GOOD TO YOUR EARHOLE
- FUNK, SOUL, JAZZ, HIP HOP, DUB AND MOST THINGS IN BETWEEN.....
By Brian Coleman
Hello and welcome to a new column that will attempt, from here on out, to
cover the funkiest music that's coming out around the world, both new and
old, both raw and smooth, with the only stipulation being that the funk
corses through its veins.
Following are a belated batch of releases from 1994 which slipped through a
lot of music jounalist cracks and, to these ears, made the whole year
worthwhile, even if Newt Gingritch is now a household word:
>From the United Kingdom, via a licensing deal with New York's Instinct
Records, came THE SOUL OF BOOGIE BACK, a sure sign that soul music in its
classic sense is far from dead - it just crossed the Atlantic. Highlighting
some of the world's most suave rhythms and performers, the Boogie Back label
has been, unbeknownst to many American music fans, been pumping out real R &
B, not to be confused with wack new-jack imposters such as Boyz II Men,
Jodeci et al. No "Let's Knock Da Boots Baby" blathering here, just good
grooves and soul juice to spread around, straight beneath the covers to keep
you warm all night. Featuring The Max, Naked Funk, Max Beesley's High Vibes,
Bee La Key, and Speak No Evil and check the vocal performance of the year by
UK-sensation Omar (soon to be released stateside on the GrooveTown/RCA
imprint) on "Painful Truths." Keep on the look-out for more from these
artists and let's hope for a Volume 2! (To write for a free catalog:
Instinct Records/26 West 17th Street, #502/New York, NY 10011).
Another very welcome 1994 release was a new shot from Philadelphia's ROOTS,
who released their third recorded effort on DGC. Do You Want More?!!!??!
shows a new direction in hip-hop that this reviewer prays will effect future
releases. Rappers Malik B and Black Thought work the rhythms laid down by a
stellar, jazz-and-soul-informed all-live backing band (including funky jazz
heavies Steve Coleman and the funkiest bagpipe player ever, Mr. Rufus Harley)
and produce intelligent music that sooths as it slams. While numerous other
"live" hip-hop groups have attempted to make their mark on the rap industry,
The Roots are the ones that have finally turned the corner - no samples, no
half-assed-pseudo-funky musicianship, no posing, no bullshit. Just
straight-up freestyle-feeling flows and intelligent production from beginning
to end. If you've heard the singles "Distortion To Static" and "Proceed,"
be assured that the rest of the album's tracks are just as amazing.
The group's self-titled first effort, ORGANIX (rumored to be the group's demo
tape from last year), on Philly's Remedy Recordings and currently available
on UK import (go figure!), is also very worthy of a listen if you can track
it down. Although not as slick and developed as Do You Want More?!!!??!,
it's another funky hike with some sure-footed guides who are sure to continue
to turn the rap world on its ear. Also of interest for record collecting
nerds and rap fanatics, the group released a second effort on UK's Talkin'
Loud label at the beginning of 1994 titled FROM THE GROUND UP, which was the
bridge between their first and third LPs, with several tracks that appeared
on Do You Want More?!!!??! and other slammers that are only to be found on
this import-only release. These guys are definitely the crew to watch for
the remainder of this millenium, at least until something more mind-blowing
comes along...
While we're on the jazz/hip-hop side of things, let's not forget another
slamming release from last year, STOLEN MOMENTS: RED, HOT & COOL
(GRP/Impulse). Essentially the soundtrack to very effective and well-done
documentary by director Earle Sebastian (also released for sale by
GRP/Impulse) about the AIDS epidemic and its relation to both the black and
hispanic communitites as well as to the world of hip-hop, collected among the
album's 13 tracks (3 extra on CD, ugh) are some incredibly effective and
intelligent pairings between the rap and jazz worlds. Although almost every
tracks succeeds with flying colors, some of the best are the Roots and Roy
Ayers' "Proceed II," MC Solaar and Ron Carter's "Un Age En Danger," Digable
Planets and Lester Bowie's "Flyin' High In The Brooklyn Sky" and an
incredibly powerful re-do of the Last Poets' black-angst anthem "This Is
Madness" by Umar Bin Hassan, Abiodun Oyewole (both of the Poets) and tenor
sax-God Pharoah Sanders. With other strong performances by the Pharcyde,
United Future Organization and even the usually lame Michael Franti (with his
new Spearhead group), there's no good reason that any self-respecting 1)
funk/soul, 2) jazz, or 3) music fan should go without this one.
Perhaps the biggest funk sleeper of 1994 came straight out of North Carolina.
Yes, North Carolina. DAG, a scraggly-lookin', flannel-wearing quartet from
Raleigh released their shockingly good major-label debut, entitled Righteous,
on Columbia the the first part of the year. Apparently Columbia was also
taken aback by how good they were, because they didn't seem to have a clue
what to do with the record, which is imbued with all the tenets of classic
funky soul, with almost no sign of passing the year 1978. The grooves (if
you can say that CDs can have such things) are thick and deep, the vocals and
songs are funky and spaced-out, and the end result is one hell of a promising
band, who make the Brand New Heavies look like amateurs in the retro-soul
game. And believe me, that's no small task. Let's hope they make their next
one soon, and that more people get on the bandwagon this time around.
Enough of the past, let's get on to a place called right now. Out of New
York City, via Port-au-prince comes a new self-titled release by VODU 155
(Island Records), certainly one of the more interesting and colorful releases
thus far this year. Consisting of a slick mixture of traditional Haitian
folk and dance vocalising, jamaican dancehall styles and deep hip-hop samples
and sensibility, the album is a tasteful combination of African-based musical
forms which are all-too-often bastardized in an attempt to unify them.
Although leaning more on the Hatian/carribean side of the musical spectrum,
Vodu 155 contains just enough hip-hop flavor to draw the rap crowd in and
prick up their ears. Seeing the above-mentioned fusions involved and the
involvement of Island, I suppose it was inevitable that producer and
musical-clique-unto-himself Bill Laswell would become a part of this one -
and guess what! Laswell produces and remixes 4 of the album's 10 tracks in
top form (which is about 50% of the time these days), with the remaining work
done by the group themselves, consisting of brothers Constant and Lionel
Bernard, the latter whom used to serve as vocalist with NYC Ska-gods the
Toasters. While keeping one foot firmly planted in the multi-cultural
streets of New York, Vodu 155 pulses with the rhythms and spirit of carribean
and has produced a truly fresh new musical brew. In the current musical age,
where hip-hop and carribean music (not to mention record industry marketing
departments across the globe) seem to be reaching out to each other without
effectively connecting often enough, the Bernard brothers have created a
satisfying new direction for both, which will hopefully influence both sides
of the game. A great debut.
While we're applauding musical multiculturalism, let's give a hand to the
people over at Hannibal/Rykodisc for their new BIG NOISE: A MAMBO INN
COMPILATION. Put together to show-off the diversity of a night out on the
town at Brixton's popular and chic Mambo Inn club, BIG NOISE is about as
spread out as one can get. On paper, this one might look too far fetched -
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, DJ Food, Jimmy McGriff and Airto Moreira on the same
dance floor??!! - but this baby goes down smooth, without a dull moment all
the way through. The reason for this silky flow is judicious track pacing
and enlightened song selection, chosen by Mambo Inn DJs Gerry Lyseight, Max
Reinhardt and Rita Ray and no doubt overseen by Straight No Chaser magazine,
who seem to have some part in putting the album out. Instead of mixing
everything together in a random fashion, Middle-eastern flavor gives way to
African, Latin and funky American jazz and is capped off with a juicy cherry
in the form of "My God Can Do Anything" by Luther Barnes and the Red Budd
Gospel Choir. This is definitely one of the more original compilations in
recent memory and a great way to impress your friends by either 1) throwing
it on at a party to show your hipness and cosmopolitan worldly flair and/or
2) taping it all the way through, writing down the songs like you knew all of
them already and then crack open a brew and act smug. (Rykodisc/Shetland
Park/27 Congress St./Salem, MA 01970. Write for a free catalog.)
Two recent releases on New York's Instinct label, NO Se's Quelle Aventure! &
the NEW VOICES TAKE TWO Compilation, clearly show Instinct's continued
dominance in the new funk and acid-jazz world. NO Se is a German trio that
makes compelling new-jack jazz with thoughtfully funky tinges. On Quelle
Aventure! (licensed from Germany's Groove Attack label), subtle live and
programmed latin and jazz rhythms mixed with dancefloor beats are the musical
thoroughfare and the group executes their ideas well, keeping your ears'
attention with quick turns to keep you honest. As founder/
drummer/keyboardist/etc. Philippe Kayser admits in the press release which
came with the CD: "This is not new." True indeed, but the old stuff they're
rehashing and combining can keep on coming back, if you ask me. Standout
cuts include the driving "...And The Swinging Feel," the hyper-kinetic
"United Flying Objects" and the sarcastic, biting "America" (where the group,
through samples, asks "what would the world be like if there was no America?"
Damn good question...). This baby won't knock you out of your seat, but
it'll definitely sit on your lap and whisper naughty, funky things in your
ear for a couple of days.
Instinct's NEW VOICES TAKE TWO compilation is an overview of where the label
stands in 1995: whereas last year's BACK TO BASICS showed the label pulling
out some severely raw and stripped-down funk from the likes of Bobby Byrd and
the Poets Of Rhythm (both licensed from Germany's Soulciety imprint), NEW
VOICES shows a new move towards smoother, more jazzy funk, with the likes of
No Se, Washington DC's Exodus Quartet, NYC's CFM Band and San Francisco's
RAD. All this smoothness is candy to my ears - raw funk should never have
been lumped in with the rest of the Acid-Jazz crowd anyways. Acid Jazz
should be about incorporating more recent forms of music such as hip-hop,
house and new-jack swing with the Herbie Hancock/Roy Ayers/Donald Byrd school
of jazz that carved out its own niche in the '60s and '70s. And NEW VOICES
does just that, in a '90s kind of way. Of course artists such as the
multi-talented RAD can do both, as can be seen by her two songs here: "Time
To Change" and "Gotta Be," the former of which is slickly produced and
mellowly executed, with the latter a raw and bluesy funk anthem. And this
shows why Instinct will stay ahead of the crowd in the whole Acid Jazz game,
until other American labels catch on and can figure out how to do it better.
My only complaint about the label is that they, for some reason, refuse to
put out vinyl on any of their Acid Jazz releases up to this point, thus
denying the dance and club crowd they seem to want to serve. Their taste and
vision are clear and impeccable, though, and let's hope that they can keep it
up for the future, as more and more musicians and listeners continue to catch
the funky jazz vibe. (For Instinct's address, see above).
Bri Ski C@AOL.Com