This week’s special guest for Breakbeat Tuesday is none other than my partner in crime, Brooklyn by way of Natchez, Mississippi’s own DJ Ayres. Now Yung Urrs grew up down south on a farm, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that this guy doesn’t know his shit, cause he’ll kind of son you. There are many chambers to his style. You can catch Ayres alongside DJ Eleven and myself the first Saturday of the month at The Rub, our monthly party at Southpaw in Brooklyn. When he’s not administering cock-punches or watching fine films starring John Cena, you can find him traveling the globe as a world-class DJ, and helming his dance music imprint T&A Records. Other than that, he’s kind of the bane of my existence, but I would never ever let that information get out to the world…
One of the big movements when I first got into DJing was acid jazz. Fifteen years later, this shit has not aged well at all. Mark Farina’s “Mushroom Jazz” CDs (and unmixed vinyl compilations) were a staple back then, and aside from the odd Jigmastas (DJ Spinna) instrumental, it was all a little tepid for my tastes. An exception was Blue Boy “Remember Me,” which had this incredibly addictive female vocal loop over the Skull Snaps drums. “Remember meee, the one who had your baby! Gean geh geh gean geh geh gean gean gean, geh geh gean geh geh gean geh geh gean geh geh gean gean gean.”
Blue Boy – Remember Me (Mascotte, 1997)
There were also pieces of the same voice on the incredible, classic lounge-house record from around the same time, St Germain Rose Rouge. I had to know what that voice was, and luckily for me it was an easy record to source: Marlena Shaw Cookin’ with Blue Note at Montreaux. I say easy because even though this was before digging hit the internet, everyone was crazy about Blue Note in the mid-nineties; remember that there was a whole “Blue Break Beats” series, hugely popular for hip-hop and house DJs branching out into jazzy territories. Remember Digable Planets? ATCQ? It was a big sound. And your college radio station definitely had all the OG Blue Note stuff ripe for the picking, assuming an older head hadn’t gotten there already. What up Ben Velez!
So back to Marlena Shaw, she grew up in New York State and started singing really young, went on the Apollo as a kid with her uncle’s band, played clubs in New York and Chicago and by her twenties ended up on Cadet / Chess Records. Blue Note picked her up in 1972 when she was thirty, and a year later she was recorded in Switzerland at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Tons of albums were recorded live over the years at Montreux, from Ray Charles to Alice Cooper, Sun Ra to Tori Amos. Marlena Shaw played two years after the old Montreux Casino burned down while Frank Zappa was playing. The headliners in 1973 were Canned Heat and Miles Davis.
Epic! “Woman of the Ghetto” first appeared on Shaw’s album The Spice of Life in 1969. She wrote it with Richard Evans (Soulful Strings, Dorothy Ashby, Sun Ra, etc) and Bobby Lee Miller. You can hear the original (calimba!) and read a little more about it here. Great tune, and a great document from the civil rights era.
Now I could stop here but it would be irresponsible not to leave you with a bonus beat. Another great record off of The Spice of Life is “California Soul.” Breakbeat Tuesday fans should be no stranger to Ashford & Simpson; well they wrote “California Soul” for The Fifth Dimension. I don’t fuck with the original but it is noteworthy. Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell (or was it actually Valerie Simpson? controversy!) recorded a terrific version, but IMO nothing else touches Marlena Shaw’s.
All the DJs sought out this one in the 90s after DJ Premier sampled it for “Check the Technique.” Then Cut Chemist and Shadow rocked the 45 on Brainfreeze (1999) and the song moved way up the breakbeat canon; it’s a staple at The Rub. Diplo even remixed it for Verve, an impossible task as it is basically unimprovable. The drum break, the strings, the vocals, the lyrics, what a perfect song!
Thanks a million for that, my dude. Now Ayres is no stranger to sharing music with the masses, and you can always check out his Vinyl Mondays on Flashing Lights and his Heavy Warmup mix series for more music from the young gawd.
I’ve been so busy lately with travel and music and life that the writing on this site’s taken a backseat for a moment. Relax. Refocus. Regroup. Thankfully I have a lot of buddies that are always down to help share their stories (and record collections) with me and you. So today I’m pleased to have my man Supreme La Rock come through and bless us with an ill gem. For those that don’t know, Seattle based Preme has been in the DJ and rare record collecting game since before I can remember, and is one of the illest dudes I know in the game. He’s one of those guys that makes you hate your own record collection. Hit up Preme on his Twitter for more jewels from the brother. Okay, so let’s get to it…
Welcome to yet another edition of “Breakbeat” Tuesday. Before we get started, I just want to say that this is a true honor that I was even requested as the special guest for this weeks installation. As with anything I do I try to be as thorough as possible. So, for this one I made a lot of phone calls, emails and research trying to find out exactly what I could about this record. The record in which I speak of is none other than “Do It Your Way” aka: The Smiley Face record by Chuck Colbert & Rory O. I’ll be honest in saying that the record over all is not that great in my opinion but the first seconds of the opening drum break is pure delight. The first time I ever heard this break was on Marley Marls Juice Crew record The Symphony. I also, remember this break used for Kool G Rap & Polo “Money In The Bank”
I picked this record to feature because of it’s odd rare novelty. It was never officially released or for sale. It was a promo only item given out by the city of Milwaukee to promote their “Summerfest” concert series. I contacted them to see what information they could give me on it. Oddly enough they knew nothing of it!
So who exactly was responsible for discovering this break? I had a friend that interned at the NYC studio where Marley did all his recording at the time. He told me that all the rappers used to bring Marley the records they wanted to use and he would sample and program them because he knew how to work the equipment. Well I shot the diabolical Biz Markie a phone call to get to the bottom of this! Biz recalls:
“I discovered the record and brought it to Marley to sample” (My friend was right.) So once again we have a rare oddball record that Biz Markie discovered adding to his hip hop legacy even more…
The thing is not too long after the Symphony was out I was over at DJ Shadows place and he asked if I had the “Smiley Face” record. I had no idea what he was talking about and he told me it’s the breakbeat they used on the Symphony and he showed me the record. He had stumbled up on it by luck while out digging for 45’s… So it was solidifed. I knew that there was a 45 called the “Smiley Face” record and the break from the Symphony was on it. My hunt for copies was on… What I didn’t know is who the artist was or what label it was on. I called Soulman from Philly to see if he was up on this record and true indeed he was. Only because Diamond D was searching for it and asked him if he had a copy. Soulman did obtain a copy in a trade with another dealer not to long afterwards. (This was in the early/mid 90’s).
DJ/Collector Beni B from ABB records called me asking did I know about a “Smiley Face” record. Yep, I sure did. I just didn’t have a copy or even know who the actual artist was or what label it was on. None of those factors stopped me from looking. I finally gave up after ten years of searching and only two people I knew personally that owned a copy. DJ Shadow and Soulman.
It was brought back to my attention when Soulman sent me a copy of one of his mix cds and he was wearing a t shirt with the “Smiley Face” on it. I hit him up trying to pry his copy away from him and that was not happening! So there I was back on my beat mission… During the research I was doing for this write up I recalled that Large Pro used it for the Kool G Rap joint so I hit him up to see where he obtained his copy, how he knew about and what he could tell me about it. His exact words were:
“I don’t have the record and never did” – “I was at Pete Rock’s house and he had them (the drums) on an sp-1200 disc” – “He let me copy the disc”
So, wow Large Pro didn’t even have the record…. I hit Pete Rock up after talking to Large but I got a big fat zero response out of him. I obtained my copy around 2004 by placing an ad on Milwaukee’s Craigslist stating I was looking for this record and I posted a picture of it. One dealer stepped forward and had a copy I got on the cheap. He said he thought he had more but turned out he didn’t. I’ve seen three copies on ebay since then selling for as high as $600!
I called Diamond D this morning to ask him about it since he was the one that originally was asking Soulman for a copy. He told me he has never found one and he knew of it from Mark the 45 King asking him if he had it. I know it was a topic on soulstrut in the past and after seeing the article someone went out that same day and found a copy for $3. Well it’s the year 2011 now and breakbeats aren’t important to some as they were in the mid 90’s and the internet gives you almost all the information you need on things. You can youtube this record and it pops right on up. When Cosmo asked if I’d do a guest column for breakbeat Tuesday I already knew exactly what record I was going to choose. I just had to track people down and see what I could find out about it which isn’t much. I found out it’s rare. Who knows how many were even pressed up? You’re mostly likely to find it in Milwaukee if at all. I know of 5 people personally that actually own a copy. Sharing is caring and I offer to you today none other than “Do It Your Way” aka: The Smiley Face record.
Okay, no need to go into a whole spiel about this month’s top ten list. But you know how it goes… a whole bunch of shit that I’m feeling, including some new music and exclusives. A lot of great dance music, songs from friends of mine, and an appearance from the one and only Nate Dogg (RIP.) And as always, download it, share it, rock out to it. Thanks a million, and I hope you enjoy listening these mixes as much as I enjoy making them!
1: TV On The Radio “Will Do” (XXXChange Remix)
2: Nate Dogg “Can’t Nobody feat. Kurrupt”
3: Hang Glider “The Landings”
4: Sheen Bros “It’s So Hot feat. Greg Nice” (Whiskey Barons Remix)
5: Josie Stingray “Josie feat. 1-O.A.K.”
6: Beg To Differ “Be Africa” (Beg To Differ Dub”
7: Alexis “Lonely Sea” (Emotion 2 Emotion Mix)
8: Drop Out Orchestra “International Track”
9: Will Eastman & Micah Vellian “No Sleep feat. T.T. The Artist” (Treasure Fingers Fr33ky Mix)
10: Florence & The Machine “Rabbit Heart” (Leo Zero Remix / Greg Wilson Edit)
BAKER’S DOZEN BONUS
11: G. Brown “L.O.V.I.N.”
12: Win Win “The Nature Of Transcendent Force feat. Douglas Armour”
13: James Blake “Limit To Your Love”
Nathaniel Dwayne Hale AKA Nate Dogg passed away last night after several years dealing with severe illnesses. Dude was a don, and I got to thinking about how, no matter what scene you were in, you dug the brother. A West Coast head, an East Coast head, into underground, into mainstream, no matter where you came from or where your tastes lay, Nate Dogg was your shit. He truly was a unifying artist. Funny how, you never really think about what you have until it’s gone, right? Regulate In Power, Nate.
Back in 2000 I was out at the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas and it was fight night so the electricity in the air was crazy. I was up in my hotel room just chilling and decided to run to the ice machine. I opened up the door, turned left, and who was walking right towards me? THIS GUY. As he walked passed me, wearing the craziest diamond pendant I had ever seen, with two girls flanking him on both sides, I thought to myself “Holy shit.” I guess in thinking it to myself, I must have actually said it. He looked right at me as he passed, and gave me a little head nod, and kept it moving, leaving the smell of straight dank in the air following him. Needless to say, inspired, I went in HEAVY on some G-Funk shit that night at the club. Ah, memories…
My homie Steve1der did a fantastic all Nate Dogg mix that is a must cop. Grab it below…
Friday November 1 – Dante’s Hifi – Miami, FL 
