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"The Drop with Danno" on GFN 광주영어방송 98.7FM in Gwangju & 93.7FM in Yeosu, Korea. An eclectic radio curation of all things musical spanning the spectrum every week. Broadcasting 8-10pm KST nightly.
Apr 5, 2023
Donald Byrd – Places & Spaces
Dwele – A Pimp’s Dream
Laura Rain & The Caesars – Rise Again
Stevie Wonder – He’s Missta Know-It-All
Moodymann – Misled
Aretha Franklin – Dr. Feelgood (Live in Amsterdam, 1968)
Smokey Robinson – How You Make Me Feel
Amp Fiddler feat Bubz Fiddler & J Dilla – Through Your Soul
Marvin Jay – I Heard It Through The Grapevine
Tall Black Guy – From Home, To Work, and Back
Theo Parrish – Sweet Sticky
I.
It is 20 hours past midnight after a rainy blech kind of day here in Gwangju, but fear not fair listener as it is up up & away for the full two hours today, marked into your passport forever as April 5, 2023. This is Danno ready as always to take it to the skies tonight, and we’re glad to have you on board flight TD089 bound for Detroit this evening. Now obviously, there’s no way to get through anywhere close to even the tiniest shard of Detroit music in two hours, but we do wanna represent as much of the spectrum as we can tonight, so we got some soul flavor in the mix coming up, some sprinkles of hip-hop, rnb, and of course a bit of electronica although all of these go well together in the blender. Part 4 to finish the show though, we’re gonna switch it up & give Detroit rock its due, and then it’ll be back to ICN to close proceedings. For right now though, it’s time to go wheels up and the soundtrack as we fly to the 313 is one of my travel favorites from Donald Byrd, so let’s hit play and get above the clouds. This is The Drop.
Donald Byrd – Places & Spaces
The Drop has arrived in the place many of the locals refer to as The D, and we are of course on our weekly traveling without moving through music, which is a thing we refer to as The Round Trip.
Danno here, studio 2, GFN HQ, thankful as always to you for tuning in and choosing our fine like wine airline for all your travel needs. Now, on a personal level, that opener from Donald Byrd called Spaces & Places always makes me daydream about travel, and that tune is the title track to an amazing album released by Blue Note in 1975.
Byrd was a true Detroit original and like his city, a resilient and creative artist. In fact, after Byrd came up as a session trumpetist for many artists early on in his career, he was one of the few who successfully explored the more popular funk & soul sounds of the time whilst also continuing to work in jazz.
Now, this guy to me is a total hero, so I’d thought I’d known a good bit but alas I am mistaken. One thing I did not know is his full name is Donald Toussaint L’Overture Byrd, named in honor of the liberator of Haiti whose life is an absolutely unbelievable story if you’ve never read it. The other thing I didn’t know about Byrd was he was a massive influence on Herbie Hancock when the latter was a very young musician just starting out.
Donald Byrd, rest in power. Total hero.
#9870, @gfnthedrop, podcast details, etc.
So let’s move forward on the timeline to start the next block then hit rewind again to finish. We got Dwele, Laura Rain & Stevie Wonder coming up next and in the order announced, and of course we’ll talk more after we throw these tunes into space. This is The Drop on your Round Trip Wednesday to Detroit!
_________
The Drop returns for the final airbreak of part 1 tonight, although we have already touched down in destination Detroit for tonight’s Round Trip. Danno here, doing the thing with donuts & such, and we just heard a trio of tunes from all over the modern timeline, so let’s run it down...
Dwele – A Pimp’s Dream (…this is from the artist’s 2005 album Some Kinda, and Andwele Gardner was raised on Detroit’s west side and took to learning many instruments growing up. However, a tragic event occurred when Dwele was 10, as his father was shot & killed by police out in front of his home. Young Dwele sank into his music to deal with the tragedy, stating the music he made was like therapy.)
Laura Rain & The Caesars – Rise Again (…one of our favorites here at Drop Central, this being the lead single and title track to their 2021 album. A group firmly rooted in the sounds past & present of the 313, do go check this record out if you liked that, available via LRK Records.)
Stevie Wonder – He’s Missta Know-It-All (…back to the 70’s with this, a major influence on young Dwele as he dealt with the horror of his father’s passing. This of course was part of 1973’s Innervisions LP.)
Now let’s move up to 1997 for the opener from one of my favorite albums, which is Kenny Dixon Jr aka Moodymann’s debut Silentintroduction, which appeared courtesy of Detroit techno legend Carl Craig’s Planet E label, this final tune is called Misled, the opening salvo on the record. THIS is The Drop on this week’s Round Trip to The D.
Moodymann – Misled
II.
The Drop has returned still in Detroit on this Rond Trip Wednesday night. Danno here, making sure the donuts spin especially here in part 2, which we’ll discuss momentarily, but for right now, that was a couple of classics past & present, so let’s boogie…
Aretha Franklin – Dr. Feelgood (Live in Amsterdam, 1968) (…I know there’s so many tunes to play from Aretha, but this one is it for me, a live rendition of a hit off of what was already in 1967 Aretha’s 10th studio album, I Never Loved A Man The Way I Loved You.)
Smokey Robinson – How You Make Me Feel (…and from the past of Motown to the present, as Barry Gordy’s legendary right hand is coming out with a new album this year, and that was the lead single. The new album by the way, is called Gasms.)
Moving along SM, #9870, podcast let us know …
So we’ll continue tonight and dedicate this next block to J Dilla, with something from Amp Fiddler and Tall Black guy along with the man they once called Jaydee as well. THIS is The Drop on your Round Trip Wednesday to the 313.
_________
The Drop vibrates once again with the verbals after the vibes previous, Danno here, your tour guide to Detroit tonight, and we just continued with some hip-hop inspired beats from Detroit and specifically J Dilla and descendants. Let’s run it down right now...
Amp Fiddler feat Bubz Fiddler & J Dilla – Through Your Soul (…this is from t/n Joseph Anthony aka Amp Fiddler’s 2017 album Amp Dog Knights. Through the years Fiddler has worked with huge artists and become a very busy producer, working here with the legendary J Dilla, which brings us to.)
Marvin Jay – I Heard It Through The Grapevine (…this is from a self-produced (bootlegged?) album by David Begun, who does a lot of mashups like this. A perfect encapsulation of the Detroit soul lineage.)
Tall Black Guy – From Home, To Work, and Back (…this is a tune from 2013’s 8 Miles to Moenart. True name Terrel Wallace, this is an amazing discography to peep if you like the deep downtempo flavors in your coffee.)
So let’s wrap the hour & a bit wild with something Ugly from Theo Parrish, and our final tune is from 1998’s First Floor LP called Sweet Sticky. THIS is The Drop on your Detroit Round Trip.
Theo Parrish – Sweet Sticky
III & IV Round Trip
Marvin Gaye & Tami Terrell – Ain’t No Mountain High Enough
The Spinners – I’ll Be Around
Jazzanova feat Sean Haefeli – Face At My Window
St. Germain feat John Lee Hooker – Sure Thing
Theo Parrish – The Motor City (Uget 003)
The Pleasure Seekers – What A Way To Die
Demolition Doll Rods – Cloud
Bob Seger – Ramblin Gamblin Man
The Stooges – 1969
Protomartyr – Processed By The Boys
Mid-Air Thief – These Chains
Parannoul – We Shine at Night
Marvin Gaye & Tami Terrell – Ain’t No Mountain High Enough
- Maybe the greatest pop song of all time, even all these years later this tune is so iconic it’s almost…ALMOST become cliché, but it could never possibly pass that event horizon.
The Spinners – I’ll Be Around
- Known in the UK as The Detroit Spinners, the group formed in 1954 had a string of hits through the 60’s & 70’s, this one going to the top of the rnb charts in the US on release and spending five weeks there in 1973.
- Amazingly, the band continues to tour to this day, with Henry Fambrough as the sole surviving member.
Jazzanova feat Sean Haefeli – Face At My Window
- From the 2022 reimagining of Strata Records: The Sound of Detroit album, which features Jazzanova doing their thing with some Strata Records originals as laid down by DJ Amir using the original cuts from the Strata catalogue.
St. Germain feat John Lee Hooker – Sure Thing
- From 2000’s Tourist LP, this is the solo project of Parisian DJ Ludovic Navarre, with this tune featuring John Lee Hooker, who as a young man ran away from home and eventually landed in Detroit.
- A man often more associated with Chicago, which as our next tune will show, can go both ways…
Theo Parrish – The Motor City (Uget 003)
- Kind of the opposite of John Lee Hooker in that fans often associate Parrish with Detroit although he grew up in Chicago, both of which are totally understandable given the career arcs of both artists.
- This is part of the ugly edits series, where Parrish took some of his most beloved tunes and added a tech and house twist to them. This tune is a retouch of Sunflower by Freddie Hubbard, released on the Backlash LP from 1967.
The Pleasure Seekers – What A Way To Die
- This is an all-female band formed in 1964 in Detroit and featured Suzi Quatro in the band, who later had a string of rock hits that didn’t do much in America but went straight to the top of the charts in the UK & Australia.
- In Quatro’s memoir, the girls were looking for a band name but couldn’t use hedonist, so used the more acceptable pleasure seekers instead.
Demolition Doll Rods – Cloud
- This is a tune from 2020, but this is a band that goes way back to 1994 and achieved far more notoriety back then, especially after they played a set at Lollapalooza.
- This tune appears on the Into The Brave LP after a 14 year hiatus for the group.
The Bob Seger System – Ramblin Gamblin Man
- This is the title track from the debut album for Seger and company from 1969.
- Seger continued after this to represent his hometown of Detroit, later creating the Silver Bullets Band, which was composed of entirely Detroit musicians.
The Stooges – 1969
- And we stay in the same year as Bob Seger’s breakthrough here with Iggy Pop & company.
- This was also the band’s debut album, self-titled, although the band originally billed themselves as The Psychedelic Stooges.
- Of course, the band & especially Iggy were a very combustible phenomenon, with confrontational shows that often went…let’s just say very poorly, often with Iggy mutilating himself on stage.
Protomartyr – Processed By The Boys
- Forward on the timeline once again morphing to 2020 with this joint.
- This band was formed in 2010 in Detroit, with this being a big hit from the Ultimate Success Today LP, mainly from the viral video released on New Year’s Day 2020 upon the single’s release, which is a brilliant piece of local television parody.
Mid-Air Thief – These Chains
- So to finish the show, a couple of artists from Korea that keep their identities very close to the vest and kind of represent our trip tonight.
- Mid-Air Thief has an amazing electronicized experimental borderline avant garde sound, and this tune is from 2018’s Crumbling LP if you wanna dig it.
Parannoul – We Shine at Night
- Finally another man of mystery from here in Korea, allegedly a student up in Seoul.
- Really amazing shoegaze-inspired post-rock right here, this tune appearing on the recently released After The Magic LP.