Gotta lot of rhythm, and style, and finesse

It is an obvious statement to say that there are a lot of great producers in hip-hop, many brilliant emcees, and countless hot DJs. But it is much more rare to find someone who performs all three disciplines, let alone excels at them. Step forward then, the incomparable Lord Finesse. I was listening to sophomore album "Return of the Funky Man" the other day, reminding myself of how good this album was, and just revelling in the nostalgic beauty of the early 90s when every East Coast release seemed to be a bonafide classic.

You now the time of X-Clan's "To the East, Backwards", of Black Sheep "A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing", Brand Nubian's "All For One", of "Mecca and the Soul Brother" and Tribe's three album opening salvo, itself a huge high point in rap's history. The list goes on and on. But, despite being the originator and unofficial leader of the brilliant Diggin' In The Crates crew, unearthing some of rap's great lyrical and beat-making talents along the way, it seems to me that it is not often that Finesse is really given his full props, or the respect he deserves. And this is respect that is truly deserved, for his consistency, originality and skills, whether on the mic, turntables or in the studio.

Arguably one of the first rhymers to really throw down full-on metaphors and punch-lines, Finesse's rap style is often hilarious in content and his flow is always on point, to my mind illustrated most fully on the "Return of the Funky Man" album. Debut album "The Funky Technician" is a classic as well. As producer, aside from backing his own solo works, Finesse has cranked out classic cuts for numerous artists from Dre to Biggie, Show and AG to Big L, and countless others in between. As a DJ, along with fellow DITC luminary Buckwild, he was one of the first to really focus on the power of the mix-tape as a way of getting his own music heard, but also as a commercial product, and was top of the tree in a time when the tapes were actually tapes and were actually mixed by hand, not through a Protools desk.

He's still top of the tree for my money. You can now find many of his original mix-tapes online and believe me there is an absolute treasure-trove out there (look for the Stax set, incredible). And so I just wanted to take a moment to shout out to Lord Finesse, one of the true lords of the underground, who plies his trade with mastery and treats hip-hop as a true vocation, not just a route to fast cars and an MTV crib. And if you find yourself idly digging in your own crates, pull out your old copy of the funky man's best and get right back to the golden age.

Original Gangster

If I told you that there was a link to be made between hard-kicking right-winger Chuck Norris, 1984 hollywood-breakdance-lite movie "Breakin'", Chaka Khan, Dr Dre's bonafide classic "The Chronic", and Nas's short-lived The Firm project you may well justifiably ask me to please share whatever it is I am on. But link them you can, albeit rather tenuously, and like all good riddles, the answer to this one lies at the bottom of a rambling tale of exploration. There is a 12" record that I have been hunting down for years. You know those elusive tunes that are so remote in the reaches of your mind that you almost feel as if you might have just dreamt them up. Maybe you heard it in a club once, asked its name and then forgot in the mists of a raucous party, had a mix-tape with no track listing from back in the day that got chewed up in an old cassette deck, or once got played a monster tune by one of your boys with whom you are no longer in touch?

Maybe you have always had all of the record's details, a scribbled note that has remained a mainstay of your wallet for the last 17 years, only seeing the light of day on those increasingly rare beat-finding missions round record shops and charity sales? Or perhaps you think you know the title, but have no idea who the singer or label was, the only piece of the jigsaw available to you being that relentless hook or snatched lyric that pops up unannounced and runs around your brain at odd times of the day and night, teasing you with it's incompleteness? Sometimes the search is coupled with an element of fear and danger, a sense that asks, what if the reality isn't as great as I remember? What if the Holy Grail I have sought turns out to be made of fool's gold? What happens then?? Trust me it can happen, I know the pain of seeking out "Informer" by Snow and realising that the bespectacled Canadian rhymester is not the saviour of hip-hop!!

Before you get all concerned, I'm kidding about Snow. No really. But you know the feeling I mean. Just like the facebook-driven rekindled contact with a fondly recalled college ex. Next to the flush of excited curiousity in meeting up, there is always the danger that time and nostalgia will have made what was really a two minute drunken fumble at a house-party in south London, into an extended 9 1/2 weeks of never-to-be-bettered passion in your rose-tinted memory. The reality of the reunion can be a cruel blow to many a fragile ego. But sometimes the reunion is fantastic, the rush every bit as good, and sometimes even better than you remember. You put the needle on the record and the first bar jogs something dormant in your memory, giving life to lines and beats you never even knew that you knew. The verse is like the credits to your favourite cartoon as a kid, a medley of anticipation of the joy to come. And then the chorus kicks in, that line you have repeated in your head for what seems like forever comes back out of the speakers at you and it is good. Really damn good.

"When The Glove is on the Wheel's of Steel, he's Reckless" raps the familiar voice, the raw rasp of a young O.G on top of his game, before the tune explodes into cuts and scratches that threaten to tear your speakers apart right there. You resist an urge to pull out a windmill right there on your lino square and instead slump back in your seat with a grin, your appetite finally sated, your long held hopes vindicated. This, you say to yourself, is truly a killer tune. And if you have not yet worked it out, the 12" in question, which I now hold in my grubby mitts, is none other than Ice-T and Chris "The Glove" Taylor's 1984 electro monster, "Reckless", with additional input from Dave Storrs (aka The Alien Wizard). B-Side is the equally phenomenal "Tibetan Jam". The Chuck Norris connection comes with the inspired use of this B-side as a backdrop to a scene from his 1984 movie "Missing In Action" (search on Youtube for a reminder. It is worth it).

You will know "Reckless" also, possibly from the 1984 movie "Breakin'", where Ice-T appears as a party MC. But don't hold that questionable introduction against it. Although "Breakin'" and a number of other movies and documentaries of the time mined the emerging hip-hop scene for inspiration, or straight up stole from it, to different levels of artistic and critical success, and indeed with different agendas to pursue, they also played a major part in the growth of the music, whether you like to admit it or not. How well many have dated, and how relevant they remain, is a different question entirely, and one for a future posting on A Story To Tell. For now just revel in a tune which, with its sparse yet intricate production and perfect unison of rapper and DJ in head-to-head harmony and mutual musical appreciation, serves as a perfect reminder of hip-hop's nascent early power and sheer originality of sound. But what of the second part of the riddle we began with?

We all know what happened to Ice-T, a fascinating road of original gangstability, rap stardom, political baiting, movie-making, heavy-metalling, and televisual pastiche. But what of the magical hands in The Glove? Well the full story is too long to go into, plus I don't really know it. What I do know, however, is that Chris "The Glove" Taylor was a key player in the early West Coast hip-hop scene, alongside fellow pioneers DJ Flash, Kid Frost and The Egyptian Lover. Along with Ice-T he was part of pioneering group The Radio Crew on the equally significant Electrobeat Records, and with the crew released the ultra-ultra-rare EP "Breaking and Entering", accompanying the 1983 documentary of the same name.

It was The Glove's hand that you see at the beginning of Chaka Khan's 1984 Melle-Mel intro-ed classic cover of "I Feel For You", and throughout the video. And it is The Glove who has extensive mixing credits on "The Chronic" as well as production rights on 1997's The Firm album. And so there you have it. Chuck Norris to Nas in 5 easy moves. Now that really is reckless.

Supergroup?

It's taken me a while to get around to talking abut it, but clearly we have all now heard the single "Us Placers" by rap super-group CRS (Child Rebel Soldiers), sampling Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke's sparse piano-led chorus from solo project "The Eraser". We've also viewed the Va$htie video featuring child versions of our modern-day heroes who make up the group, Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West and Pharrell Williams, and nodded our heads along sagely, marvelling at the audacity of the sample and the lyrical sophistication and mature subject matter of the track.

Meanwhile we have perhaps smugly congratulated ourselves on our knowledge and appreciation thereof, certainly when the track was more of an underground mystery to unearth, taking time out from scouring youtube links and internet forums to slap our own backs in recognition at how eclectically clever and post-modern we are to be into straight up hip-hop, as well as indie music, and now the combination of the two. And I include myself very much in this sweeping statement. Indeed, maybe it is just me who this applies to. But hopefully you see the point I am making, which is that the CRS project, and this tune in particular, is a prime example of rap music that is perhaps tainted slightly by a sense of self-satisfaction.

You know that feeling of slight irritation, which is perhaps an extension of the music's close link with sampling and the train-spotter tendencies that make finding the most obscure tune to build a track around some kind of bizarre badge of honour. The song which says, look at how much I know, and how diverse my record collection is, surely you must immediately herald me as a creative genius. Kanye I suppose is a prime example, and before you say anything, I am also aware of the irony of such a judgement from a blog which itself spends much of its time warbling on about its eclectic tastes and recommending tunes for you to discover.

Hopefully A Story To Tell remains informative rather than condescending in its tone, and I am sure that Mr West and others feel the same about their product. And in many ways, as I have stated on here previously, West's production skills and choice and manipulation of beats are often truly inspired. But this is a digression to the central argument that there is just something about "Us Placers" that smacks of slightly superior self-satisfaction. Now don't get me wrong. This is a great tune, and I am truly a big fan of all three members of the fledgling project. All three verses are strong, the beats are original and I am licking my lips as much as the next man at the prospect of a full-length product that combines their doubtless talents. I am just a little wary of tunes that are heralded as brilliant by dint of the fact that they step away from the norm. Yes it is good, but let's also keep it in perspective and not succumb unquestionably to the lazy equation which says hot rapper plus falsetto indie singer plus grown-up lyrics equals instant classic.

The term, "written with Chris Martin of Coldplay", seems to be used by the critical music press as some kind of kitemark for quality, and I am a bit tired of it. It is also condescending in itself, and patronizing in the extreme, when said critics seem to be suggest that rap becomes immediately more sophisticated as soon as it takes on some indie sensibilities. "Oh Rupert, Jay-Z is great as a voice of the urban youth but doesn't he simply rap about money, girls and crime?". "No, no Sebastian, you should hear his latest work, it has a real depth to it. Chris Martin from Coldplay does a chorus wouldn't you know! It's quite brilliant". I'm not saying that these, or any other collaborations shouldn't excite us, just that we should apply the same levels of critical awareness to them.

In the case of "Us Placers", it is a combination which works to quite stunning effect, a haunting and modern rap tune for the I-pod generation, and as an opening salvo for CRS, a potentially great omen of what's to come. Let's just hope Coldplay are busy with ther commitments when it comes time make the album.

Loose Booty

There are some songs that simply make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up every time you hear them. Often these are not even songs which you purposely listen to all that frequently, but will occasionally pop up on your shuffle, at a bar, on the radio or just as the momentary backdrop to an otherwise humdrum day. But for that moment you are instantly reminded of the power that music has to just grab and hold you at some guttural and primitive level, some place that you are unaware of, and shake you with a force of elemental joy. It can literally transform your day.

Imagine then the power of hearing a song that sounds like nothing you have ever heard before. Not some experimental guitar solo that you marvel at for its technical wizardry, or some sampled beat that cries freshness and innovation. No, a song that sounds literally like nothing you have ever heard before. It is difficult in this age of musical recycling, of sampling and stretching, of derivatives and covers, to imagine such a scene. You have to step into the far reaches of musical genres to discover something truly new nowadays, and even then it is often so fresh and innovative as to render it quite unbearable to listen to. Well imagine then what it must have been like to be a music fan in late 1955 and hearing this incredible sound flying out of your wireless.

Out of nowhere a soulful and impossibly sexually charged half-scream, half-exclamation cries out "A-wop-bomp-a-loom-op-a-wop-bam-boom!", before a pounding and rollicking piano led music of unadulterated good vibes is unleashed on you. With the impenetrable but somehow lucid couplet "Tutti Frutti, aw rudy" repeatedly chanted and increasing in intensity, before the vocal drum roll hits again, followed by a verse of raucous tale-telling. To start a song off with a chorus is in itself pretty audacious, but when it is a chorus with such other-worldly charms it borders on downright genius. Little Richard was not the inventor of rock'n'roll, nor is "Tutti Frutti" the first record of the fledgling new music, but there is something about it that takes the music on to a new level and changes the game subtly but crucially.

The twelve bar chord progression and hard-driving music is significant as a model for future records. But more than that, "Tutti Frutti" sexes up the music in an unadulterated fashion, and gives voice to a new, unashamed, confident and flamboyant black star, the repercussions of which have hit far and wide since. That Richard was gay (if not openly then certainly not hiding the fact as far as the times allowed) and as wonderfully camp as a tent convention is also significant. Imagine that, a gay, black, sexually charged pop star in 1950s middle America. Like I said before, it is difficult to consider now quite how ground-breaking this was. Those in the know also were aware of the fact that the original song, a staple of Little Richard's live shows prior to the unplanned studio recording in late 1955, had the chorus "Tutti frutti, loose booty", with tutti frutti a street slang term for a homosexual male. If music and society were not quite ready for an all out overt celebration of gayness, the so-called cleaned up version still remains one of the archetypes of rock'n'roll music and is simply a killer tune that refuses to date, and never loses its impact.

The early history of rock'n'roll is a fascinating story to tell, and can never be dated to one song or one artist. It is a progression and amalgamation over time that became a social and cultural revolution, with key players and moments too numerous to mention here. In many ways Little Richard came at the end of this process, and was a culmination of a many number of elements that came before. But he took those elements and added something new to the mix. It could be said that he added the funk to it, and thus paved the way for much of the great soul and r'n'b music that followed, and all that this in turn influenced. His original recording career was brief, but this does not detract from its enormous impact. In some ways it makes it even more stunning. So don't wait for the next time that "Tutti Frutti" turns up on your radio. Dig it out. You're day will always be a better one after it.

Debut, See?

As far as I am aware, and I should be given that I write it, this is a first for A Story To Tell. For today we are going to delve, albeit briefly, into the confusing, slightly scary and yet infinitely beguiling world of Classical music. We often try to take you back, and sometimes strive to remind or inform you of a box of musical history that has perhaps lain neglected at the back of your cupboard. Of people or musical recordings of repute that deserve to be the subject of re-acquaintance for whatever reason. But rarely do we go this far back, or step so far across the tracks. But a lack of expertise should not be a hindrance to learning, it should be one of the best reasons for it.

Now I am the first to maintain that there are vast, vast gaps in my musical knowledge. We all have them, and as I have said before it is the variation in tastes, and the ongoing, seemingly endless, discovery of the new that makes the appreciation of music such an enduring pastime. And classical music is one such world. It seems so big a topic that it is almost too difficult to know where to start, a massive musical universe that is intimidating in its intricacies, and yet so much a part of all of us, of our collective musical heritage and consciousness. Surely we all have a piece of what would be classed classical music that we instantly recognise and love, even if we don't know the composer, performer, symphony number, or age from which it came. Maybe we hear it occasionally on a TV advert, or in a favourite film. Maybe we wish we knew more about where it came from but don't know where to start. Maybe it is just an area of music that we just haven't got around to starting with properly, just like jazz, country and hardcore Dutch gabba techno. Okay, maybe we'll never get around to the last one, but you get the point.

However, I do know what I like, and there are certain classical pieces, and in rare cases, classical music figures, that I have expanded my flimsy knowledge of as a result of simply being besotted by their sheer beauty and creative brilliance. And one such figure is French composer Claude Debussy. My brother is a brilliant pianist, and has always been a fan of Debussy's work, and it was through him that I first heard Debussy's work and was tempted to find out more. I also had an equal fascination with French contemporary and friend Erik Satie, which acted as another motivation. Satie's "Les Trois Gymnopedies", perhaps his most famous work, is a stunning piano piece of incredible beauty. Melancholic and yet uplifting, it is simply wonderful, and you will almost certainly know it yourself. But it is Debussy who has the greater significance. His life and work span the turn of the twentieth century, and his influence both to contemporaries and in the time since is profound. It serves to underpin and characterise the huge cultural, technological and social shifts at work during this period, as the western world searched for an identity and to define what modernity would mean for us as a society. And it was his innovation and rampant desire to look outside of the western tradition, to ignore convention, which really provides his importance.

For it was through Debussy that modern music was given the license to become the multi-headed beast of variety that we all know and love. As with many advances, it took a far-sighted pioneer to dare to be different, to stand on the shoulders of the giants who had gone before and aim for a different horizon. Debussy is often characterized as a musical "Impressionist", a term which he disliked and disagreed with, which saw him placed within the contemporaneous artistic tradition of the likes of Monet and Renoir. This tag was partly because of his evocation of tone and colour, his layering of sounds, as well as this repudiation of traditional norms in his compositions, favouring dissonance in sound and unlikely scales and chord structures. Debussy was also a great believer in seeking inspiration from Eastern traditions, as well as from the vaults of antiquity, and it is all of these things, this ability to synergise diverse inspirations and make new rules which is the key to his importance for music.

Pop music, from its inception, has always followed set formulae for success, a state of affairs which has led to the blandness and reality-show-type manufacture of much of the output we hear on the charts and on the radio today. But, if pop is the constant in our cultural world, it is also the norm which works of true brilliance and innovation rail against, and it is this for which we must thank Debussy. He is one of the main reasons that those hidden albums of non-convention exist, why musical gems can appear out of their context, and keep music evolving and reinventing itself. Why pop itself can be turned on its head repeatedly and yet retain its pre-eminence. Why artists everywhere continue to bend and break rules and feed our own ongoing desires for new sounds. Debussy's work is not everyone's cup of tea at all, but for me it is often simply beautiful.

Listen, for example to "Claire de Lune" from "Suite Bergamesque" and it is difficult not to be captured entirely by its seemingly simple charms. And so, next time you are wondering why that obscure album you love, of whale song set to afro breakbeats, didn't make it up the charts and isn't essential listening for everyone, wonder no more. Just raise a glass to Debussy and accept that it is because we all have different tastes, and if all music played by the same rules then life would be a pretty boring place. Plus Simon Cowell and his ilk of identikit pop manufacturers would be even richer, and perhaps have achieved their clearly transparent evil
plans of global dominance through pop dross, the opposition of which we can all drink to.

Dap dappin'

Whether you know it or not there is a revolution going on and it is one which you should consider hitching yourself to with the utmost haste. If you are yet to discover the funk and soul gold of Daptone Records' Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, as I was until relatively recently, then time is even more of the essence. Music this good deserves to be unearthed and revelled in. I had been aware of the group for some time but, as is sometimes the way in my world of lethargy, I had neglected to look into them properly. And this despite the fact that what I knew of them already I liked immensely. Dripping in the retro sound of the best of 1960s and 1970s soul and funk, one of my favourite places to dwell, the group eschew digital recordings and stick to an analogue technique, also limiting themselves to the other instruments and recording styles of the era. No pro-tools wizardry for this outfit.

When I discovered that they contributed significantly to Amy Winehouse's much heralded Back to Black LP, itself at one, albeit mainstream, vanguard of this retro renaissance, I didn't bite. Mooted current projects with Questlove, Jay-Z and Kanye didn't up my priorities any. Recommendations from trusted acquaintances did not even move this lazy old lump to investigate further. It wasn't disinterest, just a lame inability to get around to it, and in my defence there is a hell of a lot of worthy music out there. But now, dear reader, I have finally seen the light. And what a bright light it has proven to be. A chance inclusion on a free compilation and then, wham, I'm hooked in. And like a Depeche Mode addict, now I just can't get enough.

The song that I first heard was a modest opening gambit but carried an element of fate, 2005's cover of Kenny Rogers and The First Edition's "I Just Dropped In (to see what condition my condition was in)". A great start for any Lebowski fan I'm sure you'll agree. But when I found their original work it really clicked for me. Their three full length LPs have the feel of instant classics. They really do evoke the era that inspires them, to the extent that it is almost impossible to believe that they are not reissues from some vault of precious musical gems at Stax or Curtom. But original is what they are and if you think that borrowing heavily from your influences is some kind of short-term gimmick then you couldn't be more wrong.

This is no Acid Jazz scene and in my opinion the time is coming for a more populist conversion to their cause. For though they wear their influences on their sleeves, and indeed their record sleeves (with even cover design taking on the appearance of old classics) their music is innovative, crazily soulful and downright funky. It might hark back to the good old days, but is also somehow definitively modern in its sound and sentiments, a stunning feat if you can pull it off. It is helped by the fact that the Dap Kings are no average house band but rather made up of some of the best funk and jazz musicians from the New York scene, and especially the Deep Funk movement that has coalesced around Daptone Records (and previous incarnation Desco Records), including such key players as Neal Sugarman on saxophone and Bosco Mann on bass.

And then there is Sharon Jones herself, a heaven-sent voice of such sweetness and power as to be almost improper. Jones's own career has been a story of ups and downs, the fickle music industry over-looking her major talent because she did not fit their aesthetic. And now, in her early 50s, Jones's own renaissance is at full tilt, where she seems to make up for the forgotten years with every vocal performance, live or on disk. Jones brings raw fire to the microphone, and sings with a soul voice drenched in passion, heartbreak, commitment and sometimes pure sex, some of the finest ingredients of any soul stew. Pick anyone of their three LPs, 2002's "Dap Dappin' with Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings", 2005's "Naturally" and 2006's "100 Days, 100 Nights", and I challenge you to find a weak track.

From all out funk jams to mellower sultry soul, this band have it all in abundance, and the soul resurgence may just see them get the recognition they deserve. For these are no hipsters, catching a ride on a wave of faddish enthusiasm. They are the real deal, and if ever the old adage was true it is when applied to the new hardest working band in show business. Form is temporary, but class is permanent.