Wicked Witch

An obscure and wildly idiosyncratic funk act from Washington, D.C., Wicked Witch was the studio alter ego of Richard Simms, who earned a small but devoted following among collectors of rare R&B sides for a handful of self-released singles that mixed funk, progressive rock, jazz fusion, and experimental music into a formula that was as much Sun Ra as P-Funk. Richard Simms was a graduate of D.C.'s Duke Ellington School of the Arts who in the '70s formed a band called Paradiagm that was steeped in both funk and jazz fusion. Paradiagm focused on original material and worked outsid...