JAZZ-FUNK:
What/Who does this term bring to your mind ?
How about......
Billy Cohham, Roy Ayres, Passport, Return to Forever (Stanley Clarke, Chick Corea, Al DiMieola & Lenny White), Brecker Brothers, Miles Davis, James Blood Ulmer, Charles Earland, Weather Report, Brother Jack McDuff.....
Just for starters, Funk, Funk, Funk........... Funk me up !!!
Got any more ????
I'd have to add Herbie Hancock, Harvey Mason & Noel Pointer to your list. Just my thoughts,.
I saw Herbie Hancock live back when "Headhunter" was a big hit.
I wonder how I could have left him off the list ???
Herbie Hancock, Lonnie Liston Smith and of course my boys Fred Wesley and the Horny Horns with Maceo Parker and Rick Gardner trumpet and Richard "Kush" Griffith trumpet "up for the down stroke"
I've always been a big fan of Bro. Jack McDuff. Anybody else ??
Fred Wesley is GREAT !!!!
Eddie Harris, Miles, Santana, Lonnie Smith, Groove Holmes, Manu Dibango, Charles Earland, George Duke, are just a few , I could write for the next hour getting names for this!!
I was just litening to "Swiss Movement" the other day !!!
Any other Jazz-Funk Albums that I should be listening to ??
How about some work by Roy Ayers, or Charles Earland?
I like Leaving This Planet by CE. Also there is work by Tony Williams Lifetime and the New Tony Williams Lifetime, and anything by Larry Young if you can find it. In this extensive list of artists also add Billy Cobham, Stanley Clarke, Tom Browne, Patrice Rushen, Ronnie Foster, and even David Sanborn. And please don't forget Grover Washington Jr.I'll come up with more later
What cuts do you like by Tony Williams ???
Any Charles Earland fans out there ???
What's he been up to lately ???
Charlie has been touring extensively. he was in Pittsburgh about three weeks ago, and also played at Syracuse Jazz Festival. i interviewed him when he was here and we talked about his new release coming out on the muse label called "Purple Rain"!!!
He will also be doing a jazz cruise in october. this is the trird year for this. he gave me a greatlive recording of his group in tokyo, which is on the burning sounds label.he told me that a lot of his milesstone catalog has been reissued on cd. Leaving This Planet, Black Talk, etc. he also did a reunion concert with the Black Talk artists, Houston Person et al. they recorded it.
I'm glad to hear that he is still on the scene, I was a big fan of the album "Leaving this Planet" !!!
MILES SMILES:
Any MF's (Miles Fans) on this board ?
Jack Johnson, Agartha, In A Silent Way, etc...
Miles = afro-polyrythmic-supernasty-pure FUNK.... for the PEOPLE !!!
"afro-polyrhthmic-supernasty-pure funk for the PEOPLE.." Yeah, you said it !!
Hey, did you know that about a half-dozen of '70s Miles albums are getting reissued on CD this coming May? According to Cuscuna in his recent *P jazz chat!
Can hardly wait to pick up GET UP WITH IT and BLACK MAGUS-- if those are indeed among the reissues. Do you have those on LP or import CD already? What do you
think of 'em?
I had the original "Get Up With It", back in the day sound quality aside, why should I buy the new version ?
Since it’s election day......I’m voting for Miles today !!
How do you like the album? Can you compare it to other Miles of the time?
I still haven't heard the album, so I'll be looking forward to its reissue here in the States....
"Get Up With It" compares favorably to the other "electric Miles" stuff from the early to mid 70's. Load it up on your box right next to "Big Fun", "On the Corner", "Jack Johnson" and the others. You can't go wrong in buying it !!
I agree with ya bout the James Brown thang !!
An '80s Miles man! What albums from Miles' last decade stand out for you? Do you have the recent live release, LIVE AROUND THE WORLD?
Count me in !
How about On the Corner, Pangea, Agartha, and tunes done like Human Nature, or Perfect Way. What if Miles ever considered doing an lp with James Brown, or Sly Stone? Just a thought.Do you think he had ever considered it?
I can't believe he found a female "MF" :)
Did you know that there are some "MF's" who consider "On the Corner" to be a "James Brown album" ????
I dig Agartha also
Yeah, that’s why I brought that up! A lot of folks critizied Miles for what did at various periods during his carrer. Now that he’s dead everyone’s giving praise and trying to buy up all his music. Remember the show we saw him at, back in college! I’ll tell folks about that show with your help later.
Tell us about the show, please! I think Miles must’ve thought about recording with Sly and JB—he dug them so much. Strange that he never did get in the studio with them, or even JB’s band. I know he wanted to record with Jimi, but formal sessions just could never be worked out.
Why's it so funny to call On The Corner a "James Brown album"? Doesn't it remind you of JB's music?
Just curious,
It’s not funny at all & that’s my point. Some jazz “blowhards” would see “On the Corner” and call it a “James Brown record” and mean it in a derogatory way.
Miles would have regarded that as a compliment !! In 1972 Miles knew what the deal was and was far more interested in reaching “James Brown fans” (such as myself) than in pleasing the "jazz elite”. He knew that it was part of his responsibility as a Black man to get young “knuckleheads” like me to understand his music than the folks at Downbeat magazine, Lenard Feather, the New York Times or any other so called “jazz experts”.
He knew that it was far more important to teach “James Brown fans” (like me) the entire history of jazz, blues & rock all on one instrumental album on which not one word was uttered. Songs like “Mr. Freedom X”, “Black Satin”, “New York Girl” are jams which can on some level be compared to “Say It Loud” ......they are in your face and confrontational. They force the listener to think about Africa and America, just as “Say It Loud” does. This is a connection that “jazz experts” sometimes do not wish to be confronted with.
I’m emotionally still “On The Corner” !!
I agree with you totally. I was just confused because I had the impression you thought that to call OTC a "JB album" was ridiculous--like maybe it was so much more or something. Like you and Miles, if I heard someone compare OTC to JB, I'd also think it was a compliment, even if the person
didn't mean it to be. I'd immediately think, "Hey! You GOT IT!!" Some great jams and mind-boggling interplay on OTC. No wonder that many older jazz fans have never been able to accept the stuff, but it makes me sad that such people can't at least recognize how Miles reconnected with the ROOTS of
black music in this period. I wonder if JB heard this album,and what he might've thought?
I have no way of knowing this for sure, but if you listen to some of the later stuff by the JB's (before Fred & Maceo hooked up with P-Funk) some of their stuff is pretty "spaced out". Perhaps they were listening to a little bit of early 70's Miles ?
I’ll start off & perhaps someone else can fill in some of the details, becaus my memory isn’t what it used to be.
The show was at the Syria Mosque (a large “acusticly perfect” auditorium seating around 3,500) in 1974. Miles was the opening act for Herbie Hancock who at that time was flying high with the big hit record “Chameleon”. Kevin, myself and about 10 of our friends who were also “MF’s” “prepared for the show” and then got there early. There were several hundred “MF’s” at the show that we knew and it was obvious they had “prepared” as well. I guess one of the biggest surprises to me was the fact that I saw some of the city's“Black Elite” (atheletes, entertainers, politicians, etc) in attendence at the show. I was shocked that many of this folks were in to Miles Davis “jazz-funk”, but it pleased me none the less.
We had all heard all of the stories about how outragious Miles was in concert and were prepared to see him do anything from spit at the audience to playing with his back turned.
He did neither, when he came out he looked like an “African King”.....played the trumpet “hunched over”.....he also had a small keyboard right next to him which he played occasionally.
Miles was backed up on that evening by:
Reggie Lucas - Guitar
Micheal Henderson - Bass
Sonny Fortune - Sax
Mtume - Percussion
Al Foster - Drums
(Somebody help me out here !!!)
I don’t remember the names of the songs played that night, but all of the stuff was from “On the Corner”, “Get Up With It” & “Big Fun”.
I sat there in sheer amazement as I watched the "master" go to work. It was a 90 min. workout of pure unadulterated FUNK
Miles himself didn't say one damn word (neither the group or the songs were introduced) during the whole show !!
To this day....it's the "best concert I ever saw" !!
Okay and this is what happened also that night. Even though we had "prepared for the show", that did not keep you, me, or our friends who we were with that Miles noticed us in thefirst few rows and the fact that we were really into the show. (We were giving high fives and urging the band and Miles on!!) So a few times during the show in acknowledgement, Miles came over to us and played not with his back toward us but was actually playing to us!! I swear to this and our other friends will attest to this. He would give us a nod and then go tho the other side of the stage. I got a chance to meet Reggie Lucas before the show, who was really a strange guy from what I remember.
Wow! That Miles band was a killer.... And to have them and Herbie on the same night!!! Man, I'm jealous!
About the late ‘60s thru early ‘70s JB’s: what are some peak recordings that you would recommend? Didn’t a CD of a performance in Paris get released a few years back? How’s that one?
What did Reggie say and do that was so strange? Did he seem a little too "prepared" for the evening?
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