Yep. Rocco is a funk bass god as well. I love his no-holds-barred 16th-note finger funk. The way he can keep those fingers going so quickly, staying in the groove pocket at all times, for those loooonnnnngggg songs is amazing. Just a half a song of that and my fingers are fried and down for the count. For me at least, that takes almost painful concentration to keep a 16th-note groove going for so long at those quick tempos. I'd doubt he even thinks about it much. He just... does it. Amazing stuff.
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Funk is ending up like the Blues
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
Yep. Rocco is a funk bass god as well. I love his no-holds-barred 16th-note finger funk. The way he can keep those fingers going so quickly, staying in the groove pocket at all times, for those loooonnnnngggg songs is amazing. Just a half a song of that and my fingers are fried and down for the count. For me at least, that takes almost painful concentration to keep a 16th-note groove going for so long at those quick tempos. I'd doubt he even thinks about it much. He just... does it. Amazing stuff.
Haha. This reads like a script from bad TV where a kid is being lectured by his grandparents because of what's on his iPod. At least you didn't refer to it as "the hippedy-hops."
I just wanted to add that a music surviving beyond an era and a place is a sign of great music IMHO.
Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi belong to the world now and have survived long past their era and far beyond their place of birth due to the fact that there was something timeless and brilliant about the music. Traditional Irish music is played more now outside of Ireland than in Ireland (and it does well at home). So it goes with swing, bebop, and so many other styles. Hell, they still play Palestrina and Thomas Dowland because the music was great, even if it was written over 400 years ago.
That these musics are changing is IMHO an inevitability. We have this odd idea that things must remain pure and never change. The Buddhists have the right take on this if you ask me: All things are impermanent. Everything changes and eventually passes away. Why should funk and blues be any different?
My point is that perhaps the evidence that blues and funk are being played well beyond the place of birth and the time of birth is evidence that the world has embraced this music as worthy of continuation. Sure it will be adapted and changed somewhat. (Ever hear early recordings of classical music? Let me tell you they had VERY different ideas of how it was interpreted than modern conductors have.) Same with these musics.
My take is that this is all a very positive sign.
YMMV, as always - feel free to have a totally different opinion.
Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi belong to the world now and have survived long past their era and far beyond their place of birth due to the fact that there was something timeless and brilliant about the music. Traditional Irish music is played more now outside of Ireland than in Ireland (and it does well at home). So it goes with swing, bebop, and so many other styles. Hell, they still play Palestrina and Thomas Dowland because the music was great, even if it was written over 400 years ago.
That these musics are changing is IMHO an inevitability. We have this odd idea that things must remain pure and never change. The Buddhists have the right take on this if you ask me: All things are impermanent. Everything changes and eventually passes away. Why should funk and blues be any different?
My point is that perhaps the evidence that blues and funk are being played well beyond the place of birth and the time of birth is evidence that the world has embraced this music as worthy of continuation. Sure it will be adapted and changed somewhat. (Ever hear early recordings of classical music? Let me tell you they had VERY different ideas of how it was interpreted than modern conductors have.) Same with these musics.
My take is that this is all a very positive sign.
YMMV, as always - feel free to have a totally different opinion.
Have to just call out the initial stereotype/generalization/not based in fact/semi racist tone, that the first post in this thread started. Funk isn't gone. I'm a touring musician, there are a tone of great current and upcoming funk bands. You can say that you don't like vulfpeck
Sorry fat fingers hit the send. Also just check out the band West end blend from CT. Young group, nice people to work with, absolutely funky as hell.
Hey, if you are into folks whose "talent" consists of taking a ripping song from another group of musicians and butchering it, fine by me. Although I don't listen "hippedy hop" (whatever that is--I've never heard the term, but music critics seem to come up with new names for every little deviation on a theme), from what I understand (I wouldn't know because there is no way I'm going to listen and find out), the newest wave of hip hop practitioners have kind of gotten away from theft. It's one thing to do a cover of a previous song--it's completely another to actually take the original recording and/or loop it, talk over the loop and call it your own "music."
There are several genres that I do not like at all. Punk is one of them--but I will say that when the Sex Pistols got onstage and did their thing, it was THEIR thing. Also didn't like the whole hair band thing. But again, besides a half decent cover or two, Mötley Crüe did Mötley Crüe music, not butchered Chic classics.
Ultimately, we all have a right to our own tastes and opinions concerning music styles, genres, and artists. I'm simply expressing mine. And you can joke about age, etc all you want, but there are music styles from all historical eras that I do and do not like, yet most all forms of music I can at least appreciate. There is only one form of "music" that I cannot even appreciate. One form that I truly loathe. Nothing to do with grandparents. Luckily we live in a free country and my opinion in no way dictates your freedom to listen to or perform anything you like, which is just the way it should be. But it also should be that anyone can express an opinion without the snarky remarks. So I don't like hip hop. Why does that bother you so much? I love jazz/fusion. Most of my friends hate jazz/fusion and call it a bunch of random noise. So? Why should that bother me? (it doesn't--they have an opinion, which is great)
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I always thought it would be cool to be able to jump back in time and hear the way the classical pieces were performed and interpreted at the time they were composed. I'll bet it would be totally different than the way they are played today or on recordings from the past (since recordings were possible).
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+1000!!
We have at least one example of this!
Back when I was an undergraduate shortly before King Richard the 3rd lost the crown to a Tudor, I was Working on the Koussevitsky Doublebass concerto. My teacher asked me to sit and listen to a recording of it. I listened and heard one of the worst versions I had ever heard. Overly romanticized and very soppy with sloppy glissando type shifts and so much to hate. I thought it must be a younger player - less experienced with no understanding of the style. NOPE! - the recording was Koussevitsky himself. The moral of the story is we have no idea how these composers wanted the music interpreted.
I think we are so lucky in today's world to hear the original creators of modern styles and have their work set to recordings so the world can hear them in generations to come. Imagine what it would be like to hear Bach playing his own works, or to hear Beethoven playing his own sonatas, and how that would change what we do today with that work. I wonder if these works would be played differently if people could hear how the composer imagined them.
Similarly I wonder how say, Mozart would respond to say dixieland, or funk.
Fascinating lines of thought here.
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The lesson of this thread and the Woodstock thread is that if there is even the slightest mention of hip hop, no matter how seemingly insignificant relative to the main topic, TB's anti-hip hop squad will sniff it out and rant about it over and over again.
I made a joke, because I thought your commentary was funny and old-timey. I’m not bothered by it, though.
I also have genres I don’t particularly like. I just don’t go out of my way to claim that it’s not real music or to make a point to everyone that I will never like it. I’m still open minded enough to listen to new things or music I didn’t care for in the past, because you never know what you may connect with.
Generally, I think it’s much more impressive to see people at least willing to change their opinion on something versus those who just dig in & become outspoken about it. To each his own...
Can we say,
"The following cover band plays Funk or not"?
A lot of short, syncopated notes.
Andrew Gouche on Bass
The Bottom 40 band and a FUNKY version of Happy
"The following cover band plays Funk or not"?
A lot of short, syncopated notes.
Andrew Gouche on Bass
The Bottom 40 band and a FUNKY version of Happy
Beginning at 4:11 - Maceo on sax - one of the greatest solos ever recorded, regardless of instrument. You can't be any more into the groove than that!
Gospel Choppy.
The music nerd in me goes ‘holy licks Batman’, but this style of music exhausts me. So many notes/flipping the beat. The repetitive, hypnotic effect of a James Brown song for instance is way more ‘funky’ IMO.
I feel like the Gospel Choppers and musical athletes (man look at that phenomenal display of practice room time!) get a lot of press/adulation (rightly so in many cases) but those same folks don’t, for the most part, write great SONGS.
I agree.
When I think of "hypnotic" funk, James Brown's "The Big Payback" and "Make It Funky" come to mind right away. "More Bounce to the Ounce" by Zapp is one of the most repetitive tracks I've ever heard, and one of the funkiest:
It's like Roger Troutman and Co. said to themselves, "Changes? We don't need no stinking changes!!!" Sometimes it's best to know when to let a great groove ride.
The problem I have with the performance in this video is the problem I have with a lot of live performances of my favorite funk jams - they sped it up way too much!!!
The kind of tempo and groove that got me so into the song in the first place is absent from the live show. Now, I don't expect the live performance to be just like the recording, and I get that they were probably trying to bring more energy into it, but please...
Slow the funk down! Let it marinate!
Speaking of Zapp & Roger, check out Mr. Talkbox. He provided the talkbox sounds on Bruno Mars' 24K Magic. He's also done a couple of Vulfpeck covers, toured with Vulfpeck sideman Cory Wong, and occasionally collaborates with MonoNeon.
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Angry poetry over a super low simple bass line with a synthesized drum has its place in the culture. I am not sure if it is music. There are hybrids with music and rap to try and get bigger audiences. I never thought it would take to anyone but those living it. Somehow it went into mainstream. When that happened, in my opinion, it was like rich kids or adults wearing torn jeans, or a rich young beginner guitar player paying $2000 for a new beat up (road worn) looking guitar. There is something off about all that.
A week ago, I saw Ghost Note at a small venue. The future of stank is here in the present, and I like it. Dywane Thomas (aka Mono Neon, two posts up↑) on bass was killin' it, and all the musicians were as friendly as can be. I need to check out the others on your list.Besides Bruno Mars being the one of the most popular artists on Planet Earth, there are a lot of young touring bands that come through my (college) town that are funk-based, like Ghost Note, Five Alarm Funk, Diggin Dirt, Yak Attack, Object Heavy, just to name a few. Plus I'm playing almost every weekend in a funk cover band. People will always be drawn to band they can DANCE to. It's a tribal thing, in our genes.
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I agree. They are excellent musicians and I know they're just having fun but something about them doesn't click for me. At the same time I really like a lot of what Louis Cole does. He's different, more on an 80s funk heavy synth pop vibe. His sense of humour is so ridiculous you might get the feeling he doesn't take himself seriously. Maybe I just haven't heard the right Vulpeck tune.
