Viola - Little Girl [Club Mix] (2001)

This is a special Mother's Day edition of Dollar Bin Radio. For this occasion, I would like to present a song that has been stuck in my head since I first heard it years ago.

This very soulful New York Gospel House track, "Little Girl" by Viola Sykes, was released in 2001 by the reliable Nervous Records label. This song is wonderful for not only being lush, musical, and extremely catchy, but for capturing a certain motherly nature in its lyrics.

Viola does not approve of your outfit.

Here, girls are reminded by Viola (or insert your Mom's name here) that they are beautiful and strong, and that they should put some clothes back on and win a man's respect. This might not be my philosophy 100% (people with less clothes on deserve some respect too) but hey, mother knows best.

Bobby Bland - "The Soul Of The Man" (1966)

Bobby "Blue" Bland is a legend of Memphis music and one of the greatest Blues crooners that ever was. His rich, soulful voice works amazingly well in just about any genre, and has given him an edge in the industry shared by other soulful Blues/Gospel artists like Sam Cooke and Ray Charles.

Bobby Bland is probably best known by today's youth as sample source for Jay-Z's Blueprint album, and the original performer of "I'll Take Care of You", covered by Drake and Rihanna, and a whole bunch of other people.

The Soul Of The Man is Bobby Bland's fifth studio album, released in 1966 on Duke Records. This album has an intimate, yet spacious sound, and features Bobby rocking it out over all variety of songs. "Ain't Nobody's Business" and "Dear Bobby (The Note)", his duet with backing vocalist Vi Campbell, share the bellowing, pained sound of "I'll Take Care of You", while "Back In The Same Old Bag" and "Reach Right Out" are punchy Rock & Roll dance numbers. Best of all, this album features a really wonderfully minimal, funky cover of "Fever", featured streaming below:

The sound quality is on the crackly side, but I feel like it does the music justice. I'm generally a big fan of Bobby, and though I hadn't heard any of these songs before I found this copy, I feel like this album does a great job of exhibiting Bobby Bland's best qualities.

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Percy Faith and his Orchestra - Passport to Romance (1956)

Percy Faith was one of the premier "Mood Music" composers of the 1950's and 60's, and along with his pal Mitch Miller, remains one of the premier artists in dollar bins and thrift store record boxes around the country to this day (second only perhaps to Barbara Streisand herself). This lingering influence only goes to show just how popular Percy Faith's sound was at the time, and for good reason: the music is dynamic, with personality to spare.

This album explores matters of the heart by way of various European compositions - everything from Waltzes to Tangos, and from French carousels to enchanting Elvish forests. Sometimes the music is romantic in a grand tragic sense, and sometimes in a cheeky 60's Hollywood sense. 

You can do many things while listening to this album. You can wear a leotard and pretend to be a cat, you can kick your legs in the air like a Russian dancing man, you can pretend to have a forbidden love with a member of the French underground, or you can frolic around with a deranged look on your face like Ren & Stimpy on one of their good days. Truly "mood music" for every romantic expression.

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Buddy Miles - A Message To The People (1971)

Buddy Miles (1947 - 2008) was one of the greatest Rock musicians to ever live. Not only did he famously play drums in Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys in the final years of Jimi's life, but he played just about everything else on his own solo albums - on this particular one, he is responsible for: lead vocals, drums, lead guitar, organ, and background vocals. A true visionary. With his combed-out Afro and his skills on the drums (not to mention every other aspect of music), Buddy Miles was kind of the original ?uestlove.

Oh! And he did the lead vocals for the California Raisins!

Also, look at that damn album artwork!! Abdul Mati painted it, along with many of the greatest album covers of all time - such as Miles Davis' Bitches Brew  for instance. 

Anyway, the most important thing of course is the music, and it is worthy of every ounce of curiosity that artwork inspires. Simultaneously funky, powerful, soulful, and totally rocking, this is music of a certain quality that just isn't heard anymore. Here is my favorite song on the record (and one which balances all these elements in a way that gives me chills every time), "The Segment":

If that doesn't do it for you, I don't know what to say. Maybe one more taste of this album art will help.

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Goldie - Crack Kid/Get Funky 12" (1986)

There's not much to be said about Goldie (because there really isn't much information), but all I can tell you is that she was an Electro-era rapper who liked to wear fly sparkly outfits, and who was signed to a Bronx label called Real Def records.

Side A features several mixes of a single she had called Crack Kid, which warns listeners about the dangers of smoking crack (it will turn you gay, or into a prostitute, and you will die on the street!). There is a club mix, a shorter radio edit, and an instrumental (which is quite funky). I've included all three in the link at the bottom, but only because there were some audible flaws on the club mix version.

Side B features a vocal mix and an instrumental version of another song called Get Funky. This one is a more straightforward party record, and it does not disappoint. Goldie's lyrics are endearingly simple, and the beat is so good, she actually takes the time to apologize for it, as if it was distracting. Both versions are included in the link below as well.

Both songs are produced by Robert James, and both feature the self-declared "Human Beat Box King" Lamont "Kendu" James. I can't really find much info on these people either, which is a shame, because they are all really talented. Not sure what happened to Goldie, but she sure was fly.

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Santa Esmerelda - Beauty (1978)

Santa Esmerelda was a French/American group who was best known for their Flamenco-influenced lengthy Disco ballads, especially their cover of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" which was featured recently in the film Kill Bill.

This album, Beauty, featuring the group's second vocalist Jimmy Goings in all his Blacula glory on the cover, fine-tunes these musical qualities into a singular focused vision. The album plays almost like a Latin/Disco/Glam Rock symphony, with several recurring movements that bleed into one another and tell an epic tale of desire, sin, beauty, and passion which crescendos to a dramatic conclusion - the album closes out with a cover of "Hey Joe," so that might give you an idea how the story ends. The dynamic use of Spanish guitar, pounding dance rhythms, bright, punchy horns and string arrangements, along with gutsy masculine vocals and a sophisticated musical and narrative concept make this album a really fantastic and funky experience.

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Donald Byrd - Black Byrd (1973)

Since he just passed days ago, I figured I would be topical in a way my posts rarely are, and share one of my Donald Byrd records. I bought this one at a yard sale from a strange European woman. I also bought The Clapper.

Trumpeter Donald Byrd (1932-2013) played alongside just about every notable Jazz legend throughout the 50's and 60's as a sideman and solo artist, and eventually blazed the trail for Jazz Fusion and took the genre to commercially-friendly places that Jazz purists probably will never forgive him for.

Besides the cool Afrocentric artwork (hey, it's Black History Month! Topical x 2!!), this record was one of Donald's most successful in his long career recording for Blue Note Records, and happens to be a pretty seminal Jazz/Disco Fusion record, so haters beware. 

Black Byrd is pretty much entirely composed and produced by Larry Mizell of the Mizell Brothers/Sky High Productions, who interestingly enough were both students of Donald Byrd's when he was teaching at Howard University. Even more interestingly, Larry Mizell once worked as an electrical engineer, and played an important role in the Apollo space program, as well as the development of liquid crystals, which you are probably using in whatever display you are reading this on. How's that for Black History??

The sound of this album is a mix of joyful, mellow Disco grooves with airy horn and flute solos peppered in to Jazz things up. It probably won't pack a dance floor, but is pretty much perfect for winding things down when they get too sweaty. This is far from Donald's most challenging material, but it conveys such a positive vibe, I can't help but want to remember him this way. 

ENJOY