"Soul Box Vol Three"

by DJ MARCODEEP

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a Vocal, Soulful & Jazzy House Music DJ Mix

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About The Mix

Soul Box Vol. Three, pulling ten more tunes from my vinyl archive, media used is 7” and 12” singles and one album for the John Lee Hooker contribution.

I opened the mix with Donald Byrd’s second take on Duke Pearson’s “Christo Redentor” as it showcases Byrd’s collaboration with The 125th Street Orchestra and The Uptown Singers. Members include legends of proto-fusion jazz funk, Jim Gilstrap, Greg Phillinganes, Wah Wah Watson, Art Posey, Syreeta Wright and Maxine Anderson, people whose names appear in the credits of all great genre releases.

Bobby Bland, the godfather of low slung “Southern Soul” makes an appearance here on Duke records, Bland’s contribution to soul out of a blues groove is enormous, still cutting discs and performing live with his lifelong friend B.B. King, Bobby Bland’s back catalogue is staggering.

John Lee Hooker neads no introduction, the track used here “Bluebird” is about as close as Lee Hooker comes to soul, again it’s got that “Southern Soul” feel to it, straight out off gospel, hitting on the R&B, jazz influences of the day but retaining what John Lee Hooker is all about, soulful blues. “Bluebird” penned and originally performed by Sonny Boy Willimson is one of John Lee Hookers stand out soulful smokers.

Bobby Womack, session guitarist and songwriter, was told by his then “boss” Sam Cooke to stick to playing guitar. Cooke had signed The Womack Brothers, a gospel outfit comprising brothers Bobby, Friendly Jnr, Cecil, Harry and Curtis to his own label SAR Records. Eventually bringing the Womacks into the secular music scene, a name change to The Valentinos and an acceptance of Bobby’s talent, saw the band score huge success with “Looking For A love” in 1962. That was followed up in 1964 with Bobby’s “It’s All Over Now”, The Rolling Stones cover topped charts across the world.

Al Green, my heart soars at the mention of his name, has got to be the sweetest voice you ever heard, the track here, written by Green, comes from 1970, it’s difficult picking out a single track by Al Green everything he touches becomes magical. So this track is plucked from a pile of Al Green tunes

Steppin’ Into Tomorrow from Donald Byrd is seminal and incredibly relevent, this is the point at which Byrd began his move from full on Bop to jazz funk. This is also the first time a noted jazz trumpet player “plugged in” and saw a future for music only Miles Davis could appreciate .Byrd pre dates Miles Davis in the jazz funk fusion stakes his “Fancy Free” album of 1969 failed to make the impact of ,Davis’s BitchesBrew, recorded months after “Fancy Free”. However Byrd had sown the seed, his later collaborations with Larry and Fonce Mizzelcreated a vibe that still shapes musical thinking, syncopated, polyrhythmic funk started right here

Grover Washington Jnr. has been at the centre of kool and smooth jazz funk for decades. His early influnces came via meeting Billy Cobham, they had both been drafted into the u.s. army. Cobham introduced Washington to the New york jazz scene, it wasn’t long before his career took off. I included this track, recorded in Creed Taylor’s Kudu studios, because of Eric
Gale’s signature guitarwork, along with Bob James, Gale brought a fluidity to the jazz guitar not seen before.

Isaac Hayes had watched a glittering carreer slide out of control, the mega achievments that enabled the creation of his alter ego Black Moses”, movie stardom, immense stage shows and global adoration dissolved in drug and alcohol abuse. The hits dried up and his financial problems became insurmountable. Hayes made a clean break, leaving Memphis signing for Polydor, taking the musicians he worked with at Stax was key to him finding his passion for creation again. This track conjures up familiar Hayes flavours, he leans on his well tried love/sex groove for support and delivers one of his best Polydor tracks.

The Fantastic Four had two styles, soulful ballads and disco. They also had the talents of James Epps, Cleveland Horne and DennisCoffey writng material for them. The band line up, Epps, Horne, Joseph Pruitt and Paul Scott came together in Detroit, the Motor City sound runs deep into everything they produced. The track I’ve used here, recorded at Artie Fields studio in Detroit and engineered by Artie himself, represents an aproach to disco that defies the overt commercial nature of the genre. This is disco funk performed and produced by some of the greatest names of the day

Ronnie Laws was creating his polished appproach to jazz funk in California, recording at Burbank, with Commodores member Wayne Henderson at the desk. This is the unreleased 12” single version, out on Blue Note, and dates from1977. It’s identical in every way to the track on the widely available album “Friends and Strangers” with one exception, the feel within the recording, Blue Note has, like all labels, it's signature sound, it's my opinion that sound matched exactly the explosion of jazz-funk fusion.

Love the groove

MarcoDeep

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[This mix was added on the 20 May 2011]