How about some Mo’Hawkshaw?
Blue Mink
Clem Cattini
“Listen – Rumplestiltskin – Rumplestiltskin – MP3″
Greetings all.
Here we all are, having successfully weathered the heaving seas of another week.
I’d like to start things out with a program note, the Funky16Corners fam will be on holiday next week, so I’ll be posting a new mix on Monday and then chilling until the following Monday, during which time I hope to get in a dig or two, attack a buttered lobster and catch up on my sleep.
The tune I bring you today is something I discovered quite accidentally during one of my periodic Alan Hawkshaw searches on the interwebs.
If the name is not familiar then the organ surely is (hmmmm….) since Hawkshaw is the Hammond master behind the Mohawks and a grip of outstandingly funky library recordings (and countless UK TV themes). His sounds have been featured on Funky16Corners before with the Mohawks and backing Keith Mansfield and Tony Newman (on the latter’s version of the former’s ‘Soul Thing’).
Anyhoo, I was trolling a certain all powerful intertubes auction site and I happened upon a listing for a record by a group called Rumplestiltskin (sic). It came up in a Hawkshaw search, so I clicked on the link and a few minutes later I’m grooving to a sound sample of some very funky, somewhat proggy rock. A few Googles later and I find out that Rumplestiltskin was a two-lp supergroup, led by Hawkshaw and frequent partner in crime Alan Parker (see ‘Hot Pants’ on KPMs ‘Flute For Moderns’), as well as Parker’s Blue Mink* bandmate Herbie Flowers, and former Johnny Kidd drummer Clem Cattini. The group’s LPs were only released in Germany (huh?) and the music was produved by none other than Shel Talmy.
The tune I bring you today is the groups eponymous instrumental from their first LP, which features some churning organ and piano by Hawkshaw, guitar by Parker and some outstanding drums and percussion by Cattini, up to and including a great break about 1:40 into the track (and again at the end).
It may not be purely funk and or soul, but it is funky, which is why I’m posting it.
I hope you dig it, watch out for that new mix on Monday and I’ll see you when I see you.
Peace
Larry
*Interestingly enough, the organist in Blue Mink was Roger Coulam, who has appeared in a couple of Funky16Corners Hammond mixes
PS Don’t forget to head over to Iron Leg for some dreamy, psychey stuff.
April 9, 2009 at 11:55 pm
I dig, too. Thanks, man.
April 10, 2009 at 3:09 am
Larry, I assume you know Clem Cattini was a member of the ‘Telstar’ Tornados, too? I’m lucky enough to know Dave Adams who was the uncredited co-author of ‘Telstar’ and member of Joe Meek’s inner circle. He lives near me, I’ve played with him many times (we both share keyboards often). He and his sister Joy produced a pile of 45s in the sixties that defy the imagination. He still owes me a dub of their UK only release. they did a CDs worth of what can only be called soulful Americana! I’ve got to get in touch with him anyway and I’ll ask him again for the disc promised. His daughter plays also and is a friend of mine on Facebook.
April 10, 2009 at 9:06 am
Duncan
I knew he worked with Joe Meek but I didn’t know about the Tornados connection. I wish someone would do a big book on Meek and his circle. He worked with a lot of incredible musicians and made some amazing records, well into the psyche era.
L
April 10, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Who is the Black woman pictured in the photograph of Blue Mink? It looks like it could be Madeleine Bell?
April 10, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Medeline Bell was the co-lead singer (with Roger Cook) of Blue Mink
May 2, 2009 at 11:17 pm
Thansk for this one… for whatever reason it’s now on repeat.
May 2, 2009 at 11:18 pm
Thanks for this one… for whatever reason it’s now on repeat.
June 6, 2009 at 8:49 am
funny for a native german speaker to hear “Rumplestiltskin” which is from the german word “Rumpelstilzchen” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumpelstiltskin
greetings from vienna, austria – keep on grooving, funky16corner
September 20, 2009 at 11:21 am
Greetings I recently dug into my record collection the other day (first time in about 10 years) and what did I find? The original Rumplestiltskin
LP with the cartoon for the album cover. When I played it it made me realize how far ahead of its time this LP was, so good that I have been listening to it frequently. What a blast to the past.
October 7, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Love your tunes dude, but no mention of Herbie Flowers in the Rumplestiltskin post???
October 7, 2009 at 4:43 pm
You might want to reread the post…
October 8, 2009 at 7:47 am
I just did, I’m such a DUMB ASS!
October 8, 2009 at 8:02 am
My mum just told me how she had to sell Blue Mink under the counter at her record shop in South Africa, apparently Melting Pot was about as subversive as you could get in Durban.
“Take a pinch of white man. Wrap him up in black skin”
I still don’t know how I missed Herbie the first time round?
October 8, 2009 at 5:50 pm
[...] by none other than the mighty Alan Hawkshaw and Alan Parker (see Mohawks, Keith Mansfield, Rumplestiltskin etc). Hawkshaw’s catalog is by and large the very definition of unfadeable, and while the [...]