I thought I was done with the Cruisin' thread, but I just picked up the debut album by LA's slyly-named Big Organ Trio and "Road Rage" cried out for inclusion.  Mike Mangan mans the B3 here, getting an almost guitar-like sound on his leads via a wah-wah pedal.  The rhythm section of Brent McConnell (drums) and Bernie Bauer (bass) is augmented on this track by Damion Corideo, who provides some Latin percussion.  The song is just on the edge of cruising and almost into car-chase territory:

Big Organ Trio - Road Rage

Big Organ Trio

Yes!  You know you're doing something right when Keith Emerson keeps coming up on stage to jam with you.  What do they sound and look like live?  Like this:

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Still cruisin'--here's one that I would like to be my cruising-the-nightlife song, but it has become my de facto crawling-through-traffic song.  Which is perfect, because it's so upbeat it gives me the illusion of moving even when I'm not.  The Sound Stylistics are a supergroup of UK funksters (though to tell the truth, the only name listed in this review that I recognize is that of Hammond organ guru James Taylor) who recorded an album called The Sound Stylistics Play Deep Funk for a film music library in 2002.  But by popular demand the album was released to mere consumers this year on Freestyle Records (and iTunes).  The high point of the album is track three,  "The Players Theme," which demonstrates what happens when funk players turn it up to eleven, and features a generously long drum break (a category I think I'll explore in future posts).  (What is it about the third track, is that the "power position" on an album?  This is the fourth track three in a row that I've posted!)  At just under five minutes long, it's just right for driving to the grocery store (and then starting over for the drive back):

03 The Players Theme

The Sound Stylistics

The Sound Stylistics apparently like playing together enough to reunite for occasional live gigs; YouTube has a live version of "The Players Theme" from a June 13 performance at the Jazz Cafe:

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Robert Musso's "All Funked Up" isn't fast enough to be a cruising-down-the-freeway song, so it is my official "cruising-down-the-boulevard-with-the-top-down" song (with the same qualifications as the previous entry, plus there is no boulevard in Ithaca).  Musso is a recording engineer, best known (to me) for his work on countless Bill Laswell projects.  He is also a musician, primarily a guitarist for his solo albums and his noise-jazz group Machine Gun, but also a synth whiz for his albums as Transonic.  On this track from his 1992 album Active Resonance, Musso is joined by Bootsy Collins and the JB Horns for an infectious funk workout.

Robert Musso_Active Resonance_03_All Funked Up

Robert Musso

Bootsy may be the funkiest dude ever; all he has to do is say "Aw, yeah" and a song immediately becomes funky before he even touches his Space-Bass (which then increases the Funk exponentially).  What is the Funk?  Where did it come from?  How does it work?  How did Bootsy get it?  What happened to it?  Fans of The Mighty Boosh (the best comedy series of this century, and possibly the most creative ever) will know already, but others should watch and learn from Old Gregg:

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Car-chase music isn't the only good vehicular music genre; simple car driving music can be plenty fulfilling.  "Fried Grease" by the Greyboy Allstars with Fred Wesley (1995) has become my official cruising-down-the-freeway-with-the-top-down song.  Never mind that the top of our minivan doesn't actually go down; this groovy track makes it feel like it's down.  I'm not usually a fan of the "everybody gets a solo" format, but it works in this case because all the players "bring it" (I think that's the correct term today).  After two ensemble runs through the central motif, the soloing begins: first up is legendary JB Horns trombonist Fred Wesley, followed by Karl Denson on alto sax, Harold Todd on flute, Robert Walter on electric piano, and finally Elgin Park on guitar before the ensemble kicks back in to play a completely different riff for the outro.  It's pure gold.  There's no bass solo, but Chris Stilwell's hyperkinetic basslines keep the tune bouncing, and at this point I may as well give a tip of the hat to drummer Zak Najor and percussionist Craig Levitz for pinning the whole thing down so flawlessly.

Greyboy Allstars-Fried Grease

Greyboy Allstars

The Greyboy Allstars formed in 1993 to play the kind of retro funk and acid jazz on the records that DJ Greyboy (Andreas Stevens) was playing at the Green Circle Bar in San Diego.  I first encountered them on the soundtrack to Get Shorty, a pretty good movie with inexplicably great music, most of it by former Lounge Lizard John Lurie.  After some years apart the Allstars reunited this year (all the original members plus Greyboy himself) for a new album, What Happened to Television?  It's fine, funky stuff; there's no "Fried Grease" on it, but "Left Coast Boogaloo" comes close.

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