Best 2007 Soul & Funk Albums, part 1
I said I was finished with best-of-2007 lists, but after a reader complained about a lack of soul coverage on the website, I had to put this together. It’s a mix of new releases and historical items, including various-artist compilations. More next week.
Like most people, I first encountered the Four Mints (the black ‘70s soul vocal group, not the ‘50s white vocal group) on Numero’s great Eccentric Soul series compilation of releases on the Ohio label Capsoul. Now we can hear the band’s entire 1973 LP plus bonus tracks. It’s all very charming, even the low production values. With a bigger budget for retakes (and, of course, promotion and distribution) they could’ve been stars.
I’ve been eager to hear MOLOCH since reading about leader LEE BAKER in ROBERT GORDON’s wonderful It Came from Memphis. My appetite was whetted all the more by the two pages devoted to Moloch in RON HALL’s invaluable Playing for a Piece of the Door: A History of Garage & Frat Bands in Memphis 1960-75. But this 1970 release (on the Stax subsidiary Enterprise) has never been easy to find until now. It more than lives up to its substantial legend. My full review is here.
A new release, although you can’t necessarily tell on first listen –I’d assumed Sharon Jones was a relic from the ‘70s heyday of soul-funk. That’s how authentic she sounds: Jones honed her style singing gospel and has all the soulful inflections fully ingrained in her voice. And her backing band’s got the style down too, on new material rather than bar-band retreads of familiar classics, although sometimes the sources are a bit obvious – the initial horn part on “Humble Me” is pure Otis Redding; the groove on “Keep on Looking” couldn’t be more JB. I don’t care, though, because this is as good as soul gets nowadays.
Not only does this compile some of the best funk of the mid-’70s, displaying the root source of what in a few years would become the Washington D.C. Go-Go scene, it includes one of the most heavily sampled breakbeats around, the instrumental “Ashley’s Roachclip.” Full review here.
Eccentric Soul: Twinight’s Lunar Rotation (Numero)
Forty tracks of Chicago soul and funk from the Twinight label, including three previously unreleased items. As usual, it’s not only good listening but good reading, with a fascinating label history and a contextualization of the wonderful obscurities we hear. The hits of SYL JOHNSON (not included here – too well known!) funded a flow of 45 releases that missed the national charts in 1967-72 but sound great now. There are a few names you’ll recognize lurking here and there; for instance, DONNY HATHAWAY’s playing on JOSEPHINE TAYLOR’s “I’ve Made Up My Mind.” There are a lot of styles heard here, not only soul and early funk but also a little blues, some harmony groups, and more.
A Detroit soul group that recorded in Memphis, for a great mix of urban soul and Southern grease. The sweet bit of hyperbole “Ice Cream Song” was a hit at the time (1969) and suggests the Miracles, while other tracks are redolent of the Temptations.
James Brown was called Mr. Dynamite. I can’t help but wonder whether that’s where this group took its name, because Brown’s style of hard funk with gritty soul vocals is still going strong here. Though this is a new production, singer CHARLES WALKER has been doing this for half a century, so this is the real thing. And the Nashville-based band backing him knows exactly what it’s doing. HOT!!
This Los Angeles retro funk band has more stylistic variety than many. The cover of “Funky Nassau” is the underground hit, but whether with vocals or on instrumental tracks, this oozes all the right old-school vibes.
A compilation covering ‘50s vocal-sound singles, ‘60s soul, and a few later disco tracks from this Detroit fixture. “Village of Love” (revived by Detroit Cobras last decade) was Mayer’s biggest hit, but the title track is the mind-blowing highlight.
Home Schooled: The ABCs of Kid Soul (Numero)
More than a gimmick, much more. Any adult group would be proud of some of these tracks. My full review is here.
