Now-Again Records

L.A. Carnival

The Midwest is full of surprises such as the L.A. Carnival – one of the great, “undiscovered-in-their-time” funk ensembles.

Now-Again’s LP – Pose A Question, issued thirty three years after the L.A. Carnival recorded it – stands as a definitive indication to the breadth of the Midwest funk sub-strata, and there are still hundreds of other undiscovered recordings slowly disappearing into the earth with their original owners and makers. This document should be the crying sentinel, it shall announce to the world that funk is as American an art form as Blues, Gospel and Jazz and it is right time to stop ignoring and discounting it. Fleeting glimpses of this strange animal will never be enough, for we need engrossed exposure in order to fully understand its beauty and relevance.

On his deathbed, Roger Patterson denounced his scintillating film of a fleeting Bigfoot as a fraud, momentarily smashing the hopes of the faithful and elating the naysayers. Yet there are still staunch disciples of the wild creature and it has firmly concretized itself in the American folk patchwork. The emerging being that is unknown funk will never have last breath vituperations because it is itself a breathing and vital organ in the body of American music. Antipodeans beware, this is music to be believed in.

-Dante Carfagna

North and South Carolina Funk and Soul

Now-Again, in conjunction with North Carolina-based researcher and archivist Jason Perlmutter, represents a host of North and South Carolinan soul, funk and jazz bands. Carleen and the Groovers, James Reese and The Progressions, Mixed Feeligs and Primitive are just some of the many artists whose master recordings and publishing are represented by Now-Again

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.

Amnesty

Fans of the exquisite, often never-before-released funk championed by Now Again Records are no stranger to Amnesty. Based in Indianapolis in the early 1970s, the group released only two obscure 45s in their recording career. Birthed from the same scene as the Ebony Rhythm Band (Soul Heart Transplant – NA 5011), Amnesty had a poltical edge similar to LA Carnival (Would Like To Pose A Question – NA 5009) and the hardest brass section since The Kashmere Stage Band (Texas Thunder Soul – NA 5023).

This previously unreleased anthology comes from the same sessions as “Free Your Mind”. In 1973 Amnesty recorded five hard, vocal funk numbers alongside some ballads and a handful of demos based around nothing more than guitar accompaniment. Only two songs were ever released; Amnesty’s biting, difficult-to-categorize prog/rock/soul/funk stretched far beyond Indianpolis’s bounds and the band didn’t have a label to take them to the next level.

Obviously influenced by, but by no means simply imitators of, the sound of early Parliament and Funkadelic, Amnesty also responds to the grooves of Earth Wind and Fire and Sly and The Family Stone in their own way. Finally made available thirty three years after they were recorded, these songs are funk arranged with dangerous complexity and performed with precision – arguably the most unique funk to originate from Naptown, and some of the best music of its kind.