95bFM: The Swap Meet

This week it's farewell Rodney Franklin, the Berkeley-born jazz pianist and composer who died July 8, 2026. From his 1978 debut In the Center through the funk-fusion grooves of Windy City, Skydance, Vibrations, and The Eagle & The Condor, Franklin's touch on the keys helped define that warm, soulful strain of contemporary jazz that bridged the gap between the concert hall and the dance floor. His track "The Groove" birthed its own dance "the Freeze" in the UK, and his catalog is studded with nuggets - we spin several Rodney Records to send him off right. Aside from that we've got a set of current faves spanning soul, boogie, and rare groove - Chi-town legend Curtis Mayfield, Prince's pre-fame with 94 East, Doc Powell and The Isley Brothers keeping the quiet storm alive, and dancefloor goods from Class Action, Wuf Ticket, and Colonel Abrams. Add in some deep jazz-funk from Billy Cobham, Alphonse Mouzon, a highlife from with Dizzy K and Kyeremateng Atwedee, and closing out with Charles Bradley and Average White Band.

Eric B & Rakim's "Eric B Is President" just turned 40 in June, so we kicked off with that hip hop talisman,  Sadat X "Wild Cowboys" and De La Soul's "Stakes Is High" both hit 30 this week. Elsewhere in the mix rare groove and boogie (Dayton, Keni Burke, George Benson, LaVerne Washington, Jeanette Renee), Ashford & Simpson, Kosuke Ichihara & 3L, a Santana flip courtesy of Fang Yu & the Travellers, Fleetwood Mac (!) tucked in. Kongas and Gilberto Gil pulled it toward Afro and Brazilian rhythm for a bit before drifting back. New material from Sløy Gange from Norway, Audrey Powne, Yanuka, Sparklemami, ELIZA! Closed it out slow with Borrowed CS Ururangi for Matariki!

Kirk jams! 

Campbell cuts!

Kirk's back for another solo stint. Lots of jazzy business. New & old stuff, Brazilian jams & lots more, spanning from the 70's until this year. Starting slower, ending faster. Celebrating Eumir Deodato's birthday turning 83 on the 22nd of June, so played a couple from him & Ruby Turner who turned 68 also on the 22nd, we played a killer jam from her. Also marked the passing of Rayse Biggs, American trumpeter, flugelhornist who died a few days earlier, we played one from his 1994 Mr. B & Friends album & also Fred Alexander Jr. died that week as well, he was the drummer from Lakeside, so we played one from them off their 1978 album Shot Of Love & something from another one of his project's Savoir-Flair from their 1983 self titled album. Feature album was Moyses dos Santos' 'Maria' released that week on Far Out Recordings, we played 3 favourites off of that. Turn it up & enjoy....

Doggziller and Jellphonic popped thru the show this ep! We were still buzzing from Friday's Circling Sun show at the Pitt St Methodist Churc, so we had to kick off with their "Bliss Part 2" before spinning a couple for the birthday girl Linda Clifford dropping a couple from her late-70s RSO Records disco nuggets "Don't Give It Up" and "Runaway Love". From there things got properly funky: Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band's steel-pan reading of Mtume's "Juicy Fruit" (the B-side 45 on Big Crown, 2022), Bobby Oroza doing his Finnish-Texan soul thing on "I Got Love," and the Terea deep cut "Pretty Bird." The boogie continuum kept things moving through The Deele, O'Bryan, and a touch of Tatsuro Yamashita's 1977 City Pop gem "Paper Doll," before Evelyn Champagne King's "Shake Down," Dynasty's "Check It Out," and The Time's "Get It Up" pushed the tempo right up. The second half ranged wide without losing the thread. Leenalchi's "Here Comes That Crow" - the Seoul seven-piece's just-dropped Luaka Bop debut, a chopped pansori tale rerouted through bass-heavy psych-funk - sat comfortably alongside Daktaris' raw Afrobeat ("Eltsuhg Ibal Lasiti" from their Soul Explosion LP from the Daptone studio) and a run of West African gold: Zeal Onyia's Nigerian highlife, Ebo Taylor & Pat Thomas' "Yes Indeed" (originally recorded in Togo for the 1981 Abotar LP Super Sounds Namba), and Julian Y Su Combo's Afro-Cuban "Enyere Kumbara." Sharon Jones's "What If We All Stopped Paying Taxes," Trio Mocotó's samba-funk "Chamego De Ine," and (birthday boy) Marcus Miller's "I Could Give You More". Heatwave's "Too Hot To Handle" clocked 50 years this month, so you know we had to give "Ain't No Half Steppin" some airtime. Press the button.

To close out NZ Music Month, The Swap Meet went deep into the local crate for a full show of Aotearoa sounds - new, old, and a few things nobody's heard yet. We had exclusive pre-release listens from some killer upcoming records: The Lahaar, Nathan Haines & The Illusions, The Circling Sun, and a stunning ensemble session featuring Paul Dyne, Julien Dyne, Joe Kaptein, Isaac Aesilli, Lucien Johnson, Ruby Walsh, John Bell, Finn Scholes, and Harrison Choi - music that's due out soon and well worth the wait. Alongside those, the record bag was full of finds from a year of digging through dusty bins - everything from Kevin Field and Clear Path Ensemble to Gold Matter, Leonard Charles, Emcee Lucia, and a few real oddities that don't fit any neat category. Dujon Cullingford took over for a 30-minute mix focused on the yacht rock and AOR side of Aotearoa's 70s and 80s with Malcolm McCallum, Kim Hart, Rock Candy, Merv Owen and friends, all getting their moment.  The rest of the show kept moving through jazz, beats, soul: SPDRTWNBBY live at 95bFM, Alan Broadbent, Louisa Williamson, Wave Infinity Junction live, and closing things out with the Commodores' Cebu: RIP Ronald LaPread.

Campbell's session always comes a week early in May, but it's always worth testing your knowledge and taste to the East Coast's finest. Hour one one digs deep in that smooth soul and boogie pocket, with London flavour running through it, such as Incognito's Latin Project rework of Can't Get Out of My Head alongside Elisabeth Troy and The Cool Notes, that whole mid-80s to early-90s Brit-funk and lovers rock axis. Gwen McCrae's rough mix from '93 is a lovely find, and Dana Andrews reaching back to '76 keeps keeps it classic. Citispeak and David Ganpot both land in that '83 sweet spot where funk was getting slicker and the dancefloor was leaning into what would become boogie. A hip-hop pivot kicks off hour two with The Pete Rock & CL Smooth, before the set opens up into the Latin and African section with Paquito D'Rivera, Ahmed Fakroun's Libyan soul, Sonny Fortune, and a run of late-70s Afro-Latin and hustle 45s that you know are the result of many hours of digging in grubby basements. The final stretch is all connected dots. Two Switch cuts back to back, the Detroit funk royalty, into the deeper soul selections with Ten City, George Duke, and Linx's You're Lying, a blueprint in UK soul. From there Fruit, Sonlight, and Jeroboam keep that warm slightly obscure spiritual funk energy going, and the Tim Gant Project MDZ mix from '98 is a nice nod to how that sound got reprocessed through the late-90s underground. Mr Ngata bringing it home!

This week we had Avondale local SPDRTWNBBY come through the studio for a kōrero - she talks about growing up and coming up in spider town, plays us some of the tracks that shaped her sound, and debuted a brand new song live on air. If you haven't caught her live yet, she's playing Ka Mua Ka Muri Live on 30 May at the Central City Library - free entry, alongside Phoebe Rings, Mokomokai, SPELL, and Cameron Beattie.  We're also celebrating birthdays for Taj Mahal, Amp Fiddler, George Johnson of the Brothers Johnson, and Jaguar Wright - all born on 17 May - and tipping our hat to some big album anniversaries: 50 years Ramsey Lewis's Salongo, and 40 years of RUN-DMC's Raising Hell and Peter Gabriel's So. Big week for the tunes!

​Kirk's back for another solo expedition. This week celebrating 50 years since the release of 'Roy Ayers' - Everybody Loves The Sunshine' album, 45 years for 'Grace Jones' - Nightclubbing' album, marking 13 years since 'Daft Punk's - Random Access Memories' album, 6 years for 'Ebi Soda's - Ugh' album, 1 year since 'Chaos In the CBD's - A Deeper Life' album and a couple of 1986 album's turning 40 this year, 'Bob James' - Obsession' & 'The Gap Band's - 8'.  ​Celebrating these guys birthday's this week: Bryon Loren on the 5th, Philip Bailey (turning 75!) on the 8th, Tania Maria on the 9th, Sly Dunbar & Carleen Anderson on the 10th, Greg Phillinganes (turning 70!) on the 12th, Stevie Wonder on the 13th, Raphael Saadiq (turning 60!) on the 14th so played a song or 2 from each of them.  Plus a New Zealand music month treat with a couple of exclusives from the maestro Nathan Haines' upcoming album. Also It was Mothers Day so played a few jams for the mum's too. Turn it up & enjoy.....

Sunday the 3rd of May was James Brown's birthday - the Godfather would've turned 93 - but rather than trot out the usual JB bangers, we went completely sideways with global covers, reinterpretations and JB-adjacent joints from every corner of the globe: Brazilian jazz-funk, Afrobeat, big band, boogaloo, library music, orchestral easy listening, and everything in between. Enoch Light's lush big band arrangement of "Hot Pants," Dick Hyman's barrelhouse take on "Give It Up or Turnit Loose," ESG's stark post-punk reimagining of "There Was a Time," Albert King cutting "Cold Sweat" from a Delta blues angle, joined by Combo Xingu, Larry Willis, NZ's Quincy Conserve, and the Boogaloo Combo. Kirk held it down through the boogie and soul section with some serious heat, and from there we moved into a deep run of soul, jazz-funk, smooth boogie, and contemporary beats - from Azymuth's cosmic Brazilian groove and Bob James to George Benson, Shakatak, Shalamar, and and exclusive spin of some forthcoming heat from one of NZ music's MVPs: Nathan Haines. The back end got more current with Los Retros, Ego Ella May, Corto Alto, and Shy One's "Nort Wess" choppy electro and grime-inflected mid-range synths released on South London's Touching Bass late last year. We rounded things out with Orgone's deep funk stomp "Hambone" and Alex Nut and Steve Spacek's "Bright." A big spread for a big birthday - happy 93rd, JB!

The Swap Meet is a market-stall sprawl of finds from across the spectrum of black music, where the logic is curatorial rather than chronological. Pass go at the Chicago soul continuum: Jerry Butler's Gamble & Huff productions sitting near Terry Callier's folk-tinged melancholy and Jill Scott's 21st century soul interpretation - alongside the Philly institution of MFSB's "Love Is the Message," one of those eternal records. Rufus and Chaka comes from their mid-70s peak on ABC, Campbell revisits Jhelisa's "Friendly Pressure" part of the '94 Acid Jazz scene (on Dorado) before switching to Brothers Johnson's jazz-funk alongside Spyro Gyra and The Crusaders. Further afield Gilberto Gil's "Maracatu Atômico" and the Aposento Alto gospel cut sit in the same programme as Tapper Zukie's Kingston pressure, Area Code 615's Nashville session-player funk, and a clutch of contemporary releases demonstrate that the search ain't over; sampling Chuck Bynum, The Mighty Tiny & The Many Few, and Glenn Meinecke. The modern soul pocket is well covered: Odyssey, Two Tons of Fun, Steve Parks, the Dianne Reeves track from her pre-Blue Note years.  That's the blurb - now it's time to listen.

RIP Asha Bhosle, HB Bernie Worrell!

Kirk's back for another fix. This week celebrating 50 years since the release of Norman Connors 'You Are My Starship' album, also 40 years since the release of The S.O.S Band's 'Sands Of Time' & Chris Rea's 'On The Beach' albums, plus birthday shout outs to Brenda Russell for the 8th, Jazmine Sullivan & Steve Gadd for the 9th, Louis Johnson & Peabo Bryson for the 13th.  All that & loads more.   

Last night's show was three hours for James Gadson, one of THE seminal drummers of soul, funk and disco, who left us this week. If you don't know the name, you almost certainly know the unmistakable 16 note accents, deep pocket playing that underpins some of the most beloved soul, funk and R&B records ever made. From the raw funk of Dyke & the Blazers and Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd St Band, through the sophistication of Phyllis Hyman and Patrice Rushen, to Bill Withers' timeless catalogue and D'Angelo proving Gadson's genius translated across generations - every track on last night's show had one thing in common, and that was the man wielding the sticks. Three hours is barely enough time to scratch the surface of what James Gadson contributed to recorded music. A session drummer at the heart of the Los Angeles soul scene, he played on an extraordinary breadth of records, often uncredited, always indispensable. We went deep to tip our hat to a true giant. Rest easy sir.

Last night's show was three hours for James Gadson, one of THE seminal drummers of soul, funk and disco, who left us this week. If you don't know the name, you almost certainly know the unmistakable 16 note accents, deep pocket playing that underpins some of the most beloved soul, funk and R&B records ever made. From the raw funk of Dyke & the Blazers and Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd St Band, through the sophistication of Phyllis Hyman and Patrice Rushen, to Bill Withers' timeless catalogue and D'Angelo proving Gadson's genius translated across generations - every track on last night's show had one thing in common, and that was the man wielding the sticks. Three hours is barely enough time to scratch the surface of what James Gadson contributed to recorded music. A session drummer at the heart of the Los Angeles soul scene, he played on an extraordinary breadth of records, often uncredited, always indispensable. We went deep to tip our hat to a true giant. Rest easy sir.

It's the Tairāwhiti takeover at the Meet today with b-boy Matty B and aural archiologist Cassawarrior joining host Campbell Ngata for essential selects to keep the b airways stocked with all the funky treats you have come to depend on for your Sunday afternoon listening pleasure.

Oogun in the area!  This edition of Swap Meet on 95bFM sees Oogun of Drunk Elephant Sound take the controls again. We have to kick off with Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 (as he's just announched a show 30 May at the Auckland Town Hall), celebrate 40 years of Anita Baker's Rapture LP. From there the show journeys through Hammond organ jazz courtesy of Jimmy Smith & Wes Montgomery, the irresistible samba groove of birthday boy Jorge Ben, Zanzibari taarab rhythms from Rashid Makame, and the hypnotic desert blues of DJ Bamanan. Rail Band and Orchestra OK Jazz bring the golden age of Malian and Congolese rumba into the mix, while Ebo Taylor and the Souljazz Orchestra represent the broader Pan-African sweep that runs through the whole set. Oogun also brings original productions - "Version for Version" and "Deep Architecture" teaming with OSC alias  sitting alongside dub selections from Mungo's Hifi, Matty G and Jaffa Sound that give the show its NuZillund reggae tip. We spin Gang Starr to salute Preem's birthday, Ethiopian jazz textures arrive via Zena's "Kazanchis" (Brownswood) and AHC's "Push Me Pull You," and the cosmic soul of Nona Hendryx and Azimuth round things out. Press the button.

Oogun in the area!  This edition of Swap Meet on 95bFM sees Oogun of Drunk Elephant Sound take the controls again. We have to kick off with Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 (as he's just announched a show 30 May at the Auckland Town Hall), celebrate 40 years of Anita Baker's Rapture LP. From there the show journeys through Hammond organ jazz courtesy of Jimmy Smith & Wes Montgomery, the irresistible samba groove of birthday boy Jorge Ben, Zanzibari taarab rhythms from Rashid Makame, and the hypnotic desert blues of DJ Bamanan. Rail Band and Orchestra OK Jazz bring the golden age of Malian and Congolese rumba into the mix, while Ebo Taylor and the Souljazz Orchestra represent the broader Pan-African sweep that runs through the whole set. Oogun also brings original productions - "Version for Version" and "Deep Architecture" teaming with OSC alias  sitting alongside dub selections from Mungo's Hifi, Matty G and Jaffa Sound that give the show its NuZillund reggae tip. We spin Gang Starr to salute Preem's birthday, Ethiopian jazz textures arrive via Zena's "Kazanchis" (Brownswood) and AHC's "Push Me Pull You," and the cosmic soul of Nona Hendryx and Azimuth round things out. Press the button.

This week the Swap Meet opened with recent gear from Benny Sings, Larry June, Moonchild, Mike, DoomCannon, Jenevieve among others. We tipped the hat to Bob Power, the legendary engineer who passed this week, so we marked the occasion with ATCQ and Roots tunes that set the bar. If you don't know what Bob Power did for hip-hop and soul read the internet until you do. From there things got loose in the best way: rare soul, boogie, Gary Clail/On-U, Millie Jackson talking about her fireplace, afrobeat cuts, hip-house, and a stretch of late-night Philly and Detroit flavours via Vikter Duplaix and Wajeed. Laura Nyro supplied the dollar bin jam from her Golden Jubilee minted record "Smile", Gladys Knight, and Kurt Elling with the WDR Big Band sending everyone home feeling like they'd been somewhere worth going. Good show. Glad you're listening back - big up yourself.

Sunday the first of March: J & K are back on deck for The Swap Meet. Turns out it was a good day to be born - Oliver Sain, Willie Mitchell, Norman Connors and Harry Belafonte all blew out candles on this date, so naturally we pay our respects. We also took a moment to celebrate some fifty-year anniversaries: Dr Tree's landmark New Zealand fusion record, the Ohio Players' Contradiction, and Kool & The Gang's Love & Understanding all turning half a century old still killing. And we said farewell to Willie Colón, the South Bronx trombone legend who helped build salsa into what it is, gone this week at 75. Fresh music from Mark de Clive-Lowe, Andrea Lombardini, Tommaso Cappelato and Larry June inside the jam too, alongside the usual gear for the weekly rummage. Press the button.