Breakdown: February 5th on KPFK’s Melting Pot

Even though I’m a big sports fan, I didn’t mind hositng the show on Super Bowl Sunday yesterday. If I hadn’t done the show, I wouldn’t have been able to pay tribute to Don Cornelius or been able to bring in Adrian Younge for a guest DJ set and interview. I recently just said quite a lot on Don Cornelius, but what I wanted to do in the tribute was to give some of the flavor of the show, especially in those early truly groundbreaking days. So you hear a little bit of the Soul Train Gang talking to the artists, incredible performances exclusively done for the show from James Brown, Bill Withers and Aretha Franklin and can hear the soul clap and party atmosphere of the Soul Train Line as Graham Central Station’s “Release Yourself” plays in the background. Most of all you hear Don Cornelius’ voice and his signature closing wishing us all “Love, Peace and Soul.”

The whole second hour is given over to an amazing guest DJ set mixed live at the station earlier in the week by Adrian Younge, who also sits in to discuss his new album Something About April (Separate Post Coming). In between there’s also a few new tunes, from Lee Fields, Ana Tijoux, The One & Nines as well as classic material from Syl Johnson, Rebirth and J Dilla (celebrate Dilla Day, his birthday on the 7th, by playing your favorite Dilla tunes). Next week it’s fundraising time and we’ll have a pretty cool music sweepstakes for my show, until then enjoy this week’s show.

Melting Pot on KPFK #74: First Hour
Melting Pot on KPFK #74: Second Hour

Playlist: 02-05-2012

{opening theme} Booker T & the Mgs – Melting Pot – 7” (Stax)

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Don Cornelius Tribute Set:
James Brown – Super Bad – Best of Soul Train DVD (Time Life)
Bill Withers – Use Me – Best of Soul Train DVD (Time Life)
Graham Central Station – Release Yourself – Best of Soul Train DVD (Time Life)
Aretha Franklin – Rock Steady – Best of Soul Train DVD (Time Life)

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Syl Johnson – Different Strokes – 7” (Twilight)
The One and Nines – Make It Easy – 7” (Cotter)
Lee Fields & the Expressions – Faithful Man – Faithful Man (Truth & Soul)
Ana Tijoux – El Rey Solo – La Bala (Nacional)

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Boogaloo Assassins – No No No – Single (Self-released)
Rebirth Brass Band – Let’s Go Get ‘Em – Rebirth of New Orleans (Basin Street)
Sureshot Symphony Solution feat. The Mighty Pope – Mr. Fortune & Fame – 7” (Self-released)
J Dilla – Anti-American Graffiti/Geek Down – Donuts (Stones Throw)

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Adrian Younge – Guest DJ Set & Interview – Recorded Live At KPFK (KPFK Archives)

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Adrian Younge & Venice Dawn – It’s Me – Something About April (Wax Poetics)

Five for Don Cornelius…RIP

"...in parting we wish you love, peace and soul!"

Legendary broadcaster Don Cornelius passed away earlier this week. I’m not sure there’s a way to adequately measure the impact of Don Cornelius and his creation Soul Train on post-1960s culture. Soul Train currently reigns as the longest running “first-run” show, broadcast continuously from 1971 to 2006, 35 full years, documenting so much American cultural history during that time that it boggles the mind. Personally, I spent most of my youth watching Soul Train on Saturday mornings and afternoons, I’m pretty sure most of my sensibilities as a dancer came to me from watching the show, as was the case for millions of people watching the “Soul Train Gang” and later “The Soul Train Dancers” do their thing.

Growing up in the 1980s, I only really knew the 1980s version of Soul Train. It wasn’t until years later that I discovered the absolute treasure trove of material from the show in the early 1970s. My wife and I were visiting some of my family in Atlanta, up late at night (which wasn’t late at night for us, since we were still on west coast time) when flipping through the channels we happened upon a live performance from Al Green. The experience was shocking for me, both because the performance was so amazing and because I hadn’t had any idea just how good the early Soul Train was. When you look at the list of all the artists who made their way down to the show, many of them playing live, it’s just extraordinary, just so much dynamite soul.

What also was fascinating about the show was just the simple fact of representation, by which I mean, Soul train didn’t try to do too much, it just showed the artists and the people getting down as they were. The dancers were mostly just local kids with serious style. They weren’t professionals, though many of them became professionals. When artists came on, these regular black folks got to ask the kind of questions regular people would have loved to have asked their heroes. When you think about the kinds of images that American culture often used to represent Black culture, what Soul Train did to humanize and normalize blackness is nothing short of revolutionary. That’s why I’m thankful to have grown up when I did, to see the show when it ran, and that now so many of those classic episodes are much more readily available. Below are some of my favorite moments from what’s available online. Thank you Don Cornelius and all the Soul Train gang…may you rest in love, peace and soul!

Honorable Mention: Afro-Sheen Commercials

As Questlove makes note, the Soul Train gang produced these spots and as corny as they may seem, it’s pretty special considering how rare it would have been in 1972 to have had ANY representations of black people in advertising, and to have these commercials highlight blackness from our own perspective is again, nothing short of revolutionary.

5.  Sly & the Family Stone – Dance To The Music / I Want To Take You Higher

Everybody knows how much I love Sly, and seeing him in this space, with what looks like his band from the Small Talk era (mentioned already as my favorite Sly Stone LP), cooking with some serious gas is like a dream come true. Amazing…

4.  Stevie Wonder Serenades Soul Train:

Just about the most heart warming thing you’ll ever see from one of the most heart warming musicians of all-time.

3.  Al Green with his arm in sling performing in 1974:

This is that performance I mentioned, that my wife and I saw late at night in Atlanta a number of years back. Transcendent to say the least…

2.  James Brown on Soul Train:

This clip is a collection of the many times that James Brown performed on Soul Train. I especially love when during “Super Bad” a dancer jumps up on stage to get funky, surprising James so much that you can literally see it in his face.

1.  Don Cornelius on the Soul Train Line:

Perhaps the only time that Don Cornelius got down on the Soul Train line, to James Brown no less and with Mary Wilson as a dance partner…absolutely priceless

Dig Deep: La Reservacion India – Lo Bueno De La Vida – Eco (1974)

La Reservacion India – Detras Mi Sonrisa
La Reservacion India – Albricas
La Reservacion India – Mi Reconciliacion

This past week I had the good fortune of spending time with Adrian Younge over at KPFK as he dropped by to do a guest DJ set and interview (post coming soon). I’d forgotten that Adrian owned the Artform Studio in LA, and that I’d never gotten a chance to pay it a visit. Artform is 1/2 record store, 1/2 barbershop/hair salon but all soul and a great reflection of the man who runs it.

While thumbing through the stacks I ran into this record from La Reservacion India, a group I’m guessing is from Mexico (solely because the record was made in Mexico and they cover “Cielito Lindo”). As is often the case with latin LPs from this period of time I expected a bunch of rancheras and maybe if I was lucky one slightly rockin’ or funky song. To my surprise, there were NO rancheras at all on this album, instead it was full of classic 70s latin rock crooning with a super snappy drummer and big washes of organ. Really solid material from track to track (though no clean breaks) that reminds me so much of Chicano Batman, I wonder if Bardo and the boys have this record in their collection. Nice to have yet another spot to dig for quality sounds in the city of Los Angeles.

Cheers,

Michael

In Heavy Rotation: The One & Nines – Tell Me b/w Make It Easy 7″ – Cotter Records

The One & Nines – Make It Easy

Pretty rare that I get packages that I haven’t asked for at KPFK, even rarer that those packages include vinyl. So when I got a few 7″‘s from Brooklyn’s Cotter Records, I was pretty gassed. The One & Nines are a big group (11 peeps!) from the New Jersey area who play a nice mix of roadhouse Rock’n’Roll and Soul. They get firmly in the pocket on “Make It Easy” a nice gritty bit of modern soul showcasing Vera Sousa’s sultry singing and a super dirty (musically speaking) breakdown with the guitar and background voices that gets even dirtier late in the song when everybody joins in. That sound is so good it really makes me wish they had released an instrumental of this too. Judging from the band’s website it looks like they are working on a full-length LP for release sometime in 2012. If even half of it is as good as “Make It Easy” you’re gonna be hearing a lot of The One & Nines this year on Melting Pot.

Breakdown: Etta James Tribute on KPFK’s Melting Pot

I’m truly sorry it took so long to get this posted, but I had a problem with the first recording of the audio and wanted to make sure that was straight and clear when we put this up. Etta James was such a fantastic singer, with such incredible range of emotion and consistency over her 55+ year, that it would have been a disservice to post anything other than the best quality I can for her tribute. During the two hours I more or less stick to a chronological order, from her start singing gutsy R&B on the Modern & Kent labels, to her crossover turn when she started at Chess, to her “comeback” with 1968’s Tell Mama recorded in the equally legendary FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals to all her other “comebacks” in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and over the last ten years. It’s amazing listening to her final recordings from last year’s The Dreamer and considering that here was a woman well into her 70s, and still capable of bringing down the house with her voice, style and the emotion expressed in both. Thank you for sharing your talents with us Etta James…we will never forget you.

Etta James Tribute on KPFK’s Melting Pot 01-29-2012: First Hour
Etta James Tribute on KPFK’s Melting Pot 01-29-2012: Second Hour

Etta James Tribute: 01-29-2012

Etta James – The Wallflower (Dance With Me Henry – Etta James Sings (United Superior)
Etta James – Be Mine – The Complete Modern & Kent Recordings (Ace)
Etta James – Market Place – The Complete Modern & Kent Recordings (Ace)
Etta James – Tough Lover – The Complete Modern & Kent Recordings (Ace)
Etta James – Crazy Feeling (Do Something Crazy) – The Complete Modern & Kent Recordings (Ace)
Etta James – W-O-M-A-N – The Complete Modern & Kent Recordings (Ace)

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Etta James – If I Can’t Have You – The Chess Box (Chess)
Etta James – At Last – At Last! (Argo)
Etta James – Stop The Wedding – Etta James Top Ten (Argo)
Etta James – Waiting For Charlie (To Come Home) – The Chess Box (Chess)
Etta James – I Want To Be Loved – Sings For Lovers (Argo)
Etta James – One For My Baby (And One More For The Road) – The Chess Box (Chess)

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Etta James – I Just Want To Make Love To You – The Chess Box (Chess)
Etta James – Next Door To The Blues – 7” (Argo)
Etta James – Something’s Gotta Hold On Me/Baby What You Want Me To Do – Etta James Rocks The House (Chess)
Etta James – (I Don’t Need Nobody To Tell Me) How To Treat My Baby – The Chess Box (Chess)

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Etta James – Tell Mama – Tell Mama (Cadet)
Etta James – I’m Gonna Take What He’s Got – Tell Mama (Cadet)
Etta James – Almost Persuaded – Tell Mama: The Complete Muscle Shoals Sessions (MCA/Chess)
Etta James – I Worship The Ground You Walk On – Tell Mama: The Complete Muscle Shoals Sessions (MCA/Chess)
Etta James – I’ve Gone Too Far – Tell Mama: The Complete Muscle Shoals Sessions (MCA/Chess)

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Etta James & Sugar Pie Desanto – In The Basement Pt. 1 – 7” (Cadet)
Etta James – Sweet Memories – Etta James Sings Funk (Cadet)
Etta James – I Never Meant To Love Him – The Essential Etta James (Chess)
Etta James – Deep In The Night – Deep In The Night (WB)
Etta James – Damn Your Eyes – Seven Year Itch (Island)

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Etta James – Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be) – Mystery Lady: The Songs Of Billie Holiday (Private Music)
Etta James – Body & Soul – Mystery Lady: The Songs Of Billie Holiday (Private Music)
Etta James – The Sky Is Crying – Blues To The Bone (RCA)
Etta James – Cigarettes & Coffee – The Dreamer (Verve Forecast)

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Etta James – I’d Rather Go Blind – Tell Mama (Cadet)

Dig Deep: V/A – Dr. Goldfoot and the Girlbombs: Original Soundtrack – Tower (1966)

Paul and the Pack – Hidin’ From Myself
The Mad Doctors – The Mad Mad Doctor
Terry Stafford – Try My World Little Girl

I’m pretty sure the first copy of this I got at Amoeba Berkeley in their soundtrack section on the cheap, a couple years ago I ran into a sealed copy at Atomic still at the relatively affordable price of $10. Dr. Goldfoot was a thoroughly campy 1960s film that later on became a bit of the inspiration for the first Austin Powers movie. I’d seen the film back when I worked at Four Star video in Madison, WI, so when I saw the soundtrack I picked it up vaguely remembering the music as being in the swinging 60s variety.

Like a number of soundtracks on the Tower/Sidewalk labels, most of the artists aren’t particularly well-known, though Les Baxter does some composing work and likely had a hand in the sessions, and most of the tracks are nothing to write home about. But, the tracks that are good, to my ears at least are VERY good. “The Mad Mad Doctor” is actually one of my favorite instrumental tracks from around this period of time. It’s a great track to start off a night of music, really sets the tone right with those great organ lines at the start and that beat.

“Hidin’ From Myself” sounds like the kind of thing that I’d expect someone to pull out on a white label at a Northern Soul party. Perhaps the vocals aren’t as stellar as they could be, but I love that beat and I’m a well known sucker for some well placed handclaps.

The real surprise on this album continues to be Terry Stafford’s “Try My World Little Girl.” First off I was surprised that Stafford actually had a couple of hits, including a #3 hit with the song “Suspicion” (which does sound suspiciously a bit too much like Elvis). Similar to that song “Little Girl” has a back beat that is at once totally conventional and totally off-the-wall. I’m not sure whether or not that’s a moog or a theremin that’s responsible for the odd sounds in the background of the song and in the breakdown but it gives the track a unique feel that elevates it so far above Stafford’s vocal performance.

If you are a fan of mid-1960s spy spoofs, the film is worth tracking down, if only to see Vincent Price get goofy:

Cheers,

Michael

In Heavy Rotation: Adrian Younge & Venice Dawn – Something About April – Wax Poetics

Adrian Younge & Venice Dawn – Two Hearts Combine

Adrian Younge is the mastermind behind the retro soul masterpiece soundtrack to the retro-blaxploitation masterpiece Black Dynamite! Recently he’s been revisiting earlier work and blending it together with the his more recent material to create the sound you hear on Something About April. The album plays like a concept record focused on the ups and downs of an interracial couple in the late 1960s (for more on the real thing and the couple that made it possible for interracial couples to marry legally in the US, definitely check for the documentary “The Loving Story” premiering on Valentine’s Day on HBO!).  One of things that’s interesting is that in some ways the record itself is a mix of retro 1960s style with post-1990s production, a kind of post-modern retro soul record, if that’s possible.  “Two Hearts Combine” shows a bit of this, like a fantasy collaboration between the Brand New Heavies  and Rotary Connection with production work from Geoff Barrows of Portishead.  One of my favorite records of this brand new year and something, even at this early stage, I can almost 100% guarantee will be on my year-end best of list.

Be Our Guest: Barry Adamson on KPFK’s Melting Pot

Barry Adamson performs at KPFK

Barry Adamson was our guest during what was an exceedingly rare visit to Los Angeles (perhaps his first as a solo artist).  I’ve been a fan of Adamson’s music since the mid 1990s when I first discovered his work with Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds and later his own solo work.  In addition to being a founding member of the Bad Seeds, he was also a member of post-punk/new wave legends Magazine and has worked with David Lynch and Oliver Stone on soundtracks for their films.  Last year Adamson himself became a filmmaker, releasing the short film Therapist, a process that eventually led to his new record I Will Set You Free, coming out in February on his label Central Control.

Adamson performs three songs, “People” from 2008’s Back To The Cat, and two tracks from his new record I Will Set You Free, “The Power of Suggestion” and “The Sun and the Sea,” all on acoustic guitar. Being a long time fan of Adamson I truly was shocked and surprised by hearing Adamson perform his songs in this way. In my mind/ears his music has always had such a dark and often ominous tone, but while the mood is considerably brighter with the use of acoustic guitar, it amazing to me how this simple change magnifies what a fantastic songwriter Adamson is, as well as highlighting his best instrument, that incredible voice. Much more that I could have discussed with Mr. Adamson, but we didn’t have a lot of time, hopefully the next time he’s in LA we can have more time to discuss his career and music.

Barry Adamson on KPFK’s Melting Pot: Recorded 01-16-2012

Breakdown: January 22nd on KPFK’s Melting Pot

Last week was rough and tough, 3 legendary performers passing away in the same week! We paid tribute to two of them on this week’s show, honoring Jimmy Castor at the start, and Johnny Otis at the end. In between we have a little new music from the Dirty Three, Michael Kiwanuka, Neverever, Sonnymoon, Sureshot Symphony Solution and a couple others. At the beginning of the second hour there is an interview and performance with Barry Adamson (separate post upcoming), where we talk about his career and he plays 3 songs just with acoustic guitar. If you’re a fan of Adamson, you’ll likely be as surprised as I was hearing him in this new light. Next week we’ll definitely have a tribute to Etta James…

Melting Pot on KPFK #72: First Hour
Melting Pot on KPFK #72: Second Hour

Playlist: 01-22-2012
{opening theme} Booker T & the MGs – Melting Pot – 7” (Stax)

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Jimmy Castor Bunch – It’s Just Begun – Super Breaks (BGP)
Jimmy Castor Bunch – Troglydyte (Cave Man) – It’s Just Begun (RCA)
Jimmy Castor – Southern Fried Frijoles – Hey Leroy! (Smash)
Jimmy Castor – Ham Hocks Espanol – Hey Leroy! (Smash)
Jimmy Castor Bunch – L.T.D. (Life Truth & Death) – It’s Just Begun (RCA)

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Michael Kiwanuka – Home Again – Home Again EP (Communion/Polydor)
Emily King – Every Part – The Seven EP (Self-Released)
Sonnymoon – Goddess – 2012 EP (Plug Research)
Gonjasufi – The Blame – Muzzle EP (Warp)

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Neverever – Venus – Shake-a-Baby (Slumberland)
The Dirty Three – That Was Was – Toward The Low Sun (Drag City)
Dengue Fever – Only A Friend – Cannibal Courtship (Fantasy/Concord)
Katalyst feat. Stephanie McKay & Buff 1 – U Can’t Save Me – Deep Impressions (BBE)
Sureshot Symphony Solution feat. Coultrain – Chair On The Ceiling – A Good Look EP (Self-released)
Barry Adamson – The Big Bamboozle – Oedipus Schmoedipus (Mute)

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Barry Adamson – Interview & Performance – Recorded Live At KPFK

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Barry Adamson – If You Love Her – I Will Set You Free (Central Control)
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Your Funeral, My Trial – Your Funeral, My Trial (Mute)
Johnny Otis – Cold Shot – Cold Shot (Kent)

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Johnny Otis – Signifying Monkey – Cold Shot (Kent)
Johnny Otis Show – Country Girl – Watts Funky (BGP)
Vera Hamilton – But I Ain’t No More (G.S.T.S.K.D.T.S.) – 7” (Epic)
Johnny Otis Show – Watts Breakaway – 7” (Epic)
The Vibrettes – Humpty Dump – 7” (Lujon)
Johnny Otis Show – Goin’ Back To LA – Cold Shot (Kent)

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{closing theme} Dungen – C. Visar Vagen – Tio Batar (Kemado)

Dig Deep: Freedom – Freedom – ABC (1970)

Freedom – Nobody
Freedom – Man Made Laws
Freedom – Pretty Woman

Freedom started off as a band featuring a couple of the guys who got kicked out of Procol Harem just as the band found success with “A Whiter Shade Of Pale.” Gutiarist Ray Royer and drummer Bobby Harrison formed the group, which went through a slew of personnel changes before and after releasing this, their third record. By this time the group was just a trio, with Harrison joined by Roger Saunders on guitar and Walt Monaghan on bass.

At times, the groups sounds an awful lot like the band Free, but at their best (I guess sounding like Free isn’t really a bad thing) they have this really nice gritty bluesy rock sound that grooves nicely funky. “Nobody” and “Man Made Laws” have that easy heavy rock groove, “Pretty Woman” is a solid version of the Albert King track (not to be confused with the other “Pretty Woman” from Roy Orbison). Shame the group never took off, the playing is mighty good though (predictably) I wish they’d laid down an instrumental or two (or someone would dig up the instrumental backing tracks), but all in all, pretty good music to drive or strut down the streets of a big city on a Sunday evening.

Cheers,

Michael

In Heavy Rotation: Shawn Lee’s Incredible Tabla Band – Tabla Rock – Ubiquity

Shawn Lee’s Incredible Tabla Band – Let There Be Drums

I guess it’s not too surprising that one of our first releases in 2012 comes from Shawn Lee. Dude is incredibly prolific and will likely release 3 or 4 records this year. Tabla Rock is a pretty faithful tribute to one of the greatest breakbeat records of all time from the Incredible Bongo Band. A few Record Store Days ago, Shawn Lee gave us a take of this project, with his tabla inflected version of “Apache,” now we have a track for track recreation of Bongo Rock complete with tabla and sitar on the majority of the tracks. There are no stunning reimaginings here, just a solid homage with a twist to some great music from a great musician with great taste.

R.I.P. to 3 Legends…Jimmy Castor, Johnny Otis and Etta James

For some strange reason, I’ve been holding off on posts this week unable to get anything together. I’m not saying I’m psychic or anything, but when news first hit early in the week that Jimmy Castor had passed away, there was some feeling that more bad news was coming. Boy was that feeling right, with the additional passings of Johnny Otis and Etta James! Unbelievably three legendary soul artists have left us all in the same week. Over the next couple of weeks on the radio show I’ll be paying tribute to each, with short tributes to Castor and Otis this week and a longer tribute to Etta James on next week’s show. For now, I just wanted to say a few words about my favorite tracks from each artist.

Jimmy Castor Bunch – It’s Just Begun

Jimmy Castor had more popular songs, and he had songs that were more sampled in Hip-Hop, but none of them possibly tops “It’s Just Begun,” a song that if you were to survey “real” B-boys and B-girls the world over, would likely top their list of the best songs to break dance to. I can’t break to save my life (I think all the years of listening to free jazz ruined my ability to consistently “uprock” on beat) but “It’s Just Begun” makes me want more than any other classic B-boy song. The rhythm is so hard, the horns so dirty, the guitar so fuzzy, it just kills all competition for the quintessential B-boy jam. The lyrics also make it anthemic, not only for B-boy/B-girl culture but for Hip-Hop more generally, which literally was just beginning around the time this record was released, and remains a multi-ethnic poly-synthetic hybrid culture that has the potential to break down barriers, like the music of Jimmy Castor.

Johnny Otis Show – Country Girl

My best memories of Johnny Otis are listening to his radio show when it was broadcast in the Bay Area on KPFK’s big sister station KPFA. There’d always be a couple of family members and friends with Johnny in the studio and they’d just basically shoot the breeze for two hours, reminiscing and playing classic R&B. It’s the kind of radio that you almost never hear anymore, endearing beyond belief, silly and funny quite often, but informative and swinging when it came to the music. Johnny Otis had a hand in so many classic and funky tracks, that it’s daunting picking a particular fave. “Country Girl” is the song that I keep coming back to from Johnny Otis. Despite the well-traveled, “Tramp” rhythm the song is based on, Otis brings something new to what he’s borrowing, injecting charm into the back and forth about the merits of this “girl” with singer Delmar Evans (including the gem closer, “it must be jelly, jam don’t shake like that”). But it’s the chorus that slays me every time. First there’s that strong soulful shout, “she’s so fine” and then smoothed out and playful “great big ole healthy country girl.” Even that chorus sounds slightly drunk, just like the rest of the song. Guaranteed to put a smile on your face no matter your mood.

Etta James – I’d Rather Go Blind

Irma Thomas maybe the ruler of my heart when it comes to soul singers, but Etta James’ “I’d Rather Go Blind” is quite possibly the best deep soul song of all time. “At Last” is the song that everyone knows from Etta, but in a number of ways that song is an anomaly. Almost too perfect. “I’d Rather Go Blind” is not a perfect song. It’s not a song that likely gets requested at weddings, it’s a song that is about a woman who is unwilling to give up the man she loves, even though she knows the affair is over. The rawness of emotion which James pours into the song is a rare thing of beauty. It encompasses all of her strengths as a soul singer, it’s a gritty, soulful, painful, desperate performance and it’s the #1 song that I’ll always remember her by.

Breakdown: January 15th on KPFK’s Melting Pot

Generally for these first couple of shows in the new year I don’t have a lot of new records to play, but here in 2012 we’re seeing quite a few quality releases in our early shows (perhaps showing what a strong year musically 2012 will be!). Yesterday’s show features brand new music from The Dirty Three (first album in 5+ years!!!), Frankie Rose & the Outs, Ana Tijoux, Lee Fields & the Expressions, Hunx (without his Punx), and Adrian Younge & Venice Dawn. The show starts with a short tribute to MLK, with tribute tracks from Jose James and Max Roach, and in the middle an excerpt from his final speech. What’s always struck me about the “Mountaintop” speech is King’s awareness that the threats against his life were becoming far too real (he was assassinated the very next day), but despite those threats and all he had endured in the past, he had great faith that this nation would one day live up to its ideals. Though there has been at times slow, at other times stunning progress since his murder, we still haven’t achieved his dream. Our work to make this place better than its been, remains to be done. Part of the reason why I prefer to play multiple genres, is that I want to bring together different types of people with these different sounds, to surprise people who thought they were only Indie or Hip-Hop with music they might not have listened to otherwise, breaking down all the little barriers we erect that keep us from each other. Bridging those gaps and bringing “us” together is what this show, every single week, is about musically, a small testament to men and women like Dr. King who worked so hard to give everyone an opportunity to just be themselves, live and love.

Melting Pot on KPFK #71: First Hour
Melting Pot on KPFK #71: Second Hour

Playlist: 1-15-2012
{opening theme} Booker T & the MGs – Melting Pot – 7” (Stax)

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Jose James – The Dreamer – The Dreamer (Brownswood)
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – “I’ve Been To The Mountaintop” excerpt – Free At Last (Gordy)
Max Roach & the JC White Singers – Were You There When They Crucified My Lord? – Lift Every Voice And Sing (Atlantic)

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Lee Fields & the Expressions – Walk On Thru That Door – Faithful Man (Truth & Soul)
Allah-Las – Catamaran – 7” (Pres)
Los Nombres – Todos – Los Nombres (Numero)
Hunx – Always Forever – Hairdresser Blues (Hardly Art)
The Sureshot Symphony Solution – Mr. Fortune & Fame – 7” (Self-Released)

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Echocentrics feat. Tita Lima – We Need A Resolution – Echoland EP (Ubiquity)
Love – Doggone – Out There (Blue Thumb)

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Adrian Younge & Venice Dawn – Two Hearts – Something About April (Wax Poetics)
The Dirty Three – Rising Below – Toward The Low Sun (Drag City)
The Lions – Jungle Struttin’ – Jungle Struttin’ (Ubiquity)
Fela Kuti – No Agreement – No Agreement (Knitting Factory)

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Ana Tijoux – Shock – La Bala (Nacional)
Bright Moments – Travelers – Natives (Luaka Bop)
Wu Tang Clan – Da Mystery Of Chessboxin’ – Enter The Wu Tang (36 Chambers) (Loud)
Sroeng Santi – Nam Man Pang – Thai Funk Vol. 1 (Light In The Attic)

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Frankie Rose & the Outs – Know Me – Interstellar (Memphis Industries)
T. Dyson – It’s All Over – Personal Space (Chocolate Industries)
14KT – Pick Up Sticks – A Friendly Game of KT (Mellow Music Group)
Barry Adamson – The Vibes Ain’t Nothing But The Vibes – Oedipus Schmoedipus (Mute)
Alpha – Silver Light – Stargazing (Nettwerk)

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{closing theme} Dungen – C. Visar Vagen – Tio Batar (Kemado)