10 Seconds: Jessica Lauren

Same human who gave us this divine thing just dished out 10 Second props to one of my favourite greasy as goose songs from a film Walter Mosley really loves and James Baldwin really doesn't. "You hear?"

.

1. George Duke - Dawn (1'35" - 1'45")

From

George Duke

-The Aura Will Prevail (1975)

"My favourite George Duke album, a masterful tour de force of keyboard textures and layers with a killer rhythm section of Alphonso Johnson on bass, Ndugu Chancler on Drums and Airto on percussion. I’ll admit it, I took a fair amount of acid listening to this album in the ‘70s. Heady days."

2. Weather Report - Elegant People (2'14" - 2'24")

From

Weather Report

- Black Market (1976)

"A classic Weather Report album and a deceptively complex Wayne Shorter composition, this was one of the last tunes featuring Alphonso Johnson and Chester Thompson on bass and drums before a new era was ushered in with Jaco on bass and Zawinul going mad with the polyphonic synths... Alex Acuña still on percussion, Zawinul’s piano and unique Rhodes and ARP 2600 sounds to the fore: stunning ensemble work and of course the classic intro later sampled by..."

3. Portishead - Strangers (1'08" - 1'18")

From

Portishead - Dummy (1994)

“The intro from Weather Report’s Elegant People spliced into a bone-crunchingly fierce slow groove leading to a haunting breakdown of guitar, noise and voice. Dry ice genius from Utley, Barrow and Gibbons."

4. Hoyt Curtin - Title theme from The Jetsons (0'14" - 0'24")

From

Hoyt Curtin

- The Jetsons: Series 1 (1962)

"An insane series of lightning-fast ascending string lines set against Wurlitzer 120 electric piano and a brick wall drum fill, and all for a Hanna Barbera sit-com in space. Bonkers. (Has to be the first version, never bettered)"

5. Ray Charles - In The Heat Of The Night (1'52" - 2'02")

From

Quincy Jones - In The Heat Of The Night OST (1967)

"The super-soulful theme from the multi-Oscar-winning film starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger. Score by Quincy Jones, featuring Rahsaan Roland Kirk on flute. Peak Ray Charles here with the Raelettes and an uncredited Billy Preston on organ."

6. Rance Allen - That Will Be Good Enough For Me (1'27" - 1'37")

From

Soul Comes Home: Celebration of Stax Records (2003)

"The great Rance Allen covering Rev. James Cleveland’s 1964 song live at the ‘Soul Comes Home’ Stax reunion concert in Memphis. He accompanies himself on piano for the intro with some outrageous bravura vocal ad libs. There’s no-one like Bishop Rance Allen."

7. Labelle - Moon Shadow (4'07" - 4'17")

From

Labelle - Moon Shadow (1972)

"Back in the early ‘90s my friend Joy and I would close up shop at Patisserie Bliss in Angel of a Monday evening, rush home to get changed, and head off to the Bass Clef in Hoxton Square for Norman Jay’s regular night, the Original Musiquarium. This is the tune I remember best from those evenings, an epic 9 1/2 minute soulful jam on Yusuf Cat Stevens’s hit song which I think Norman used to close the evening with... After a wicked organ solo by Andre Lewis the band bring it down behind Patti and settle deep into the groove for some coasting and toasting. We’d set off to our homes at 3am, grab a few hours’ sleep and be back at the shop for 7am to open up. Yeah baby."

8. Fatman Ridim Section - The Year 1983 (2'16" - 2'26")

From

Fatman Ridim Section

- Israel Tafari (1978)

"Dub version of ‘The Same Song’ by Israel Vibration. No credits at all on the album cover. My copy has the white centre label. I see on Discogs copies are going for £100 to £250. Tra la. My favourite dub album I think. Enjoy."

PREVIOUS SELECTION

9. Marvin Gaye - Save The Children (2'40" - 2'50")

Taken from

Marvin Gaye - What's Going On? (1971)

"On what would have been Marvin’s 81st birthday (April 3rd), my thoughts turn to that great soulful artist. I could have picked almost any 10 seconds from his masterpiece ‘What’s Going On’ but there’s something about this impassioned cry from the heart for the children of the future and for a world we’re so bent on destroying. He could see the ways things were going when he recorded it 50 years ago.

The rhythm section play in insistent double time, notably James Jamerson’s brilliant walking lines, while Marvin talks and sings, floating above in half time as the chords seem to continuously ascend. It builds to its heartbreaking climax over full orchestra, percussion, celeste, harmony vocals and a burst of saxophone as Marvin cries “Save the babies!”

Beautiful, powerful and indispensable."