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San Francisco Bay Guardian - Sept 21st, 2004
V/A Wheedle's Groove: Seattle's Finest in Funk & Soul, 1965-75
Light In The Attic
Second Time Around
African America played a significant role in shaping the nation's popular culture since day one. Still, that contribution increased dramatically in the '60s. Seattle's black community was relatively young and small, but during the Vietnam years it was jumping, as thousands of military personnel flooded the area, which was an important point of departure for Southeast Asia.
Its strategic location meant that the Northwest was flooded with a wealth of tastes and that nightclubs serving soldiers provided a vibrant live music scene. Wheedle's Groove: Seattle's Finest in Funk and Soul, 1965-75 showcases a grab bag of styles similar to what was likely heard in the local clubs. At the same time, the song titles and group names read like those found in the discard pile for a 1998 remake of a 1970 blaxploitation flick, which makes me think that the folks who put this together had a case of retro-funk.
If not, the Northwest walked the point for Afro-types. The bands: Cookin' Bag, the Soul Swingers, Misterholmes and the Brotherhood, Black on White Affair, and - drumroll, please - the unforgettable Cold, Bold, and Together. Among the songs are the Black and White Affair's "Bold Soul Sister, Bold Soul Brother," featuring a great singer, a bassist who did midsong back flips onstage, and a powerful rhythm section led by a rich B-3. My first reaction was to dismiss it as an outtake from Superfly - except it had three years on Curtis Mayfield's classic. The Soul Swingers' funky, upbeat "Brighter Tomorrow" has tough-gal Stax-type lyrics and three-part call-and-response vocals that are straight outta Motown, neither of which explains why locals paid as much as $600 for the original recording at the local collectors market. In 1971 Robbie Hill left Black on White Affair to form his own Family Affair and, from the sound of "I Just Want to Be (Like Myself)," to dabble in psychedelics.
This is, all things considered, a really great compilation, right down to tidbits from Annakonda vocalist Bryan Lawrence, who recalls his band's explorations of the powerful psychotropic drug Thorazine, which might have been memorable except no one remembers what happened. They do remember recording the compilation's title cut, "Wheedle's Groove," named after the mascot of the NBA's Seattle Supersonics. They're trying to forget. (J.H. Tompkins)
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