RIP Jimmy Castor
El Prez
NE Ohio 1,141 Posts
"We've just begun" ...... we losing all our legends y'all
El Prez
NE Ohio 1,141 Posts
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http://www.facebook.com/jimmy.castor?sk=info
nor does his website:
http://www.jimmycastor.com/home.html
A statement is yet to be released from his family. Christie passed the info from Mr. Freeze who wrote this on his FB:
"It is with my deepest regret I need to I'm form my fellow B,boys that we
have just lost one of the most import men in music today,He will always be the
light that shines at the end of the Tunnel & the heart beat of hip hop culture.
Please take a moment for a moment of silence for Mr Jimmy castor."
I don't believe it just yet. Don't want another Etta James death scare.
RIP
I own a very small amount of his output, but dude always seemed to be his own animal amongst Funk giants.
You dont hear Big Butt Bertha up in the club no more.
Here's the link to an interview I did with him in Roctober magazine in 2002. One of the nicest people you ever want to meet:
http://www.roctober.com/roctober/greatness/castor.html
RIP.
It's times like this I wish Phill still posted here.
Nile Rodgers was getting a little emotional about it on Facebook last night; "To a youngblood like me, this funk was life-changing. Jimmy Castor RIP." Apparently, Jimmy Castor was the guy who facilitated Chic's hook-up with Diana Ross, through his mutual friendship with Suzanne De Passe.
The first thing of his I remember hearing when I was a kid was Troglodyte, and I thought it was crazy. Obviously he'd been around much, much longer than that, as I later discovered - there can't be too many artists of his vintage who've managed to carve out a place for themselves across so many changing styles of music. But Troglodyte was, of course, his biggest hit and it did all right in the UK, too. When Bertha Butt Boogie came out, I probably erroneously earmarked him as a kind of gimmick artist who made these wacky, almost novelty records with these amazing grooves. You really wouldn't have got any idea of his range on the basis of just his hit singles. It seems to me that he remained comparatively underrated relative to many of his peers, perhaps because he only had a few really big hits rather than a steady string of songs that stayed high in the public consciousness thanks to cover versions or oldies stations - there's certainly a hell of a lot less Jimmy Castor material on Youtube than you might expect. Nevertheless, it's clear that those people who were around at the time of his biggest successes remember him with a great deal of affection, and the news of his death had me thinking about how many people there must be who've heard, say, the horns from It's Just Begun or the spoken intro to Troglodyte sampled on scores of records, and who never had the faintest idea they were hearing Jimmy Castor. RIP.
That's a fantastic interview. Good looks, man.
Thanks for the interview link pickwick.
Beyond the sampled tracks and a few like the monster above really not that familiar with the rest of his catalogue, would love this tribute thread to drop some personal favourites.
Agreed, thanks for posting... RIP.
I only own a handful of 45s and the "IJB" LP, but I love the "be young, be foolish" 45...a wonderful train-wreck of a track, it's like 3 northern/wigan "bangers" being played at once. Genius.
I really liked the chapter on him in Garth Cartwright's book "More Miles Than Money".
Castor was such a talent, from doo-wop through soul & to funk.
A pretty damn consistently great legacy to leave.
I've recently been flipping over the "Hey Leroy" 45 & playing "Ham Hocks" at gigs, people ask what the Jr Walker track is & I get to tell them all about pre-Troglodyte Jimmy Castor.
Sad news.
rest in peace to the man behind the most classic of classic b-boy jams ever