Copyright Criminals examines the creative and commercial value of musical sampling, including the related debates over artistic expression, copyright law, and (of course) money. This documentary traces the rise of hip-hop from the urban streets of New York to its current status as a multibillion-dollar industry.
For more than thirty years, innovative hip-hop performers and producers have been re-using portions of previously recorded music in new, otherwise original compositions. When lawyers and record companies got involved, what was once referred to as a “borrowed melody” became a “copyright infringement.”
The film showcases many of hip-hop music’s founding figures like Public Enemy, De La Soul, and Digital Underground—while also featuring emerging hip-hop artists from record labels Definitive Jux, Rhymesayers, Ninja Tune, and more
I’ve written about the fine Jazz Dispensary sampler series from Craft Recordings in the past. These are thoughtfully curated collections of rare funky soul-jazz sides culled from the label archives of parent company Concord Music which controls the catalogs of Fantasy, Prestige, Milestone, Fania and many other labels.
Why do you need to own these collections? Well as a budding collector of soul-jazz and groove jazz titles from the ‘60s and early ‘70s I can attest to several things:
These albums are often hard to find and if you do they can be pricey in decent condition
If you do find them used, they are often in “well loved” to downright beat up and abused condition. These records were great party albums often played on average to low quality automatic record changers of the day, so people grooving and dancing to the tunes didn’t much think about taking care of their vinyl. and…
Many of these albums are good but usually have one or two standout tracks which is what DJs tend to zero in on, those grooves with the killer beats and drum breaks and a combination of strong songs and good production vibes.
So, the concept underlying Jazz Dispensary’s series is useful. It gives you the intrepid soul-jazz collector a chance to hear some of these great grooves in a form that makes for a fun party album in its own right, without breaking your bank for pricey rarities. On this latest edition, guest curator Doyle Davis (of Grimey’s, a used records and books store in Nashville) offers up a second dose of his Dank D-Funk Blend.
While the first edition focused on the Prestige Records vaults, The Dank D-Funk Blend, Vol. 2 taps into other labels in the company’s roster.
You’ll hear the Afro-Cuban beats of Ray Barretto’s peace love plea “Together,” Charles Earland’s fiery “Letha” and Leon Spencer groovy take on Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy Mercy Me.” Esther Marrow breaks out a funky “Things Ain’t Right.”
I really loved the title track of Pleasure’s 1977 LP Joyous, one of those groups I’ve never heard of before or even seen out in the wilds of crate digging. Cal Tjader surprisingly good cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” gives way to Pucho & The Latin Soul Brothers 1968 smoker “Heat!”
There is even a solid Johnny “Guitar” Watson tune here from 1973 — “You’ve Got a Hard Head” — before he descended into the the disappointing DJM Records disco era.
All tracks on The Dank D-Funk Blend, Vol. 2 are reportedly mastered from their original analog tapes. The only one of these I already had in my collection is the Pucho track which sounds very comparable to my original pressing, with perhaps a bit more crisp detail on the high end. It is also mastered a bit more quietly than my original pressing so I had to turn up my amp a bit after switching albums.
The Dank D-Funk Blend, Vol. 2 is pressed on surprisingly quiet and — happily —well centered orange-red swirl, fire-colored vinyl which was made at Memphis Record Pressing. A limited edition of 3800 copies, The Dank D-Funk Blend, Vol. 2 is packaged in a quite stunning jacked featuring embossed artwork by Argentinian artist Mariano Peccinetti, who designed the previous volume’s cover.
The Dank D-Funk Blend, Vol. 2 is a fun jam. Put it on your Record Store Day list and be sure to grab a copy if you can.
The good folks at Craft Recordings’ rich Jazz Dispensary subsidiary unearthed a handful of tasty jams toward the end of last year including near-forgotten albums by two of the greatest drummers in music history. Issued in limited colored vinyl editions of 1,000 in conjunction with the equally dedicated team at Vinyl Me Please, these albums were all mastered from original tapes, with lacquers and 180-gram colored vinyl pressing done at the respected RTI (Record Technology Incorporated) plant.
Jack DeJohnette’s Sorcery is a 1974 gem that pushes a lot of boundaries into free jazz, groove and near-psychedelic free-for-all. For the latter, I use the word “near” because if you’ve listened to Charles Mingus, Frank Zappa and later period John Coltrane you’ve no doubt heard explosive momentum like this. That isn’t a bad thing, mind you but I wanted to paint a picture with words so you know what to expect.
Sorcery is a diverse album with moments of beauty and sadness (“Four Levels Of Joy,” “The Reverend King Suite”) and elation (the chanting on “The Right Time”). “Epilog” wraps the album with a sweet funky jazz fusion groove that is only missing Jean Luc Ponty soloing spacey electric violin over it. The lovely stone grey vinyl is perfectly quiet and well centered so the music just jumps out of the speakers. The fidelity varies as this was recorded at some different studios including Bearsville in Woodstock, NY. its not a bad sound at all here but don’t go into this expecting a Rudy Van Gelder (RVG) vibe. Sorcery is its own thing with much magic and wizardry happening courtesy of players like John Abercrombie, Dave Holland and Bennie Maupin. Not surprisingly Sorcery has been sampled a lot (click here to explore whosampled)
Idris Muhammad’s Black Rhythm Revolution on the other hand is a RVG jam recorded from 1971 that gets right down to the funk-sou-groove from the opening notes of “Express Yourself.” For those not in the know, the formerly-named Leo Morris was an important player coming out of New Orleans having played on Joe Jones massive hit “You Talk Too Much”) and perhaps most notably –according to the wiki and some sources — Fats Domino’s “Blueberry Hill” (note: the wiki and other sources also indicate that Wrecking Crew legend Earl Palmer played on that track so keep that in mind). He worked with Jerry Butler and even was in the cast of Hair for three years in New York, he also toured with Lou Donaldson.
Black Rhythm Revolution is a groover through and through including a smoking cover of James Brown’s “Super Bad” — this album is worth the price of admission just to hear the snap of his snare drum here. “Wander” has some incredibly over-the-top Tom Tom pitch-bend soloing going on in the middle of what turns into an epic sound safari.
Surprisingly this particular album hasn’t had seen a lot of sampling traction according to WhoSampled.com but others of Muhammad’s album have so that might explain some of the demand for an album like this. With guitar work by no less than Melvin Sparks and Clarence Thomas on saxes plus great trumpet work by Virgil Jones, Black Rhythm Revolution is a winner.
