Bunky and Jake were an American folk-rock duo, who were a part of the New York folk music scene in the 1960s and 1970s.[1]
Andrea "Bunky" Skinner and Allan "Jake" Jacobs, who later formed Jake and The Family Jewels, met in 1962 at the School of Visual Arts in New York and performed in the Greenwich Village folk circuit. The duo appeared at The Bitter End on the bill with Joni Mitchell and David Steinberg, and were written about in Rolling Stone.[2] In 1965, Jacobs joined the folk-rock band The Magicians, with Garry Bonner, Alan Gordon, and John Townley. The band gained a following in New York, and took over as the house band from the Lovin' Spoonful at the Night Owl Cafe. The Magicians disbanded in 1967, and Jacobs and Skinner signed with Mercury Records, releasing their 1968 debut album, Bunky & Jake. It was followed a year later by L.A.M.F. (Like A Mother F#cker) (Mercury SR61199).
All their songs were written by Skinner and/or Jacobs. The band included Skinner (vocals and guitar); Jacobs (guitar and vocals); Douglas Haywood Rauch (bass); and Micheal Rosa (drums). Other musicians appearing were Mike Matthews, Charlie Chin, Felix Pappalardi, Buzzy Linhart, Perry Robinson, Ray Barretto, Ernie Hayes, and Chuck Rainey.
The duo released a children's album Oo-Wee Little Children, on their own B&J Music label (cassette, 1993 and CD, 2004.)
Skinner died on Sunday, March 20, 2011 after a brief illness. As of April 2011[update], Jacobs lives in Manhattan and plans to release an album of new tunes, including Skinner on vocals, and a few classics as well. [3] -wiki
Bunky & Jake
L.A.M.F. (reissued by the artist)
NO LONGER AVAILABLE
"The legendary underground pop recording from 1969, by an artist I was always fascinated with and had the good fortune to meet in my early days in the New Haven-to-New York music scene in the 70s. L.A.M.F.: It's sweet, it's funky, it's bunky and it's cool. It's a personal favorite for me, and for those who remember the time as clever, innovative, funny and sweet, like I do, it's a must-have snapshot of the time. The sessions were recorded with some of the greats in the NY studio scene, including Felix Pappalardi, Buzzy Linhart, Ray Barretto, Ernie Hayes and Chuck Rainey. But of course, it was all about Jake's great songs and Bunky and Jake's conjoined voices, and it still is."
Bunky, an attractive black woman from Brooklyn, and Jake, an aspiring white male Bohemian, met between brushstrokes at New York's School of Visual Arts in 1962. In high school, they both had sung on street corners with a cappella groups--Bunky with the Mello-Larks, Jake with Claude and the Emeralds. Eventually they began to be influenced by the folk music coming from the coffeehouses of Greenwich Village. Bunky and Jake, who had first met to rap about the old vocal groups they adored, put an act together and played the folk clubs, singing of being hip in New York City.
Like a good-natured jam, the duo's second album, L.A.M.F., is an eclectic blend of music influences, a record that's funkier and more rooted in traditional rock than the average folk record of the period. Their first album for Mercury, Bunky and Jake, though pleasant enough, was too pop, marred by corny string arrangements.
In contrast, L.A.M.F. sounds like music made on a sunny rooftop among neighborhood friends. Bunky and Jake are backed by a competent bassist and drummer, and their sound is filled out by various instruments: organ, vibes, clarinet, piano, conga, and sighs. The overall feel is of being amiably zonked.
"Songs of lament," Al Jacobs (Jake), in an interview, once labeled the tunes on L.A.M.F., and most of the songs do refer to other times, other places, other artists.
"Uncle Henry's Basement" could only have been made after the release of the great Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful (John Sebastian is clearly one of Jake's heroes); "Girl from France" reworks the harmonies of a the 1954 hit, "The Wind," by the a cappella group, Nolan Strong and the Diablos; and, the transcendent "I Was a Champion" is the result of an infatuation with a James Cleveland album.
Nor do Bunky and Jake stop at indirect tributes.
What keeps L.A.M.F. hopping as well are lively renditions of Reverend Gary DAvis' "I Am the Light," the Olympics' "Big Boy Pete," and Chuck Berry's "YOu Two" and "Jaguar and Thunderbird." It's no coincidence that on "Cadillac Bleu" Bunky's voice sounds remarkably like Dionne Warwick's or that Jake's guitar playing often echoes Django Reinhardt's. But despite the assorted references, or probably because of them, this album is a smooth and mellow get-together, a reminder of what the Village scene once could offer (besides a potential next-Dylan).
Jake continued to work in the hip-folkie tradition with a band called Jake and the Family Jewels. They released two LPs on Polydor, one self-titled plus some kind of thing called The Big Moose Calls His Baby Sweet Lorraine. For two good reasons, these LPs were mediocre at best: Bunky was not on them, and Jake was standing in that ever-growing and lengthy next-Dylan line. -popkrazy.com
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OOP, so try this fine album here ...d/l of L.A.M.F.
http://filetram.com/bunky-jake-l-a-m-f-1969-lp-zip
Some plays from their first album below, but that falls far short of what L/A.M.F. is...a brilliant album of the first order. If you should ever find a vinyl copy--GRAB IT!! You'll never see it again!!
http://www.amazon.com/Bunky-Jake/dp/B000QUUDMO
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