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.