Programa - Jazz, Blues and R&B

And it’s back to one of my favorite program themes: jazz, blues, and R&B, mostly of the era between 1940-80. At times I feel like an anthropologist, studying the music as an outsider looking in. Growing up white, Catholic and middle class in Racine, Wisconsin prepared me little for my embrace of African American music, but through knowledgeable acquaintances and strokes of good fortune (proximity to Chicago and Milwaukee [site of such as as the Avant Garde], amongst others) it became my go-to sound. As John Lee Hooker once intoned: “If the impulse is in you, it’s got to come out.” [continued below...]

Al compás del mundo - programa #12 - Jazz, Blues and R&B
First Broadcast 5-2-24

01 Eddie Lockjaw Davis - Untitled Blues

02 Sidney Bechet - I'm Speaking My Mind

03 The James Cotton Blues Band - Somthin' You Got

04 Titus Turner - Hold Your Lovin'

05 Sonny Stitt - Me 'n You

06 Mercy Dee - Call the Asylum

07 King Curtis - Free for All

08 Duke Ellington - Blues for New Orleans

09 Magic Sam - I Have the Same Old Blues [pictured above]

10 Lee Dorsey - People, I Wish You Could See

11 Archie Shepp - Keep Your Heart Right [pictured below]

12 Roosevelt Sykes - She Ain't for Nobody

13 Lonnie Smith – Seesaw

14 Sonny Boy Williamson - Unseen Eye

15 J. B. Hutto - Speak My Mind

Whirling Archie

[... continued] Today’s playlist brings forth a solid bunch of musical stalwarts. They don’t form a group of all-time favorites, necessarily, but fill in the blanks of any test procedure looking for honest talent and soulful statements. In choosing a playlist I feel the need to include the work of artists not recently profiled. Keep it fresh. So there’s Mercy Dee, Titus Turner, Roosevelt Sykes, Lonnie Smith, Lee Dorsey, J. B. Hutto and Magic Sam (who died age 32 of a heart attack, apropos of something). Their companions perhaps better known, but all befitting an hour’s worth of show time on Mexican radio and the world-wide web. -JH

Comments

British blues of the 60s y 70s

This has to be one of my favorite programs. The British blues scene gave us a healthy dose of reverential and, admittedly, imitative music that awakened a youthful audience suffering from pop fatigue on both sides of the ocean. Of course, the blues, as interpreted by young white musicians who couldn’t have been much further from the Mississippi Delta or the South side of Chicago, can be considered as cultural appropriation. At the same time, those involved in the scene have reminisced that playing the blues was largely a visceral reaction to a compelling combination of rhythm, lyrics and energy that was distinct from the British music scene up to that point. I don’t believe anyone at the time felt guilty playing the songs of their Southern US heroes. Does it make a difference that a number of these groups went on to earn far more money than the originators ever dreamed of? Probably, though many of the greats – Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Sonny Boy Williamson and others – profi...

Nuyorican boogaloo cha-cha-cha

I’m labelling this week’s playlist as “Nuyorican” music, the lion’s share of the players from Puerto Rico or of Puerto Rican ancestry. Two notable exceptions are Joe Bataan, a Filipino-African American, and Mongo Santamaria born in Cuba. What they all have in common, however, was centered around the music scene of New York City where African American and Latino musicians forged a common ground in creating “boogaloo” dance music, mixing elements of R&B, Soul, and Latin dance rhythms. The boogaloo genre was fairly short-lived, enjoying popularity during the 1960’s before giving way to salsa, in what was largely an East Coast and Caribbean impulse. “Watermelon Man” and ”El Watusi” were early and major boogaloo hits, but truly, most of the titles included in the program were popular recordings in their day, whether cha-cha-chas like Tito Puente’s “Oye Como Va”, or GFyEN’s guajira. I’ve gathered them here for an hour’s worth of revelation for those too young to have heard thi...

Funk and Soul

Al compás del mundo - programa #169, 2-27-25, Funk and Soul 01 The Commodores - Brick House 02 Tower of Power - Drop It In The Slot 03 Parliament - Ride On 04 Sly & The Family Stone – Frisky 05 The Webb People – I’m Sending Vibrations 06 Ruby Delicious - Rock Steady 07 Mandrill - Git It All 08 The San Francisco TKOS – Herm 09 Ohio Players - Fire 10 Parliament - Mothership Connection (Star Child) 11 Kool & The Gang - Jungle Boogie 12 Chico and Buddy - A Thing Call the Jones 13 Little Ann – Possession 14 Lafayette Afro-Rock Band - Time Will Tell 15 Parliament - Ain't Nuthin' But a Jam Y'all What did James Brown mean when he said “we’re gonna have a funky good time”? This “funky” of which he spoke, was it strictly musical (and danceable), or maybe sexual, sociable, or even political? Or maybe a little bit of each? Funk, funky, funkify, funkadelic, funkalicious…all pointing at the pleasure principle…a new dialect for the “blue...

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