Deep Soul Sendoff For Don Cornelius

Chicago institution and legendary creator of Soul Train Don Cornelius passed away yesterday at the age of 75.  If that’s not an occasion for a self-respecting Chicago boy to spin a set of deep soul and funk, what is?  After hearing of an opening there by way of pal Ryan Rezvani, that’s exactly what I did last night at Charleston’s from behind the bar with the lovely and talented Ana Marie and her Aviator jello shots.

The challenge:  bringing nothing but the laptop*, did I have a full four hours of the good, greasy stuff mainly from the Johnson, Nixon and Ford eras?  The answer: almost.  Once an hour I had to cheat and go back to an already-played artist.

While that’s a serious enough offense to get your DJ license suspended on the South side, nobody minded.  Many moves were busted, much funk was given up.

Special thanks goes out to Jon Solomon of WPRB and Comedy Minus One fame who reached out and hit me with an MP3 of Don Cornelius’s and Soul Train Gang’s long-lost side “Spectrum”.

The Playlist:

Curtis Mayfield – Move On Up
The J.B.s – Breakin’ Bread
Meters – Cissy Strut
Ohio Players – Skintight
Isaac Hayes – Walk On By
Back To Black – Amy Winehouse (request)
Maceo And the Macks – Cross The Tracks
Bar-kays – Shake Your Rump To The Funk
Bootsy Collins – What’s A Telephone Bill
Sly Stone – Take You Higher
Commodores – Machine Gun
Big Boys – Hollywood Swingin’
Archie Bell and the Drells – Tighten Up
Barry White – Enough Of Your Love
Graham Central Station – Can You Handle It
Curtis Mayfield – Pusher Man
Rufus – Tell Me Something Good
Kool And The Gang – Open Sesame
Smokey Robinson – Tears Of A Clown
Fred Wesley / JB’s – I’m Paying Taxes, What Am I Buying
War – Slippin’ Into Darkness
Stevie Wonder – Higher Ground
Gil Scott-Heron – Lady Day And John Coltrane
Parliament – We Want The Funk
Meters – Live Wire
Shuggie Otis – Strawberry Letter 23
Don Cornelius – Spectrum
Clarence Carter – Patches
Maceo And The Macks – Soul Power ’74
Temprees – Your Love Is All Ineed
William Bell – Tryin To Love Two
Cornelius Brothers – Too Late To Turn Back Now
Tyrone Davis – Turn Back The Hands Of Time
Lipps, Inc – Funkytown
Rick James – You And I
JBs – Pass The Peas
Black Sugar – Walkin’
Curtis Mayfield – Dont Worry (live)
Marvin Gaye – Got To Give It Up
Stevie Wonder – Living For The City
Al Green – Lets Stick Together
Junior Parker – Love Aint Nothing But A Business
Isaac Hayes – By The Time I Get To Phoenix
Isley Brothersr – Put Yourself In My Place
Blossoms – Shockwave
Con Funk Shun – Ffun
Shuggie Otis – Aht Uh Mi Hed
Pointer Sisters – How Long
Ronnie McNeir – Summertime
War – The World Is A Ghetto
Average White Band – School Boy Crush
Meters – Sophisticated Cissy

* Full gear complement included the Macbook Pro, the ProFire 610 I/O and Ableton Live.  Used Ableton for cuing and crossfades only, not beatmatching. Worked fine, although I could do without the scary beachballs while scanning the library.