Otis Goodwin & the Castanets

Funk combo Otis Goodwin & the Castanets shaped in Columbia, SC, through the past due ’60s — led by vocalist/organist Goodwin according to on the web funk e-zine Funky 16 Sides, the group also included guitarist Woodrow Portee, bassist Jimmie McKie, tenor saxophonist Dewey Scott, and drummer Danny Boozer, all five of these originally high-school close friends. Initial dubbed the Pontiacs, the quintet quickly ensconced itself as the home band on the Columbia nightclub the Green Door, support touring serves including Eddie Floyd, Laura Lee, and William Bell furthermore to touring the Virginia, Georgia, and Carolinas circuits. In 1969 Goodwin & the Castanets journeyed to Arthur Smith Studios in Charlotte, NC, to record the four monitors that could comprise their two singles; the first, the Adam Brown-inspired “PERSONALLY I THINK It Slightly Bit,” made an appearance later that calendar year on Jazz-EE, the Philadelphia-based label possessed by Goodwin’s cousin Jazz Stroman. The follow-up, the deep spirit ballad “Mini Skirt,” made an appearance over the Walker-Reeder imprint, like Jazz-EE a subsidiary from the Philly label Insert. Goodwin & the Castanets continuing performing live through the early ’70s before steadily dissolving.