Logg (Leroy Burgess)

------------------------------------------------ (not Leroy Burgess)

THE Man from Harlem who brought us so many memorable moments as a producer, arranger and singer. After a few albums with his first and rather slow and souly project Black Ivory thorughout the 70s Leroy turned towards the groove to become one of the most influential producers in early dance music. Choosing differnet names for his studio bands he brought us hits like Convertion - Sweet Thing and Phreek - Weekend (which should later be remixed by Bob Blank & also Larry Levan, then called Class Action to reach even greater hights) etc.
Not to forget that he was just as successful as a lead singer for the fantastic Aleems on bombs like Release Yourself and until this day involved in numerous productions with even more pseudonyms in just as many styles of music.
Another just studio working project from the disco era was Logg who had another hit called You Got That Something.


LOGG - I KNOW YOU WILL (LARRY LEVAN 12" MIX)

Robert Owens

Having been hunting after this 12" for a long period of time I finally managed to get myself a copy of this classic house tune on Trax Records. Robert Owens outstanding voice which surely is still in everybody`s ears since last years brilliant Henrik Schwarz remix on "Coldcut`s - Walk A Mile" does it here again/before produced by no other than Larry Heard.
Shout out to my friend Eric D. Clark who put me on this again which probably hasn`t left his recordbag since its time of release.

ROBERT OWENS - BRING DOWN THE WALLS 1986

Steve "Silk" Hurley

Radio Dj in the late 80s on WBMX in Chicago bringing turntableism into house music and a immensly long list of remixes, Steve "Silk" Hurley also brought the genre its first #1 Chart Hit in the UK in the beginning of 1987. "Jack Your Body" hasn`t in 20years lost much of its intensity with its at the time unheard cut up vocal sample. Starting this week on The Chosen Sperms.

STEVE "SILK" HURLEY - JACK YOUR BODY (DUB) 1986

Cymande

And the winner is: Cymande!
One of the best breaks ever and a very thoughtafter compostition puts a UK band on top of my this week`s defintion of funk. As it seems not so many liked the funky intermezzo - I will sure do one again in the future.
A shame this band only existed from 1971-1974 seeing how easily these eight autodidacts created beautifully complex though reduced music not giving the slightest fuck on crossing styles or genres.
The combination of the warm funk bassline and african rythms giving this irresistable groove and then these killer horns far away in the distance - "but its allright!" A trip has started one cannot elude from anymore. . .
Brothers on the slide is a far more slow & sexy groove like the american tracks of the time. Nevertheless absolutely brilliant.


CYMANDE -BRA 1973
CYMANDE - BROTHERS ON THE SLIDE 1974

Etta James - Out On The Street Again 1974

"Come a little closer" as we`re getting closer to the end and the top places of this funky week. This song is by far the coolest girl number I know by lyrics and groove that it has not to avoid the challenge with male dominated funk cuts from the mid/late seventies. Just not made it to win but a solid 2nd place suits it well.

Donny Hathaway - The Ghetto (live) 1972

Taken from first side of Donny Hathaway`s 1972 Live album. It was recorded at two concerts: side one at The Troubadour in Hollywood, and side two at the The Bitter End in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. It features only one song written by Hathaway, "The Ghetto", with the rest of the set consisting of cover songs. The album features some tradition soul anthems, such as Marvin Gaye's 1971 hit "What's Going On", but also Carole King's folk standard "You've Got a Friend" and John Lennon`s "Jealous Guy". Try to take yourself these 12minutes of your time over the course of the weekend. It is if you don`t already know -worth it.

WE'RE ALL CRAZY FUCKING GERMANS

(FUNKY WEEK # 6) Earth, Wind & Fire - Fair But So Uncool 1974

This is of the 1974 album called "Open Your Eyes" which started the commercial breakthrough being their first top 30 in the pop charts - the rest is history.

(FUNKY WEEK # 5) Magnum - Evolution 1974

Philly goes diggin` deeper. Evolution is one of these funky warm hardcore soul weapons.
What a record!! Even if you cannot sing at all join in to make this party :
"Evo-lu-tion what a so-lu-tion ?"

(FUNKY WEEK # 4) Fred Wesley & The JB's - I Wanna Get Down 1974

Funk Week without James Brown? this is as close as it will get to him. Next to being member of several of his bands and even the band leader to this (JB) project, the renowned Jazz trombonist Fred Wesley was fortunate and good enough to have also played with George Clinton's Parliament/Funkadelic and other grandeurs like Ray Charles, Lionel Hampton, Randy Crawford and many more in his long career.
A classic funky dance monster with flying wahwahs, a highend horn section and an amazing drumsound doing its part to get people down on the dancefloor.

(FUNKY WEEK # 3) The Meters - Ain't No Use 1974

I don`t have to think twice when I claim the 1974 Rejuvenation from the Meters to be my over all favourite Funk LP.
I could have picked every song here to represent this masterpiece not only in terms of melodies, grooves, vocals, instrumentation, arrangements and songwriting they also were the tightest playing guys on the planet. The link between these musicians can be heard on numerous of their productions and especially on this mindblowing 12min jam I always favourited even to such Über-Hits like "Just Kissed My Baby" or "People Say" .
the Meters to me are (this is no joke) the best studio and live band of all times
PS: Thanx to my mentor PURE for introducing this to me when I was a little boy.

The Fatback Band - Spanish Hustle 1975

(FUNKWEEK EXCEPTION)
Fatbacks biggest hit is and was "Spanish Hustle" which marks their musical turning point away from mid tempo funk grooves towards their disco and later even rather boring pop future.
A track with emotional ups and downs the steady pushing Roy Ayer`s like groove comes riding in bringing the track to life and fortunately staying till the end. But there is also a needed healing relief from the love boat harmonies in form of a spacey synth line showing the songs borderline syndrome.

(FUNKY WEEK # 2) Blackbyrds - Rock Creek Park 1975

The Blackbyrds were founded in the early seventies by the famous Jazz musician and trumpet player Donald Byrd who before becoming a professor in Ethnomusicology at New York Academy of Performing Arts and Howard University in Washington DC had been playing with illustriousnesses like Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Max Roach and John Coltrane.
When he started to look for musicians for this project wanting to combine funk and soul elements with jazz he had to choose within his students because people his age were sniggering at his idea.
After already releasing the album "Flying Start" in 1973 and track on the "Cornbread Earl & Me" soundtrack in 1975 they put out
"City Life" that featured the outstanding song: "Rock Creek Park" an hommage to the biggest park in Washington.
The song became (and still is) a popular local anthem, not to mention that it's still part of every hot selection at b-boys' parties.
It is the most sampled blackbyrds track:

Ol' Dirty Bastard and Coolio in (In the park)
NWA (Quiet on tha set)
Big Daddy Kane ("Raw '91")
Eric B & Rakim ("The R")
UTFO ("Doin' It)
Ice Cube ("I wanna kill Sam")
De la Soul ("Ghetto thang")

(FUNKY WEEK # 1) Ripple - I Don't Know What Is Sure Its Funky Now 1973

FUNKY WEEKS START ON TUESDAYS
Will be posting some of my favourite classic funk tunes this week - starting with the soulful "I don`t know what it is sure its funky now" of Ripple`s selftitled album from 1973. Many times heard, used and sampled in HipHop for instance Special ED's "I got it Made" and Kid-N-Play's "Rollin", which doesn`t make the original loose anything of its greatness.

America - Raniy Day 1971

Of America`s debut album a song I always loved and shure did Elliot Smith whose vocal harmonies seemed to taken over where their good phase left off some 20 years later.

Post #50 Kid Frost T.M.S - Rough Cut 1984

How lovely can be re-organizing records at home when you stumble across such a goodie. Still don`t know why I ever put it in the I-might-never-play this hiphop record again section : Well,
This was the Electrobeat labels first release and its still a good example for how great Rap-Music was before it got eaten up completely towards the end of the last century. The Hookline together with the cool running bass has even got a lot of deepness to offer if you ask me, quite extraordinary for this raw meant style of music.

People's Choice - We Got The Rhythm 1976

"Cold Blooded & Down Right Funky" is a fairly underated Philly-Funk Dancefloorweapon. Great 1/16th cowbell give it that bounce that even electric guitars cannot destroy. Their previous album "Boogie Down USA" from 1975 already had a great mix of philly soul pieces and these highly dance infective Uptempo Funk cuts like "Do It Anyway You Wanna".
Just thinking if I should take "Here We Go Again" from the 2nd album aswell - feel happy if I did so=essentials (Sorry I am ill)
P.`s Ch. - Cold Blooded & Down Right Funky
P.`s Ch. - Here We Go Again

Temper - No Favors (Dub) 1984

There is no real necessary information on why to drop "Temper`s No Favors" from 1984, But the Dub version is better than the original.

My favourite Simpsons Episode

This is supposed to be a blog to share my definiton of pop history. But I don`t see a a problem of putting a smile on some of your faces with this: Also a stronghold in pop culture. As the days get shorter and colder a direct working antidepressive.

Hamilton Bohannon - Lets Start II Dance Again 1981

At a time when disco already had a tough time facing new sounds and easier rythm structures coming over from Europe that would change the face of Dance Music, Bohannon still was releasing records in a classic disco manner. And he had always been one of the best doing it. Heavy Rhythms, funky shuffle stuff, an amazing talent to pick unique vocalists and his Motown trained arranging skills make his records always interesting and still very dancable. This song was if I am right his most successful one but it was also released in several different versions always with Caroline Crawford`s outstanding vocals - one I had once stolen from me in Praha was a fantastic kind of remix- or semidub- version which didn`t in fact have Dr. Perri Johnson raps but with a stronger emphasis of the clavinet chords, lovely. PLEASE RETURN TO ME

Bombers - (Everybody) Get Dancing 1979

Bombers were one of the many successful canadian disco groups in the late seventies. They released two albums on Westend Records called "Bombers" in 1978 and "Bombers 2" the following year. Even though I prefer their first one because it was far more on the spacey side, I picked their most succesful "(Everybody) Get Dancing" from the also on 2x 12 inch released second album. Prelude had invented this kind of releasing strategy for DJ use which made sales increase immensly. Bombers 2 stayed the bands last release and also the frontsingers Tamara Lorincz and Mack "BC" Jones last conjoint.

Mike Theodore Orchestra - Cosmic Wind 1977

This is Mike Theodore`s first solo achievement after he had been working together with the also very famous Dennis Coffey on numerous Hit records under the name of Dennis Coffey & The Detroit Guitar Band. Both originated from Detroit, Michigan where Dennis was highly credited in the late 60s and early 70s as a guitarist for illustrious Motown figures like Marvin Gaye and Martha Reeves. Mike instead was far more renowned for his producing, arranging and mixing skills so it was not surprising he quickly became an important character in the newly evolving field of disco which was to become the first mainly producer driven type of music. In the year 1977 Mike Theodore was the producer of two of my alltime favourite records that combine disco and Detroit Soul: C.J. & Co. - Devil's Gun and the now here featured Mike Theodore Orchetstra - Cosmic Wind which were both released on Westbound Records (The Label with the truck) and as one can hear mixed by Tom Moulton. These two records mark the start of success for Westbound as Mike was featured the following year on top selling artists like Fantastic Four, King Errisson and the Detroit Emeralds.


Mike Theodore Orchestra - Moon Track
Mike Theodore Orchestra - The Bull