Streetnoise 02/03/12

STREETNOTES!

We lost another legend this year…..

Jimmy Caster - R.I.P.

As leader of the Jimmy Castor Bunch, the elder Castor combined funk and humor with such novelty songs as “Troglodyte (Cave Man)” a No. 6 Billboard pop hit in 1972, and “The Bertha Butt Boogie” two years later. Mr. Castor’s records featured a recurring cast of characters, including a caveman who chants the mantra “gotta find a woman, gotta find a woman,” and the irrepressible, full-figured dancer Bertha Butt.

He covered a wide range of styles during his career — doo-wop, Latin jazz, funk — and this led to his nickname, “The Everything Man.” His 1966 hit “ Hey Leroy, Your Mama’s Callin You” helped popularize the Latin soul sound that came from the convergence of Latin jazz and rhythm-and-blues in Harlem and came in the wake of similar hits by Joe Cuba and Ray Barretto.

Writing in the New York Times in 1988, music critic Robert Palmer said that Jimmy Castor was “something of a broad humorist” in style and that his “band cooked mightily, projecting verve and style with its crisply interlocking rhythms.”

Castor’s most lasting influence was through sampling — the process, mostly in hip-hop music, where a snippet of music from one recording is featured on a later recording.

As one of the first performers to sue over the process, he pursued Beastie Boys for a sample of his “The Return of Leroy (Part One)” on their 1986 song “Hold It! Hit It!” His son said the case was settled out of court, and that Jimmy Castor received a percentage on 7 million copies sold.

“It wasn’t really about the money,” said Castor Jr. “He really wanted to set some kind of principle.” In fact, he later derived more income from the sampling of his music than from sales of his own records. “Hip-hop has been fairly good to me,” he told the Village Voice in 2004. “In the beginning it wasn’t, when people like the Beastie Boys just raped my music. C’mon man, as L.L. Cool J said to me one day, ‘That’s like taking someone’s vintage car out of the driveway and just driving it away!’ When they pay, I love it.”

The title track of his 1972 album  “It’s Just Begun”, was prolifically sampled for a dance sequence in the movie “Flashdance” (1983) and later by a range of performers including 2 Live Crew, the Spice Girls and actor Mark Wahlberg during his earlier career as Marky Mark. Other Castor records have been sampled by Kanye West and Mos Def.

James Walter Castor was born Jan. 23, 1940, in the New York City borough of Manhattan. He spent his teenage years in the Washington Heights neighborhood, where his friends included Frankie Lymon, lead singer of the doo-wop group the Teenagers. Mr. Castor had a similar, adolescent tenor voice and filled in with the group when Lymon couldn’t make engagements.

With his own group, Jimmy and the Juniors, he wrote and recorded the song “I promise to Remember” in 1956. When a Lymon cover version of the song became a big hit, Mr. Castor used the royalties to move his family into a bigger apartment.

The Lymon connection continued later in the 1990s, when Castor briefly sang lead with a reformed Teenagers.

Alice Russell -

One listen to Alice Russell’s voice will send shivers down your spine and leave goose bumps on your neck. Alice’s lavishly soulful voice is both timeless and up to the minute modern. Live or on record, she always performs with her trademark self assurance and sass. Listening to Alice, you’d naturally think she grew up on the streets of Detroit, just around the corner from Motown’s legendary recording studios. “No, although I wish I had,” admits the blue-eyed, blonde-haired lass from Brighton, U.K. Her singing career actually began as a young girl singing in her church choir. “Our singing was more of the traditional SATB [soprano, alto, tenor, bass] parts you hear in the great classical halls and cathedrals”

Although her style is predominantly bluesy and soul lament it also encompasses everything from funk to gospel to jazz and beyond. “Growing up, I was surrounded by different types of music and you know, you just get taken by something, don’t you? It hits you in the right place and you think, ‘Yeah, Baby, I like that!’ That gospel stuff is wicked, isn’t it? And artists like Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin … I was really small, playing with my Lego, taping this stuff off of the radio. I just fell in love with soul music, quite honestly. Just hearing that music hit the spot.” She comes from a musical family, her father was a classical music teacher, and her sisters were classically trained. It wasn’t until Alice was around nine that she began formal music lessons on the cello for a few years. But the only training she ever had with her voice was “with my ears” and just “by picking things up.”

Today Alice has developed a burgeoning career as one of the hottest UK soul singers with growing audiences around the world. While comparisons have been made to other popular British vocalists like Joss Stone, Amy Winehouse, Duffy and Adele, one listen and look at Alice and you can immediately tell she’s in a class all by herself. She has performed alongside well respected company that includes Roy Ayres, The Roots, Lonnie Liston Smith, De La Soul, Quantic, and The Quantic Soul Orchestra to name a few.

Alice has built quite an impressive discography since bursting onto the scene. Alice’s first album, Under the “Munka Moon” was an amalgamation of various projects (singles, remixes, collaborations) and a great introduction to new listeners. Then came “My Favourite Letters”, her debut studio album created by Alice with co-writer, producer, guitarist and musical soul mate Alex Cowan (a.k.a. TM Juke). The album received prestigious press accolades and proved she was an unstoppable voice to be reckoned with. Her third release, “Under the Munka Moon II” compiled her most recent collaborations, remixes, and cover versions including her popular interpretation of White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army,” for another satisfying listen.

The dynamic duo of Alice and TM Juke have been touring together for the past two years with their hand-picked band, wowing audiences in the U.K., Europe, Australia, the U.S. and in other countries. Last year, when not busy turning heads with their dynamic stage performances, Alice and “her boys”—as she affectionately refers to her group—were busy in the studio, recording her brand new album, “Pot of Gold”.

“Ah, my dear friend Alex. I just love working with him,” Alice says of her co-writer and producer for “Pot of Gold”. Both had lived in Suffolk when they were growing up and would occasionally see each other at parties, but since Alice is “the granny, just a little bit older” they didn’t work professionally together until both were in Brighton, where the Tru Thoughts record label is located. Alice sang on several tracks for TM Juke’s first album. “So that was the beginning of our lil’ friendship and creative birth,” she smiles. “Our working relationship is always evolving and ever-changing as things that are alive should always be moving and growing. It’s like; we’ll push each other into different places. And for writing music, that can sometimes be very good.”

Till next time….

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Our next air-date: will be February 17th, 4pm - 6pm PST & in the U.K. 12am - 2am.

Listen on: My House -Your House radio network - http://myhouseyourhouse.net/

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Track List:

TIME	ARITST	TRACK	LABEL
00:43	Quantic & Alice Russell with the Combo Barbaro	Look Around The Corner	Tru Thoughts
05:09	Session Victim	Good Intentions	Retreat
10:35	Phenomenal Handclap Band	The Right One (Album Version)	Tummy Touch
15:35	The Rapture	Sail Away (Cosmic Kids Remix)	DFA
22:35	Gregory Porter	1960 What? Opolopo Kick Bass Rerub	Tokyo Dawn
30:50	The Jimmy Castor Bunch	Say Leroy (The Creature Of The Black Lagoon Is Your Father)	RCA/Victor
36:31	Frente Cumbiero & Mad Professor	Cumbietiope Dub	Vampisoul
40:20	Hollie Cook	Sugar Water (Look At My Face) ft. Horseman	Mr Bongo
44:12	Copia Doble Systema	One Day Revolution (Schlachthofbronx rmx)	Urban World
48:42	Nino Moschella	Continue to Call	Ubiquity
52:13	Darondo	Give Me Some	Music City
55:08	Mayer Hawthorne	You Got The Makings Of A Lover (PillowTalk Edit)	Republic
01:01:10	Barney Wilen	Africa Freakout	Resonate
01:06:45	Criolo	Subirusdoistiozin	Beatriz Berjeaut
01:10:13	Young Gliss	Charles Bradley (Les Professionnels Edit)	RCDLBL
01:13:32	Baba Maal	I Will Follow You (Souka Nayo) (Thievery Corporation Remix)	ESL
01:18:32	Recloose	Cardiology (Isolee Mix)	K7!
01:24:46	Matthew Dear	In The Middle (I Met You There) (feat. Jonny Pierce)	Ghostly
01:28:36	Second Sky	The Art of Influence (AUditors Domination Remix)	Rythmn & Culture
01:33:16	Buddy Holly	Slippin' and Slidin' (Jacques Renault Remix)	Digital 45
01:37:16	Joey Negro, Kola Kube Feat. Choklate	Break My Heart (Original Extended Mix)	Surround Sounds
01:40:44	Dego	Love & Hate You (feat Obenewa)	Traffic Entertainment Group
01:44:54	J Boogie?s Dubtronic Science	Go To Work (Instrumental)	Om
01:49:26	Mick Verma	Synthsomagic (Original Mix)	Vision Collective
01:52:33	John Collins	Roll With You (Original Mix)	Vision Collective
01:58:29	Satin Souls	Aziza (DJ MFR Movido Redub)	Transport
02:03:27	Rob Salmon feat. Ladybird	Trippin' (Club Mix)	Nylon Trax