I need ideas for instrumental funky/dance tunes for a three piece band, ideally with a jazz foundation. We figure to add a keyboard player once we establish at least on set's worth of music. Current tunes include: Caravan (miles) Hottentot (Schofield) Chank (Schofield) All Blues (miles) So What (miles) The Sidewinder (lee morgan) Band members are all over 40 (I guess the music kinda gives that away) so any suggestions in the genre would be great. thanks!
Songs with trios playing: "Red Clay" - Freddie Hubbard "Chameleon" - Herbie Hancock "Cantaloupe Island" - Herbie Hancock
Your guitarist(?) has his inner Grant Green going? Anyway: Ramsey Lewis, The In Crowd Horace Silver, Song For My Father Jr. Walker, Way Back Home More Than Yesterday, covered by Charles Earland Joe Sample, Carmel
The Chicken Sissy Strut, or anything by the Meters. Back At the Chicken Shack, Jimmy Smith Sukie Sukie, Grant Green Chitlins Con Carne, Kenny Burrell The Jody Grind, Horace Silver Tough Talk, The Jazz Crusaders All the songs mentioned in this thread are in the vibe of my own trio.
Comin' Home Baby, Herbie Mann among others I remember Jeff Golub made a pass at the Ohio Players', Skin Tight
Damn...I did most of these tunes in my last band (with a sax, no keys). We also did "Boozer" from the Scofield & MM&W album...the outro morphed into "Milestones", IIRC. We also did the Eddie Harris tune, "Freedom Jazz Dance"...it has a cool bass ostinato in Bb. The solo section veered of into "The Chicken"-ville (a nod to Jaco, if you will). "Cissy Strut"....yeah(yawn). Scofield does something cool with his cover. He modulates up a 1/2 step for each bar after the main figure...or sumthin like that. Anyway, The Meters have plenty of similar grooves that are not as played out. "Chameleon", "Mercy-Mercy-Mercy", "All Blues"...played out? I know that's what we heard back in 2008.
And by the way, Mercy, Mercy, Mercy plays great on harmonica too! No, really! Move On Up, Curtis Mayfield The Procrastinator, Lee Morgan Low Rider, War Song for My Father, Horace Silver Raincheck, Billy Strayhorn Bizarre Love Triangle, New Order Wade in the Water, Brother Jack McDuff Work Song, Cannonball Adderley Quintet 'Nuff outa me...
Sunflower Mr. PC Charlie Hunter's version of Come as you are Aja Sissy strut Moondance Night lights (gerry mulligan and bob brookmeyer)
Herbie Hancock is good for funky jazz tunes that are easy to start playing: Watermelon Man, Cantaloupe Island, Chameleon, Maiden Voyage. Some Latin/bossa tunes are worth having in your set list. Blue Bossa, Song For My Father, Meditation, Invitation, Girl From Ipanema, etc. standards like Fly Me To The Moon sound good in a bossa style. Miles Davis provides plenty of good material for new bands. So What, Tune Up, Four, Freddie Freeloader, Blue In Green, All Blues, Milestones, for example. Charlie Parker for some faster swing: Nows The Time, Billie's Bounce, Scrapple From The Apple, Anthropology, Yardbird Suite. Then there's a heap of 'standard' standards like Stella By Starlight, Autumn Leaves, Satin Doll, My Funny Valentine, Take The A Train, All The Things You Are, Blue Moon and too many to list. Google 'Great American Songbook' and jump in.
