From: Bob Davis (earthjuice_at_prodigy.net)
Date: 2005-08-11 16:20:03
* Ty Causey - Love Notes
(Baby Makin Slow Jams)
I've been listening to this CD off and on for the past few days. And while I have been
enjoying the hell out of it, I have also been racking my brain trying to figure out who Ty
Causey reminds me of. Well it just hit me. Ty Causey reminds me of Terrence Trent Darby, if he
were fronting a Jeffrey Osborne's band (instead of Jeffrey Osborne), singing hard core Marvin
Gaye/Isley Bros. type slow jams of truth. In other words this guy is the REAL THANG. It's the
type of record that you know within the first 60 seconds that the whole album is going to be
badd. Each sucessive song simply reinforces that belief within the first few seconds. In other
words it's really an album of erotica that when played under the right circumstances, will
have your lady down to her panties, pretty quickly...
* Miami Funk At Its Best Volume 2 - Various Artists
(Super High Octane Funk)
Ahhhhh so you say that you dig funky music? Well you can't go wrong with this compilation.
Anyone here remember the old TK Records label from back in the 1970's? Well Henry Stone went
DEEP into the archives and pulled out songs by Freddie and The Kinfolk (w/Freddie Scott), B.
B. Brown, Funky Nassau, Mona Lisa, Miami, Little Beaver (w/Jaco Pastorious), Famous Chromes,
Sam Early, Johnny K, The Hot Stuffs, The Funky Bunch (Clarence Reid, Willie Clarke,
“Chocolate” Perry and other studio musicians). I'm sure that our boy FATS GALLON knows these
people, but I have never heard of most of em before. KILLER GROOVES, STANK FUNK here my
friends. The album is full of these NASTY 3 min. CHUNKS OF FUNK. look for this on
Soul-Patrol.Net Radio soon...
* Mem Shannon - I'm From Phunkville
(Blues)
Anyone here remember the old Funkadelic song called "Music For My Mother"?? I have never heard
of Mem Shannon before, but he sounds like he could have been one of the folks singing on that
song. Musically he reminds me of Mighty Sam McClain (although his singing isn't as strong as
Mighty Sam's). One of the things I like best about Blues are the stories contained within the
songs, songs about real life, as lived by real people. And that is exactly what you get with
this CD. For example there is a tasty cover version of the Beatles "Elanor Rigby". If your
looking for a nice slice of modern day Blues then Mem Shannon - I'm From Phunkville is a good
bet.
* MFA Kera/Mike Russell - Afro Soul (Black Heritage)
(Afro-Funk)
This is the type of CD that all of the "psuedo hip white folks" @ places like the Village
Voice who are constantly writing about all of this music they like that originates from the
"motherland" would like if they ever heard it. MFA Kera/Mike Russell is a funk band from
Africa, now residing in Berlin Germany that has a true sense of what 1970's American funk
music was all about. And I'm not just talking about the James Brown inspired grooves, I mean
from a political/cultural sense as well. The title of the album Afro Soul (Black Heritage) is
no joke and tells you what you need to know about the world perspective and view of the
artist. In MFA Kera's biography it says: "In the meantime she formed the "Black Heritage
Orchestra" working with US Jazzman Mike Russell, telling the story of black music in music (
from Ethnic-African music through Blues, Afro-beat, Salsa, Gospel, Reggae, Jazz, Funk and
Rap)." There are no apologies to political correctness here. My favorite song on this CD is
the song "soulfood". Check out MFA Kera/Mike Russell online at their website
http://www.black-heritage.de
(even their url is no joke)
At the site you can listen to the music from Afro Soul (Black Heritage) and you can also view
video clips of the group live. See how educated I have become? I had never heard of this group
untill they signed up for the Soul-Patrol Times a few months ago. Since that time not only
have I become hip to the music of MFA Kera/Mike Russell, but MFA Kera herself has helped me to
expand my own "world view" by writing some very heavy commentaries on today's music scene (a
few of which I have re-published on Soul-Patrol)
* Anthony Hamilton - Soulife
(Nu Soul)
I really like Anthony Hamilton's singing and I like the songs on this CD. Soulife is an album
that is full of potential hit records and its worth buying, however I almost wish that there
was an alternate version of this CD. A version where they forget about the studio tricks and
just let this brotha sing straight up. If they did that, he really could be like another Al
Green, or Lou Rawls (or something similar?).
* Sounds of Blackness - Unity
(Funk/Gospel)
During the 1980's Black folks substituted actual political/social conciousness with a type of
fake political/social conciousness that always left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
Culturally this was manifested with a type of fake post civil rights afrocentricity in
everything from clothing, greeting cards, language and more. True afrocentricity was pushed
aside, as the artifacts from our freedom movement were re-packaged into comercilized/symbolic
icons. In music this was true as well and the group Sounds of Blackness was one of the
manifestations of this trend. It became sort of politically correct to like them. I knew lots
of people who purchased their music, but these people never really liked them, they just
brought the albums because they felt that they were supposed to. People would buy it almost as
if under some type of peer pressure to do so. During this period of time I pretty much ignored
the Sounds of Blackness. So when I first put the album into the CD player, I figured that I
wasn't going to like it. Well, I was wrong, this CD is funkier than hell. Sure it's "preachy",
but its also got a non stop infectious funk groove that continues for track after track.The
album has a gospel feel to it, but it isn't religous. It's kinda like the group Sounds of
Blackness is using funk music as a tool to get back to the essence of Blackness. And if that
is what they are doing, I applaud them because it's working. Who knows, perhaps a rediscovery
of funk music is a method for Black people in general to shake ourselves out of the malaise we
currently find ourselves in? This is a good album, buy it, listen to it and absorb it and
perhaps you too will be "healed of what ails you"...
"Funk not only moves, it can re-move, dig?
The desired effect is what you get"
--P-Funk
--------------------
Bob Davis
earthjuice_at_prodigy.net
--------------------
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