musicology #400

Sound&Fury #4

(Freddie Hubbard – Backlash)

LISTEN

Following on from the Ray Sharpe & King Curtis hold this ranking piece of 1966 Jazz Funk courtesy of legendary trumpeter Freddie Hubbard with a piece that swings so hard it could wake the dead.

Also featuring the collective talents of Ray Baretto on percusion, Bob Cunningham on bass, Ray Appleton on drums, James Spaulding on Sax and Albert Dailey smashing the ivories. This, the title track, is borrowed from his first in a series of sets for Atlantic and I noticed that ‘Pickett’ is credited with writing this one so I assume that it would be none other than the ‘Wicked’ Pickett (Wilson), himself? although whoever wrote it the credit here belongs to the players who are fluent in the universal language and communicate the message perfectly.

musicology #383

Modernist #11

(Chris Kenner – Land Of 1000 Dances)

LISTEN

Sliding out of the Jamaican selection into one from New Orleans featuring a Cat who is perhaps best known to Mod/ernists for his 1961 cut ‘I Like It Like That’.

Popularised by Wilson Pickett in 1966 this, the 1963 original, speaks volumes for what distinquished the Mod/ernist from the Mods. Hold this quote from an ‘information panel’ on the subject by musicologist Johnny Spencer, (he of the magnificent project)

“By 1964 the Mods had arrived and it was all over for the Modernists, the faces that had piloted this new paradigm of liberty for British youth, a liberation that was carried in the mind from generation to generation. Mods, generally the younger siblings of the Modernists, could not claim the originality of their predecessors, although they shared many of their preferences, smart clothes, Soul music etc, they came to a ready made situation, the territory had been won, what they chose to do was enjoy it. They were more casual and this led to a lack of vigilance, a dropping of the guard, and soon the media and corporate interests were in there, bleeding, filleting and gutting this new market and threat to the status quo. Masses of newer converts, ‘tickets’, were soon sold the concept of Mod: an outfit, pop idols and an attitude, it was small wonder that by 1965 the entire movement was dead, and with the age opf the ‘Skinhead’, who also shared a subtle common bond with an emerging, oppressed black culture, the first real and enduring anti-fashion movement started”.

Nailed on..

Today’s cut is based on a spiritual entitled ‘Children Go Where I Send You’, further evidence of the debt owed to the Gospel tradition by the new music emerging out of the urban experience of big cities such as New Orleans, Chicago, New York, Detroit and Memphis where migration had a major impact. Recorded for and released on the fabulous Minit label which had already scored with Mod/ernists by releasing cuts like the above mentioned ‘I Like It Like That’, Ernie K Doe’s ‘Mother In Law’ and Benny Spellman’s ‘Fortune Teller’, (To name but Three)..written by Chris Kenner and Fats Domino.