This little series is my attempt to follow the history of an originally African-American music called “Funk,” which I understand as a nexus between Gospel, Jazz, Blues, R&B, Rock, and Pop. Finding that nexus requires exploration of those various genres. Part I was based on four mini-bios of African-Americans who relied on humor and entertainment in their careers, but built their acts on foundations of extraordinary talent and skill, and I ended it in the early 1950’s.
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All diaries in this series:
Link to Part I of the Funky Parade
Link to Part II of the Funky Parade
Link to Part III of the Funky Parade
Link to Part IV of the Funky Parade
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There are too many important persons to attempt that approach in Part II, which will see the parade into the early 1970’s. Thanks to YouTube, I am able to trace Funky History via actual recordings. This essay may take about ten minutes to read, but forty minutes to hear. I will drop a whole lot of names, and will mention a few more white and brown people – Turkish, Jewish, Greek, and W.A.S.P. I hope y’all enjoy the experience!
Starting where we left off -- Music journalist Jerry Wexler coined the term “Rhythm and Blues,” which replaced the derogatory label “Race Music.” An effective example is Night Train by Jimmy Forrest –
www.youtube.com/...
To re-state the obvious, Rhythm is the main element -- emphasized by a simply structured, yet sophisticated, Blues performance by musicians who also played in Jazz groups.
Here’s a link to the back-story on Wikipedia -- en.wikipedia.org/...
Wexler became a partner in Ahmet Ertigan’s Atlantic Records, and among the many important feats they accomplished was introducing Ray Charles to the national audience with a string of hit singles that explicitly blended R&B and Gospel. Titles include Hallelujah, I Love Her So, I’ve Got A Woman, and What I Say.
However, my next song in the Parade of Funk is by extraordinary “Little Richard“ Penniman, a pianist and Gospel-trained singer with one of the most powerful voices ever recorded. Little Richard’s band on the records that made him famous were New Orleans studio musicians – veterans of street parades, and any darn venue they could find in the competitive Crescent City. They were largely culled from the gang who regularly jammed at the Dew Drop Inn, including Lee Allen, Red Tyler, Clarence Williams, Earl Palmer, Allen Toussaint, and ultra-funky Henry Roeland Byrd, known as “Professor Longhair” because he was bald.
For a variety of reasons, I’ve chosen Little Richard’s Long Tall Sally for the Funk Parade -- www.youtube.com/...
Listen to the way the musicians play on both sides of that driving beat! This style originated in the aforementioned street parades. The interactions between the band in front with dancing, clapping followers in back became known as “Second Line,” and is the hallmark of New Orleans Funk. The critical downbeat from the bass drum in those parades later evolved into a musical device called “The One,” which we’ll hear about later.
New Orleans also gave the bewildered world Huey “Piano” Smith and his Clowns. They had a few hits in the Rock N’ Roll Era – Rockin’ Pneumonia and Boogie Woogie Flu was their most famous song. I am linking to a pure Funk number called Don’t You Just Know It with classic second-line drumming by Clarence Williams and alternating voices that evoke the future Sly and the Family Stone from San Francisco Bay. www.youtube.com/...
Elsewhere, songwriters Jerry Lieber and Stoller brought the Coasters to New York City with them when they left Los Angeles, and although those records are Classic Rock, they rely on motifs that make them funky indeed. Producer Johnny Otis was scouring the USA for talent, like Etta James, cut some funky tracks with Don and Dewey, plus others like ex-Coaster Richard Berry, writer of Louie Louie.
New York’s Jerry Wexler is quoted in “Walking to New Orleans” as instructing the band to “make it funky” in 1958 while he was running studio sessions in New Orleans, which is a scene I just can’t leave without linking to Professor Longhair’s classic Big Chief, with vocals by Blues singer Ed King, and Mack (Dr. John) Rebennack in the band -- www.youtube.com/...
During the transitional years between the 50’s and 60’s, “Funky” was slowly finding its way into the vocabulary of music nationwide. The elements of Funk became prominent in Rock N’ Roll, R&B, and even Modern Jazz, which is why I say that Funk is a nexus of forms. Examples include Chuck Jackson, who remade Ma Rainey’s See See Rider, which ignited a major dance craze with The Stroll; Chubby Checker’s long streak of dance hits were mostly funky; Small organ combos led by Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff, and James McGriff fed the very tap-roots of Funk; I first heard the term “funky” in my white bread suburban world on late-night Jazz radio while the DJ was describing a piano trio featuring Ramsey Lewis. The DJ also played trios led by Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson and Les McCann. The term was far from mainstream then, although its musical elements permeated even Gospel Music -- using it to describe a sanctified church group would only result in hurt feelings, though.
The legendary story varies, but Stax Records co-owner Jim Stewart repeatedly associated naming Booker T. Jones and the Memphis Group’s hugely influential instrumental hit Green Onions with the word “funky,” which meant nasty or smelly to the mixed-race musicians in their Tenessee studio -- www.youtube.com/...
Billboard Magazine didn’t even publish a Rhythm and Blues chart in 1963 – but popular dancing music filled the air. I’m linking to a video featuring a significantly funky and important hit recorded that year, sung by Shirley Ellis, with music by the “Doo-Wop Orchestra,” produced by Hutch Davie. The video features incredible dancing by New York dancer and teacher Bobby Banas. If you encounter a commercial, it’s worth enduring to see THIS! Get right down to the real Nitty Gritty -- www.youtube.com/...
Turmoil of all kinds defined the 60’s, and resulted in cataclysmic shifts in popular music. The British Invasion gave American Youth their own music back to them after Tin Pan Alley spent a half decade or so trying to control or suppress Rock N’ Roll.
Motown Records in Detroit benefitted from worldwide attention to their songs via the Beatles and Rolling Stones. Writer/producer Mickey Stevenson rolled out many funky hits with Marvin Gaye and Martha & The Vandellas, like Nowhere to Run and Dancing in the Street, but I’ll leave it to the reader to find them on the Internet. (Ain’t difficult, believe me!) Their incredible studio band called themselves “The Funk Brothers,” and included Joe Hunter and Earl “Big Funk” Van Dyke (piano and organ); Clarence Isabell (double bass); James Jamerson (bass guitar and double bass); Benny "Papa Zita" Benjamin and Richard "Pistol" Allen (drums); Robert White, Eddie Willis, and Joe Messina (guitar); Jack Ashford (tambourine, percussion, vibraphone, marimba); Jack Brokensha (vibraphone, marimba); Eddie "Bongo" Brown (percussion); Johnny Griffth, Uriel Jones Bob Babbitt, and Dennis Coffey.
For my money, though, Motown’s president Berry Gordy released his funkiest masterpieces with Junior Walker and the All Stars, an independent four piece combo, on subsidiary Soul Records. Leader Autry DeWalt Mixon Jr. sang like soul-shouter Wilson Pickett and blew his saxophone like John Coltrane. They recorded with and without the Funk Brothers. I struggle to pick a single example of Junior Walker’s work, but I’ll go with Shotgun, his first Number One hit -- www.youtube.com/...
The British loved Rock and Rhythm & Blues, as much or more than Americans, and Gloria Jones of Los Angeles made a big hit in England called Tainted Love in the mid-60’s. Unfortunately, she wasn’t told that it was a hit over there. She had grown up in Gospel Music, alongside her friend Billy Preston. She later had a spectacular career in Great Britain which ended in heart-rending tragedy, but she returned to L.A. -- working deep in the music scene there. She speaks quite a bit in the Academy Award winning documentary “Twenty Feet from Stardom.” All that being said, I am including Gloria Jones’ performance of Heartbeat from Tainted Love’s time period as an example of Gospel-inspired Funk that will still fill up any dance floor today -- www.youtube.com/...
The Beatles toured with Little Richard, who insists that he taught Paul McCartney how to make his distinctive WOOOO! The Fab Four had to make room for unlikely musical stars generated by the turmoil of the Sixties, including brilliant songwriter Bob Dylan, who looked NOTHING like a teen idol, and barnstorming R&B entertainer James Brown who redefined the whole genre, becoming an international sensation based on the unique quality of his performances in front of an equally unique band. He is next in the Funk parade, and like that fabulous clip from Stormy Weather in my last chapter, I am featuring James Brown and the Famous Flames’ atomic-energized performance at the T.A.M.I. Show, which finishes up with a double-time version of Jimmy Forrest’s Night Train --
Hmmm – don’t have seventeen minutes? Five minutes of the Night Train ought to “livey up” your funky self. Compare and contrast with Forrest’s original (above) -- www.youtube.com/...
Soul Music was the moniker used to market popular African-American Music in the 1960’s, but the Soul musicians got funkier and funkier. It was a Golden Age and great talents like Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, The Supremes, The Miracles, and The Temptations set the standards for Black and White alike.
jazz was not asleep to changing ways: Joe Sample’s Jazz Crusaders became The Crusaders on Motown Records; Ramsey Lewis and Cannonball Adderly made funky hit singles, as did Cuban-born Mongo Santamaria from Dizzy Gillespie’s orchestra; Miles Davis was the leader of a brilliant Jazz quintet in the sixties, but his independent-minded pianist, Herbie Hancock, wrote a hugely influential Funk Classic called Watermelon Man -- www.youtube.com/...
James Brown asserted his dominance of Black Music when he released the driving jam Cold Sweat in 1967, during the Summer of Love, which explicitly defined “Funk” as its own genre of Pop. It was considerably more riff-oriented and abstract, with the purpose of making people dance for long periods of time – beyond the constrictions of three-minute songs. The JB band featured alto saxophonist Maceo Parker; guitarist Jimmy Nolen, who powered Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag; Trombone master Fred Wesley spent a lot of time in the ensemble, as did trap drummer John “Jab” Starks, but Cold Sweat features a dynamically funky drum solo by Clyde Stubblefield. “Give the drummer some!” -- www.youtube.com/...
Within a year, San Francisco re-asserted its then-current dominance of the Pop Charts with North California Funk band Sly and the Family Stone’s first singles, which sold across racial lines. Sylvester (Sly Stone) Stewart grew up in Gospel, and members of his extraordinarily talented family were really in his band, which also included no-doubt-about-funky drummer Greg Errico and soulful saxophonist Jerry Martini, “average white men” from the San Francisco Bay Area. African-American trumpeter/singer Cynthia Robinson stuck with Stewart through the bad times and good times to come. When they sang “I Want To Take You Higher,” they really meant it -- www.youtube.com/...
Sly and the Family Stone competed and even out-competed with James Brown in the genre of popular Funk with a flurry of influential records that created a template for other artists like Motown’s Norman Whitfield, who took over production and songwriting for the revamped Temptations, along with Barrett Strong, who had recorded Money (That’s What I Want) in pre-Beatles days. I’ve picked out Ball of Confusion from the astoundingly long list of hits by Whitfield and Strong with the Temptations, and many other artists -- www.youtube.com/...
Some other artists who spent time in Motown’s stables ran off to run and win their own races – The Isley Brothers formed their own record label and began a decades-long string of Funk hits with It’s Your Thing. Plainfield N.J. barber George Clinton wrote a few songs for Gordy & Company, but had more success after he went out on his own with I Just Want to Testify by the Parliaments. Clinton’s most distributed release on Motown was I Bet You, recorded by the magnificent and justly popular Jackson Five a few years after he left Motown Records. The trouble was that it was distributed on thin acetate premiums, attached to boxes of cereal in supermarkets. More will be said about Clinton and the Isleys in Part III.
As the 60’s transitioned into the 70’s, Funk became as electrified and electrifying as any other genre of music. Jazz, Funk, and Rock developed a productive “Fusion.” Miles Davis even made successful Electro-Funk albums like “Bitches Brew” and “On the Corner.” Frank Zappa added Funkmaster George Duke to the Mothers of Invention road band, great improving his already -progressive music. Later, Zappa hired brilliant Chester Thompson to play drums.
I am ending Part ii of my Funky Parade with a pair of important Electric Funk recordings. First of all, guitarist Jimi Hendrix virtually re-invented his instrument and started a fire of creativity that still defies analysis. His collaboration with mercurial Buddy Miles and army buddy Billy Cox on “Band of Gypsies” was released on the Capitol label a few months before his death due to the rigors of the road and overwork. (Pharmaceutical drugs and alcohol -- not suicide.) I have chosen the jam Machine Gun in a YouTube playlist, so that the reader has access to the rest of the album, although a few commercials may interfere -- www.youtube.com/...
George Clinton’s Parliaments, then based in Detroit, had legal troubles after the tiny record company they worked for went bankrupt. The bass player in their backup band, Billy Nelson, was jamming with Eddie Hazel, who had independently developed a “singing feedback” style of electric guitar playing. The success of Hendrix made Hazel’s style commercially appealing, and Clinton built a new band around him, called Funkadelic, with vocals by Nelson, plus George himself, and the rest of the Parliament gang. They recorded Red Hot Mama early on, and many times later, but I am particularly fond of this version -- www.youtube.com/...
Part III is going to feature more Parliament/Funkadelic, Isley Brothers, and other masters of Funk, including writers/producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, who Fred Wesley claimed “put a bow tie on the Funk,” along with Al Green and Barry White. My penchant for the hard-edged side of music will NOT be ignored either!
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All diaries in this series:
Link to Part I of the Funky Parade
Link to Part II of the Funky Parade
Link to Part III of the Funky Parade
Link to Part IV of the Funky Parade
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