Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds “Fallin’ In Love”
Sam Reed Band “Ambassador’s Theme”
Freddie Scott “(You) Got What I Need”
Brothers Johnson “Strawberry Letter 23”
Keni Burke “Risin’ To The Top” (Unreleased Acoustic Version)
Toto “Georgy Porgy”
Herb Alpert “Rise”
Steve Arrington’s Hall Of Fame “Weak At The Knees”
Q-Tip “Breathe & Stop” (Classic Rap Live Blend)
D-Nice “Call Me D-Nice”
King Tee “At Your Own Risk” (Old English Mix)
The Notorious B.I.G. “Nasty Boy” (Classic Rap Blend)
Kid ‘N’ Play “Gittin’ Funky”
LL Cool J “Mama Said Knock You Out”
Eric B. & Rakim “I Ain’t No Joke”
Stetsasonic “Go Stetsa I”
MC Lyte “Paper Thin”
Brand Nubian “Feels So Good”
Rude Riddims “Bounce”
House Of Pain “Jump Around” (Pete Rock Remix)
George Shearing “Aquarius” (Todd Terje Mix)
Esther Williams “Last Night Changed It All”
Maggie Threatt “Soupy”
James Brown “I Don’t Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing”
The Diplomats “I Can Give You Love”
The Rimshots “Dance Girl”
Bohannon “Let’s Take The Country To New York City”
Inner Life “I’m Caught Up (In A One Night Love Affair)”
Alicia Myers “I Want To Thank You”
Patti Jo “Make Me Believe In You (Extended Disco Edit)”
Chic “I Want Your Love” (Tangoterje Edit)
D-Train “You’re The One For Me”
Idris Muhammad “Could Heaven Ever Be Like This”
It’s funny that sometimes you don’t even know what your look at when it’s right in your face. For instance, today I was listening to a self-titled record by the Bobby Boyd Congress. Bobby Boyd is a singer, songwriter, saxophone player and band leader who formed his group The Congress in Brooklyn back in 1970. Brooklyn was a hotbed of musical talent at that time, eventually giving us many legendary groups, including but not limited to Mandrill, The Fatback Band and B.T. Express. With The Congress Boyd created a unique sound that was centered around his powerful vocals and horn arrangements, but with a really heavy psychedelic tinge to the songs with distorted guitars and whatnot. I’m not sure if it was a preemptive move because of the saturation in the scene of funk bands or if it was because of lack of success, but in 1971 Boyd moved himself and the entire band to Paris. That wasn’t an uncommon thing to do for musicians back then. While in France they released the self-titled record which is a funk monster and a bit of a holy grail, with prices fetching up to $1000 for a copy. Here’s 2 songs from it, the first which includes a monster breakbeat about 2/3 of the way though, which is somewhat reminiscent of the Sweet Linda Devine break that Black Sheep (& everyone else) used.
So basically I thought that this particular story for Breakbeat Tuesday was going to end there, with this incredibly talented New York cat packing his bags for overseas, releasing one stunning album before fading into obscurity. But I did a little more searching around about the backstory and there’s a whole other gigantic dimension to it. Apparently after a couple of years, Bobby Boyd decided that he had enough of living overseas and decided to pack it in and go back to New York, but the band stayed in France where they fell in with producer Pierre Berjot aka Pierre Jaubert. Berjot rechristened the Congress “ICE” and they soon recorded a self-titled album for Berkeley California based Prestige Records. Unfortunately I’ve always found the ICE record to be somewhat tepid, and lacking the raw edge the Congress had. But around the same time they renamed themselves the Lafayette Afro Rock Band and released a few more records. These ones were distributed in Europe but also got distribution on a African Funk specialty record label based on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn called Editions Makossa. It was these records that have 2 of the most monster funk tunes of all time. At first listen you will recognize both of them as songs that whether you know it or not are ingrained into your psyche. So with no further ado I present to you for Breakbeat Tuesday, the Lafayette Afro Rock Band.
It is highly probable that I will be playing at least one of these songs that posted up at tomorrow’s Class Act party at Southpaw with Anonymous and Eli Esco. Obviously on vinyl, obviously. Don’t trip or slip..
I decided to post a record today to share with the world and looked out the window and it is one dismal, grey, rainy day here in New York. I typed the word “Rain” in my iTunes and found a list of records that would do the trick, but one jumped out at me immediately….
I’ve got some friends visiting New York from overseas and over the past few days we’ve been having an ongoing discussion about the perception that people outside of the US have about the people here. It’s like, with all our progress, they must think we’re idiots. Granted most people know to give New York, and the coasts in general, a pass. But damn man, and now with this whole Arizona Jim Crown thing… I know a lot people don’t believe in evolution. What about devolution? Anyway, listen to this very early P-Funk ditty and chew it over. “… and the president’s talking bout a change, but nobody’s got sense enough to come in out of the rain.”
On a lighter note, I’m glad that people like my site and all the content that I post up on it so much. The feedback over the past several months has been incredible. And, I love writing and after a long hiatus I feel as though I’ve found my voice again, and am committed to keeping the momentum rolling with this. But, let’s not lose sight, at least I can’t – this is my personal website and I am a DJ / musician and I hope through the site I can drive more commerce my way. Let’s not get that twisted. Always trying to get that next gig…
And so this past Wednesday I was DJing at the Kastel Lounge inside the Trump Soho. It was pretty standard as far as hotel lounge gigs go, and so I kind of was playing what I wanted. Early on in the night I dropped Steve Arrington’s “Way Out” and 30 seconds later this dude comes over with a heavy British accent and says to me “Mate, this is my favorite song of all time. When it’s done, give it a rewind, from the top why don’t you?” So I said sure. I looked around the room and I noticed that I was providing innocuous background noise except for one single table of about 10 folks in the corner, who we’re just going nuts over everything that I was dropping. After a while they would come up to the booth, “Mate, play some Gap Band!” “Mate, Larry Young’s Fuel.” and the occasional “CHOOONE” for something that I dropped. Turns out it was these guys, in town to film something for The Colbert Report. I did not know…
So back to Steve Arrington, dude has always been one of my favorites. Both with Slave and as soloist, way too dope, and his very existence is good evidence for my theory that Ohio is actually the funkiest state in The Union. Steve’s a longtime favorite, and so when I saw this tweet from Peanut Butter Wolf the other day I got super excited. You may or may not know that Steve is teaming up with Dam Funk for his next record. The living legend is coming back with the funk, and it’s helmed by one of the dudes that’s really handling things proper. So be on the lookout for that no question. And in the meantime, I’ll leave you with Steve’s “Way Out.”
B/W – As an aside, this came in my email box the next day. I normally don’t pay attention to these things, and nor do I get geeked over this stuff, but this one hahah, this one I found to pretty damn cool…
I am excited for this. My homie DJ Anonymous from Helsinki finally made it over to New York (Working title: “Sampo Vs The Volcano”) and so we hooked up a quick party for us to rock out with. Anonymous is one of the dudes that I’ve met in my travels and he’s my dude for real, but on top of that he really knows his stuff. I think that may be a Helsinki thing – every time I’m over there people are full-on about the music and are really locked in.
So it’s going to be me, Anonymous and Eli Esco at the downstairs at Southpaw. Lots of fun and good music for sure. Put some examples of what I am planning on playing on the Facebook Invite Page. Plus I’ll be rocking all vinyl. Not that that really means anything anymore. The limbo between being a gimmick and a handicap. Fuck it, I don’t really care anymore except it’s a tremendous amount of fun to me, and the way it always should be…
Wednesday December 18 – High & Rising Book Release – Philadelphia, PA 
