Jawanza Kobie’s Weekly Wednesday Jazz Playlist June 22, 2022

Now, what is the Jazz Standard Classic from trumpet master, composer Miles Davis’s ‘So What’ from his Kind of Blue album doing on a Jazz Funk Playlist you may ask? Well, the horn line call and response playing influenced not only Jazz music, but as you will see it was at the origins of Funk music when you hear the next track on this Playlist.

No Funk Music Playlist is complete without the Funk Master himself James Brown. Nearly everything this major music influencer produced was Funky and or Funk based.  James Brown Bandleader and arranger Pee Wee Ellis was so much into Miles Davis at the time that he used the call and response horn line from the Miles Jazz classic So What’ and incorporated it for the Funk classic ‘Cold Sweat’.

If I were to teach a music class on Funk, the Larry Graham (formally bassist for Sly & The Family Stone) ‘The Jam’ would be requirement to hear. This to me is one of the funkiest pieces of music written. The syncopated beat on 2 & 4 of the measure is hard hitting and infectious. FYI: a measure refers to a single unit of time featuring a specific number of beats played at a particular tempo.

 Also each musicians instrument played are described in the track by the musicians who played them.

Sylvester Stewart better know as Sly Stone of Sly and The Family Stone burst onto the major music scene with their hit Dance To The Music in 1967 and from that point on, music would not be the same. With their music having elements in Soul, Rock, and definitely Funk, this Bay Area (San Francisco) interracial group introduced  a new sound which go onto influence music and groups even until this day. You can hear their influence on Stevie Wonder, Prince and as previously mentioned Graham Central Station. Here is ‘Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again)’ with the influential bassist Larry Grahams slap bass line punctuating this track. This was a revolutionary style of playing the bass at the time.

Parliament Funkadelic picked where James Brown left off. Influenced by Brown and with James Brown bassist Bootsy Collins (who later left to go solo) this band was and still is lead by George Clinton. There approach to playing Funk music besides the theatrics was an emphasis of having the beat on the 1 & 3 of the measure as most tunes emphasized 2 & 4 of the measure. This is ‘Get Up For The Down Stroke’ which even in the title of the song tells where the beat of the tune will be focused.    

Tower Of Power (t.o.p) the Oakland California group came on the music scene with their hard hitting horn based track ‘What Is Hip’ in 1973. Influenced by James Brown and other soul music, T.O.P position in the annals has clearly been recognized and established. I went to see them back in the 1970’s and organist Chester Thompson with his foot work on the organ blew me away. A lot of the bass line were played on the organ by Thompson which was Funky!

One of my influences in music in general was George Duke. This music phenom was a music chameleon where he was a Producer, arranger, singer playing Jazz, Jazz Fusion, Soul, Pop and definitely Funk. Starting his major music career with Frank Zappa and the Mother’s of Invention then playing with saxophone great Cannonball Adderley, he went solo in the early 1970’s with his Jazz Fusion albums. He later had Funk hits with his fun tongue in cheek tracks like ‘Duckey Stick’ and Reach For It.

Now that you have read how a Miles Davis tune  influenced a funk horn line by James Brown. This is a track from Miles Davis funk album On The Corner from the early 1970’s where he was heavily influenced by Funk Music as well as rock music. This is ‘Black Satin’ from that album.

One of my favorite Stevie Wonder tunes was from the 1960’s ‘You Met Your Match’. I’m not certain but I believe this was his first time playing the keyboard instrument the electric clavinet on a track. The tune starts off with a walking bass line and quickly gets into a funky groove punctuated by Stevie’s clavinet playing.

Keyboard master and composer (my musical idol) Herbie Hancock having the best selling Jazz album of its day was The Head Hunters with its massive hit jazz funk hit ‘Chameleon’. The keyboard bass line played on a synthesizer and the hard hitting innovative drumming of Harvey Mason where his playing introduced audiences to having the beat of the song on the ‘and’ of the beat. FYI: playing the beat normally on the downbeat of (the one of the measure) 2 & 4 of the measure but this time emphasizing playing on 2 ‘and’ & 4 ‘and’ giving the track syncopated feel which influenced other drummers on other tracks that followed.

The Average White Band fooled a lot of people with their Funky track ‘Pick Up The Pieces’ when it came out in 1974. Fooled (maybe not the best word) first because I knew folks that thought this was a James Brown band track and second they were an all white band from Scotland England. Regardless of what people thought, they felt this funky beat and horn based track from this ‘not so’ Average White Band. They were anything but.

I hope you enjoy,

JK