Willie Mitchell - Solid Soul

WILLIE MITCHELL
Solid Soul
1968
256+ VBR LAME mp3
Vinyl rip & scans from Hi SH-32045

San-Ho-Zay



In a city populated by multiple generations of musical goliaths, WIllie Mitchell was somehow still able to stand head and shoulders above most Memphians. Since his passing this January, there have been many tributes made and obits written, so we'll keep it short and sweet here at SI. I'm throwing this one down mostly due to the fact that my pal, Professor Groove, asked me to guest on WeFunk Radio tonight to drop some science on Mitchell and flip some beats, both old and new, to highlight his legacy. You can listen to the live stream on CKUT's site if you like (midnight EST) and later I'll also drop a link to the show on the deep 'n' dope WeFunk archives).

While gearing up I noticed blogopolis was devoid of this smouldering coal of southern soul, so thought I'd share this classic set with y'all. Hip hop hedz will know the main joint Groovin' from GZA of the Wu-Tang's Liquid Swords but I originally bought it back in the 80s for the covers of Hugh Masakela's Grazing In The Grass and Cliff Noble's The Horse (previously posted here). If you ask me though, the real killer thriller is the rendition of Freddie King's San-Ho-Zay, a banger for the boards and a track that falls squarely between the nascent funk sound of the time and four-on-the-floor shakers familiar to the Northern Soul scene. On the whole, this LP sounds exactly like the cover sez and how it looks: Solid. Soul. Slick. Badass.

Wille's "Groovin'" vs. GZA's "Liquid Swords"

Wax Poetics' Obituary

One of the greatest record producers ever, Poppa Willie Mitchell ruled the soul charts with hits on Hi Records for O. V. Wright, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Otis Clay, Ann Peebles, and Syl Johnson. But everything changed the day a young soul crooner named Al Green arrived at his doorstep in South Memphis.

They had previously met in Texas at one of Green’s gigs. Mitchell offered to bring him back to Memphis, but Green wasn’t quite ready to commit. “He wanted to know how long it would take to make him a star,” Mitchell told Andria Lisle in Wax Poetics Issue 9. “I told him eighteen months, and you know what he said? ‘I really can’t wait that long!’” Poppa Willie, with a heart of gold, loaned the young Al $1500 to pay off some debts, but without a contract, Al Green disappeared into the night. “About six months later,” Mitchell remembered, “the doorbell rang at six o’clock in the morning. I thought it was a man coming to paint my kitchen, but the guy said, ‘Don’t you remember me? I’m Al Green.’”

Willie Mitchell died on Tuesday, January 5, 2010. He was eighty-one.

When you compare the Al Green anecdote with another one told by Al Bell at Mitchell's Memorial in Memphis, it's clear Willie really was as generous as they say. Seems after Stax went belly up, Al was not only persona non grata in the Memphis music scene for a while, the outcome was also financially crippling for him. During the service he reminisced how his main competitor, Willie, was the one cat who kept Al and his family from falling through the cracks at that crucial time. You can read all about it at Red Kelly's stupendously informative and stupid cool the "B'" side, a blog all soul fans should have the pleasure of perusing.


Willie Mitchell - Trumpet
Charles Hodges - Organ, Keyboards
Leroy Hodges - Bass
Mabon "Teenie" Hodges - Guitar
Al Jackson, Jr. - Drums


1 Prayer Meetin'
2 Grazing in the Grass
3 Windy
4 Sunrise Serenade
5 The Horse
6 Groovin'
7 San-Ho-Zay
8 Up Hard
9 Monkey Jump
10 Strawberry Soul
11 Hideaway
12 Willie Wam


Willie Mitchell Links
Hi Records Home Page
Wikipedia
AMG Bio
Red Kelly's the "A" Side and the "B" Side


Solid Soul was reissued on CD in 1993 (Hi 120) and again on Sept. 11, 2001 (Hi 182), on each occasion it was packaged as 2-for-1 with its successor, On Top. Both reissues are OOP and can fetch big bucks on line ($200 at Amazon! WTF!) so don't think twice and grab it if you see it for a reasonable price.

In the meantime, Soundological does your Willie a solid HERE or HERE.

Karel Bogard & Co. - Blues From Over The Border

KAREL BOGARD & CO.Blues From Over The Border1971
224+ VBR LAME mp3
Vinyl rip & scans from Barclay 90017

Since the last few posts featuring Mainstream MRL recordings were predominately of the blues persuasion, there's one more album of the genre to squeeze in before Soundological gets back in the swing of the jazz/funk/soul thing. To that end, this here write-up is a heapin' helpin' of what could best be described as a Belgian speculation sandwich. "WTF is that," you ask dear reader? Well, it's a tasty filet of trusted info on a musician from Belgium (block quotes segment below) nestled between two thick slices of whole-wheat hypothesizin' (pretty much the rest).

Bogard is sometimes referred to as Karel Bogaert, and the first tenuous thread connected to the latter name is that someone using that moniker authored a book called Blues Lexicon: Blues, Cajun, Boogie Woogie, Gospel that was published in 1971 by Antwerp publishing house Standaard Uitgeverij. The book remains a popular overview to this day of exactly the strains of music Bogard covers so well on the album and is even considered as canon by some European academics due to the thorough and comprehensive biographical data of hundreds of American folk musicians included therein. Currently it's cited as one of the main references on the Dutch Wikipedia entry for Blues.

The following info is from Belgian Pop & Rock Archives, translated from Dutch by Google and edited by yours truly:

In the late sixties Karel Bogard was proficient in various instruments, playing in Leuven (he sang, played guitar, piano, and even a hundred others) in various blues, skiffle and jugbands, like Free Sound Community en Crowin Rooster.

After graduation he went to Paris to study Chinese but while in the French capital, he kept himself busy in musical circles. Through contacts with Alexis Corner (Bogard was playing in his band at the time) and Memphis Slim he struck a deal with the French label Barclay. The LP "Blues from over the Border" appeared in France in 1971, including Roland van Campenhout and other guests.

In the mid-seventies in Ghent he started his own record label: Dwarf Records. Originally created solely to issue the Kandahar LP, Bogard he soon found a number of kindred souls so in a short time the label also included Banzaï, Tjens Couter and TC Matic from Arno.

"In the years '70-'75 Ghent was a hive of activity," he said in the book "Wit-lof from Belgium," and jazz musician Pol Van Gijseghem was involved in various projects. There emerged an interaction with many groups: Bunker, Quark, Red Mole .. etc.. Rock and jazz had found each other." Karel Bogard thus became one of the main figures of jazz-rock in Belgium (Hugo Spencer, 5th Ball Gang, Marc Moulin, Placebo, Sam Suffy). Bogard's main project in these years was Kandahar, with guitarist Jef De Visscher and Pol Van Gijseghem, who released two LP's in the blues/jazz/rock idiom.

Simultaneously, he also recorded solo (the LP "From Dusk until Dawn" in 1975) or combined forces with other companions as The Karel Bogard Blues Band in 1976 with "Still Hooked On The Blues" and as Karel Bogard's Highway Band in 1977 with "Step," featuring the single "Sweet Lady Society".

Dwarf went bankrupt, however, and was swallowed by E.M.I./ I.B.C. (with whom they already had a distribution deal). This marked the end of Kandahar and a bitter Bogard quit music, combining his studies in engineering and oriental languages to land a job with a dredging company in Singapore.

That's pretty much it for the meat and, from thereon, it's back to unfounded flights of fancy based on scant photographic evidence of a recent pic that belies a resemblance to the young Karel on the cover of this album. Unfortunately, the pic was in a corporate quarterly report and the PDF of said report has been misplaced or erased in the past few weeks. If it pops up again, the post will be updated with the side-by-side comparison of photos. Regardless, let us return to the specumilatin'...

When in Singapore, he likely worked for one of the two Belgian dredging companies doing business there, Dredging International or Baggerwerken Decloedt, which have since merged and now operate under the name Dredging, Environmental & Marine Engineering. In 1997 he was the President of the Belgian & Luxembourg Association of Singapore , a social club for expats and he seems to have returned to Europe at the turn of the century, serving on the board of directors from 2001-2007 for Dutch environmental product company PMV. Other than that, there is no reference to any further musical projects with the participation of Mr. Bagard/Bogaert.

Which is a shame really, since his obvious passion and talent for music seem to have borne the brunt of his distaste at "the biz" and an older, wiser, worldly Karel would likely bring the depth of his experience to his lyrics. Roughly in his 60s, these days he would probably more clearly exude the blues feeling beyond the note-perfect execution of its stylistic idioms. Although it was obvious Karel felt the blues on this recording, it doesn't necessary follow that the listener will feel his blues.

For a student of the African-American roots music techniques this document may be almost as valuable as original field recordings from the early part of the century (which Bogard had obviously pored over himself). For purists who demand their blues artists be directly from the delta (or at the very least Chicago), this will be anathema. For casual listeners who don't care much about the "who" or "when" or "what" when it comes to their blues, they'll likely enjoy the "how" displayed here by Bogard and his companions, mostly because Karel and companions so obviously enjoyed themselves while recording.

Blues From Across the Border seems to have steadily increased in price until it maxed out in value in 2007 - Popsike gives eBay auction results of 45€ in 2003, 80€ in 2006 with prices ranging from 100€ to 200€ in 2007 on eBay and at various online record stores. Since then, it seems to have dropped with most pricing reverting back the 40€ to 80€ range. This rip is from the Canadian pressing of the LP, which in many places is mentioned as the only run Barclay printed. It was part of that big bulk purchase I made last summer so you could say I scored it for a buck which is definitely a bargain for this slice of folk-blues, even without considering the value to collectors.


Karel Bogard - Lead Vocal, Acoustic Guitar, Kazoo, Mandolin, Piano
Bottleneck Chris - Acoustic Guitar, National Slide Guitar, Vocals
Roland Van Campenhout - Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Flute, Harmonica
Roger Mason - Accordion, Spoons, Triangle, Vocals
Derroll Adams - Banjo


1 Brownsferry Blues
2 Done Lived With The Blues
3 Morning Sun
4 Don't You Leave Me Alone
5 I.C. Blues
6 Crumble's Farm
7 Rollin' Blues
8 Me And The Devil
9 Bukka White Is Not Dead
10 Danny's Tune
11 See See Rider
12 Tennessee Rag
13 Crowley Two-step

Make a run for the border with Soundological HERE (updated 2013-04-04).

Solo Album Discography

1971 Blues from over the Border
[Barclay 90017] at Soundological

1975 From Dusk Until Dawn
[Dwarf 4C062-96844]

1976 Still Hooked On The Blues
[Milo}

1977 Step
[EMI/Dwarf 4B062-98105]

With Kandahar

1974 Long Live The Sliced Ham
[Sounds Superb 4M048-97401 / Dwarf LP1]

at Prog Not Frog 

1975 In The Court Of Catherina Squeezer
[Dwarf 4C062-96846]

at Prog Not Frog

Ray Charles-Arbee Stidham-Lil Son Jackson-James Wayne

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Ray Charles-Arbee Stidham-Lil Son Jackson-James Wayne
1971
256+ VBR mp3
Vinyl rip & scans from MRL 310

Junco Partner



Shad made good use of his Sittin' In With catalogue both in the original Mainstream run and in the MRL series and this offering bears witness to two major aspects of Shad's career: his knack for "discovering" (or being one of the first to record) what would become well-known artists with an illustrious career and his questionable business practices regarding artists and ownership of their material.

Ray Charles needs no introduction and this compilation features some of the earliest recordings of his material, captured shortly after his return to the South from Seattle and ostensibly while he was a member of Lowell Fulsom's ensemble. These predate the Atlantic sessions that saw him start his meteoric rise and are much more on the "Blues" than the "Rhythm &" tip since the gospel inflection had yet to be injected into his work at this point. All of Charles' songs here, save for the instrumental "Back Home," also appeared on a 1960 compilation of Sittin' In With material called Riot In Blues released by Shad on his TIME imprint.

Original review in Billboard June 12, 1971

This record also features some of the first recordings by James Wayne, who was discovered by Shad in 1951 when his first session was taped in Houston. His second set recorded in Atlanta shortly after yielded five tracks and among them were the two on offer here. Shad first listed his name on the original 78s as "James Waynes" but later on he would also record under the moniker "Wee Willie" Wayne. It is with Wayne's version of the traditional Louisiana standard "Junco Partner" that the more questionable aspects of Shad's business practices become apparent.

"Wee Willie" - not the most advantageous nickname

Although the song was already a standard at the time, the songwriting credit is Shad's. Due to the vagaries of recording and publishing contracts, a savvy businessman could jot down the melody, make some minor changes to the lyrics and voila: a song firmly in the public domain was now the property of a record label owner. Another better-known example of that practice was "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" originally written and performed by South African artist Solomon Linda.

On the other hand, many artists who were unaware of the rules regarding royalties were basically fleeced into selling their compositions (if not their performances) up-front for a pittance. In a 1973 interview for Jazz Journal magazine (available on the Blues Archaeology website), Candy Green alluded to Shad as one of the sharks that would try and secure a session for "a bottle of whiskey and a chick." That statement might help clarify exactly why some of the first Peppermint Harris recordings were infamously taped in a brothel!

There has been ample speculation on the history of the Junco Partner credit (it has its own Wikipedia entry and one discussion thread can be found here) but it's pretty telling of the industry's legal practices that, even though fully aware of the song's folk heritage, gris-gris mojo man Dr.John still attributes it to Shad on his releases. In fact, the liner notes to his classic Gumbo from 1972 go into detail on its pedigree:

The song was first made popular by James Wayne's hit on the "Sittin' In" (Bob Shad's) label. But it was a New Orleans classic; the anthem of the dopers, the whores, the pimps, the cons. It was a song they sang in Angola, the state prison fams and the rhythm was even known as the "jailbird beat". Dudes used to come back with all different verses. The hard-core dopers couldn't wait to hit the streets after their release so they could score again.

Such is the strength of a publishing contract that even though artists like Rebennack, Louis Jordan and Professor Longhair had an intimate knowledge of the song's source they were still required to give Bobby the nod knowing full well what the deal really was. While the credit for "Junco Partner" is under his own name, as mentioned in the previous Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee post, Shad also used the name "R. Ellen" or "Robert Ellen" and sometimes "Mack Ellen" or a combo thereof to register copyrights.

Jordan's Junco 78 with Shad-Ellen credit
c/o Boogie Woogie Flu

Some speculation has been made that Ellen was the name of Shad's wife but that was not her given name, which was Molly. However, her maiden name remains unknown and may indeed be Ellen so the theory can't be entirely discounted at this time. The wiki entry linked to above mentions Robert Ellen as a separate individual but no evidence is available to support this person's existence and Ellen also gets credit as arranger on some sessions where Shad was known to perform that duty. Regardless, the change in policy of using his own name was more than likely due to reducing taxes (as were most business decisions he made) and one way would be for Shad to give his wife the royalties for the music while he took the profits from the product, thus minimizing his personal taxable income.


1 Ray Charles - Why Did You Go
2 Ray Charles - Back Home
3 Ray Charles - I Found My Baby There
4 Ray Charles - Guitar Blues
5 James Wayne - Junco Partner
6 James Wayne - Please Baby Please
7 Arbee Stidham - I Want To Rock
8 Arbee Stidham - Feeling Blue & Low
9 Arbee Stidham - I'm In The Mood
10 Lil Son Jackson - Roberta
11 Lil Son Jackson - She's Gone

There's a riot in blues goin' on at Soundological HERE or HERE.