August 2008 Archives
BROTHERMAN: SAVED AT LAST
Tags: blaxploitation, chicago
The Final Solution: I Don't Care
The Final Solution: Brotherman
From Brotherman OST (Numero Group, 2008)
High school friends John Banks, Allen Brown, Darrow and Ronnie Kenney were one of many aspiring artists from Chicago hoping to become the city's next Impressions or Five Stairsteps but like "many aspiring artists," their history is largely one of reaching but never quite achieving. When they formed their first band in the 1960s, the Kaldirons, they had a opportunity when Twinight Records, the storied Chicago label that was home to blues/soul singer Syl Johnson, gave them a shot to record. The resulting single, "To Love Somebody" is one of the greatest sides off of Twinight that, alas, few ever heard; the song was not a hit.
However, by the early 1970s, the group was still trying to make a go of it, changing their name (and some personnel) to become, first, The Solution and then, The Final Solution. Let's just say: not the best name they could have gone with though I assume they simply had no historical awareness of the term's connotation. Regardless, bad name was followed by bad luck: the group was asked to record a soundtrack for an upcoming blaxploitation film called Brotherman (think a drug dealer turned preacher and crime fighter). The film never seemed to have made it past the idea stage - whether a script was ever written is in contention - but the Final Solution forged ahead and recorded the album for a movie that would never get made...and not surprisingly, the album was never released.
This is a shame on any number of levels, not the least of which is that, had it come out, Brotherman would easily have been one of the best blaxploitation soundtracks ever recorded. I'm not talking about something on the level of Shaft or Superfly, both of which were cultural/musical events in their respective way but definitely a step above the cookie-cut, wakka wakka funk songs that became so associated with blaxploitation.
"I Don't Care" is infused the kind of sweet, harmonized soul that made the Kalidirons earlier work stand out. Especially when paired with that melancholy but heavy guitar melody by newcomer Carl Wolfolk, there's something sublime about how their falsetto voices come coasting in on top of it.
Much of the album is like that - strong on melody in a way that other blaxploitation albums, with their monster rhythm sections, sometimes were lacking in. The closest Brotherman comes to something more conventional is on the theme song which sounds like, well, what you'd expect a theme song to sound like. But even then, for all its slow-building drama, there's still that angelic set of voices behind it, lending a gospel-like quality to the dark undertones of the music.
The fact that this album was recovered is a miracle in and of itself. The Kaldirons/Final Solution never got their due back in the day but sometimes redemption takes a while. It's a gift to them but also the listener. Seriously, get this album.
DOC DELAY: BEASTIN' FROM THE EAST
Tags: mixtapes
Doc Delay: Capitalism Catch Speed Knots
Siberian Island
Always Scared
From Eastern Block Party (Funk Weapons, 2008)
At this point, you'd think every possible concept for a hip-hop mixtape would have been exhausted but credit New York's Doc Delay for coming up with one that few would have thought of doing before. On Eastern Block Party, Delay uses 1970s hard rock albums from Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and other Eastern European countries (Eastern Bloc/Block, get it?) as sonic fodder for a series of rap remixes. The result accomplishes at least two things: 1) it provides a very unique sound bed, a welcome diversion from the conventional spate of American hip-hop production conventions and 2) it also introduces folks to the depth and remarkable ferocity of Eastern European rock records from that era.
I'm by no means as hardcore a collector as Delay is but I've dabbled in Eastern European funk/rock scene and you'd be amazed at how huge the potential catalog can run. In Poland, labels like Muza and Polski ran ridiculously deep, covering everything from hard, metal-edged rock, to bossa nova, to big band jazz. Likewise, in Hungary, it was the Pepita label that seemed to draw the interest of bands who seemed to like nothing more than shred some guitar and crunch down some beefy breakbeats. Fans of early Sabbath or Iron Butterfly will no doubt hear the influence but these groups had a distinctive sound all their own too. You can imagine how much fun Delay had in running through dozens if not hundreds of potential albums to pull sample material from (I should note that while the pacing is brisk, he often lets songs play out for a few minutes rather than just offer up 2-4 bar loops).
His tastes in hip-hop acapellas run no less eclectic; there's everything here from the obscure Constant Deviants' indie hit from the mid-90s, "Catch a Speedknot" to JVC Force's ode to the L.I., "Strong Island" to Bone Crusher's "I Ain't Neva Scared." Given that the Eastern Euro sound can be completely different from the beats you're accustomed to hearing with, say, Kool G Rap's "Men at Work," the effect can be a bit discombulating at times and to be fair, some match-ups are better than others but the best pairings tend to slap together aggressive rhymes with rock riffs that can match in intensity and raucousness - the songs above were chosen explicitly to showcase that synergy.
All this and liner notes by the New Yorker's Sasha Frere-Jones. Like whoa.
For more info, check out this informative interview with Delay at The Fader's website.
ISAAC HAYES: 1942 - 2008
Tags: isaac hayes
Like the passing of James Brown, Curtis Mayfield or Ray Charles, it is hard to fully grasp the enormity of what has been lost with this weekend's death of Isaac Hayes. The baritone giant will forever be linked with Shaft, for better or for worse, but as critically and commercially important that was in Hayes' long career, it is just one tiny fragment of his overall contributions to R&B and soul music. Hayes was much more than a singer; he was a composer, a writer, an arranger and producer, as multi-talented as any R&B figure, including contemporaries such as Stevie Wonder or Smokey Robinson.
Remember that before Hayes ever graced his own album covers, he and writing/composing partner David Porter had penned some 200 songs for Stax/Volt Records; theirs was one of the most prolific and important of collaborations. The Hayes/Porter name, like Motown's Holland-Dozier-Holland or Philly Intl's Gamble-Huff, was like a stamp of excellence for most of the singles and albums the credit appeared on. They are best known for Sam and Dave's hits like "Soul Man" and "Hold On, I'm Comin" but my personal favorites were some of the tracks they wrote for Stax/Volt's female artists.
Ruby Johnson: I'll Run Your Hurt Away
From 7" (Volt, 1966).
The Charmels: As Long As I've Got You
From 7" (Volt, 1967)
Both available on The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 1
Soul Children: The Sweeter He Is
From S/T (Stax, 1969)
The Emotions: So I Can Love You
From So I Can Love You (Stax, 1969)
When Hayes set out onto his solo career with 1968's Presenting Isaac Hayes, it was a surprising flop and Hayes placed much on the blame on the fact that he hadn't been able to make the album his way (for example, the original version of "Precious, Precious" tops out at over 19 minutes but on the album, it was cut to less than 3. For his next album, Hot Buttered Soul, Al Bell gave Hayes a green-light to do whatever he wanted and thus was born one of the greatest soul albums ever recorded. For those who've heard the single-shortened versions of songs like "Walk On By" and "By the Time I Get To Arizona," you're still getting good songs but they're removed from the incredible majesty of their album versions - 15+ minute epic songs of orchestral swells and rhythmic thunder. Much has also been made of his innovation on "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" where he monologues for nearly nine minutes before actually getting into the song itself. The device has been turned into gimmick by some (see Alicia Keys on "You Don't Know My Name") but it's better to think of it as part of the same tension/release cycle that was so much a part of Hayes' output in these years.
For those who've heard this again, listen to it again - tune everything else out and just listen to this. Loudly. If you've never heard this before? Hold ya head.
Isaac Hayes: Walk On By (album version)
From Hot Buttered Soul (Stax, 1969)
The next two Hayes albums, The Isaac Hayes Movement and To Be Continued were also cut in similar fashion to Hot Buttered Soul, each song a sonic journey, filled with all kinds of melodic and rhythmic turns and twists. I need to really sit with Movement more but I was enjoying To Be Continued again, earlier today, and the album is as incredible a listening experience as anything he's ever turned out. Here's two-thirds of his B-side medley, including his sublime instrumental, "Ike's Mood I" and a surprising cover of the Righteous Bros.' hit, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling."
This all culminated with 1971's Black Moses, a double album whose title and artwork were more of the label's choosing than Hayes but it's hard to hold back on messianic analogies given how masterfully Hayes can take on half a dozen of other people's songs and then put his permanent stamp on them (Movement was similar in this respect). I've included one of the two "never" songs from the album, his version of Jerry Butler's "Never Gonna Give You Up" (the other was Hayes' cover of the Jackson 5's "Never Can Say Goodbye.")
Isaac Hayes: Ike's Mood I/You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling
From To Be Continued (Enterprise, 1970)
Isaac Hayes: Never Gonna Give You Up
From Black Moses (Stax, 1971)
According to Melvin Van Peebles in an interview I had with him, the filmmaker and blaxploitation visionary was responsible for setting the chain of events in motion that lead to Hayes recording Shaft. Peebles had recorded the soundtrack for his Sweetback's Baadassss Song for Stax, mostly because in those days, Stax head Al Bell was open to taking all kinds of chances, including putting out a soundtrack by a then-unknown Earth, Wind and Fire, for Peebles' independently financed film about sex, drugs and violence in the Black ghetto. When Sweetback turned out to be the most successful independent film of the year, with the soundtrack blowing up as well, MGM decided to change the lead character in Shaft from a white detective to Black and then went to Stax to see if they'd be willing to partner on the soundtrack. Hayes was chosen to head the project and a classic was born.
Personally, if I never heard the theme to Shaft again, it'd be too soon but I've always had a special fondness for the charming beauty of "Ellie's Love Theme." Hayes would go onto record two more blaxploitation soundtracks, for Tough Guys and Truck Turner respectively. None of them had the same impact as Shaft though that's not to say there aren't some concrete-crackin' hits on them, such as Truck Turner's dark "Breakthrough" or Tough Guys' memorable "Hung Up On My Baby."
Isaac Hayes: Ellie's Love Theme
From Shaft OST (Enterprise, 1971)
Isaac Hayes: Breakthrough
From Truck Turner OST (Enterprise, 1974)
I'll be the first to admit, after this point, my familiarity with Hayes' catalog begins to fall off considerably (and for many purists, Hayes' disco-era work is nowhere near as revered), save perhaps for "A Few More Kisses To Go" given the Redman connection. I'll end by saying that, with some artists, Hayes is one of those artists whose work I always respected when he was alive but as is too often the case, you don't realize how truly remarkable someone like he is until he's gone. Having spent much of the afternoon just revisiting his catalog, I'm even more in awe than ever. An incredible man, an incredible loss at age 65.
For more...
Fresh Air's interview with Hayes from 1994
Hayes performing "The Look of Love" at Wattstax.
Hayes...the Chef years
JOE BATAAN: THE BOOGALOO KID
Tags: boogaloo
Joe Bataan: Subway Joe
Joe Bataan: Freedom
From Under the Streetlamps (Fania, 2008)
If folks don't mind a personal plug, I wrote the liner notes for a new anthology chronicling the years Latin soul star Joe Bataan spent with Fania Records: Under the Streetlamps (if anyone's interested, here's an excerpt). For those of you unfamiliar with Bataan, in the late 1960s, he was part of a wave of Latin boogaloo artists to rise out of the New York Latin scene and Bataan quickly became one of the giants in the scene, especially with hits such as "Gypsy Woman" and "It's a Good Feeling (Riot)." Bataan was also an unusual figure in the East Harlem streets where he grew up - he was half-Black/half-Filipino but was able to pass for Puerto Rican. Much of his teen years were consumed by life in local street gangs, culminating in a couple of jail stints that encouraged him to transition into something less risky, i.e. music. As a Latin soul vocalist raised on equal parts Frankie Lymon and Tito Puente, Bataan's was a unique voice in the Latin boogaloo scene. He wasn't a pop crooner in the tradition of Frank Sinatra, instead he brought more of a doo-wop/R&B influence, helping broaden his appeal to not just Latin Americans but African Americans and whites as well.
Under the Streetlamps is the first official Fania anthology that looks at Bataan's impressive catalog on the label (for the interested, be sure to also see Vampisoul's excellent pair of Bataan comps) and they do an impressive job of consolidating songs strewn across over half a dozen albums, into a tight 20 song package that includes a few exclusives (such as the original, unreleased Futura version of "Ordinary Guy"). For the uninitiated, I plucked two - "Subway Joe" was one of his biggest boogaloo hits from 1967 and gives you a sense of his style as both singer and storyteller. "Freedom," from the Poor Boy album of 1970, shows how Bataan as evolved with the times, showcasing his engagement and awareness with the Civil Rights Movement of the times; not a common sight in Latin music of that particular era.
(If you want to listen some more, check out this post back at Soul-Sides.com)
