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Best Funk Album Ever

#21
If these guys can get about $9000 more we'll see the greatest funk album ever made in a few months :D. Link Removed

On a more serious note though my biggest problem with old skool funk (70s-80s) is the fact that I rarely seem to find an album where I dig more than half of what's on it. There always seems to be some R&B thrown in, or a slow ballad kind of song for good measure and I'm not into that stuff at all. I can understand why they did it but It's not my thing.

As far as favorites go here are a few:

Bernard Wright - Nard: Just about every track is gold. Only one track wouldn't fall under the funk genre (Bernard's take on Solar). One of the few albums that I can listen to all the way through and not skip a single track. Favorite tracks: Bread Sandwiches, Firebolt Hustle

KC Roberts & The Live Revolution - Parkdale Funk 1: Just nasty. Blew my mind that I hadn't heard about these guys before when they are soooooo up my alley. Crazy sick tracks and entirely too much fun to listen to. I honestly don't think I know another groove-heavy group that puts so much thought into their arrangements besides Snarky Puppy. I can't say I've listen to a lot of funk that really just surprised (in a good way) the hell out me mid-song and makes me dig it that much harder. You hear stuff like that in urban gospel a ton but it's nice to see that kind of "planned spontaneity" making it's way into other music. Link Removed
 
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#24
bendy said:
Maybe this is a little OT, but IMO it’s something worth thinking about.

In 1970, James Brown and the JBs were in Lagos Nigeria. This is the lineup that created “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine,” “Super Bad,” “Soul Power,” and “Talkin’ Loud and Sayin’ Nothing.” Pretty funky stuff. Arguably some of Brown’s most intense funk recordings.

While in Lagos, many of the JBs spent several nights catching Fela Kuti’s show at his Shrine nightclub. Here’s a couple of quotes from Bootsy about the experience:

“ [Fela] had a club in Lagos, and we came to the club and they were treating us like kings. We were telling them they're the funkiest cats we ever heard in our life. I mean, this is the James Brown band, but we were totally wiped out! That was one trip I wouldn't trade for anything in the world.”

“Well actually I thought THEY were the greatest, period. Even before I got into James Brown’s band, the James Brown band was number one to me. But once I got there and saw Fela and them, then I had second thoughts about it. I mean, seriously. The James Brown band reminded me of that same non-stop groove, you know: you gotta move. And then when I heard these cats, it was like another dimension of that. A dimension that I had never experienced before. And it had a deeper feel to me. I couldn’t explain it, you know, but it was something I had been involved with but not as deep. When I heard them, that was the deepest level you could get. That’s the only way I can explain that. Not that I’m doggin’ myself along with the rest of the guys, but that’s the way I felt. When I heard that, it was like, ‘Man, this is IT. We gotta try to be like this!’ And I knew we couldn’t!”
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I heard about Fela a few years ago, and I've listened to a lot of his songs on YouTube. It's great music, no doubt, but the more I listened to it, the more I appreciated the tight, lean, stripped-down James Brown groove. Fela's awesome, but I prefer James (IMO, YMMV, apples to oranges, to each his own, etc.). Having said that, I'm really digging Fela's stuff - a lot! Can you recommend any essential Fela recordings?
 
#25
Clark Dark said:
P-Funk Live at the Beverly Theatre !!!
Dennis Chambers and Skeet :D
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Oh yes. Very mighty.

FilterFunk said:
I heard about Fela a few years ago, and I've listened to a lot of his songs on YouTube. It's great music, no doubt, but the more I listened to it, the more I appreciated the tight, lean, stripped-down James Brown groove. Fela's awesome, but I prefer James (IMO, YMMV, apples to oranges, to each his own, etc.). Having said that, I'm really digging Fela's stuff - a lot! Can you recommend any essential Fela recordings?
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From someone who's not familiar with his entire catalog, the two albums I own, "Expensive S.h.i.t" and "He Miss Road" are both incredible. Love 'em both.

My personal choice, which is something I realize many may not agree with, is "Chim Chim's Badass Revenge" by Fishbone. Listening to it a lot lately, very funky in some spots. Such a deep album I think their best. A pissed off dense slab of heavy funk-metal-punk. "Try and you will catch on...."
 
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#26
FilterFunk said:
I heard about Fela a few years ago, and I've listened to a lot of his songs on YouTube. It's great music, no doubt, but the more I listened to it, the more I appreciated the tight, lean, stripped-down James Brown groove. Fela's awesome, but I prefer James (IMO, YMMV, apples to oranges, to each his own, etc.). Having said that, I'm really digging Fela's stuff - a lot! Can you recommend any essential Fela recordings?
Click to expand...

IMO Fela’s best recordings are roughly 1972-1978. This was when he worked with his tightest and leanest band, including master drummer and afrobeat originator Tony Allen. (I saw Tony Allen with his band earlier this year – IMO, even at 70+ years-old, there is no, and never has been, a funkier drummer on the planet.)

I’m not big on compilations, but in this case, I’ll recommend one as a starting place: The Best of the Black President on Knitting Factory Records. It has much of Fela’s best work from the seventies and a few tracks from the eighties.

The reason I’m recommending a compilation is because most of Fela’s pieces run long, so the original vinyl pressings of his “albums” usually had only two or three tracks, each often as long as 10-15 minutes (sometimes longer). Unfortunately, this means the casual listener, needs to buy a lot of albums to put together a basic collection of Fela and Africa 70’s best work.

Nonetheless, key titles from Fela’s output in the seventies (I’m sure I’m forgetting quite a few) include:

Na Poi
Lady
Shakara
Roforofo Fight
Gentleman
Alagbon Close
Everything Scatter
He Miss Road
Expesive $hit
Kalakuta Show
Zombie
Yellow Fever
No Agreement
Sorrow, Tears, and Blood
Shuffering and Shmiling

If you decide you want to get deeper into the Fela story and his catalog, check out Fela: The Life And Times Of An African Musical Icon by Michael Veal (a bassist and music professor at Yale).

Happy hunting!
 
#27
bendy said:
IMO Fela’s best recordings are roughly 1972-1978.
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Not to disagree with your recommendations on Fela, but my favourite is Afrodisiac from 1973. The first track, "Alu Jon Jonki Jon" is the most prolonged spine-tingling musical experience I have had for many years.

As for modern funk, I haven't heard much better than "Rage" by Lettuce.
 
#29
bendy said:
IMO Fela’s best recordings are roughly 1972-1978. This was when he worked with his tightest and leanest band, including master drummer and afrobeat originator Tony Allen. (I saw Tony Allen with his band earlier this year – IMO, even at 70+ years-old, there is no, and never has been, a funkier drummer on the planet.)

I’m not big on compilations, but in this case, I’ll recommend one as a starting place: The Best of the Black President on Knitting Factory Records. It has much of Fela’s best work from the seventies and a few tracks from the eighties.

The reason I’m recommending a compilation is because most of Fela’s pieces run long, so the original vinyl pressings of his “albums” usually had only two or three tracks, each often as long as 10-15 minutes (sometimes longer). Unfortunately, this means the casual listener, needs to buy a lot of albums to put together a basic collection of Fela and Africa 70’s best work.

Nonetheless, key titles from Fela’s output in the seventies (I’m sure I’m forgetting quite a few) include:

Na Poi
Lady
Shakara
Roforofo Fight
Gentleman
Alagbon Close
Everything Scatter
He Miss Road
Expesive $hit
Kalakuta Show
Zombie
Yellow Fever
No Agreement
Sorrow, Tears, and Blood
Shuffering and Shmiling

If you decide you want to get deeper into the Fela story and his catalog, check out Fela: The Life And Times Of An African Musical Icon by Michael Veal (a bassist and music professor at Yale).

Happy hunting!
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Excellent. Thanks!
 
#30
clodhopper said:
Not to disagree with your recommendations on Fela, but my favourite is Afrodisiac from 1973. The first track, "Alu Jon Jonki Jon" is the most prolonged spine-tingling musical experience I have had for many years.

As for modern funk, I haven't heard much better than "Rage" by Lettuce.
Click to expand...

Nothing wrong with lettuce, other than they don't tour enough.
 
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#34
Kwesi said:
KC Roberts & The Live Revolution - Parkdale Funk 1: Just nasty. Blew my mind that I hadn't heard about these guys before when they are soooooo up my alley. Crazy sick tracks and entirely too much fun to listen to. I honestly don't think I know another groove-heavy group that puts so much thought into their arrangements besides Snarky Puppy. I can't say I've listen to a lot of funk that really just surprised (in a good way) the hell out me mid-song and makes me dig it that much harder. You hear stuff like that in urban gospel a ton but it's nice to see that kind of "planned spontaneity" making it's way into other music. Link Removed
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HOOOO LEEEE SHIIIIIIIIIIII.......

Did you hear that? That was the sound of my jaw hitting the floor.
 
#37
FilterFunk said:
A tie between "Mothership Connection" and "Funkentelechy vs. The Placebo Syndrome," both by Parliament (of course!).
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Never liked the latter. Everything on that was filler but Sir Nose and Flashlight IMO. That's a big problem with most of P Funk's discography.

Mothership Connection on the other hand was a masterpiece. One Nation Under a Groove is up there as well.
 
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#40
I have a couple of albums that have stuck with me over the years:

James Brown's Funky People (part 2)

JB is not on this album, but his funky crew is. Watergate, Payin' Taxes, Message from the Soul Sisters. Pure funk from beginning to end.

Heavy Rhyme Experience vol. 1 (Brand New Heavies)

I remember when this album dropped; it was the ultimate hip hop/funk collaboration, and I think it has stood the test of time.
 
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