FORT WELLINGTON SOUNDSYSTEM PODCAST VOLUME 1

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Fort Wellington Soundsystem Podcast Vol 1. El Cabildos, El Chicano, Fatback, Steve Spacek, J-Dilla, James Carr, Eddie and Ernie, Barbara Lynn, Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, Curtis Mayfield, Major Lance, Eddie Bo, Roger and the Gypsies, JD McPherson, The Blentones, Les McCann, Ray Barretto, Har-You Percussion Group, Tim Maia and more. Cheers.

CHICAGO SOUL BREAKS

Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions - We're a Winner - A real uplifting springtime joint from the undisputed king of Chicago Soul, Curtis Mayfield. This tune is one of those rare treasures where all of the elements work perfectly together to create a perfect jewel of sound. The slack jazz guitar, vibes, crowd vocals, syrupy bass, and the tub thumping drums combine to create something of pure beauty. This track also represents the beginning of the "message" music that Mayfield would embrace in the later half of the 1960s. Mayfield grew up in Chicago and was well aware of the injustices and brutality of racism, and he used his voice to help those around him strive for something better. This tune is all about working for equality at a time of immense change, and Mayfield's words and voice bring that message home.

Young Holt Unlimited - Hey Pancho - A funky little soul strutter from the Young Holt Unlimited. Young Holt created some of the most iconic Chicago soul music ever recorded, scoring huge hits with tunes like "Whack-Whack" and "Soulful Strut". The group began as a trio and played funky, cabaret style piano grooves that were popular in the Chicago's many cocktail lounges in the early 1960s. Organ and piano trios were the staple of the Chicago lounge scene, and The Young Holt Trio, and Ramsey Lewis were the kings of the genre. On this track the Holt gets pretty funky for their album of Curtis Mayfield composed Superfly covers. The track is a loose, funky soul number with hard electric piano, drums and a fierce groove. The Holt was getting a bit long in the tooth when this was recorded, but these old cats played the funky new stuff with confidence and hustle.

Major Lance - Um Um Um Um Um Um  - This tune is the quintessential Chicago soul number. Cut in 1964 for the Okeh label, the track was penned by Curtis Mayfield and delivered by Major Lance. From the beginning bass drop in the first measure of the tune, a slinky mood is set, and it doesn't relent throughout the two minute masterpiece. Mayfield's loose, funky guitar style can be heard throughout the track, and the latin percussion and jazz influenced horns in the bridge scream Chicago. In the early sixties, immigrants from Latin America were just beginning to migrate to midwestern industrial centers like Chicago, and as they came, they brought with them fierce rhythms and percussive elements. This tune incorporates those rhythms and layers them with the Chicago blues and jazz feel that was popular at the time. While the music is impeccable and lovely, this tune's message is kind of radical for a pop number. This is a tune about an old cat who is still taken aback by the beauty of a fine female, and a young man who is just beginning to understand what romance is all about. This is a song about sex for sure, but it's also about wisdom, understanding, and how somethings in life just never change.

Starting on Saturday, February 26, those interested in hearing some real soul, funk, rocksteady, ska, dub, jazz, and latin joints should make it down to Orbit Room on California Ave. in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood. The Fort Wellington Sound System will be starting a soulful residency in the space, and providing dusty hot classics for dancing and drinking.

SHOW STOPPERS : BLACK BIKER FUNK

Chicago is a city known for its blue collar roots, its music, and its strangeness. It is also one of the most culturally divided cities in the United States, and because of its unfortunate divisions, it has given birth to some fairly eccentric musical combinations. In the late 60’s blues had turned into rock and roll, soul was either raunchy or polite, and funk was just beginning to bubble to the surface. Chicago had its share of soul and funk acts with artists like Curtis Mayfield and Alvin Cash shaking up things up across state lines. Chicago also had a healthy garage rock scene filled with white kids sporting page boy haircuts and new Fender guitars. These musical styles collide like a three car pile up on a little known Chicago funk compilation called Chains and Black Exhaust. Released on the Memphix label in 2002, this rare compilation captures an interesting time in midwestern music, and blazes through some of the deepest funk rock joints ever recorded.

The compilation is the work of record collector Dante Carfugna, and every track is taken from Carfugna’s deep 45 rpm record crates. Each track is a gem of strange fuzzed out psychedelic guitar, hard as nails drums, and vocals about wine, women, drugs, and tribulation. The mix of tunes highlights Chicago at its meanest, blackest, and funkiest. The tune “Yeah, Yeah” by the group Blackrock captures the compilation’s ethos perfectly, with its haunting introductory chant, menacing piano, soul guitar and pounding syncopated drums. Other tunes like, “Corruption’s the Thing”, by Creations Unlimited, highlight the vibrant psychedelic rock scene that was happening in Chicago’s far flung neighborhoods. More than a few of the tracks borrow from other midwestern bands like Grand Funk Railroad and The MC5, but the aggression and psychedelia is dipped in a thick soulful sauce that is pure Chicago. Some of the artists in this collection are not Chicago natives, but the sounds they produce represent Chicago's grimy, work a day shuffle perfectly.

Word on the street is Carfugna gave up record collecting a few years back, and has since gone down the proverbial straight and narrow path. Thankfully, he dug into his crates and gave the world Chains and Black Exhaust before he felt it was time to get out of the game - The world is better for it.

CHICAGO BREAK BREAK

Chicago breakbeats from the city of big shoulders. Put some Midwestern swag in your bag. Enjoy!

Porter Records / Eclectic Sounds

Music is a diverse and dense universe, crowded with divergent sounds and artistic interpretations. It takes a good record label to sift through the plethora of sounds and give life to important works of art. Porter Records, a small upstart created in 2007 by a record collector with a passion for sound, is turning out to be one of the most unusual and creative labels running. The label's variety of music is staggering, and label owner, Luke Mosling, is dedicated to keeping the variety flowing in the years to come. Currently, the label releases everything from hip hop, reggae, free jazz, soul, and experimental electronic. While eclectic, the music on Porter records is never elitist or confounding. If anything, Porter gives listeners the unique chance to experience a wide variety of sound in a context that is accessible and understated. The label also has a unique design aesthetic, reminiscent of the well branded packaging from labels like Blue Note and Impulse in the 1960s. Each Porter Records release has a distinct visual presentation, which helps the label stand out in a saturated market.

Mosling runs Porter Records as a one-man-band, and he views the label as an extension of his diverse record collection. In the next year, Mosling plans on putting out a host of rare-reissues and new releases featuring everything from organic hip hop groups to ambient electronic artists. The label also plans to reach into the global music community and release jazz and experimental music from Europe and Australia.

For information on Porter Records and its upcoming releases, visit http://www.myspace.com/porterrecords.


When Porter Records artist The Misled Children remix Dr. Dre and Snoop- it's a wacky affair.

BREAK BREAK

The first cut is entitled "Tramp" by Lowell Folsom. This funk-blues joint first appeared on a 45" single in 1965 on the Kent record label. The track was a hit on the R&B charts and was later recorded by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas. This track has been sampled numerous times, and the staccato guitar and drum intro still sounds fresh today. Yes, Cypress Hill sampled this song, but screw it, it's a great hook. Kill a man if you must.

The second track, EJI, was recorded by the Whitefield Brothers and appeared on a 45" single released by Soul Fire Records in 2002. This tracked can also be found on the LP In the Raw. The Whitefield Brothers are the J.D. Salingers of raw funk. Don't expect to see them play live or conduct interviews, they are a band of funky vapors.

The third track in this trio is something a little bit rare, strange, and yes, French. The track is called Troupeau Bleu by the French jazz/funk band Cortex. Yes, the French can pull off some serious Brazilian flavored jazz/funk. I'm not familiar with Cortex, except for the fact that they make me want to throw out my underwear and refrain from showering. Funky.

BREAK BREAK

On a cold Saturday afternoon, sometimes it's nice to sit back and listen to some classic breakbeats. Those interested to know what a breakbeat is can Wikipedia it up.

A Piece of Plastic with a Hole

What the hell is genius? “A little piece of plastic with a hole?”
If you are unfamiliar with the production work of J-Dilla, you are missing out on a legacy that is both insane and brilliant. This is a man who could create musical soundtracks with layers of simplicity and unusually crunchy funkiness. His work is revered by most modern day hip hop producers, and I have even heard the notoriously bombastic Busta Rhymes get choked up when discussing the man’s talents. The interesting thing about Dilla is that he liked to play around. He was a prolific experimenter and his sketches are still out there, in the world, waiting to be put to vinyl. One of these sketch collections, released by Stones Throw Records in 2006, entitled Donuts, exemplifies Dilla’s penchant for insane creativity. Donuts is really just a collection of digitally chopped up soul, funk, doo-wop, and rock records, with a limited amount of sound effects and tampering. The record illustrates the genius of a man having a love affair with music history and the possibilities of a sampling.

A perfect example of Dilla’s production style and sketch technique resides within the tune “Workinonit.” The tune is a re-contextualized version of the British pop band 10cc’s song “Worst Band in the World.” The tune is a funny, sardonic, minimal attack on the modern music industry. For Dilla, the tune is sample rich, with tough funk drums, an echo filled bass groove and vocal stabs ready for the plucking. Dilla’s genius is the fact he identified the song as being great sample material. Anyone can hear a sample in a Roy Ayers groove, or a James Brown vamp, but to find a potential banger in a goofy, one off single, by a fluffy British pop band- that is quite another thing altogether. Dilla’s ears were golden and if more of his uniquely off the wall sketches see the light of day, the game will be better for it.

What the F*$k is the Lowdown?

In 1976, at the peak of disco's cross-over success, pop-r&b vocalist Boz Skaggs recorded '"Lowdown" for his album Silk Degrees. The tune is an elegant proto-disco vamp with a thumping bass line and locked groove that highlights a lovely flute melody and Skagg's weird wedding singer/blue eyed soul vocals. The track was widely acclaimed on the disco infused pop charts of the late 70s and won a grammy for the best R&B song of 1976.

Anyone who has heard "Lowdown" knows that it is a strange, rare piece of American pop music. I recently djed a cocktail party filled with thirty something intellectuals, and when the opening bass-drum-keyboard intro came coursing through the speakers, a few stiff necks began nodding to the beat. Everyone at this strange party had a different taste in music, but this one song connected each person to a very weird moment in time. A time when disco and classic rock were making out in the panel van of pop music. It was a time when a guy, looking like a cross between a mailman and one of your dad's bowling buddies, could croon about a loose woman over a terse funk groove and create a timeles track of pure swagger. I have never been able to put my finger on why this tune is so universally accepted and enjoyed. I have played it at parties filled with trendy hip hop kids, metal heads, disco snobs, and jaded hipsters, and I've never heard a complaint. The strange thing about "Lowdown" is how it comes so close to failure, yet succeeds. Mixing disco, with blue-eyed soul, Phillie-strut, synth strings, and classic rock guitars sounds like something I would play to get a terrorist out of a cave. When all these insane elements are combined, what you're left with is a musical anomaly- the universally appealing tune.

Pull the "Lowdown" out at your next soiree and see if there is a sad face among the dancing horde. Not since Michael Jackson had skin the color of Swiss Miss has a piece of music caused so many heads to nod.