Freddy Scott & the Four Steps – Same Ole Beat

Mystery solved!! The group Miami, Freddy Scott at left.

“Listen – Freddy Scott & the Four Steps – Same Ole Beat – MP3″

Greetings all.

I hope everyone had a most excellent weekend. It was grey and damp here in Jersey, but the sun peeked out just enough to keep things from getting too gloomy.
In other news, I have a grip of nice stuff lined up for this week, and should be dropping yet another edition of the Funky16Corners Radio podcast next Monday.
The tune I bring you today is another longtime want list item that I turned up when I was digging down in DC.
The first time I ever heard of Freddy Scott – not to be confused with the singer Freddie Scott, who it with ‘Hey Girl’ and ‘You Got What I Need’ among others – was via the absolutely storming number ‘Pow City’ on the compilation of the same name.
The Freddy Scott who is featured on today’s selection was a Florida based drummer and vocalist who recorded a number of slamming soul and funk sides for Henry Stone’s Marlin and Dade labels. He recorded 45s as Freddy Scott and his Orchestra, Freddie and the Kinfolk, the Five Steps and as listed on today’s single, Freddy Scott and the Four Steps. Though I haven’t been able to track down a discography I’m willing to make an educated guess and say that most of this stuff falls in the 1966-1968 time frame.
The one thing all of these records have in common is a certain variety of slamming, party time soul, spilling over into the funk vibe.
‘Same Ole Beat’ is no exception, with a pounding beat, organ, drums and sax and Freddy getting wild over the whole thing.
Scott went on to be a member of the group Miami, where in addition to their own records – like ‘Party Freaks’ – they served as the house band at TK records, playing on countless Florida funk, soul and disco hits.
The picture above is of Miami, and one of those guys is Freddy Scott. If anyone knows for sure which one of those slick dudes is the man in question, please let me know.
I hope you dig the tune and I’ll be back on Wednesday with some very groovy soul jazz.

Photo by Eilon Paz

Me taking Roger & the Gypsies out for some air…

As stated in Saturday’s post, yours truly is featured over at the most excellent Dust and Grooves blog. Owned and operated by photographer Eilon Paz, Dust and Grooves concentrates on crate diggers and their culture, featuring all kinds of digging stories and more importantly Eilon’s excellent photography.
The post centers around the then recently deceased Eddie Bo, and I put together a mini-mix (linked at Dust and Grooves) for inclusion therein.
Many friends of Funky16Corners have already been featured, including DJ Prestige, the mighty Mr. Finewine, Pat James Longo, and Cosmo Baker among others.
It’s a very cool enterprise and I’m proud to be a part of it.
Fall by and check it out when you get a chance.

Peace

Larry

PS Don’t forget to head over to Iron Leg for some righteous garage folk.

PSS Check out Paperback Rider too.

PSSS Don’t forget to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook