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Funk is ending up like the Blues
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
Take a guess.
Although I doubt there's any science backing up the idea that Jaco was a miracle either...
Well, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on that point.
I just don't feel that biological race or ethnicity is much of a factor at all with musical talent. Now, mind you, I will certainly agree that culture and upbringing can be a huge influence--especially in the formative years of childhood. But honestly, anyone with a certain degree of musical talent/ability can learn any given form of music given time, exposure, and practice.
I also play nylon string guitar. I'm not Hispanic/Brazilian, but because I've been studying bossa nova and Brazilian guitar for so many years, I can crank out those rhythms pretty well. None of my "white" musician friends/colleagues can--but it is not because they are white, because I've actually had several Hispanic musicians that I know ask me how to feel or count those rhythms as well. I don't know what to say. I just heard the stuff, liked it, and started practicing. I've always felt that groove. I never had to think about it much (other than analyzing it in the first place at times--but it just came most of the time). The thing is, I'm not Hispanic or Brazilian, I didn't grow up with that influence at all. My parents were Merle Haggard country to the bone. But I just loved bossa and Brazilian jazz the first time I heard it. It's way more about the mind than it is the skin color or heritage. On the other hand, I'm not very good at "white" classical (guitar) at all--but shouldn't I be, according to you?
Glad you stopped by to clear things up with that thoughtful insight.
Try their newer project, The Fearless Flyers with Nate Smith on drums. Really nice in the pocket stuff. However in the end if you don't like it, you don't like it...
This. I grew up in South Florida, so I get why Jaco had that swampy-funk feel/easy command of latin rhythms. If you're exposed to it (or like you said, hit the wood-shed hard) it comes out in your playing. It's not some magical genetic component.
It’s ok guys just different thoughts but I’m being tempted to put the analogy of basketball
Cultural appropriation....hmm. Not even sure if there is a standard definition for that. I hear the term more and more for instance when a girl in the US wore an Asian styled dress to prom she was accused of cultural appropriation. Odd that the hundreds of young Asian girls wearing Tommy Hilfiger everything all across Asia are not accused of the same thing. Is a black musician in an orchestra playing music he/she loves and reveres guilty of cultural appropriation? Is a white musician playing funk who loves and respects the music guilty of cultural appropriation? Who gets to decide?
I am an acupuncturist during the day. I respect and love what I do and the tradition it comes from. Am I guilty of cultural appropriation even when I help people? I love and play jazz. Am I culturally appropriating a historically black music in spite of my love and respect for it and not culturally appropriating when I play European classical music in symphony orchestras due to the fact I am white? What if I were part Native American? Would I be double dipping in the cultural appropriation pool in the above instances? It all gets very confusing.
I guess I feel that we are living in such a small global village now that there are going to be a lot of folk finding things they can love and respect in traditions that they may not necessarily be from. I think as long as we approach what we do with love and respect - we might be ok?
I am an acupuncturist during the day. I respect and love what I do and the tradition it comes from. Am I guilty of cultural appropriation even when I help people? I love and play jazz. Am I culturally appropriating a historically black music in spite of my love and respect for it and not culturally appropriating when I play European classical music in symphony orchestras due to the fact I am white? What if I were part Native American? Would I be double dipping in the cultural appropriation pool in the above instances? It all gets very confusing.
I guess I feel that we are living in such a small global village now that there are going to be a lot of folk finding things they can love and respect in traditions that they may not necessarily be from. I think as long as we approach what we do with love and respect - we might be ok?
Wow, thank you so much for posting this. I never heard it before today. Just loving the fun and the groove these guys create!!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!
If you can't see that in 2019, musical genre has long since evolved beyond race... well... news flash--it has. There are tons of modern groups with members of all different races and cultural backgrounds playing and recording funk in a "classic" style. Orgone. Antibalas. The New Mastersounds. The Quantic Soul Orchestra. Sharon Jones (rip) and the Daptones. You could put on records from a lot of these groups and think it was 1972. And there are dozens more like them.
The ladies at the beginning are just priceless (I mean that in a good enamoring way). You can't help but smile and give a thumbs up.
Thank you for posting those names. As I said earlier in the thread, I really don't listen to newer music at all unless I'm absolutely certain that I'm not going to hear this recent hiphop influenced stuff--so that generally means I don't listen to any new music unless it is prog rock, jazz fusion, Latin, etc--music I know won't have that. And I know that means I miss out on a lot of good music, but again, I cannot listen to even a bar or two of hiphop stuff without getting pissed and flipping the stereo off (yeah I know, it's a psychological thing). I just listened to a Sharon Jones track (100 Days, 100 Nights)... ZERO hiphop there! Awesome. Sounds like some of the best stuff from my childhood days. I'll have to give a listen to the other groups you referenced. Right after some Gladys Knight (the Sharon Jones song reminded me a little of early Gladys Knight).
Me too. In fact, I discovered a lot of jazz and funk through 80s and early 90s hip-hop and I know there are a lot of people from my generation who worked their way backwards from hip-hop into music of the 60s and 70s. It was one of the fun things about "golden age" hip-hop: finding out the origins of the samples and digging into the sources. That doesn't happen as much with contemporary hip-hop because sampling is done much more sparingly. That's not such a bad thing in and of itself but the result is often that we get to see just how devoid of musical ideas so many hip-hop producers are when they don't have a sample to lean on.
AWB's debut (Show Your Hand AKA Put It Where You Want It) is a solid R&B album...not too much Funk.
YMMV.
FYSA-
AWB's albums have just been reissued (Japan) with "bonus material". I re-bought the 1st 3 albums to check 'em out . Meh. Bonus material was nothing new (for me)...worse, the booklet is in Japanese.
These guys remind me (a skoosh) of a band called Rippopotamus...Bass Player reviewed their album a long time ago.
Google is revealing nada.
IIRC, they were from Boston.
