Haul of Records

Traffic

When I was still a kid, I remembered some Rolling Stone compilation album showing vintage footage of a young Winwood singing Dear Mr. Fantasy but with no point of reference, I wouldn't understand the man singing about Mr. Fantasy and Higher Love were one and the same.

The playlist below represents the beginnings of my mixing mid-1960s to mid-1970s soul, rock, funk and pop music. The majority of the list were acts I was familiar with. The Bee Gees, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, George Clinton, David Bowie, Paul McCartney recorded music in the 80s when I learned of them but I had no point of reference for their material in the 1960s or 1970s.

Playlist for Sunday, December 17th 2006
1 Piece Of My Heart - Big Brother & Holding Company
2 Heart of Gold - Neil Young
3 Rock & Roll Crazies - Stephen Stills
4 Mambo Sun - T. Rex
5 I'll Bet You - The Jackson 5
6 Into My Own Thing - Sly & The Family Stone
7 To Love Somebody - The Chambers Brothers
8 Hyacinth House - The Doors
9 Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You - The Bee Gees
10 (I Know) I'm Losing You - Rare Earth
11 Reasons - John Mayall
12 Your Love's Been So Good To Me - Ruth Copeland
13 Politician - Cream
14 Hurdy Gurdy Man - Donovan
15 Funky Woman - Parliament
16 Lady Orange Peel - The Attack
17 My Way of Giving - Rod Stewart
18 They Say I'm Different - Betty Davis
19 I Got a Thing, You Got a Thing - Funkadelic
20 Black Country Rock - David Bowie
21 Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring - Traffic
22 Up on Cripple Creek - The Band
23 Your Time Is Gonna Come - Sandie Shaw
24 Gotta Get Away - The Flaming Ember
25 Don't Mess With Cupid - Buddy Miles Express
26 Jailhouse Rock - Jeff Beck Group
27 Mississippi Queen - Mountain
28 You Keep Me Hanging On - Vanilla Fudge
29 Shake, Shudder - Faces
30 Be Yourself - The Bar-Kays
31 Bluebird - Paul McCartney & Wings
32 I've Got To Get A Message To You - The Bee Gees
33 Hey Joe - The Jimi Hendrix Experience
34 Mother - John Lennon

I had not thought or heard of anything Winwood related prior to that December 2006 night. I went into the record vault for vintage rock and soul records from the period mentioned prior and found the Traffic album from 1968. After a quick sampling of the songs, I chose Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring.

From the moment the song played until its end, I was stoked to find Traffic music and play more on my show.I naturally did both over the last 6 years. I quite possibly found The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys, a grey covered John Barleycorn Must Die (Anniversary edition), Welcome To The Canteen, When The Eagle Flies, Shoot Out At The Fantasy Factory and Last Exit at a Plateau record store that is no longer.I picked up the 1968 album from one of my epic trips to WFMU Record Fair.The only Traffic album that seemed to have eluded me was their 1967 debut Mr. Fantasy.That issue finally got resolved in June.

If asked to choose a favorite I would have to choose the Traffic album from 1968.Ironically it is the best album with all four members, including Dave Mason. It makes me wonder what Mason’s input might have been if he recorded more music with the group.

I played a lot of Traffic music on my show to the point I retired them from my playlists. If I continued to play off their catalog, their music would lose lustre for future listening and I didn't want to lose any of that magic. When Traffic songs re-appear on my show playlists, it would have meant I couldn't have gone any longer without hearing them.

I was really impressed with the Smiling Phases 2CD collection.

I played it non-stop for months until I retired it.

The first disc deals with the 1967-1969 Traffic I know well and love.

I barely to rarely touched the second disc because the songs were longer and did not move me as much.

Anyone that knows me knows I don’t like lengthy songs unless they are serving a particular purpose.

Their jam band direction after 1970 loses me but Empty Pages and the live Gimme Some Lovin’ from Canteen are standouts.

Freda Payne - Contact

I once had the chance to buy Freda Payne's Contact album on vinyl for about a month.

I was not happy to see its accompanying price tag.

All of the winning conditions are there for me. It is a rare soul record by a beautiful vocalist that I would love to spin on the show whenever I can do so.

The Contact album on vinyl costed nearly double than what I paid to have the 2CD compilation of all her music recorded on the Invictus label.
It showed a lot of restraint for me to have not bought the album when I could have. I guess I should be proud of myself for that. It was the NOT having bought it and lining it up on my shelf that got to me.

Days after writing this, I found a copy of Freda Payne's Contact album on vinyl at another store for half of the price of the one that inspired this post. It seems I did in fact find the happy medium after all.

Tiga

I like the music I've heard of Tiga.

I liked his cover of Hot In Herre and was blown away by Beep Beep Beep.

Beep Beep Beep is one of the craziest, busiest and probably best dance songs to come out of Montreal.

Just when you think the song can't get any wilder, there's a part of the song that sounds like steel pan drums bursting through. You can't ignore the song when it's played. You have to take notice.

Respect the Classics

There has been a wave of hip hop nostalgia sweeping social media.

It started as early as we celebrated hip hop culture’s 50^th anniversary.

In November 2013, people are remembering hearing A Tribe Called Quest’s Midnight Marauders masterpiece as well as Snoop Doggy Dogg & Wu-Tang Clan’s 1993 debut albums.

The wave of hip hop nostalgia has not bypassed me. I ride that wave quite often because the current climate of hip hop can be considered low tide.

Discovering that the Respect the Classics series would reissue classic hip hop albums was easily one of the best pieces of news I could hear.

As my playlists can attest, I’ve always reached for hip hop classics throughout the years.

Respect the Classics give me more ideas and options where revisiting hip hop classics is concerned.

I’ll also get a second chance at owning some of these masterpiece classics on vinyl because they hardly ever to never show up in crate digging excursions.

If I had the means or came up with the idea myself, I would have started a movement similar to Respect the Classics myself. Thankfully the wheels are already in motion.

It goes without saying that The Haul of Records blog will always respect the classics by making time for them on DJ setlists, playlists and here in text.

Thank you once again to Respect the Classics, Giant Step and hip hop for making this post possible.

Please make yourself familiar with the link below for more.

http://suitedelight.podomatic.com

Below is a playlist to bring you up to speed. Click here to download.

The Suite Delight 2014-02-04 Playlist:

1. Onyx - Throw Ya Gunz

2. LL Cool J - Rock The Bells

3. Ludacris - Southern Hospitality

4. EPMD - Brothers From Brentwood, Long Island

5. Anonymous Twist feat. Roc 'C' – Suckas Still Trying To Front

6. Eternia & MoSS ft. Joell Ortiz - Its Funny

7. DMX - Ruff Ryders' Anthem

8. Big Daddy Kane - Get Down

9. King Jus & Fresh Kils - Cold World

10. Ghettosocks - I Invented Everything feat. Jabba the Cutt

11. Relic - Loud Enuff Ft. Moka Only

12. Hezekiah - Fired Up ft. Talib Kweli & Bahamadia

13. Master Ace - Music Man (Mic Master Mix)

14. Mos Def - Revelations

15. Cee & Dr. MaD - Another Day ft. Notion & Nox

Shindig

If your memory of The Flintstones is good, you remember that they somewhat spoofed Shindig. 1960s rock group The Beau Brummels performed their song Laugh Laugh.
Hanna Barbera's animation of the band and Shindig host Jimmy is uncanny and incredibly accurate.
The 1960s was indeed a great decade for music and television.
There were many programs a great combination were. For the longest time I thought American Bandstand was the only one of its kind
that I knew of until I learned otherwise.
A Montreal video store had a number of Shindig volumes for rent.
In retrospect, Shindig must not have lasted long if they were able to compile the performances on a few volumes.
Regardless of how long it was on the air, the program provided plenty of classic 1960s performances to peruse.
The soul music related volumes were of immediate inters test to me and thanks to YouTube I can catch up on the performances I may have missed.

Nipsey Russell

I have the rapper Nipsey Hustle to thank for this post. I should check out his music one of these days.

After the seeing the rapper’s name somewhere, it got me to think about the comedian.

I am old enough to say that my earliest knowledge of Nipsey Russell was from seeing him play The Tin Man in The Wiz with Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. As a child, I thought that Nipsey Russell must have been around a long time for them to cast him in the movie. He was older than Michael Jackson and possibly Diana Ross. That was as far as I went with regards to Nipsey Russell.

In the 1980s not too long after having seen The Wiz, Russell would appear on game shows with celebrities. I thought that Nipsey Russell must have been around for a long time for the show producers to feature him on their program.

While digging in the crates, I came across two of Nipsey Russell’s comedy albums. That was my proof indeed that Russell had been performing for a great while longer than I had imagined as a child.

I had never seen or heard any of Nipsey Rusell’s standup until 2012. YouTube provides many vintage clips of his performances and Dean Martin Celebrity Roast appearances.

I Used To Read Word Up Magazine

I stated in an earlier article that my formal and hip hop education were simultaneous. I went from Walk This Way to Walk like a Duck in about six years. Being an energetic, eccentric and excited teen about hip hop, I wanted to surround myself in it, literally. I was in an era where hip hop & R&B magazines were published and for the most part, they were reputable. I took them to be the highest form of journalism back then. Even the photos were National Geographic quality to me. Unlike others who had older siblings for them the learn about music or dances from, I learned the stuff on my own. Magazines, and to a lesser extent videos, helped me along the way.

I’m not sure if the kids of today are as excited as I was to get the newest issues of Right On!, Black Beat, Word Up!, Rap Masters and The Source. Black Beat & Right On! never seemed to cross my path as often as Word Up! or Rap Masters but I checked for them when I could.

Word Up! & Rap Masters were my Rolling Stone magazine. They were packed with posters, crazy with contests and bursting with info on the latest beats. The focus of Word Up! was the R&B artists and Rap Masters dealt with indeed with mid 80s to early 90s hip hop. They were published by Kate Ferguson and I was thankful to her for that.

As young as I was, I didn’t think about planning or coordinating a schedule to know when Word Up! or Rap Masters would be on the shelves. I’d just visit the local mall every week or two and peep for the words Word Up! or Rap Masters among the mags, buy it on the spot if I had the dough, ask the lady to put it aside for me until I had the dough, bring it home, undo the staples in the middle to extract the posters and then re-assemble the poster-less mag to read it. I won’t get into the poster procedure. Some things that go on in a teenager’s room are just private. I’ll say this though. Ever heard of wall to wall carpet? The way I covered my room in posters was literally off the wall at times.

The contests! I entered any and every contest I could. Back then, you had to mail the form from the magazine. I was so hungry to win stuff that I’d even enter contests after the deadline. I’ll never forget the day the postman arrived at my house with a large squared package. I think my love for receiving music in the mail was born that day. The package was addressed to me, of course, and I opened it to see The Alliance's We Could Get Used to This in my hands. I had forgotten it was one of the contests I entered. I play that record on my show up to this day. I’ve never seen that record anywhere. I also won Def Jef’s Poet with Soul audio cassette and 3 Rap Masters t-shirts. I’ve been lucky with contests in my life but I’m convinced they decided to send me some things because I was always entering their contests. Regardless of the case, Kate Ferguson was my lady luck.

As I got older, I wanted my hip hop magazines to have a bit more journalistic quality. Vibe and The Source did that for me for most of the 1990s. I had a Vibe Magazine subscription and remembered receiving the iconic issue with Notorious B.I.G. & Puff Daddy on the cover.

The Source, however, was the source. If an album got 3-4.5/5 mics, you took it. If you loved the artist or album, you burned inside because it didn’t get the full credit you felt it deserved. You still had to respect them for their decision though.

The covers and articles were spot on and even had credibility to spare. Within the last decade, my mentioning The Source, purchasing a Source Magazine or the intention to purchase a Source Magazine has met with ridicule from some of my peers. What a fall from grace. I’ve bought about three Source Magazine issues in that time. I got the one with LL Cool J holding 5 mics on the cover, another one talking about hip hop’s poor record sales of recent and some anniversary issue packed with pictures.

Thankfully, for record connoisseurs and collectors, there’s Waxpoetics Magazine. I look forward to it every two months and have a secret aim to collect all the issues I’m missing somehow someway. I don’t read many magazines but Waxpoetics is one I live by. You can learn more about the golden era hip hop artists & albums, learn about the music & artists sampled and even be up to date on the current music scene. It provides me so many ideas for my radio show and I can’t state enough how glad I am for it.

Before I sign out, I want to thank all the magazines past and present that shaped our lives.

The Souljazz Orchestra

I have known about The Souljazz Orchestra for over 5 years.

I met the band when they performed at Divan Orange a few years ago. As much as I enjoyed their performance at the intimate venue, I felt the strength of their sound was stifled. When I learned they would be performing at the Montreal Jazz Festival, I knew I would have to attend. I anticipated hearing their funky music grooves and rhythms loud among the other spectators at the Scène TD de la Place des Festivals.

I believe I enjoyed The Souljazz Orchestra’s hour-long set the way I was meant to. The brass-heavy sounds were unrestricted and easily could have been heard in the condos, apartments and offices nearby.

There was not much prodding needed for spectators to dance. By the 30-45 minute mark of the show, the band was especially in full swing. Mr. President is the among the first Souljazz Orchestra songs I was aware of from the Required Listening 2 compilation. It was among their set’s final songs with Parasite.

The baritone sax player announced that a new Souljazz Orchestra album will be unleashed called Solidarity.

It was fantastic news to learn that there will a new album from the band in 2014 called Inner Fire.

This blogger will now announce that there will be a great deal of The Souljazz Orchestra music played on The Suite Delight radio show in weeks to come.

The Suite Delight new time slot is Tuesday morning 2-3am EST on www.ckut.ca & 90.3 FM.

If you haven't already, please make yourself familiar with the link below for more of your favorite show and mine.

Below is a podcast to bring you up to speed. Click here to download it and more.

The Suite Delight - April 15, 2014 Playlist:

1. Valique – Taking Your Seat
2. Pleaser - Bateria Virtual (DJ Enredo Remix)
3. Greenwood Rhythm Coalition – Rise Up
4. Tim “Elder” Lee – Disco Insert
5. Mr. Scruff – Get A Move On
6. William Onyeabor – Better Change Your Mind
7. The Souljazz Orchestra – Ya Basta
8. Ikebe Shakedown – Tame The Beats
9. Kelis – Glow feat. Raphael Saadiq
10. The Clonious – Emora
11. The Boombap Cats – Interlude (Dilla Tribute)
12. Tall Black Guy – Mon Amie De’Troit

The Suite Delight - March 4, 2014 Playlist:

1. Kokolo - Soul Power (Lack Of Afro Remix)
2. Kelis - Trick Me
3. Nickodemus – 2 Sips & Magic (Second Sky & Thomas Blondet Remix)
4. The Souljazz Orchestra - Celestial Blues
5. Fabolous - So Into You feat Tamia
6. DJ Honda - When You Hot, You Hot feat. No I.D. & Dug Infinite
7. Fashawn - LIfe As a Shorty
8. Oh No - Beware feat. Cali Agents
9. Brand Nubian - Punks Jump Up To Get Beat Down (Remix) Featuring Diamond D
10. Souls of Mischief - Good Feeling
11. De La Soul - Afro Connections At A Hi 5
12. Moka Only & Chief - Crickets
13. Grand Analog - Take It Slow (Spaces & Places)

The Suite Delight February 18, 2014 Playlist:

1. The Incredible Bongo Band - Let There Be Drums
2. The Incredible Bongo Band - Bongo Rock
3. Aretha Franklin - Chain of Fools
4. Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway - Back Together Again
5. The Souljazz Orchestra - Rejoice Pt. 2
6. Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
7. Otis Redding - These Arms of Mine
8. Asheru & Blue Black of The Unspoken Heard - B-Boy
9. Roc C - Don't Stop feat. Oh No & Pox Dog
10. De La Soul - Potholes In My Lawn
11. Superlover Cee & Casanova Rud - Do The James
12. Master Ace - Go Where I Will Send Thee
13. Koncept – Aspirations feat. Soul Khan
14. Abdominal - T.Ode feat. Notes to Self

The Suite Delight - January 28 Playlist:

The Suite Delight - 2014-01-28 by Dj Solespin on Mixcloud

1. Chic - Good Times
2. Michael Bloomfield - Killing Floor
3. Otis Redding - The Huckle-Buck
4. The Souljazz Orchestra - Kelen Ati Leen
5. Twilight - Straight To My Heart
6. Madlib - Stormy
7. Poor Righteous Teachers - Rock Dis Funky Joint (On Fire Remix)
8. Black Moon - How Many MCs (DJ Evil Dee Remix)
9. DJ K.O. - Ladder of Success feat. Masta Ace, Wordsworth, K Hill & Phonte
10. Dan-e-o - Margerine
11. Zion I & The Grouch - Trains And Planes
12. D-Sisive - Brian Wilson

Little Brother – The Minstrel Show

I pick up on some subtle subliminal De La Soul vibes on this record.

There was the game show motif running throughout 3 Feet High & Rising and The Minstrel Show somewhat picks up where De La left off.

All jokes and sketches aside, The Minstrel Show is one of the best albums of the last decade.

The Suite Delight new time slot is Tuesday morning 2-3am EST on www.ckut.ca & 90.3 FM.

If you haven't already, please make yourself familiar with the link below for more of your favorite show and mine.

Below are some playlists of podcasts to bring you up to speed. Click here to download them and more.

The Suite Delight - April 29, 2014 Playlist:

1. Darondo - Legs, Pt. 1
2. Jimmy McGriff - The Bird
3. Ziggy Marley - So Good So Right
4. Sola Rosa - Turn Around (Alister Johnson Remix)
5. Anoushka Shankar - Beloved (Thievery Corporation Remix)
6. Quantic Presenta Flowering Inferno - Dog With A Rope
7. Lumineers - Ho Hey (Dubmatix Prince Blanco Reggae Remix)
8. Little Brother - Carolina Agents
9. Zion I - Temperature feat. Talib Kweli
10. Pharoahe Monch - Right Here
11. Ohmega Watts - That Sound (Quantic Soul Orchestra Version) feat. Lightheaded & The Procussions
12. Jazz Spastiks - Move feat. Apani B. Fly
13. Apollo Brown - Hungry feat. Rapper Big Pooh & Black Milk
14. Statik Selektah - For The City feat. M.O.P. & Jadakiss

Frank Dukes

The name Frank Dukes was dropped during a conversation about hip hop producers I should take note of.

I got familiar with Frank Dukes’ music and was pleasantly surprised.

The song that hit me hardest from what I heard was Flawless with Shad on vocals. The song basically proves what the buzz surrounding Frank Dukes is all about. At the same time, it demonstrates once again that Shad is not only one of Canada’s best MCs, but one of hip hop’s best hopes on a whole.

I took to Twitter stating my wish for a Shad/Frank Dukes full-length release. Until that glorious day, I will keep fiending for more Frank Dukes and Shad music.

Shinehead

By the late 1980s, Shinehead introduced me to the fact that the bond between reggae music and hip hop was stronger than I would ever know.

By the time I heard Shabba Ranks, Cutty Ranks and Supercat, I was already convinced of dancehall reggae's value.

With the exception of dancehall reggae of the 1990s, espeically the early genre s, no other of music preoccupied my time, audiocassettes, nmusic collection than hip hop

Peter Tosh

I remember hearing the song Legalize It on a Montreal radio station many years ago and being awe-struck by it. Bob Marley managed to be the symbol of reggae music but had two important band mates in Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh.

My knowledge of Peter Tosh's solo music was very limited until the day I heard his Legalize It song. I knew he covered The Temptations’ Don’t Look Back with assistance from Mick Jagger but had it not been for prior exposure to song, Peter Tosh would have been even more unfamiliar to me. After hearing Legalize It, I wanted to hear more of his music.

HMV was smaller and across the street from its current downtown Montreal location. I saw and sampled the Legalize It CD there one day. Before I got to the last track of the album, I knew I was leaving the store with it.

For whatever reasons, Tosh's 1976 solo debut ranks among the greatest reggae albums I've ever heard.

Tosh's unapologetic defiance was a slight shock at first because it was the second solo song of his I had heard and a far cry from Don't Look Back.

I then remembered Get Up Stand Up and began to understand Tosh was the real militant element of Bob Marley & the Wailers.

After understanding Tosh was not going to sugar-coat or present a Utopian idea of the world though his music, I realized this was the realest reggae I would ever hear.

Big Daddy Kane

Big Daddy Kane came to Montreal, some twenty years after his last visit, on my birthday years ago.

The stars were in alignment on that late March night. Big Daddy Kane was supposed to have performed in Montreal the previous December but it didn’t happen.

When I arrived at the venue, I recognized people I knew in front of the venue. Most of the people there were in my age range and some probably saw him in 1989.

Big Daddy Kane took the stage to an extremely receptive crowd. His body language and dare I write, swagger, made me realize what I missed at James Lyng. I realized a hip hop legend was onstage in front of me. One of the greatest lyricists in hip hop was in Montreal on my birthday! I wasn’t there at James Lyng but I can at least say I saw Big Daddy Kane perform live.

All the classics like Raw, Ain’t No Half Steppin’, Set it Off, I Get The Job Done and Warm it up Kane were performed. The encore was the well appreciated verse from Just Rhymin’ With Biz.

I don’t have too much to complain about other than the show could and should maybe have been nearly 30 minutes longer for my sake. I enjoyed myself as did my friends and others in attendance.

Thank you Kane for the classic hip hop and memorable birthday present.

Thank you to the World Famous Beat Junkies for the mix of Big Daddy Kane classics.

Check it out below!

The Suite Delight new time slot is Tuesday morning 1-2am EST on www.ckut.ca & 90.3 FM.

If you haven't already, please make yourself familiar with the links below for more of your favorite show and mine.

Feel free to request songs and artists below in the comments section below as well as onTwitter, Facebook.

Visit the Mixcloud page to listen and the Podomatic site to download them and more.