95bFM: The Swap Meet

The Swap Meet returns with Campbell Ngata working a long, loose thread from classic '70s soul and boogie into deep African funk, then out the other side into contemporary broken beat. It opens somewhere familiar and warm before drifting quickly into rarer territory, private-press soul and Congolese and West African cuts sitting easily next to essential classics. The newer productions slot into that same lineage rather than standing apart from it, which feels like the whole point of the exercise: nothing here is trying to announce itself as old or new, just as good.

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!