No Messin' Around - Pauline and Bobby

First things first, it’s unfortunately time for yet another obituary post here. I’ve just recently found out that Merl Saunders, who was featured here just over a month ago, passed away last week. Saunders had a long and successful career on both the organ and electric piano, and he will be greatly missed.

Second, I wanted to mention that I will no longer be making the weekly singles available for download as a result of concerns with copyright infringement and blogger removing some of my posts. From here on out, you will only be able to listen to the tracks via the player that is included in each post. Please do not e-mail me asking me to give you a link to download any singles, as I simply will not do it. Until further notice, mixes will still be available for download.

Now onto today’s single, which was released on the Expo label out of Chicago…

Pauline and Bobby – No Messin’ Around – Expo



There isn’t a whole lot of information available about Expo Records, Pauline Chivers (or sometimes Shivers, depending on which 45 you have in your hands), Bobby Jones. Today's selection was written by Browley Guy and arranged by John Cameron. The little bit of additional information I can provide is that Chivers had seen success prior to No Messin’ Around in the form of a duet with her husband Sydney "Bird" Chivers* entitled, Spring, that was released on the Vee Jay label in 1963. Chivers would also see success later in her career with the singles, You Better Tell Him No, Won’t You Come Back Home, and, Tough Stuff, released on the O-Pex label (a later incarnation of Expo) in the late 60’s. Bobby Jones never really had what would be considered success with recorded material, but was a regular in the Chicago soul scene for a pretty lengthy career.

*The track is credited to Pauline and Birdlegs, not Sydney, in the event you go about searching for it

An Hour of 45 RPM Power - The Fufu Stew Guest Mix

I don't know what's happening here, but posts are disappearing like crazy (maybe it's time for me to make a move somewhere else...), so here's a re-post of Vincent the Soul Chef's Fufu Stew guest mix for Trunk of F.U.N.K., An Hour of 45 RPM Power.

Hello, kiddies.

I'm pleased to be able to share this exclusive set of 45s,

handpicked from my collection with you, the faithful readers of

Trunk Of F.U.N.K. This set represents just a small sample of tunes,

some common and some rare, that I have acquired over the past

four years. Some of these tunes I am playing for the first time...

There are way too may people to thank for providing me

with the education and inspiration to continue digging through

piles and piles of dusty record bins which allows me to keep the

decks spinning. Fasten your seatbelts and get ready for an hour of

45 rpm power, chock full of all things funky...

An Hour of 45 RPM Power - Fufu Stew Guest Mix

The tracklist

Song-Artist (Label)

01 Kool And The Gang-Melting Pot (Ampex)
02 Charge-The Mod Squad (Tangerine)
03 Black Frost-Grover Washington Jr. (Kudu)
04 Doing My Thing-Ray Bryant (Cadet)
05 Who You Been Socking It To-The Isley Brothers (T Neck)
06 I Can't Stop Loving My Baby-Linda Jones (Loma)
07 Somebody's Watching You-Little Sister (Stone Flower)
08 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-Kool & The Gang (De-Lite)
09 Misdemeanor-Foster Sylvers (Pride)
10 I Been Hoodood-Dr. John (Atco)
11 The Funky Bird-Rufus Thomas (Stax)
12 Got To Have Your Loving-King Floyd (Chimneyville)
13 Got What You Need-The Fantastic Johnny C (Phil LA Of Soul)
14 (If You're Going To Do It) Do It Good-The Formula IV (Rocky Road)
15 Hey Gyp-The Soul Survivors (Crimson)
16 I Want To Dance Dance Dance-Freedie / Henchie & The Soul Setters (Reprise)
17 Rose Marie-The Dynamic Tints (Twinight)
18 Boogaloo Tramp-A.C. Reed (Nike)
19 You Funked It Up-Gradual Taylor (Queensgate)
20 Let's Go Skinny Dipping-Hank Ballard (Stang)
21 The Cook Out-King Curtis & The Kingpins (Atco)

If you like what you heard, then by all means, drop on by and visit

Fufu Stew for more of the same and then some. Thanks and mad

props to DJ GA for the invite, and know that you have an open

invitation to bring the Trunk Of F.U.N.K. heat to the Fufu Stew

kitchen... Have fun(k) and as always, be safe.

Peace and blessings.

I've Been Turned On - Jo Armstead

I put up this post last Friday, and for some strange reason it was gone today, so I'm going to put it back up and see what happens.




Today we have a little switcheroo from the normal schedule here at Trunk of F.U.N.K. Unfortunately, the real world often gets in the way of one's hobbies, so instead of a delivering a new mix today, I've decided to leave you with a single that will hopefully hold you over until a new mix is dropped by sometime early next week.

I've Been Turned On - Jo Armstead - Giant



Jo Armstead formed Giant Records with her husband Mel Collins shortly after moving to Chicago in 1965. However, she had already maintained a solid music career prior to this point. Jo (a.k.a. Joshie) got her start in the music business as an Ikette for the Ike and Tina Turner Revue in 1961, during which time this group recorded their top 20 single, I'm Blue (The Gong Gong Song). She later moved to New York, where she teamed up with songwriters Ashford and Simpson who were working for Scepter/Wand Records at the time. Her work with Ashford and Simpson resulted in the release of her biggest hit, Stone Cold Lover, as well as co-writing credits for Ray Charles', Lets Get Stoned, Ruby Andrews', Casanova (Your Playing Days are Over), and Garland Green's, Jealous Kind of Fella, to name a few. Aside from forming Giant Records, the husband-wife duo is also responsible for the Globe and Gamma Record labels, which were home to a number of big names in soul.

The Short Stack

For everyone who's been precariously hanging on the edge of their seats, the new mix I promised last week is finally here. Vincent the Soul Chef from over at Fufu Stew was kind enough to drop a guest mix here a few weeks back, so I've repaid the favor in kind this week...

Trunk of F.U.N.K. vol. 009 - The Short Stack

Tracklist

Title - Artist - Label

Funky In Here – Willard Burton & The Funky Four – Capitol
Funky Walk pt. 1 (East) – Dyke And The Blazers – Original Sound
Sophisticated Cissy – Rufus Thomas – Stax
Gator Bait – The Gaturs – Gatur
Hey, Mr. D.J. – Bobby Moore & The Rhythm Aces – Checker
There Was A Time – Dee Felice Trio – Bethlehem
Do It One More Time (The Twine) – Alvin Cash & The Crawlers – Mar-V-Lus
Spreadin’ Honey – Soul Runners – MoSoul
Let It Crawl – Society’s Bag – Warner Bros.
Pearl Time – Andre Williams – Sport
Boogaloo No. 3 – Roy Lee Johnson – Action
Hole In The Wall – The Packers – Pure Soul Music
My Baby Likes To Boogaloo – Don Gardner - Tru-Glo-Town
Break Through – Mike Sharpe – Liberty
The Pearl – Jerry-O – Shout
The Goose – T.S.U. Tornadoes – Atlantic
Philly Dog – The Mar-Keys – Stax
Doin’ The Banana Split – The Banana Splits – Hanna-Barbera


Since I've been away for a few days, I haven't had an opportunity to pay homage to one of the greatest voices in soul, Levi Stubbs, who passed away late last week. Your sweet voice will be greatly missed.

Mr. Preacher Man - Bobby Adams

Although not filed under “the rarest of the rare”, today’s selection has been a long time favorite of mine…

Mr. Preacher Man-Bobby Adams-Home-Town Records



Bobby Adams was a soul singer working out of New York in the late 60’s and early 70’s. His earliest recording efforts feature a number of duets with Betty Lou, who I believe is properly known as Betty Smith, his co-writer on the single Sugar, which was released on Old Town Records out of New York in 1966. Aside from duet work, Adams also recorded a number of solo sides (today’s selection being one example) for a variety of different record labels. Examples of the various labels he recorded duet or solo material for include: Old Town, Home-Town, Bo-Ad, Pilma, Purdy, Battle, Colpix and Tra-X. Today’s selection is a Home-Town Records release (I have one other Bobby Adams release on Home-Town, Love Ain’t Nothing but a Business b/w instrumental in my collection), which was written by Adams and arranged by Horace Ott.

Be sure to tune in Friday for the next installment in the Trunk of F.U.N.K. mix series.

P.S. A friend sent this across, and if you haven't seen it yet, it's pretty great. Crate digging, don't do it

Size Large - Spaceways Inc.

Today's selection is from a now defunct contemporary free-jazz trio that really knows how to lay down a groove...

Size Large - Spaceways Inc. - Altavistic



Drummer Hamid Drake, bassist Nate McBride, and reeds-man Ken Vandermark assembled into the trio known as Spaceways Inc. in 1999, after Vandermark had previously worked with each on a variety of different projects in Chicago and Boston. Taken from Ken Vandermark's website, "The initial version of the project focused on the work of George Clinton's Funkadelic and Sun Ra's various ensembles. Spaceways took those ideas about funk and free jazz and brought them someplace new on the album 13 Cosmic Standards (Atavistic, 2000). During a tour of Austria in the Spring of 2001, the trio talked about further developing the stylistic polarities suggested by the pieces of Clinton and Ra by applying them to compositions of their own. Spaceways followed though on this idea with the work recorded in August 2001 for the cd, Version Soul (Atavistic, 2002). This document expands on the hard funk/free jazz intersection of the first record and includes elements of reggae, "cool school" jazz, Southern back beats, and "new music" abstractions.

Today's selection certainly encompasses all of these elements into a seriously funky groove. Size Large starts off with Hamid Drake laying down the backbeat while Vandermark introduces a saxophone groove that will re-emerge time and again throughout the track. Drake then provides a size-large break that really sets the tone for the rest of the song. At the culmination of the mighty break, Vandermark re-emerges to intermittently return to the original groove while also stretching out in a number of equally funky directions. Throughout this time, the rhythm work of Drake is supported by solid upright work intermixed with sparse feedback/noise from McBride that really aids in pushing the sound of the trio out. This is all, of course, before McBride and Drake tighten things up again with solid rhythm work that allows Vandermark to really get down through the end of the track.

*Today's selection was taken from a CD only release, so don't bother digging in the crates for it.

Bag of Goodies - The Soul Machine

In the midst of what feels (at least in the Midwest) like the first real week of fall, I figured I’d try to brighten the mood with a real jazz-funk groover…

Bag of Goodies - The Soul Machine - Pzazz



There isn’t a whole lot of information about The Soul Machine out there. What I can tell you is that this side, which was written by Leon Haywood (a session musician and writer who played on The Packers, Hole in the Wall), was released on Paul Gayden’s (yet another N.O.L.A. songman) Pzazz label (which advertised itself under the slogan, “Put some pzazz in your jazz”) in 1969. The track prominently features a wailing saxophone, tightly snapping drums (don't miss the break near the end of the track), and an organ groove that’s sure to pull anyone in (maybe played by Haywood himself?*).

P.S. Be sure to tune back in Friday as Vincent the Soul Chef from FuFu Stew is whipping up one of his culinary delights for your listening pleasure as the next installment of the Trunk of F.U.N.K. guest mix series.

*This is pure speculation on my part, as Haywood was known as a pianist/organist in his early days in L.A.