Frank Motley & The Bridge Crossings - Wanda Unda Landa

Canada’s Message To The Meters From: Various Artists - Canada’s Message To The Meters Released: 1st January 2009 Label: Jazzman The past 30 years has seen record collectors from around the world pick the bones of the US in the search for elusive and rare records of all types of music. And in none of these types of music are there more avid collectors than those who collect soul and funk, both LPs and 45s. American funk came from the innovation and explosive power of James Brown, the hard & heavy street funk produced early in the career of Meters, the sheer raw talent of The Meters and innumerable independently-produced funky 45s by the likes of Eddie Bo, Mickey & the Soul Generation, Dyke & the Blazers & a million others. For further listening, check Texas Funk. But it wasn’t just the American artists that got down to business. Up north in Canada they were knocking out their own rough and ready funk groups although they remain largely unknown. Musical pioneers like The Majestics, Billy Martin and Thomas Chatman all paid their dues - and cut some of the most mind-blistering super heavy funk ever to be waxed. But it was Canadian independent record label Paragon that led the field producing a handful of album releases in 1970 by deep funksters Frank Motley & the Hitchhikers, Frank Motley & the Bridge Crossings and King Herbert & the Knights. Original copies of their records are highly sought-after by dedicated funk DJs and collectors. However, they are very seldom seen and so command scary prices on the collectors circuit - so we’ve delved into the Paragon catalogue to present here a selection of their toughest tunes. So to all their US counterparts, this is Canada’s ’Message to the Meters’.