R.I.P. Joe Cuba - From Radio Rios

Check out a personal and touching tribute to the King of Spanish Harlem, Joe Cuba, from Soul Spectrum contributer Radio Rios.

Pull up to the bumper, baby

Grace Jones - Pull up to the Bumper Ok, here's another NYC jam. Not the most obscure song in the world as it comes off one of her easiest to find albums but this is essential for me. I was a tad reticent about calling this a New York city song as it was recorded at the Compass Point studio in Jamaica that Allen blogged about here. Also it was co-written by Mrs. Grace Jones herself (born in Jamaica,) and produced by Sly and Robbie of reggae fame. But hey, its got the city sounds. Plus, its a song about parking cars! (or is it?)

Sunday in New York

Sunday in New York - Mark Murphy
'Nuff Said.

Shoot the Pump!

I was trying to think of some other quintessentially "New York" songs and this one came to mind. And like "Grand Central Shuffle" its an "activity-song" where the song exhorts the listener to learn how to do this activity and while it might not resemble a dance, in both cases you can shake your booty while shuffling through Grand Central or liberating a fire hydrant.

J. Walter Negro & the Loose Jointz - Shoot the Pump
I couldn't find the original 12" Picture sleeve image (it's packed in a box), I remembered that the song was recently comped by Soul Jazz, which is the image here to your left. I was thinking about writing about this song, but its been done better by others before, both here and here and if you can track down the issue of Wax Poetics, Alan Leeds, former manager of the Loose Jointz, not to mention the road manager for James Brown and Prince, wrote a nice piece about the song. It was after reading Alan's words that I tracked it down for myself at this fine retail vinyl establishment.

Grand Central Shuffle

Hey, Morgan you think you can keep the NYC tunes coming? Here's a couple more for ya'll to dig on.
Just the other day I was mailing out some eBay auctions to all corners of the world and I was too late to make it to my neighborhood post-office so I trucked into Manhattan to go to the post office next to Grand Central Station which is open later than normal. If you've never been, Grand Central is the definition of BUSTLING with thousands of people walking in every direction. You know how when you look at ants from our towering human heights and they look so efficient - 'how do they not run into each other?' - this is what I imagine Grand Central Station looks like from 1000 feet up.

It was rush hour and I was trying to weave my way through the crowd, adjusting the length of my stride and footwork to get around slower people while dodging others walking faster than me. It occurred to me, it's almost like a dance! And then it hit me, the Johnny Griffith Inc. song, "Grand Central Shuffle"! I had always thought this was just a cool name for a song, like "Central Park Shuffle" or something, but I think Griffith was actually referring to the peculiar dance that is navigating the station at rush hour. That being said, it's no wonder it never broke out as a national dance craze, but its a hell of a proto-disc funk tune. Dig it.

Grand Central Shuffle - Johnny Griffith Inc.
I first heard this song off of a Brazilian DJ comp assembled by Brazil's most famous Disc Jockey, Big Boy (you can read a bit about him in my article about the Black Rio Movement). His compilation on RCA pulled together a very random assortment of soul, funk and rock including this semi-rare nugget by occasional Motown Funk Brother Johnny Griffith.

New York's Movin'

Did anyone else have "Native New Yorker" stuck in their heads all day yesterday? I thought I might hit you with my own slice of New York city songs as a response:


Laura Greene - Manhattan Much like the aforementioned Odyssey track it takes a smidgeon of effort to get past the silly lyrics and disco production, but this song will get you.



Ahzz - New York's Movin'This was Ahzz's only release as far as I can tell and it sort of screams studio band. Not to brag or anything but I got this record for a dollar here in portland and I was pretty excited as I was just getting into the Peter Brown constellation of labels (Land of Hits, Queen Constance, Heavenly Star, Sound of New York, Golden Flamingo, P&P, etc.) Unfortunately I discovered a few days later it had been bootlegged in 2004. (The non bootlegged version has slightly different colors, and a ring indentation if you care...) This is the instrumental, the A side has repetitive squeaky vocals that would annoy you.

This Saturday, The Rio Deal in NYC

After taking some time away from the bustling and hustling DJ scene of NYC, I am once again throwing my hat into the ring with a new residency. I am very excited about DJing at a new bar in Williamsburg that has been all the buzz as of late. This is the same place where we had the Frank Sinatra party back in December and the place has been in on the tip of everyone's tongue since then.

The bar is located on the most recent street to receive hipsterfication in Williamsburg, Grand Street (east side of BQE). I must say, they do it right at Huckleberry. You walk in this place and its like all the design flaws of every other bar are made apparent, because this place just "feels" right, down to the sunken lounge in the back and the classy DJ booth with ample space and even a little shelf for the DJ to place his immaculately made Manhattan (possibly the best I've ever had).

Check out their website here.

As for the music, it's gonna be a mix of Soul, Funk, Disco from North and South America. I'm gonna see what the people react to on the first night and play it by ear from there. No musical agenda other than making people shake, shimmy, head-nod or dance, whatever their preference might be. If I don't know you already, please come by the booth and introduce yourself. I'll be back every 4th Saturday of the Month, so mark those calendars.

I hope to see some of you there.

Allen aka 'the ambassador'