Funk
Related: Afro funk - American music - disco - deep funk - electro-funk - black music - jazz funk - James Brown - Cymande - Jorge Ben - soul music - P-Funk - Keb Darge - rare grooves - proto-disco
Steppin' (1974) - The Fatback Band
Funk gradually became smoother as disco came to prominence in the mid- to late '70s, and lost much of its distinguishing earthiness. However, it had a major impact on jazz (both fusion and soul-jazz), and became the musical foundation of hip-hop. Thanks to the latter, funk enjoyed a renaissance during the '90s, especially among white audiences who rushed to explore its original classics. --allmusic.com, 2003
Sister Funk (2000) - Various artists [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
I'm a Good Woman (2002) - Various artists [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Vol. 1-Classic Funk Mastercuts (1992) - Various Artists [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Definition
Funk is a vigorous African American style of music developed mainly by James Brown and his band members (especially Maceo and Melvin Parker) on the one hand and groups like The Meters on the other hand. In the 1970s, George Clinton developed a new kind of funk he termed P Funk. Other prominent representatives of the genre in the 1970s: Bootsy Collins, Larry Graham, Ohio Players, The Commodores, War, Earth, Wind and Fire, Mass Production, Slave, Lakeside, and many more. In the 1980s, funk lost some of its audience as bands became more commercial and music more electronic. Today, hip hop artists regularly sample old funk tunes, sometimes for the purpose of waking them up to new recognition.
Funk can be best recognized by syncopated rhythm, thick bass line (often based on "on one" beat), razor-sharp rhythm guitars, yowlish vocals (as that of Cameo or Bar-Kays), strong rhythm-oriented brass section, percussion instruments, happiness in style, African tones, dance floor audience, and strong jazzy influences (e.g. as in Herbie Hancock, George Duke, Eddie Harries, and others).
Disco music owes a great deal to funk. --http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funk
The "funky drummer" break - James Brown
In the Jungle Groove (1969-1971) - James Brown [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
The "funky drummer" break is one of the most used sampled drum loops in hip-hop and drum and bass music, together with the amen break, which is more related to drum-and-bass. The original song from which the break is sampled is James Brown's song "Funky Drummer" (recorded November 20, 1969 in Cincinnati, Ohio). The drums on the original song are played by Clyde Stubblefield, who was the drummer for Brown's band at that time. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funky_drummer [Mar 2005]
Clyde Stubblefield is a drummer best known for his work with James Brown. He may be the most widely sampled (yet uncompensated) musician in the world - his "Funky drummer" groove was ubiquitous in the late 1980s/early 1990s. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Stubblefield [Mar 2005]
see also: breaks - drummer - James Brown - sample - loop - 1969 - drum and bass
Soul
In the late '60s, funk emerged from soul .
Links
- http://www.deepfunk.org
- http://www.funk45.com - Funk45 (formerly Dizzibeat) aims to bring you a selection of different and interesting sounds in soul, funk and rare groove, stuff which you won't find anywhere else on the Internet. Most of the realaudio sounds on this page were recorded and released in the late 60's and early to mid-70's, some are very rare and collectable, while others can be easily found but are probably not very well known by most people.
Books
- Funk: The Music, the People, and the Rhythm of the One - Rickey Vincent[1 book, Amazon US]
Funk, which with its sharp syncopation and improvisational freedom has had a lasting impact on all popular music, is finally the subject of a book-length study. Vincent provides substantial analysis of funk's musical elements, especially its unique harmonies and rhythms, and the social forces that shaped its development. He focuses on well-and lesser-known innovators since the 1960s and on how such diverse elements as jazz and African pop music fed into funk, and he concludes that rap and hip-hop have successfully continued to incorporate funk's beat and lyrical edge. His book is strongest when he argues for recognizing the cultural importance of George Clinton and the brigade of his Parliament-Funkadelic cohorts. Vincent shows that not only did Clinton establish a framework for the explosive talents of bassist Bootsy Collins, keyboardist Bernie Woffell, and others but "without polemics, militarism, or racially charged code words, Clinton's P-Funk placed the African-American sensibility at the center of the universe, and ultimately at the center of history." Aaron Cohen for amazon.com