Groove On 20
Bella Caledonia’s Groove On continues with Episode 20, featuring funk, soul, jazz, pop and much more. It begins with a piece of library funk called ‘Funky Express (Re-Edit)’, recorded by Duncan Lamont in 1975, that can be found on Music For Dancefloors: The Cream Of the KPM Music Green Label Sessions.
More funk follows on ‘You Could’ve Been a Lady’ by Newcastle’s Smoove & Turrell, a single from 2016, and then on ‘Political Power’ by Hamburg’s globally active instrumental funk outfit The Mighty Mocambos. This track features Afrika Bambaataa, Charlie Funk and Donald D and can be found on their 2015 album Showdown. It’s followed by a cover of Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’, by prolific producer and multi-instrumentalist Shawn Lee, from his 2014 album of pop covers, done in various styles, called Hits the Hits.
‘Simian Split’ is by The Jesus and Mary Chain and finds them thumbing their nose at convention, while surfing a little self hate. So the usual JAMC affair, then, for this track from their 2017 comeback album Damage and Joy.
‘Freedom’ by Beyoncé is one of many killer tracks from her landmark album Lemonade, this one digging deep into a funk rock and featuring rapper Kendrick Lamar.
George Clinton’s Parliament/Funkadelic funk supergroup had a couple of spin-off groups, including the female-fronted Parlet, who recorded ‘Love Amnesia’ in 1978. Ann Peebles recorded many of her important soul and tunes around the same time and those were a direct influence on one-time Be Good Tanyas founder Frazey Ford, when she recorded her 2014 album Indian Ocean. The track ‘Done’ is taken from that album, which was recorded with the Hi Rhythm Section, the musicians who played on those classic Ann Peebles recordings.
A rock-pop sandwich follows. ‘Original Love’ by The Feelies is from their 1980 debut album Crazy Rhythms, a classic new wave recording that somehow merges the Velvet Underground with Krautrock to make a minimal-sounding scratchy trance. The middle of the sandwich is Linda Scott’s million-selling single ‘I’ve Told Every Little Star’ from 1961 and it is followed by the other piece of rock, ‘Kill, Kill, Kill’ by Thee Tsunamis, from their 2015 debut album Saturday Night Sweetheart, a stunning set of garage guitar-laden delights.
‘Work Song’ was recorded by Nina Simone in 1996 and is a version of the 1960 Nat Adderley composition that was given lyrics by Oscar Brown when he did a his version of it in 1961. It is followed by ‘Désordre Musical’ by Les Pachas Du Canapé Vert, a 1972 recording found on the 2013 Strut Records compilation Haiti Direct – Big Band, Mini Jazz & Twoubadou Sounds, 1960-1978.
Next is a deep slice of blue-eyed soul funk called ’Foolish Love’ from the 2013 album In Your Brain by Bay Area neo-soul outfit Monophonics. Three more soulful tunes follow that. First is ‘I Pity the Fool’ recorded by the afore-mentioned Ann Peebles for Memphis Tennessee’s Hi Records, when she was at her peak in 1972 on her Straight From The Heart album. Then it’s jazz singer Carmen McRae covering Tony Joe White’s ‘I Want You’ in 1970 and finally ‘I Don’t Know Nothing Else To Tell You (But I Love You)’ by Monica, reissued by Berlin’s Tramp Records in 2015.
We take a ten minute journey into modern Krautrock, with all-female Swiss band Zayk, on a track called ‘Muskat’ from their 2017 album Durch Den Äther and we stay in the lesser-travelled areas of the musical landscape for the last track of this episode, ‘Don’t Give Up Your Smile Today’ by Das Goldene Zeitalter, also released by Tramp Records release on an album called Peace Chant – Raw, Deep and Spiritual Jazz.