Groove On 10

This is Groove On Episode 10, where we’re only going to have seven songs. Seven long and fantastic songs. We begin with a hard bop jazz classic, ‘Blue Train’ by John Coltrane. It was released in 1957 by Blue Note Records. Another Blue Note artist was Lou Donaldson, however by 1969 soul jazz was the order of the day when he recorded ‘Snake Bone’.

Jimmy Smith started his career at Blue Note, however in the mid sixties moved to Verve. Amid many the many great albums he made for them that are mostly reviled by purists as commercial, Root Down was absolutely the funkiest. The title track ‘Root Down (And Get It)’ was famously sampled by the Beastie Boys on a track they also called ‘Root Down’.

Staying with funk, but swapping the jazz for rock, brings us to one of several long work-outs recorded by Rare Earth, said to be the first white band to sign to Motown Records. ‘(I Know) I’m Losing You’ is a version of a song that was, like many in-house compositions, performed by several other Motown artists, notably The Temptations. More funk rock follows, with the mind-altering ‘Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow’ by Funkadelic. Turn the lights out and dig it.
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This episode ends with two tracks from 1997. The first is what may be Mogwai’s masterpiece, ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’, a stunning multi-part journey through magnificent guitars. It’s followed by the almost dance-trancendental ‘The Private Psychedelic Reel’ by The Chemical Brothers.