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Unearths Local Rarities

Funk archive unearths local rarities

‘The Funky 16 Corners’

By Jason Yoder

When music aficionados contemplate the great funk traditions of the Midwest, they routinely think of Cincinnati and Detroit. But the newest Stones’ Throw LP The Funky 16 Corners may change that, finally putting Indianapolis on the map for some of the finest funk 45s ever to be pressed.

The brainchild of Stones’ Throws’ in-house deep funk archeologist, Eothen “Egon” Alapatt, The Funky 16 Corners funk compilation contains no less than 10 tracks of underground Naptown funkiness by bands like Billy Ball and the Upsetters, The Highlighters, Billy Wooten, Ebony Rhythm Band and even a track by former WTLC DJ Spider Harrison. It is a testimonial to great music that often is forgotten in the shadows of Indianapolis’ great jazz tradition.

Egon, responsible for the 45 rpm release of The Highlighters’ “Poppin’ Popcorn”/“Funky 16 Corners” that stormed the deep funk scene a few months ago, has once again outdone himself, this time unearthing rare studio sessions by the Ebony Rhythm Band stored at Ohmit Studios for over 30 years. The studio outtakes give a fresh perspective on a band legendary for its obscure and hard-to-find funk classic, “Soul Heart Transplant”/“Drug’s Ain’t Cool.” If there is anything worth criticizing on the compilation, it is that this classic cut is curiously absent.

The Funky 16 Corners LP includes the full, unedited title track by The Highlighters, as well as the excellent and formerly unreleased track “The Funky Buzzard” featuring James Bell and Dewayne Garvin, backed by the Turner Brothers. Perhaps the stand-out track is “The Kick” by the James Boone’s Rhythm Machine. Both a dance move and an anti-drug scree, the James Brown-inspired track was originally released on Jerry Herman’s Lulu label.

No doubt the most interesting track is Wooten’s funky vibraphonia on “In the Rain.”

For musicians like vibraphonist Wooten, that era of music in Indianapolis was an exciting time. In the early ’70s, Wooten was playing in a band called the Wooden Glass. It had a regular gig at a club called the Nineteenth Whole and it was in that club that Wooden Glass recorded its seminal live album, Wooden Glass — Recorded Live featuring Billy Wooten. One of the prominent tracks on the LP is “In the Rain,” a funk-jazz instrumental that highlights Wooten’s unique vibraphone style.

“You had a period of rebirth, reminiscent of old Harlem. For those that came into the barrio, they would share in that happy feeling with the musicians,” Wooten recalls. “There was a camaraderie between the people and the musicians. Now we have another rebirth coming. To me, personally, it was an honor and a privilege to be part of those events.”

“The music doesn’t really belong to us, it belongs to whoever hears it, interprets it and rearranges it,” Wooten says, whose music has been extensively sampled by DJs like Madlib. Madlib’s remix “6 Variation of in the Rain” was recently issued by Stones’ Throw as a DJ 12-inch to tease the upcoming The Funky 16 Corners LP.

Also featured on the new album is Billy Ball and Upsetters’ “Tighten Up Tighter” featuring Roosevelt Matthews. It is a fast-paced send-up of the Archie Bell and the Drells’ classic funky dance number.
For Billy Ball, who still plays every Friday and Saturday night at his own Raincheck Club, the compilation is final vindication for a man who brought the Memphis beat to Indianapolis in 1957.

In the late ’50s, Indianapolis music was defined by the jazz clubs that lined Indiana Avenue. But Billy Ball had moved here from Mississippi, and he brought with him the new ideas and rhythms that would become known as the Memphis Beat.

“I thought people were 20 years behind the times!” he recalls. Recruiting his musicians straight out of high school to play the kind of music he had been listening to in Mississippi, Ball became a regular staple at local clubs. Through the late ’60s he hired Roosevelt Matthews to be his singer. The large front-man was known to do flips on stage.

Billy Ball’s 45s on King, Apollo and Nashville-based Soul Brothers International have all become extremely collectible in the funk 45 market. His band was ranked among the most popular in Indianapolis for years, fighting for gigs with other local luminaries like the Moonlighters.

The rising tide of creativity that defined local music in the late ’60s and early ’70s ground to a halt in ’75, when disco and its reliance on DJs brought a sudden end to this golden era of music. Jobs for musicians quickly dried up and many bands drifted apart. Ironically, it is now DJs who are responsible for the rediscovery of the great Indianapolis funk and soul bands from that era.

Billy Ball and his Upsetters were one of the few bands to survive the ’70s. It makes the Upsetters one of the longest continuously running acts in Naptown, ranking with the Jimmy Coe Orchestra and Harvey and the Blue Tones.

Billy Ball and the Upsetters will be playing Oct. 26-27 at the Slippery Noodle. It is a chance for everyone in Indianapolis to see a living deep funk legend.
Egon should be applauded for the heavyweight research he put into assembling the record. For loads of photos and interviews, go to www.stonesthrow.com/funky16.