TUFF CITY MUSIC GROUP
250 West 49th Street, Suite 705, New York NY 10019
News: June 7, 2001
On the heels of Night Train's program of New Orleans CD reissues for Jazz Fest come a range of vinyl releases that are even more diversified. Available on vinyl only is the third in the trilogy of the Bosses Of The Big Easy Beat series of New Orleans drummers from the 60s and 70s (which includes June Gardner's "99 Plus One" and Smokey Johnson's "It Aint My Fault.") James Black's "(I Need) Altitude," though two decades posthumous, is the first ever release featuring the brilliant crescent city drummer as a leader. The material is almost entirely unreleased. The album is a tour de force for his brilliant performing and songwriting skills. Black was a crazy genius who's numerous album projects fell apart after a few tracks and we have cobbled enough for a thirty minute vinyl album (we expect a fifty minute CD to be ready for the fall). Featured are "on-the-sneak" songs mixed from multi-tracks from his 1968 stint with Al Scramuzza's Scram label, around the time that Black was powering such legendary funk jams as Eddie Bo's "The Hook and Sling." Extraordinarily impressive are the Scram tracks "Mist" and "Tune #6" that we have mixed from multi-tracks after 30 years of disuse that bring this tortured genius to life with frightening vividness.. Also featured are four tracks from the 1978 Sounds Of New Orleans session that are Stealy Dan-like in their complex mix of jazz and funk rhythms. Featured are Black's paramour "Sister" Mary Bonnette and such highly regarded musicians as Earl Turbinton on horn and David Torkanowski on guitar.
Though already released on CD, we have the vinyl counterparts to Wardell Quezergue's "Funky Funky New Orleans" as well as the Fabulous Fantoms' "Just Having A Party." The Wardell Quezergue album is the first-ever collection of funk productions by the man Allen Toussaint called the "Creole Beethoven" and features artists such as The Unemployed, Johnny Adams and C.L. Blast. This continues our profile of the auteurs of New Orleans funk . (See also Eddie Bo's Funky Funky New Orleans(DEL CD/LP 0021); Senator Jones' Funky Funky New Orleans (DEL CD/LP 0012); Jazzy Funky New Orleans (DEL CD/LP 0022); The Gaturs "Wasted" (DEL CD/LP 0001); Eddie Bo "The Hook & Sling"(DEL CD/LP 0006). This album offers a stellar collection of the unique, distinctive, funk that powered Quezerque's better known productions including " King Floyd's "Groove Me" and Jean Knight's "Mr. Big Stuff." This compilation also contains rarities from various independent labels including Quezerque's own Pelican Records so that little known artists like Denise Keeble and C.L. Blast stand side by side with such luminaries as Johnny Adams and Irma Thomas. As usual with our vinyl releases, this eschews the more mid and slow tempo tracks, that are CD bonus tracks, for more rocking tracks suitable for DJs and those who want to keep the dance floor rocking. Similarly The Fabulous Fantoms' "Just Having A Party" vinyl album concentrates on nothing but the funk. Just Having A Party is the best album you've never heard from one of the funkiest groups that ever graced the bare-knuckled social and pleasure club scene of New Orleans East in the late 60s and early 70s. The Fantoms could have had the national success of such artists as Kool & The Gang, the Ohio Players, Sly & The Family Stone and their New Orleans contemporaries, the Meters. However, due to a combination of bad timing and missed opportunities they failed to get the recognition that they truly deserved. While every one of Tuff City's funk reissues are musically excellent they are for the most part the expression of the styles of producers such as Eddie Bo, Senator Jones and Wardell Quezerque (DEL LPs/CDs 0011, 0012 and 0023) or the conceptual unity of the work by jazzmen delving into funk, a la Jazzy Funky New Orleans (DEL 0022), there has been precious little evidence of the unique kind of funk played by bands whose chops are honed by live performance. With the release of Just Having A Party (DEL LP/CD 0035), the Fantoms join the rarefied atmosphere of the Meters for achieving the "comatose-in-the-pocket" funk groove limited to the few steady working New Orleans funk bands of the early 70s. But as popular as the Meters were, so were the Fantoms obscure and the album "She Had…" collects the extraordinarily rare output of this group for the Big Deal, Man and Power Funkshun labels. Available both on CD and vinyl album, the set by this exceptionally skilled and tasteful funk group will include much previously unreleased material.
Tuff City/Funky Delicacies continues its reissue of the complete catalog of Go-Go legends Trouble Funk (which began with "E-Flat Boogie" {DEL LP/CD 0030}) with the release of "Funkin' The Classics," a collection of previously unreleased covers of 70s classics. "Funkin' The Classics" reveals Trouble Funk at its very best. It is a collection of prime material form the group's heyday in the early 80s. It features a cover of Kool & The Gang's "Funky Stuff," a funky send-up of the Charlie Daniel's Band classic "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" (reworked as "The Devil Went Down To D.C.") and the Average White Band's "Cut The Cake." A CD counterpart with a several bonus track will be available within a month. Other Trouble Funk reissues coming in early spring 2001 will feature more vintage rarities as well as a release that will anthologize the go-go groups that constitute Trouble Funk's musical family: Chuck Brown & the Soul Searchers, Slim, and Hot & Cold Sweat. Trouble Funk first achieved popularity in the late 70s and is often credited as the missing link between funk and hip-hop. The group became quite popular with their groove-oriented, swinging, funk instrumental driven, D.C-specific laid back yet hard charging brand of funk called "go-go" and remained popular through two generations. First with their club-going peers for whom they churned out hit after local hit through the late 80s and next with the hip hop generation, who from Boogie Down Productions to Will Smith, sampled Trouble Funk to bolster their hit making potential.
While New Orleans was ablaze with funk both old and new, at this years Jazz Fest, to which Funky Delicacies added fuel to the fire, it was with good ol' Rock 'N Roll and Rhythm & Blues that Night Train made an equally powerful impression. Three CDs culled from the vaults of the Morgan City, Louisiana-based Drew Blan label, enhanced the reputation of Night Train's"Legendary Labels of Louisiana" series. (See also The Best of Sapphire (NTI CD 7026); The Best of Hermitage (NTI CD 7044); The Best of Scram (NTI CD 7046); The Best of Meladee (NTI CD 7077); and The Best of Spinett (NTI CD 7086). The first CD, Jerry Raines: "Dangerous Redhead" (NTI CD 7105), is a sumptuous 25-30 track anthology of an excellent rock'n'roller whose work we feel favors comparably to the Jerry Byrne recordings on Specialty. Featuring a combination of Raines' band The Vikings, augmented by the cream of New Orleans musicians from Mac "Dr. John" Rebennack to Lee Allen and Earl Palmer, Raines' album is a cornucopia of grade-A Rhythm & Blues-driven New Orleans Rock'n'Roll. The album traces Raines' career through the '70s via a series of recordings from tiny labels that maintained Raines' style as an ever-rocking Louisianian. The Jerry Raines CD is followed by an anthology, "The Best of Drew Blan" (NTI CD 2007). Featuring recordings by Earl King, Jay Nelson, Skinny Dynamo, Peter Buck and the Dondoliers, and Wayne and the Velvetones, "The Best of Drew Blan"offers a valuable addition to an all-too limited body of existing recordings made in the holy temple of Louisiana music of that period: Cosimo Matassa's J & R Recordings. "The Best of Drew Blan," limited to the late '50s and early '60s, is a cornucopia of rare and unreleased recordings from this label that took advantage of the precious opportunity afforded by Cosimo patrons to have their recordings buttressed by the cream of New Orleans session musicians like Harold Batiste's AFO Executives. Swamp-rockers like Jay Nelson, R&B cats like Peter Buck, and Mar-Keys-type bandleaders like Wayne and the Velvetones all combine to make "The Best of Drew Blan" a spectacular panorama of late '50s / early '60s Louisiana rock'n'roll music. Both Drew Blan reissues feature previously-unpublished photos along with comprehensive liner notes by Offbeat contributor Mike Hurtt.
Night Train made perhaps its most exotic contribution to the legacy of New Orleans music with its most lavish production ever. Though budget priced, Cousin Joe "The Complete Recordings" offers a coffee table-like presentation with three individually wrapped CDs and a 16 page booklet and "bow and ribboned" in a wraparound cardboard slip case. Cousin Joe was so world renown in his 50-year career as an entertainer that some forget how essentially of and from New Orleans he was. Progressing from impromptu street corner gigs in the 20s to shows at New Orleans' Famous Door and other clubs, he was associated with Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday, and Leonard Feather and shared billings with Cleanhead Vinson, Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillespie, Sidney Bechet, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone and B.B. King. This 3 CD set is the most comprehensive collection of his material ever available covering his entire recorded output of singles and includes the classics "Boxcar Shorty," "Bad Luck Blues" and "Living On Borrowed Time."
Tuff City returns to the deepest roots of Rhythm & Blues, plumbing it's Swing Time catalog to commemorate last year's passing of Rhythm & Blues Hall of Famer Lowell Fulson. Mean Old Lonesome Blues (NTI CD 7110) supplements earlier releases such as Sinner's Prayer (NTI CD 7011) and Everyday I Have The Blues (NTI CD 7007), with 23 rare and unreleased recordings, shedding more light on the pioneering singer/songwriter/guitarist. This is a proud addition to the collection of reissues on Night Train by Rhythm & Blues Pioneer Award-winners Charles Brown, Mabel Scott, Huey Smith, Johnny Otis and Jimmy Witherspoon.
Also Noteworthy...
New on
CD! - Andre Williams'
Rib Tips & Pig Snoots (STS CD 6345), the R&B legend's rare &
unreleased tracks from the '60s. The Boston Phoenix describes this collection
as "soul food novelties in the tradition of 'Greasy Chicken'…unleashing
hard, fatback funk with massive breakbeat potential and the same sly, wiry
tenaciousness that marked his early work." Titles like "Rib Tips", "Chicken
Thighs", "Do It", "Loose Juice" and "Sweet Little Pussycat" leave little
to the imagination, and much to motivate your dancing feet. With three CD
bonus tracks including an unreleased Andre Williams Christmas song, in which
Andre gives shout-outs to Flip Wilson, Bill Cosby and "all those good-lookin'
school-teachin' gals". On Soul-Tay-Shus Records. Also available on
LP (STS LP 6345).
Stuff To Look
Out For!!
Tuff City will shortly make an exciting announcement
about upcoming editions to its Funky Delicacies catalog with anthologies
devoted to the Midnight Movers, the Chicago soul funk band spunoff from
Wilson Picket in the 60s. Also the unreleased Andre Williams masterpiece
"Whip Your Booty" by the Velvet Hammer which combines sweet windy
city harmony with doped out P-funkiness.
Joe Barry:"Been Down That Muddy Road" (USA CD 8600) continues to be a work in progress. Consisting of all-new recordings, the album could not possibly have been realized without the technological advances of the past couple of years. Barry, as fans of our reissue ("I'm a Fool To Care: The Complete Recordings" NTI CD 2003) will recall, was a worldwide pop star in the early '60s who did everything Elvis Presley did but die. Hampered for almost 20 years by heart and lung trouble, Barry retired some seven or eight years ago to his home in Cutoff, La. on the Bayou's edge to live in retirement. However, buoyed by the reaction to Night Train's anthology of his works which Billboard called "monumental", Barry has taken to writing new material which reflects a new stage of his life: that of a man with Lightning Hopkins-like richness of life's experience, yet who is also a rare Louisianian who can move effortlessly between the chaos of the French Quarter and the peace of the Bayou. Background tracks are being done by the excellent and underrated Louisiana group Blue-Eyed Soul, who are known for their Jazzfest appearances backing up Jean Knight and Ernie K-Doe.