5/7/2023 0 Comments Betcha by golly wow![]() ![]() Serene guitar soul of the breezy variety one moment, crazy hectic violin-driven wig outs the next, courtesy of Ed Green who played with Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane. "Here Comes Funky Lou" rides a bassline from the Gods and a driving soul-jazz groove allows the track to go off in all sorts of directions. The flute and guitar combo truly achieve celestial greatness here. Up next is a properly moving cover of Aretha Franklin's eternal "Day Dreaming". Indeed, the album opens with a striking original the earthy, laconic jazz-guitar-funk fusion of "Keep It Funky". Whilst Half And Half is treasured for its famously brilliant interpretations of gold funk-soul standards, Eaton proves an imaginative composer in his own right. Varied, string-adorned and with stupid funky grooves, it's just exceptionally good. It was then picked up by Gamble & Huff for Gamble Records. Half And Half was the first album released under his own name, initially released as a private press record on his - awkwardly named - Cle An Thair Records. Joyous music for mind, soul and body.Ĭleveland Eaton was a revered bassist who played an active role in the backing of Count Basie, the Donald Byrd Quintet, The Ramsey Lewis Trio, Terry Callier and Minnie Riperton amongst many, many others. ![]() This is the first reissue of what has been a hard to find record for many years it's long overdue. It's super funky throughout, with lots of layers, jazz breaks for days, dripping with style and gritty class. This is just sensational music - a crate digger's delight. Incredible jazz-funk from 1973, it's been largely overlooked for decades, and unfairly so. A bonafide classic.Like the winged half-man/half-bull that dominates its outrageous cover, Cleveland Eaton's Half And Half is a mutant bass-heavy monster that absolutely slays. ![]() ![]() Weird, funny and unforgettable, the lamb story and Willie are now such a part of Off Menu lore they’ve even made a return visit for a 2020 Christmas special. Then Willie and his Perfect Chocolate Christmas gets involved, the wheels come off, and somehow James Acaster emerges from it as the straight man. This episode starts slow with a great deal of butter chat before building to a headline story involving a dead lamb, a local dad at a romantic time of year, and a hole in the back garden of a woman known only as Soft Touch. It’s very, very funny, but you’re also left worrying whether he’s getting quite enough sleep. Where to begin? Thomas holds full conversations with himself, posing and answering his own questions, arguing with his violent inner monologue, flipping from hesitant and cerebral to absolutely enraged with zero requirement for outside input. If you came away from his stint on Taskmaster still not quite knowing who Joe Thomas is, then his Off Menu will tell you: the man’s an absolute mess. It’s a very funny episode, the menu of which is totally irrelevant to your enjoyment. Number two is the ‘falling on a hake’ incident that gave Rylan his fish phobia. Number one is a live phone call with Rylan’s mum, who’s been stealing his lamps and checking the cupboards in his house for his chopped up corpse. The truth is dug up, and with it, so many treasures. (He’s unable to answer those questions himself because he’d taken leave of his senses during filming and still maintains that he was robbed of being awarded Star Baker despite serving soupy flapjacks and a solitary cream horn that dripped like a Dali clock in the Technical.) Rylan Clark being one of his competitors, this is Acaster’s chance to dig up the truth. In it, Acaster lures in guests connected to his 2019 Bake-Off appearance under the guise of a normal episode, and then grills them for answers about his time on the show. Before going into this episode, it’s important to know that inside Off Menu is another podcast: investigatory true crime series ‘James Acaster v Celebrity Bake-Off: The Unravelling’. ![]()
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