One of my best friends in this record game is a guy who has dedicated himself to the bettering of the vinyl community through a few sites he has founded. He took his ‘zine (remember those?) from way, way back and has transformed it into the very popular Funk & Soul daily destination Funky 16 Corners. Of course if you’re a fan of this kind of music you know that F16 and Larry Grogan are the leading Funk & Soul site (a site that inspired me to start FMF almost 8 years ago) out there. The site has been a corner stone in our vinyl community for a very long time. Most of us do it for the love, not a paycheck, and get donations to keep the upkeep and site maintenance costs at bay. Larry has taken it a step further and holds yearly pledge drives with special events and mixes tied in. So I’m happy to be a contributor to this year’s Funky 16 Corners All Nighter and Pledge Drive, which features exclusive all vinyl mixes from Grogan himself, Heavy Soul Brother Dave, Kris Holmes, Tarik Thornton, DJ Bluewater, Tarik Thornton, Tony C, DJ Prime Mundo, Funkdefy, M-Fasis, and Vincent SoulChef. He’ll also be giving prizes away from people like Light In The Attic and Cultures of Soul, among others.

As in the past, I’ve tried to go in different directions with mixes I contribute to Larry, and this year was no different. With a resurgence of Afro Rhythm influenced records being put out over the last few years, I decided to do a dedicated mix that highlighted some of these records, as well as a few that were no doubt an influence to these very artists. They all have one thing in common: Africa. Whether they were making this music in the 70’s in Africa, or trying to recreate that sound today, they both are important. One is the past, the other is the future. With an intro by Art Blakey and an outro by Fela Kuti, what’s in between is 12 tracks of Afro Rhythms. Enjoy, and please pledge to Funky 16 Corners (and similar sites like this) to keep us going.

Afro Rhythms of Today Track List

Soul Jazz Orchestra – Celestial Blues
Bama and the Family – Don’t Think…Do
Hard Proof – Tere
Madlib – Jungle Shoundz
Peter King – Afro Funk
Polyrhythmics – Mr. Wasabi Rides Again
The Poets of Rhythm – Serengeti Stroke
Jungle Fire – Chalupa
The Lions – Jungle Struttin’
The Malcouns – Watou
Grace Jackson – Gonna Get U
Kelenkye – Mother Africa

Listen to the mix here.

Keep Diggin’!