Funk?

[Drewcifer]

that is really good....wow....

i crave more.

If you like Fela Kuti you would probably like Antibalas too.

 

[Rambuchan]

There are many amusing definitions of the word "funk", with as many, if not more, applications. Here are some off the top of my head:

"Funk" meaning:

- Coward: "Don't be such a funk".
- Smelly Bad: "Geeez! Smells a bit funky in here!"
- The Smell After Sex: "Your funk has me hungering for more...baby".
- A Problematic Situation: "Got yourself into a bit of a funk there mate".
- And then there's the music...

Here's my understanding of what musical funk is:

Funk is a hybrid musical form, comprised and influenced in the main by "Soul", "Jazz", "Gospel" and "Blues". It appeared in a disparate fashion in America in the late 50s and 60s, with disparate here meaning that there were many differing expressions of funk that emerged simultaneously. "Funk" then morphed and fractured into many more hybrid sub-genres, with some taking in "rock" ('Chili Peppers' & 'Parliament Funkadelic'), others taking in "pop" ('Prince' & 'The Jackson 5'), some moving into "disco" ('Earth Wind & Fire' & 'Sister Sledge'), others merging with "hip-hop" (please don't get me started) and many degrees of this dynamic in other avenues of the music industry. Not only in America.

 

[Rambuchan]

Those interested in some further detail might be pleased to know that I couldn't help myself and simply had to spout more about "funk"....


About the hybrid nature of funk, and a whole load else:

- "The Blues" is key here. Like Rock music, many of funk's chord progressions and structures follow the classic 12-bar blues. Those that do not follow this progression certainly base their improvisations upon the fundamental blues scales (just like the jazzmen).

For Blues examples see:

> 'Booker T & The MGs' on Stax Records for the best example of this > 'Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd St Rhythm Band' were also early funksters leaning heavily on blues traditions > Indeed, many blues men can be accused of "making it funky" before funk raised its head as a label, especially 'T-Bone Walker'.

- "Gospel" is the element that injects the ecstasy and jubilation found in funk. It's also one of the most interesting and underlooked at areas of influence into funk, at least sociologically, if not musically. The church played a big part in the musical influences of most early funksters. Many grew up saturated in the music of the church, particularly those of the more charismatic Christian movements, and it's no surprise that funk has these psuedo-religious messages to it, as well as many musical borrowings. The migration of one instrument from the church to the nightclub is also telling here. That instrument is the Hammond B3 organ. One could also consider that the fanfares of the brass sections in funk music very much mimic the ecstatic fanfares provided by certain sections of a gospel choir. There is also a heavy tradition of "call and response" in funk. But there was a fascinating moral turmoil as these churchy influences were married with what many oldies termed "the devil's music", in other words....Soul Music.

For Gospel examples see:

> Ray Charles' music, especially the controversial "I Gotta Woman", which took in the gospel style but had some rather risky lyrics for the time > Sly & The Family Stone's "Thank You For Lettin' Be Myself, Again" > James Brown's talking and preaching, with phrases such as "can I get a witness" > Cannonball Adderley's talkin' and a preachin' > The Funky Jazz keyboard maestro Jimmy McGriff taking up the Hammond B3 to find that missing groove in his (jazz) music which then made it "funky".

- "Soul" music was very much a commercial phenomenon and its influence both added to the above two and also drew funk away from them. When we say "soul" here, we could also mean "rhythm and blues", as it was known back in the day (not the modern day R'n'B that flaunts b!tches and bling). These were basically love songs, commercially driven, to cater to the newly emerging mass market made available by radio and the phonographic "single". The label 'Tamla Motown' is the classic case in point and its visionary leader Berry Gordie was a real innovator here, not only of soul music but also of commercialism in the music industry. This also brought funk into contact with the "pop" world.

For Soul examples see:

> Anything out of Tamla Motown like > Stevie Wonder > The Jackson 5 > (Smokey Robinson &) The Miracles > (Diana Ross &) The Supremes > Edwin Starr > The Isley Brothers > and soooo many more.

- "Jazz" is the fundamental musical language that funk musicians use, this is said accepting that blues influences jazz in the same way in the first place (chord progressions and scales used). A funk track is structured in a similar fashion to a jazz tune ie. the chord progression and characteristic melody are agreed upon by the band, but there is all manner of improvisation that takes place and loosens the structure. This improvisation sees many a cross over from the jazz world into the funk world. It also sees extremely high levels of musicianship in funk.

For Jazz examples see:

> Cannonball Adderley > The JBs > Jimmy McGriff > Shirley Scott > Tower of Power and so on and so forth.

 

[jonatas]

Not only in America.

Definitely. Hell, much of the baddest Funk I've heard in the last while came from West Africa in the 70s, or even if it was American, ended up adopting a heavier African sound.

There is also a heavy tradition of "call and response" in funk. But there was a fascinating moral turmoil as these churchy influences were married with what many oldies termed "the devil's music", in other words....Soul Music.

Just want to add the obvious here too, Call and Response is an integral characteristic of traditional African music, the place where the beat came from.

For Jazz examples see:
> Cannonball Adderley > The JBs > Jimmy McGriff > Shirley Scott > Tower of Power and so on and so forth.

Interesting thing about the JB is to consider his vocals too. He doesn't exactly sing all the time, rather he talks... almost raps in certains points. That's what I was thinking from the vocals on Escape-ism (Hot Pants). He's just talking/improvising with the band from 20 minutes. Quite ingenious and real, in a way you didn't really hear much in popular music of the time.

 

[doubledanger]

Yeah I always loved JB for the soul and funk part of his music. I wodner if this drummer could drum to his music at all, or even George Clinton's stuff too.

http://drums.heyfash.com

Fash could get better on the drums if he had a band or something. Then more girls would scream and cheer for him and the band too, especially if they played some funky music.

 

[Stuie]

Bootsy Collins.

 

[Lambert Simnel]

Prince is funk too (in his own way).

Really ? After struggling with Dead Presidents and B!tches Brew, I now find out that you and Ram could have just told me to get out my old Sign 'O' The Times album, slap that on and bounce around to that, and I would gained my Beginner's Guide to Funk Bronze Award ? Now you tell me....

I suppose I'm slowly coming to quite enjoy a couple of the tracks on DP, by the way, but I don't think it'll ever move me as classical, punk, reggae, C&W and mainstream rock does. Nor do any of them make me need to dance in the way that "I could Never Take The Place of Your Man" does.

 

[mrtn]

I'm fond of the early Funkadelic/Parliament stuff, but the later stuff doesn't have enough rock for me.

 

[jonatas]

@Lambert

Yep Prince is Funk. But are you seriously telling me James Brown doesn't make you wanna get up and dance? I don't believe it. I have it on good authority that JB could make anyone get up, even you Lambert Anyway I find it admirable that you're willing to try new things

(James Brown - intoxicated interview, apparently the morning after being held on bail for waiving a lead pipe at his wife [who was crazy too] and shooting a gun at her. Kind of scary ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD57zixG9vQ&NR

Sly is AWESOME

This one's for you Sly is so high he can barely sit up, yet he manages to direct the interview. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM_Pf7JhKWo

Hell, let's do Rick James R.I.P. [I'm Rick James skit]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZelBaOlVNM

Lambert, this one is for you [Prince]:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V15njd6zB8g

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

No vote for The Commodores?

 

[soul_warrior]

nobody mentioned Roy Ayers yet. shame on you!

nor the BOOGALOO movement.
a mixture of funk, soul and blues from the US NewYork area, with a very heavy dose of latin (salsa, samba, cuban, etc) music.
prime examples are: Willie Bobo, Boogaloo Joe Jones, Jhonny Colon.
very recommended compilations are: Lets Boogaloo (1 to 3), Big Bad Boogaloo, or anything for that matter with the word boogaloo in it

Northern Soul anyone?

both these have very close ties with the FUNK. check those out.

 

[Rambuchan]

soulybaby: Actually Northern Soul is specifically a movement of Soul fanatics that rejected Funk.

As for Roy Ayers, man that guy is a dude. Funny and very talented musically. I went and saw him at Ronny Scott's Jazz Club in London a few years back. I saw him on a Monday and was back again by Thursday. Total sucker to his charms.

(Punks get brown in the sunshine!)

 

[soul_warrior]

soulybaby: Actually Northern Soul is specifically a movement of Soul fanatics that rejected Funk.

ahem. right.
they still embody, to me, a vivid funky vibe.
yes they are much more SOUL than FUNK, and might (are) considered a subgenre of soul, but to me its all very funky feeling (even if not orthodox in my funkiness) and it makes me
they might have disjoined themselves from the funk movement, but their uptempo, dance friendly beats, and generic vibe, suggest to me that they did not totally cut themselves off.

that is what i call FUNK.

RHCPeppers easily fall here, aswell as loads of other stuff

 

[Rambuchan]

I agree soulybaby. Northern Soul is a lot more funky than its hardcore followers care to admit.

I just happen to share a house with a guy who has been putting on the biggest Northern Soul nights in the south of England for the last 30 years. He's a pretty reliable source of Northern Soul info and tells me pretty much what I've posted about NS and Funk. Suggest to those fanatics that they are listening to Funk and they'll be repulsed!

 

[soul_warrior]

I agree soulybaby. Northern Soul is a lot more funky than its hardcore followers care to admit.

I just happen to share a house with a guy who has been putting on the biggest Northern Soul nights in the south of England for the last 30 years. He's a pretty reliable source of Northern Soul info and tells me pretty much what I've posted about NS and Funk. Suggest to those fanatics that they are listening to Funk and they'll be repulsed!

care to expand on this?
i might even be inclined to hire a lorry and a couple of spare hands to help "relieve" him of so much burdensome baggage.

i tried once to to a Northern Soul night here in Tel Aviv.
i guess the temperament here is not ready for such stuff.
but i stick it in, take a deep breath, and continue trying.

i guess that like ALL dj sets, its the editing and selection.
im quite confident of my editing skills, but the selection is quite hard to come by.

and i cant recall if i recommended some but these a re a few NU-SCHOOL Northern Soul outfits you NEED to check out:
smoove.
kraak & smaak.

will think of more later...

 

[jonatas]

nobody mentioned Roy Ayers yet. shame on you!
.

I mentioned Roy Ayers indirectly Music of Many Colours is Fela Kuti and Roy Ayers (and it's very good, esp. "Africa Center of the World".)

 

[Rambuchan]

care to expand on this?

Why of course

I moved into a new place about a year ago, a shared house, in Cambridge. It's a pretty big place and a lot of people live in it. Down in the basement flat is a guy in his 50s, who I soon found to be a fellow music nut. Specifically, he's nuts about Northern Soul. This manifests itself not only in being able to talk for England about this genre and Soul music in general, and not only in having a massive archive collection of music and footage from the golden days, but also in his hobby, which is putting on these annual all-night Northern Soul parties.

Like I said, he's been doing it for 30 years now (it was the 30th anniversary last year) and the event has grown in size considerably. Last year saw about 1000 people coming along and shakin' their soulful bootays all night long. If you know about the Northern Soul Weekenders in places like Wigan, then you'll know that they are pretty serious events. Folk don't really go to them to pull the chicks, or to get into fights. They go there all dressed up in the old style jazz dancing and soul dancing clothing, trilby hats, two-tone brogues, pin-stripe suits sometimes and so on. The dancing at these parties is quite phenomenal. Serious moves on the dancefloor from serious music nuts.

What's really interesting about it, at least from your and my perspective, is the DJ culture that surrounds these gigs. The oldest DJ this housemate of mine has playing is in his 70s. The DJ is everything at these gigs. And their record collection is everything to their reputation and popularity - not mixing. The reason why this 70 year old is still playing is because he is in possession of some very choice, rare vinyl nuggets of soulful niceness. People come to hear him play because no one else has these records. But there's another aspect to this DJ culture. They don't mix anything. Each tune stands up on its own. It's how I DJ now, back to back, not woven together. The tunes are simply too good and the audience too knowledgable. There's another aspect too. They talk to the crowd. There's no head down in a mixer here, they're on the mic, telling the crowd what an absolute killer this one is and even giving them some info on it. It works like a dream (and I'm considering going further down this road myself).

Guess I should give out the weblink: http://the-soulsurvivor.co.uk/

edit:

Check out this page full of tunes to listen to: http://the-soulsurvivor.co.uk/my top ten.htm

Check out this page full of archive footage: http://the-soulsurvivor.co.uk/youtube page.htm

i might even be inclined to hire a lorry and a couple of spare hands to help "relieve" him of so much burdensome baggage.

Just because I share a place with this guy, doesn't mean I instantly get access to his exclusive retinue. But if you want to come over for one, then know that you've got a buddy to go along with

i tried once to to a Northern Soul night here in Tel Aviv.
i guess the temperament here is not ready for such stuff.
but i stick it in, take a deep breath, and continue trying.

Good luck

i guess that like ALL dj sets, its the editing and selection.
im quite confident of my editing skills, but the selection is quite hard to come by.

As said above, I'm all about the selection these days. I realised way back that the mixing can distract from the quality of the tunes.

and i cant recall if i recommended some but these a re a few NU-SCHOOL Northern Soul outfits you NEED to check out:
smoove.
kraak & smaak.

Thanks, I'm due a vinyl purchase soon actually.

will think of more later...

Please do! These are guys I don't know of.

 

[soul_warrior]

some more Modern Northern Soul bombs.

diesler - diggin' it somethin' rotten
skeewiff -private_funktion
7 samurai - a luv supreme
the Entire MOJO CLUB series (1-10 in the least)
Fort Knox Five - the brazilian hipster
Freeform Five - stuff from 2-3 years ago. try to find thier remix of XPress2's Lazy.

try these labels: Jalapeno, ChilliFunk, Freestyle, Fluid Ounce (for a more electric vibe), VampiSoul (for those vintage 7" gems)

 

[PrinceOfLeigh]

I'm not a big fan of Funk. I watched the Chilli Peppers at the City of Manchester Stadium after jumping on the By The Way Bandwagon. They weren't great as I think the venue was too large for them. They also refered to the crowd as 'fascist' as they walked on which didn't go down well.

James Brown supported them and he was bloody awful. I couldn't understand a word of what he said* and I couldn't tell where the music was going.

"Funk" meaning:
- Smelly Bad: "Geeez! Smells a bit funky in here!"
- The Smell After Sex: "Your funk has me hungering for more...baby".

Make your mind up

*Exactly like Eddie Murphy in Raw