Funk Brothers, the Fab Faux, and then some...

Greetings from from the land of never-ending crisis. I guess at some point this program name will have to evolve. But it rolls off the tongue so easily... ideas anyone? Maybe I can turn this into a Rando Radio contest with a prize for the winning listener... gotta run this by Headquarters (or maybe "Hindquarters", whatever the bosses-nesses be called).

I had a pleasurable Shabbos dinner this past Friday with a bunch of wonderful people and things musical work into the discussions. I started gum-flapping about the greatest group (almost) nobody ever saw. The Funk Brothers backed all the songs that came out of the Detroit based Motown record label. You pick the artist and the Funk Brothers played the music from the nineteen-sixties until Mr. Gordy moved the whole kit-n-kaboodle to California and canned them. Here is a YouTube video with them playing with comtempory singers. All right, it's a link to the Youtube video. I've gotta do something about the learning curve. I strongly recommend the movie "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" to see the whole story of these people. You will never listen to any Motown record the same way after that movie.

The entity that I learned about (and had no prior knowledge of) was a group known as The Fab Faux. They are studio musicians that have made a mission out of performing Beatles music from original orchestrations (and sometimes working with the songs actual producers) to get it just right. While the voices are not spot-on, the music is absolutely uncanny. Here is a YouTube Video of them performing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".

They do live gigs and will be playing in the NY/NJ area in July, so I'm told. If faithful reproduction of Beatle music in real time tickles your fancy, check them out.

Speaking of faithful reproduction, the last group I will tell of this go-round is known as the Beau-Hunks. Their claim to fame (still available on Amazon as far as I know) is a CD of 74 minutes of music from the Little Rascals episodes. The got hold of the Hal Roach orchestrations and then got period musical instruments (read that- got brass and woodwinds, stringed thingies made in the early twentieth century) with the goal of having the modern recording sound as historically accurate as they could. I believe they were successful. You would do well to check them out.

That does it for now. I am going to follow the example that both my cats are giving, and do the nap thing. Maybe a glass of merlot to help the process (by the way, until you have had one of Chez Potter's mojitos, you haven't lived- I'm too lazy to do them high tech drinky thingie-dingies). Be sure to keep listening to RandoRadio- click here or the "now playing" area (Thanks to Treavor for that one).

Peace be with you,
Glenn Carella