This ensemble released their first 7s, 12s and their debut album on Now-Again Records. They are currently signed to Ubiquity Records.
Michael Liggins & The Supersouls
Michael Liggins met “Mighty” Mike Lenaburg in Phoenix, Arizona in 1963. Liggins was cutting his teeth with a band called The Soul Patrol. “We hit it off good. He was young, as was I,” Lenaburg recalls. “He was doing instrumental soul – it wasn’t funk. Not yet.”
Liggins progressed along. By 1966, The Soul Patrol had broken up and Liggins joined the Lenaburg-produced Soulsations. The Soulsations were close kin to Liggins’ later ensemble, The Super Souls. “They were mostly Mexican, except for Mike and Rudy (and Don, on “Loaded to the Gills”), who were black,” Lenaburg states. In 1968 Liggins left The Soulsations and The Super Souls were born.
“Psychedelic music was in at the time. I liked that kind of music,” Lenaburg recalls. “You have to remember, I was in my early twenties and I had a record shop in Phoenix – Melody Records. I listened to all the latest music. Locally, there wasn’t as much of a market for that type of music as we had intially thought. It was out there, so it didn’t really hit. Of course, I was young and really didn’t know what I was doing either. I recorded the band and released their records because I believed in the group. I wasn’t really aware of what was happening, but I liked the sound. We had more of a psychedelic sound than a funk sound. It was funk too, but it was more of a psychedelic thing. We looked up to Sly and The Family Stone and Funkadelic. I was very open-minded.”
In between the two Super Souls sessions (which appear on the Now-Again issued anthology record), Liggins ended up playing saxophone on the We The People songs that Lenaburg later released on Darlene Records. “We needed a B-side, so Sam (leader of We The People) worked with the group and got “Function Underground” together for us,” Lenaburg remembers.
Liggins and Lenaburg recorded a blues song called “Mama’s Baby, Daddy’s Maybe” in 1972. By then, The Super Souls had disbanded. “By 1972 they were disgusted and had just kind of lost interest in music. I continued to manage Michael until 1985,” Lenaburg recalls. “He was very talented, often working for five or six different bands. He then moved to Vegas, where he continued to play for a couple of years, but couldn’t make a living at it. Since he was a union plumber, he had a plumber’s license. So he started working maintenance in hotels in Vegas and finally just lost interest in music.”
Rhythm Machine
Out of Indianpolis funk legends (and Egon’s Funky 16 Corners impetus) The Highlighters’ proverbial ashes rose The Rhythm Machine. Due to the stress and economic hardship of constant touring, many of The Highlighters quit the band in 1970 and returned to Indianapolis to strike out on their own. James Boone and James Brantley, determined to make a go of it as a show band, assembled another high-energy group of musicians. Boone’s cousin Julius Mack, living in Louisville, Kentucky, at the time, signed on for tenor sax, as did the awesome alto-saxophonist Mardie Williams from Muncie, Indiana. Young Kevin Farrell dropped out of Harry Wood High School to join the band. “I took him out of school when he was a sophomore; I raised that boy,” Boone remembers. Drummer Robert Dycus – fresh off his tenure with Billy Ball – obviously knew a thing or two about the funk sound.
Though the band recorded three singles and an LP, their strength was touring. “We couldn’t understand why we would draw,” Boone marvels, adding, “It was unbelievable man. If we had had a big record, we would have made it. But we were more into surviving on the road than we were into trying to be in the recording business.” Now-Again has issued the majority of the Rhythm Machine’s catalog on various CDs and LPs.
Leon Mitchison & The Eastex Freeway Band
Houston, Texas, has always been a musical hotbed of Black music – from Melvin Sparks to Beyonce. Fans of Now-Again’s brand of Deep Funk rarities will be familiar with the legendary reign of the Kashmere High School Stage Band – the indomitable young warriors of sophisticated funk and soul, led by the experienced guidance of long-time band instructor Conrad O. Johnson.
Johnson put out numerous sought-after slabs of incredibly funky wax on his Kram imprint to showcase the sound of his high school powerhouse band. A lesser known fact has come to light recently: many of Johnson’s young Kashmere High players were trained under the expert tutelage of one Leon Mitchison – saxophonist, band-leader and one-time principal at Houston’s Isaac Elementary. Some of the top thoroughbred musicians from the Kashmere stable came up under Mitchison – including Gerald Calhoun (bass), Craig Green (drums) and Earl Spiller (guitar). This tight rhythm section was known as the Nut, Bolt & Screw over at Kashmere High. Along with Kashmere organist Alva Nelson, they were known as the Eastex Freeway Band when they recorded with Mitchison on his Mitchitone Records label.
Connie Price and the Keystones Press
Threedworld.com
Mental Combat: Issue 742
Get ready for the supergroup of contemporary deep funk with the new release on Now-Again (Creative Vibes/Basement Digs) by the name of Connie Price & the Keystones with their superb album, Wildflowers. Containing members from more than six well established groups such as Breakestra, Antibalas, Dap Kings, etc… it truly is a supergroup in every sense of the word. As an added bonus is that the current tradesman of drumming, the extraordinarily gifted and prolific Malcom Catto is on the sticks as well. It’s down and dirty with a massive lineup of musicians involved who really do surpass themselves in a shapes and forms. Melodies, rhythms, atmosphere, vibe, are all sophisticated yet parallel a world of 30 years ago in the most truest of fashions. It’s the lack of pretence and the love of funk that propels if far above those who fail to see the alkaline & focus on the acid. Alkaline funk as opposed to acid jazz. The title track & the only one with vocals, is a prime example of bringing the old with the new. It features the vocals of two members of the early ’70s obscure funk outfit LA Carnival and it pretty much sounds like a never before released track from that era. If those guys can hook up with new fellas for such a project then the least one could do is put this on the shopping list. Highly memorable and rewarding. LINK
Your Source for Toronto Urban Life
We here at TOFLO.com like to think that we are for the most part “up” on new music and that not too much gets by our ears. But then we’re thoroughly gorilla-slapped back to reality when we find out about music like this, months after it’s initial release. Wildflowers is an album that will almost instantly bring you back to an earlier time (namely the early 70’s) when music was lush and could single-handedly bring you to another level. Combining elements of funk, jazz, soul and rock, Wildflowers is able to effortlessly capture the essence of what made that era so great. A live instrumental album by some extremely talented musicians, fifteen in total, it makes for an excellent listen when you just want to sit back, zone-out, and not do a damn thing. Very cool.
Rewind Worthy: “Get Thy Bearings,” “Sucker Punch,” “The Shadows Of Leaves” and “Wildflowers.”
L.A. Weekly – July 8, 2005
Connie Price & the Keystones, Egon at Temple Bar.
Stones Throw Records’ estimable arbiter of good taste Egon throws two parties to celebrate the release of Cold Heat — Heavy Funk Rarities, the funktastic follow-up to the label’s justly acclaimed The Funky 16 Corners compilation, a veritable mine of unheeded funk gold by ’60s and ’70s combos from all over the U.S.A. The new disc uncovers further great stuff from some of the bands featured on The Funky 16 Corners and brings on several previously unheard others, in a memorabilia-packed set complete with a 28-page booklet and tons of priceless period pics. Tonight, L.A.’s crucial Connie Price & the Keystones perform songs from the comps as well as their own originals, and Egon will deejay. At Star Shoes on Saturday, renowned Northern Soul DJ/compiler Keb Darge flies in for his first-ever set in California. (John Payne)
Impose Magazine
Vol. IV, issue #17 (March/April)
Connie Price and the Keystones
Wildflowers
Now-Again
There’s been a second coming among underground funk lovers, with new labels popping up faster than you can say James Brown. And while a good portion of the revenue upstarts like Now-Again bring in is due to re-releasing hard to find classics, it’s also inspired a new generation of musicians to embrace the funk. Drummer Connie Price and Breakestra guitarist Dan Ubick have assembled a cast of characters that can create aural landscapes using live instruments nearly as well as Ubick has with the help of technology in the past. Lot’s of wah-pedal guitar and thumping bass are what drives Wildflowers, but this isn’t straight funk JB’s style; it’s heavily infused in Jazz, Afrobeat, soul, and, according to Ubick, late 60s/early 70s movie soundtracks. The trumpet work of Daptone recording artist Todd M. Simon is nothing short of amazing, displaying a range from the swing to psychedelic era’s of jazz. The Wurlitzer, Moog and Rhodes laid down throughout sets the perfect ambiance for every mood shift, but never feels forced or worse yet, incompetently played like often is the case when working with such distinctly toned instruments. The soundtrack quality will be evident once you put on the record and realize every beat is following you closely no matter what the scenario. It slowly becomes background music for your ride; it doesn’t matter where you’re going, because no matter where, you won’t stop bobbin’ your head. –DE
