I have the very same problem, and I am very glad you asked this, since I
hope that the very knowledgeable people inhabiting this list will provide
us with lots of information on what, exactly, constitutes rare groove.
Anyway, I can recommend some "rare groove" compilations, not because they
really explain what rare groove is, but because they contain some great
music:
Classic Rare Groove 1 & 2 (Mastercuts)
Capitol Rare 1, 2 & 3 (Blue Note)
Strange Games & Things (BBE)
All these compilations contain a mixture of modern soul and jazz-funk
tracks (on the smooth side of jazz-funk, I would say), which are "rare" in
the literal sense that they come from hard-to-find and extremely expensive
lost singles and albums.
Also, you can download from the kcrw site (www.kcrw.net) the Chocolate City
show in which Garth Trinidad (is this the right name?) interviews Norman
Jay, who is often said to be the father of rare groove. If I remember
correctly, what emerges from this interview is simply that rare groove is,
well, rare soul and funky music from the seventies -- the kind you are not
going to hear on oldies stations.
A long time ago, I've read something about the rare groove movement being
related to the need of hip hop djs to sample rare stuff, in order to sound
original and cool, and to avoid being sued by James Brown...
I hope somebody else on the list can give us more information about rare
groove.
Marco
>Hey,
>
>I'm trying to get a handle on what it is, exactly, that constitutes "rare
>groove." Can anyone point me in the direction of any good books,
>articles, discographies, CD compilations. . . anything would help, as the
>little that I've seen of things talking about it has been hopelessly
>vague.
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