tape I borrowed, but anyway...  I started collecting all the Flecktones albums and that morphed into collecting every single thing Béla had recorded.  I still do this, by the way: not guest appearances mind you, just albums that he was a key ingredient of.  So, I was a junior in college and a friend of mine picked up this disc that I just had to hear this bass player on, and oh by the way Béla Fleck is on it too.  I was a huge fan of Victor Wooten at the time, and I just couldn't be bothered with some bassist he thought was as good as Victor.  I went out and bought a CD I thought was this one (Tabula Rasā, which I'll write about sometime soon) and never gave it a second thought.

After I graduated I finally came across this CD at Cutler's Music in New Haven, CT.  I had NO IDEA this would blow my mind the way it did.  I come back to this album time and time again... hell, I'm listening to it now and I'm all sucked in again.  Curandero is Miguel Espinoza on guitar and Ty Burhoe on tabla.  These guys put out two CDs together: Curandero in 1995 with special guest Kirwan Brown on bass, and Arás in 1996, with special guests Béla Fleck on banjo, Kai Eckhardt on bass, and the Ars Nova Singers.

The album opens with the title track, Arás.  When I first heard the opening tabla riffs, all I could think is that this guy plays all the things I want to hear a tabla do.  The first time I ever heard The Beatles' Within You Without You I couldn't get over the drums with the bendy notes, and Ty Burhoe not only has excellent tone, but he bends the shit out of those tablas.  The guitar intro is relatively innocuous, but everything kicks into gear around the :51 second mark.  Kai enters with his fretless, and things start to ramp up.  The thing you need to understand is that this album is a slow listen.  The compositions take their time, and the statements are made mostly with subtleties.  The Ars Nova Singers' vocals are all wordless oohs and aahs, and really add to the mood without distracting the focus from the instruments.

River has a more immediate groove, but is another very moody piece.  The musicianship on these performances is outstanding; they all handle the difficult changes so effortlessly that until you really dig in as a listener, you don't realize how hard this must have been to play.

Segue is one of my favorites, and the first tune to showcase Béla.  Funk with flamenco guitar, banjo and tabla?!?!?!  They make it work without being cheesy or trying too hard.  The interplay between the flamenco guitar finger picking and the banjo is out of control.  With Kai slapping the bass silly and the tabla hitting all those excellent bendy notes, how can you not dig this?

Embrujada is another beautifully moody piece, with an amazing break from 1:59 - 2:33, ending in a stunning run on both banjo and guitar.  Ty Burhoe switches to frame drum on this tune, and it just goes to show that in spite of the absolutely ridiculous amount of chops on this record these guys can still be lyrical and musical.  It's not about technique, it's about the tune, as it should be.

Here is the show stopper: Man Of The Shadows.  This 11 1/2 minute epic is a showcase performance for all players.  The liner notes talk about how this tune is set in a rhythmic cycle of 9, divided 7+7+5, 7+5+5.  What?!?!  Yet another example of commanding musicianship that never gets in the way of the music, it only enhances it.  How the hell so you learn this stuff?  How do you write this stuff?  Just amazing in every way.

Brenda is Kai's solo piece and honestly, if you've never heard of this guy, you have to check him out.  The last ten years or so he spent playing with Garaj Mahal (who just recently disbanded) and he is an absolute monster.  Flirtatious is a little calmer and user friendly, and a nice break from the incredibly intense first half of the disc.  Sueños Inquietos is a solo guitar piece, and Once Upon A Time is Béla's miniature solo.  Not bad, just so short it's more of a novelty than a full track.  Enshalla is a duet for Espinoza and Burhoe, but honestly, by the time I get to this track I'm pretty spent.  The trip from track 1 to track 4 got me going and I basically shot my wad by Man Of The Shadows.

It's frustrating that projects like this only have a short life before they implode, and I guess Curandero had one solid album and one amazing album in them before said implosion.  I'm not sure what ever became of Miguel Espinoza, but I know Ty Burhoe showed up on an album called Sky by Bill Douglas, featuring Kai Eckhardt on bass and Steve Smith (Journey/Vital Information) on drums.

One last side note: after being a huge fan of Victor Wooten, I was able to take lessons from him for a hot minute.  Many years later, I also got to take some lessons with Kai Eckhardt.  When I told him that this was one of my favorite albums, he laughed and I asked why.  He said that he crammed for two weeks to learn this material and it was so hard that he was really nervous when he showed up for the session.  It just goes to show that even the most unbelievable musicians are still human.  Until next time....