No over-drummy, white whale breaks today; just me having fun grooving to an Ultimate Breaks staple and funk 45 classic from Brother Soul. Drums aside, I cut added sugar from my diet cold turkey last year and felt a big difference. My only sweet tooth was for cookies. It took awhile to find a sugar-free cookie that didn’t taste like cardboard or an aspartame sandwich, but these Aunt Gussie’s cookies I discovered are the jam. I keep a box in the house for moments like this! C is for cookie, F is for funkin’!
One time for the great Greg Webster, original drummer and last surviving founding member of the mighty Ohio Players, who passed away last week. I was fortunate to interview Greg for my RedBull Music Academy (Give the Drummer Some) column in 2016 – great spirit, great musician. Greg had a shuffling, swinging style that made the band’s early Westbound and Capitol releases groove so hard. He had a killer left hand and light touch – these things appealed to me early on and continue to inspire me and drummers everywhere till this day, whether they know his name or not. This tune (“Laid It”) has the tricky intro with the accents in free time, which Ohio Players did A LOT of early on. (Peep “Singing in the Morning”). Tempo changes, passages coming and going at a moment’s notice, trading fours in the middle of a ballad…a testament to long hours of rehearsal, dedication (I was told Sugarfoot slept in bed with his guitar) and the genius of Junie Morrison as a key composer. Woodshedding to these albums helped me when I started touring with (singer) Ben Pirani, who used a lot of sudden accents in the live show. Indebted for life to Greg for his contributions and sharing his stories. Here’s me having fun to The Players. Soulful journey, Greg.
Another one of those funk solos on my list to decode, I finally got around to learning this one piece by piece. Like most obscure funk 45s, the players on Tony Avlon & The Bel-Airs’ “Sexy Coffee Pot” I don’t know. If I had to wild guess I’d say they were from Philly, but I can’t be sure. Drummer was likely a jazz cat who played funk gigs on the side by the feel and phrasing, which was common in the late ‘60s. I first heard this on an Eric B. & Rakim album in middle school and thought it was the funkiest thing ever, then Cypress Hill, Kings of Swing, etc. and set this up also as a nod to some of those by putting other elements on top of me playing to the Tony Avlon stems.
January is “do or die” time in terms of the woodshed, writing new material and wrapping up records and endeavors for the year ahead. So I won’t have much in the way of shareable news or content till the Spring. That said, here’s a bit of a surprise to keep the site alive!
Kool Kim (of one of NY’s great early 90s rap duos, The UMC’s) aka NY Oil got hold of a video clip of me practicing some soloing ideas and jumped on it with a complimentary rap verse. And it works! Salute to Kim for hearing something in my playing. More music soon! Enjoy:
* If you’re not into the nerd nuts and bolts of music DNA, skip the long caption below and enjoy the music!
Joe Farrell’s “Upon This Rock” is my jam not only because of all they classic breaks, but the insane guitar work (Joe Beck) and the way Jimmy Madison (the drummer) swung his ass off (check his discography). Whole band smokes. Obviously this song has been sampled a billion times yadda yadda so I cut up the other elements from a few of my personal favorite uses of it and put em underneath me playing through all the different breaks in the song.
This sounds nothing close to the original sonically and here’s why: I always thought the first part (Artifacts section) was a ride cymbal groove but after picking it apart, it’s actually a 16th hi-hat being smothered by the long sustain of a riveted cymbal that was hit on the downbeat before the loop (and probably compressed by overheads). That’s where the wash is coming from, with the harder attack of the hi hat underneath, so it’s impossible to get it exact without a riveted cymbal. I used the ride cause well…I don’t have a riveted cymbal (or one with that kind of sustain) so…dassit. Only RJD2 and like 6 other people on this entire Earth would be fascinated by that shit and those psychopaths are probably following this account, but I figured someone would note in the comments would eventually note it.
P.S. – Also, I get a lot of feedback about camera angles. Can’t see my left hand much here. My bad, I’m not a “content creator” so I never think about that! Not much left hand action on this one anyway besides a few ghost notes in the first part. Next time! Here’s the original tunes in the medley:
Always loved this cut. Musician credits on most these 45s remain a mystery. Picking the solo apart took me a few days before I could play it through despite knowing the record well. Salute the Moises app I used to isolate all the stems. And Large Pro because well…
“Lil’ Mallet” * I have a new album coming out in 2022 called Intoxicated Skull. Jazz-funk library style record – here’s a one of the solo cuts & the last thing I did in my studio before I tore down walls & started reno last week. New beginnings! More info on the record soon pic.twitter.com/GvZvhqxMa0
I have a new album coming out in 2022 called Intoxicated Skull. It’s a jazz-funk library style album with my ace musicians Raff Swink and Pablo helping me out. Above is a clip of “Lil’ Mallet,” one of the solo cuts where I finally got to use the kalimba my mother got me. This is also the last thing I recorded in my studio before I tore down the walls and started renovations last week. New beginnings! More info on Intoxicated Skull soon.
