Get Involved blog

Sam Butera – Little Liza Jane

I stumbled across this little beauty whilst rummaging in the 45 boxes in Intoxica the other week. Sam Butera was a saxophonist and singer that played a lot with Louis Prima in the 60s when Prima was camped out in Las Vegas as King of the Sahara Lounge. Butera was the band leader of The Witnesses and the performances of the band with Louis Prima and Prima’s wife, singer Keely Smith were reportedly incredible. Louis Prima, btw, played Uncle Louie in Disney’s The Jungle Book. He be the king of the swingers!

From 1963 until 1975, Magnagroove recordings were recorded in the studio Louis Prima built in his own home, and the records he cut were sold largely at his shows. Prima’s strategy here was amazingly practical and has become the model for many independent musicians in the internet age: record and release your own music – cutting out the middleman record company – and sell the recordings at your own shows. Live performances become your bread and butter, with recordings secondary. You lose a major record label’s promotional budget and national reach, but you gain control of your own music and, with lower overhead, show a profit much sooner. Prima took names and addresses of fans wherever he performed, and they joined a record club, receiving a copy of each new release.

Here on this 1964 recording of Little Liza Jane (a traditional folk song that had been covered by the likes of Huey “Piano” Smith and also Scotty McKay on Ace Records a few years earlier), Butera is on vocals with Prima leading The Witnesses in musical accompaniment in a swampy, harmonica-drenched, electric-guitar-tastic R’n'B style. During the guitar break you can distinctly hear some simultaneous spoons action - which then continues for the rest of the track. Cause, I think you’ll agree, for much celebration. A Get Involved future classic! Yup, this one got me me rockin’ when I thought I’d be rollin’…

To find out more about Louis Prima and his Magnagroove recordings, check out jazzitude.com.

Mancunian design trio Central Station were responsible for creating some of the boldest and most memorable record sleeves of the 80s and 90s. Just as The Happy Mondays’ attitude and stage presence (not to mention the opening of The Haçienda, and the arrival of acid house and Ecstacy) heralded the arrival of a new chapter in Britain’s musical history, so Central Station’s legacy of colourful and energetic record sleeve designs for various Factory Records acts documents a simultaneous shift in graphic approach to music packaging. After studying design, the studio basically stuck two fingers up at Swiss minimalism and formal typography in favour of finding their own unique voice – one that was relevant to – and inspired by – the music…

A new exhibition of their work, entitled Faç Off, opens this Friday at Richard Goodall Gallery in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. It will showcase much of the trio’s now iconic work for the likes of Happy Mondays, James and Black Grape – as well as a selection of non-commercially produced paintings and prints.

Faç Off is not only the title of Central Station’s forthcoming exhibition – it is a graphic they conjured up for a promotional T-shirt for Factory back in 1990. “I remember Tony[Wilson]’s reaction when he asked what we’d come up with,” says Central Station’s Karen Jackson. “We showed him, he looked at it and said, ‘Fac off. Brilliant!’”

To see more images and read a full profile on the studio, check out the piece in the May issue of Creative Review magazine or read it online on the Creative Review blog.

Faç Off runs from 16 May to 21 June at Richard Goodall Gallery, Manchester. Limited edition screenprints will be available from richardgoodallgallery.com

Lee Dorsey – Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky

Summer seems to have arrived earlier than expected here in London. We’ve had a week of lovely warm sunny weather so this week’s slab of old gold is an appropriately languid, funky, swampy r’n'b number – cooked up courtesy of one heck of a New Orleans musical partnership: Lee Dorsey and songwriter/producer Allen Toussaint. Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky (From Now On) from 1969 sounds ripe for inclusion on a future Tarantino soundtrack – but for now is best enjoyed whilst reclining in a garden or park, sipping an icy cool drink, thinking about just how doggone funky you’re going to be from now on…

James Joyce, of studio One Fine Day, designed the very first Get Involved poster. In fact, he’s designed several for us along the way and is one of our favourite image-makers in the whole world.

There’s a fantastic exhibition (his first solo gallery show) of his work up at the moment in London’s Kemistry Gallery that’s well worth a visit. A selection of wonderful limited edition signed and numbered prints are available to buy too. While stocks last!

See Creative Review blog for a more detailed post with more images.

Drawings And Other Objects is running until 14 June at London’s Kemistry Gallery, 43 Charlotte Road, London EC2A 3PD. +44 (0)20 7749 2766

Ruby Lee - I’m Gonna Put A Watch On You
Holy-moly, I’m Gonna Put A Watch On You (24 Hours A Day) by Ruby Lee is an absolute cracker of a record that will probably never leave my record box. I originally heard the track on a great compilation LP I picked up a while back called Jump & Shout which is choc-full of precisely the kind of music that really floats my boat: early 60s post R’n'B, pre-soul, greasy dance slop. Check the raucous gospel-style intro and also the break that drops shortly before the track fades out…

Amazing. Ruby Lee, Get Involved salutes you!