Jazz-funk
Encyclopedia
Jazz-funk is a sub-genre of jazz music characterized by a strong back beat
(groove), electrified sounds, and often, the presence of the first electronic analog synthesizers. The integration of funk
, soul
, and R&B
music and styles into jazz resulted in the creation of a genre whose spectrum is indeed quite wide and ranges from strong jazz improvisation to soul, funk or disco with jazz arrangements, jazz riff
s, and jazz solos, and sometimes soul vocals. Jazz-funk is primarily an American
genre, where it was popular throughout the 1970s and the early 1980s, but it also achieved noted appeal on the club-circuit in England during the mid 1970s. Similar genres include soul jazz
and jazz fusion
, but neither entirely overlap with jazz-funk. Notably jazz-funk is less vocal, more arranged and featured more improv than soul jazz, and retains a strong feel of groove and R&B versus some of the jazz fusion production.
, a genre that created this groove rhythm, which was spearheaded by James Brown
's drummers Clyde Stubblefield
and John "Jabo" Starks
. Jazz-funk also draws influences from traditional African music, Latin American
rhythms, and Jamaican reggae
. A second characteristic of jazz-funk music was the use of electric instruments, such as the Rhodes Piano
or the electric bass guitar
, particularly in jazz fusion
(or electro-jazz), and the first use of analogue electronic instruments notably by Herbie Hancock
, whose jazz-funk period saw him surrounded on stage or in the studio by several Moog synthesizer
s. The ARP Odyssey
, ARP String Ensemble
, and Hohner D6 Clavinet
also became popular at the time. A third feature is the shift of proportions between composition and improvisation. Arrangements, melody, and overall writing were heavily emphasized.
The jazz-funk (as well as a proportion of the jazz) community absorbed the street sound of the funk rhythm, which gave the genre a dance-able rhythm and gained influences from the electric and some new analog electronic sound of fusion. The 1970s included many original stylistic creations, and the jazz-funk genre was very representative of this movement.
From a jazz perspective, the ambivalence towards the jazz-funk genre arose – despite commercial success – because it was "too jazzy" and therefore too complex. Arrangements and instrumental tracks in pop
or R&B music requires less initiation and allows the lead singer to relate to the audience, but jazz-funk was more focused on specific notes and overall music writing, so it seldom offered this same interaction with the audience.
Disdained by a part of the jazz community and its inability to top the pop charts, jazz-funk had a long hard time to establish itself. In the UK's nightclubs of the mid to late 1970s, DJs like Colin Curtis
in Manchester, Birmingham's Graham Warr and Shaun Williams
, and Leeds-based Ian Dewhirst and Paul Schofield championed the genre, along with Chris Hill and Bob Jones in the South. In the late 80s, the work of rare groove
crate diggers–DJs in England who were interested in looking back into the past and re-discovering old tunes, such as Norman Jay
and Gilles Peterson
and hip hop DJ's such as Marley Marl in the US, have both the jazz community and the pop professionals beginning to understand the value of the genre. Eddie Henderson
, Donald Byrd
and Herbie Hancock
are seldom challenged as major influences on jazz. The Mizell Brothers
have received official accolades from the industry and are being listened to widely. Their work has also been sample
d in more modern music.
It is also worth noting that the more famous acid jazz
movement is often seen as a rediscovery of 1970s jazz-funk, interpreted or produced by contemporary artists of the 1990s. One of the most blatant example is the band US3
, who were signed to Acid Jazz Records
founded by Peterson and Eddie Piller
. US3 covered Cantaloupe Island
, originally recorded by Herbie Hancock
, and reissue of rare groove
s from the era, led by DJ Peterson and Patrick Forge
in the United Kingdom. Contemporary jazz artists have also contributed to the rediscovery, most notably Nathan Haines
and Courtney Pine
.
Examples of artists that explored jazz-funk, soul jazz, or jazz fusion are Herbie Hancock
, David Axelrod
, Sun Ra
, Roy Ayers
, Azymuth
, Gary Bartz
, George Benson
, The Brecker Bros.
, Tom Browne, Donald Byrd
, the Mizell Brothers, Billy Cobham
, Lou Marini
, The Crusaders
, Deodato, Ned Doherty, George Duke
, Charles Earland
, Funkanova, Roger Glenn, Johnny Hammond, Gene Harris
, Eddie Henderson
, Bobbi Humphrey
, Bob James
, Kool & The Gang
, Ronnie Laws
, Mass Production
, Francine McGee, Jaco Pastorius
, Pleasure
, Patrice Rushen
, Lee Ritenour
, Lonnie Liston Smith
, Bill Summers, The Tower of Power
, Miroslav Vitous
, Dexter Wansel
, and Leon Ware
.
Herbie Hancock was dedicated to jazz-funk on many albums including Head Hunters
, Thrust
, Man-Child
, Flood
, Secrets, Sunlight, and Mr. Hands. Post jazz-funk era, later in the early 80s, he threw in electronic influences into the jazz-funk mix when he created Future Shock and Sound-System
.
The genre is also widely incorporated and sampled in R&B
and hip hop
with countless Mizell Brothers' loops in both styles of music!
used the talents of a few producers who were specialists in the genre and generated great commercial success. While Herbie Hancock
was always his own producer, he teamed up with Mike Clark and Paul Jackson
and formed "The Headhunters
". The Mizell Brothers
- Larry and Fonce - were responsible for a lot of the jazz-funk wave as they single-handedly produced many of the major jazz-funk artists (Donald Byrd
, Johnny "Hammond" Smith, Bobbi Humphrey, Gary Bartz
, and more). Other producers included Dexter Wansel
, Bob James
, Dave Grusin
, generally acclaimed musicians (especially arrangers) themselves who tried their hand at sound-engineer, arranger, or composer (the Mizell Brothers
produced most of Byrd's and Johnny "Hammond" Smith's Jazz-funk) other artists. It was typically during this era - the mid 1970s - that the producers gained their arms and paved the way for others later, such as super R&B producers Nile Rodgers
and Bernard Edwards
from Chic
in the early 80s.
Several British jazz-funk artists and bands emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s who broke away from the disco and commercial scene, encouraged by club DJs like Chris Hill, Robbie Vincent
who was then on BBC Radio London
, and Greg Edwards who had a Saturday evening show on London's first ever commercial radio station Capital Radio
, and Norman Jay
.
This type of music was also heavily played on Europe's first soul radio station, Radio Invicta
. The first of these self contained bands to establish a real UK identity was Light of the World formed by Breeze McKrieth, Kenny Wellington, Jean-Paul 'Bluey' Maunick
, Paul 'Tubbs' Williams, Peter Hinds and David Baptiste.
Chris Hill and Robbie Vincent were instrumental in starting the Caister Weekender on the east coast of England in the late 1970s. It ran for several years until the mid 1980s, but a reunion in 1992 at a holiday camp on the south coast was to spark a revival in the event, and it returned to Great Yarmouth on the east coast, to the Vauxhall Holiday park in 1996. The weekender continues to attract thousands of soul, jazz, and jazz-funk fans to the camp, three times a year in May, October and on New Year's Eve. It is called the Caister Soul Weekender and focuses heavily on this genre, but with two or three venues running simultaneousely throughout the events other styles including jazz-funk, Latin jazz, Northern soul
and nu-jazz now featuring heavily.
Chris Hill signed many artists to his Ensign record label. Some of the best known UK jazz-funk acts include Beggar & Co who reformed twice and are currently recording as Beggar & Co featuring The Funk Jazz Collective http://www.myspace.com/beggarandco, first as Light of the World http://www.myspace.com/lightoftheworldmusic and then as Incognito
http://www.incognito.org.uk. The prime mover in all three bands was Jean-Paul 'Bluey' Maunick
. Although Light of the World continue to perform in its own right without Bluey. The Light of the World website includes a discography. Some of the band's albums contain tracks from Beggar and Co, and Incognito highlighting the overlap between the three bands, although by 2006, the website was a little out of date.
Incognito was influenced by Herbie Hancock
's "Chameleon
", but without its leader Bluey the band has moved towards R&B and house music rather than playing pure jazz-funk and are now signed to Rice Records, based in London.
Other British jazz-funk bands include: Central Line
, Level 42
, Freeez
, Heatwave
, The Real Thing
, Atmosfear
, FBI, Morrissey - Mullen
, Shakatak
, Hue and Cry
and Gonzalez
. Notwithstanding the significantly sophisticated musical quality of these bands, to the even remotely trained ear, these UK bands productions are more dance and pop oriented thant their American counterparts such as Herbie Hancock, Billy Cobham or Eddie Hendreson, who make more place for improvisation in their productions Vs catchy choruses.
The 2003 album British Hustle: the Sound of British Jazz Funk 1974 to 1982, compiles tracks by some of the above artists. It's recorded on the Soul Jazz label, ASIN: B0000C84NU, Catalogue Number: SJRCD82.
The album has extensive sleeve notes charting the history of jazz-funk in the UK, and provides a good sample of British jazz-funk. In 2006, it was still available on CD and 12" vinyl.
Many national and regional DJs including Gilles Peterson
, Norman Jay
and Tony Blackburn
have, and continue to play jazz-funk tracks on their national (sometimes international) radio shows and at club nights.
The music genre has over the years featured heavily in the UK magazine Blues & Soul
- it also has an online version of the magazine.
American
jazz-funk, soul jazz, or jazz fusion artists and producers from the 1970s and 80s are now widely recognised as pioneers in jazz, and their music quality has stood the test of time, has gained their peers' recognition, and the most recognised artists in straight ahead jazz have, for a large majority, adopted it in one or more of their tracks. They have now become academic themselves and often hold key influential roles in the music industry (see Patrice Rushen
, Herbie Hancock
, Dave Grusin
, Bob James
).
or Kaidi Tatham, also known as Agent K from Bugz in the Attic
), some of whom are trained in classical music and jazz, are taking the elements of jazz-funk and using them in the full-electronic and computer assisted era. These movements are called nu jazz
, and broken beat
and are however heavily dominated by not musicians, but rather by DJs.
Yet some (including those quoted) are outstanding achieved arrangers and producers, heavily influenced by jazz-funk, and therefore full musicians taking the jazz-funk genre into the 21st Century. The hard-liners will without a doubt complain again about the movement which often does not use session musicians, but uses computers to play some of the music. The more open-to-change liners will call this notes, rhythms, arrangements, improvisation, harmony, production, melodies, themes, and therefore composition, writing and jazz just the same. The UK (e.g. K. Tatham), Germany (e.g. Jazzanova), and Japan (e.g. Kyoto Jazz Massive
) dominate today's production of broken beat which is however starting to take-off in the USA.
Prince
is said to have played most of his songs with jazz-funk in mind.
.
VIkash
Beat (music)
The beat is the basic unit of time in music, the pulse of the mensural level . In popular use, the beat can refer to a variety of related concepts including: tempo, meter, rhythm and groove...
(groove), electrified sounds, and often, the presence of the first electronic analog synthesizers. The integration of funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
, soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
, and R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
music and styles into jazz resulted in the creation of a genre whose spectrum is indeed quite wide and ranges from strong jazz improvisation to soul, funk or disco with jazz arrangements, jazz riff
RIFF
The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data....
s, and jazz solos, and sometimes soul vocals. Jazz-funk is primarily an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
genre, where it was popular throughout the 1970s and the early 1980s, but it also achieved noted appeal on the club-circuit in England during the mid 1970s. Similar genres include soul jazz
Soul jazz
Soul jazz is a development of jazz incorporating strong influences from blues, soul, gospel and rhythm and blues in music for small groups, often an organ trio featuring a Hammond organ.- Overview :Soul jazz is often associated with hard bop. Mark C...
and jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
, but neither entirely overlap with jazz-funk. Notably jazz-funk is less vocal, more arranged and featured more improv than soul jazz, and retains a strong feel of groove and R&B versus some of the jazz fusion production.
Musical approach
At the jazz end of the spectrum, jazz-funk characteristics include a departure from ternary rhythm (near-triplet), i.e. the "swing" (see swing rhythm), to the more danceable and unfamiliar binary rhythm, known as the "groove". It is therefore no surprise that this type of jazz saw its name associated with the term funkFunk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
, a genre that created this groove rhythm, which was spearheaded by James Brown
James Brown
James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
's drummers Clyde Stubblefield
Clyde Stubblefield
Clyde Stubblefield is a drummer best known for his work with James Brown.Stubblefield's recordings with James Brown are considered to be some of the standard-bearers for funk drumming, including the singles "Cold Sweat", "There Was A Time", "I Got The Feelin'", "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm...
and John "Jabo" Starks
John Starks (drummer)
John "Jabo" Starks is an American funk and blues drummer. He is best known for playing with James Brown. Starks played on many of Brown's biggest hits, either as the sole drummer or in tandem with Clyde Stubblefield, including "The Payback", "Sex Machine", "Super Bad", and "Talking Loud and...
. Jazz-funk also draws influences from traditional African music, Latin American
Latin American music
Latin American music, found within Central and South America, is a series of musical styles and genres that mixes influences from Spanish, African and indigenous sources, that has recently become very famous in the US.-Argentina:...
rhythms, and Jamaican reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
. A second characteristic of jazz-funk music was the use of electric instruments, such as the Rhodes Piano
Rhodes piano
The Rhodes piano is an electro-mechanical piano, invented by Harold Rhodes during the fifties and later manufactured in a number of models, first in collaboration with Fender and after 1965 by CBS....
or the electric bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, particularly in jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
(or electro-jazz), and the first use of analogue electronic instruments notably by Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, whose jazz-funk period saw him surrounded on stage or in the studio by several Moog synthesizer
Moog synthesizer
Moog synthesizer may refer to any number of analog synthesizers designed by Dr. Robert Moog or manufactured by Moog Music, and is commonly used as a generic term for older-generation analog music synthesizers. The Moog company pioneered the commercial manufacture of modular voltage-controlled...
s. The ARP Odyssey
ARP Odyssey
The ARP Odyssey was an analog synthesizer introduced in 1972. Responding to pressure from Moog Music to create a portable, affordable "performance" synthesizer, ARP scaled down its popular 2600 synthesizer and created the Odyssey, which became the best-selling synthesizer they made.The Odyssey is...
, ARP String Ensemble
ARP String Ensemble
The ARP String Ensemble, also known as the Solina String Ensemble, is a fully polyphonic multi-orchestral ARP Instruments, Inc. synthesizer with a 49-key keyboard, produced by Solina from 1974 to 1981. The sounds it incorporates are violin, viola, trumpet, horn, cello and contrabass. The keyboard...
, and Hohner D6 Clavinet
Clavinet
A Clavinet is an electrically amplified keyboard instrument manufactured by the Hohner company. It is essentially an electronically amplified clavichord, analogous to an electric guitar. Its distinctive bright staccato sound has appeared particularly in funk, disco, rock, and reggae songs.Various...
also became popular at the time. A third feature is the shift of proportions between composition and improvisation. Arrangements, melody, and overall writing were heavily emphasized.
Ambivalence of the genre
At its conception, the jazz-funk genre was occasionally looked down upon by jazz hard-liners as a sell-out, or "jazz for the dancehalls." It was unsubstantially presumed by these to be not intellectual or elite enough, which led to controversy about the music crossing over, but it was making jazz much more popular and mainstream.The jazz-funk (as well as a proportion of the jazz) community absorbed the street sound of the funk rhythm, which gave the genre a dance-able rhythm and gained influences from the electric and some new analog electronic sound of fusion. The 1970s included many original stylistic creations, and the jazz-funk genre was very representative of this movement.
From a jazz perspective, the ambivalence towards the jazz-funk genre arose – despite commercial success – because it was "too jazzy" and therefore too complex. Arrangements and instrumental tracks in pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
or R&B music requires less initiation and allows the lead singer to relate to the audience, but jazz-funk was more focused on specific notes and overall music writing, so it seldom offered this same interaction with the audience.
Disdained by a part of the jazz community and its inability to top the pop charts, jazz-funk had a long hard time to establish itself. In the UK's nightclubs of the mid to late 1970s, DJs like Colin Curtis
Colin Curtis (DJ)
Colin Curtis is an influential British DJ whose career spans several decades and musical developments. He was born and grew up in Madeley in Staffordshire, UK...
in Manchester, Birmingham's Graham Warr and Shaun Williams
Shaun Williams (DJ)
Shaun Williams is a DJ and jazz dancer from Birmingham, UK, notable for his pioneering role in the UK’s jazz fusion and electro music scenes. Had an early electro club hit with DSM’s "Warrior Groove"....
, and Leeds-based Ian Dewhirst and Paul Schofield championed the genre, along with Chris Hill and Bob Jones in the South. In the late 80s, the work of rare groove
Rare groove
Rare groove is defined as very hard to source or relatively obscure soul or jazz music. Rare groove is primarily associated with funk, jazz and pop, but is also connected to sub-genres including jazz fusion, Latin jazz, soul, R&B, northern soul, and disco. Vinyl records that fall into this...
crate diggers–DJs in England who were interested in looking back into the past and re-discovering old tunes, such as Norman Jay
Norman Jay
Norman Jay MBE is an innovative and pioneering British DJ. He first came to prominence playing unlicensed or 'warehouse' parties in the early 1980s, such as Shake 'n' Fingerpop. His diverse and deep musical knowledge and his refusal to be restricted to playing from any single genre distinguishes...
and Gilles Peterson
Gilles Peterson
Gilles Peterson , is a DJ, record collector and record label owner from London, UK. Through his labels Acid Jazz, Talkin' Loud, and latterly Brownswood Recordings, he has been associated with the careers of well-known artists of the 1990s such as Erykah Badu, Roni Size and Jamiroquai...
and hip hop DJ's such as Marley Marl in the US, have both the jazz community and the pop professionals beginning to understand the value of the genre. Eddie Henderson
Eddie Henderson (musician)
Eddie Henderson is an American jazz trumpet and flugelhorn player. Henderson's influences include Booker Little, Clifford Brown, Woody Shaw and Miles Davis.-Family influence and early music history:...
, Donald Byrd
Donald Byrd
Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd is best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...
and Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
are seldom challenged as major influences on jazz. The Mizell Brothers
Mizell Brothers
The Mizell Brothers were a record producing team in the 1970s, consisting of Larry Mizell and Alphonso "Fonce" Mizell .-History:...
have received official accolades from the industry and are being listened to widely. Their work has also been sample
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
d in more modern music.
It is also worth noting that the more famous acid jazz
Acid jazz
Acid jazz is a musical genre that combines elements of jazz, funk and hip-hop, particularly looped beats. It developed in the UK over the 1980s and 1990s and could be seen as tacking the sound of jazz-funk onto electronic dance: jazz-funk musicians such as Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd and Grant Green are...
movement is often seen as a rediscovery of 1970s jazz-funk, interpreted or produced by contemporary artists of the 1990s. One of the most blatant example is the band US3
US3
Us3 is a jazz-rap group founded in London in 1991. Their name was inspired by a Horace Parlan recording produced by Alfred Lion, the founder of Blue Note Records. On their debut album, Hand on the Torch, Us3 used samples from the Blue Note Records catalogue, all originally produced by...
, who were signed to Acid Jazz Records
Acid Jazz Records
Acid Jazz is a record label based in east London. It takes its name from acid jazz, a genre of jazz music. Alternative version states that the genre itself was named after the record label...
founded by Peterson and Eddie Piller
Eddie Piller
Eddie Piller is an English DJ and record label entrepreneur.Starting his career in the 1980s as a part of the English mod revival, Piller launched the underground fanzine Extraordinary Sensations and operated as a DJ and concert promoter. In 1985, he started the Countdown Records label, through...
. US3 covered Cantaloupe Island
Cantaloupe Island
Cantaloupe Island is a jazz standard composed by Herbie Hancock and recorded on his 1964 album Empyrean Isles. during his early years as one of the members of Miles Davis '60s quintet. It is one of the very first examples of a modal jazz composition set to a funky beat...
, originally recorded by Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, and reissue of rare groove
Rare groove
Rare groove is defined as very hard to source or relatively obscure soul or jazz music. Rare groove is primarily associated with funk, jazz and pop, but is also connected to sub-genres including jazz fusion, Latin jazz, soul, R&B, northern soul, and disco. Vinyl records that fall into this...
s from the era, led by DJ Peterson and Patrick Forge
Patrick Forge
Patrick Forge is a British jazz, jazz-dance and soul music DJ who spent much of the late 1980s and early 1990s DJing alongside Gilles Peterson at the famous Dingwalls club in Camden, North London....
in the United Kingdom. Contemporary jazz artists have also contributed to the rediscovery, most notably Nathan Haines
Nathan Haines
Nathan Haines is a New Zealand jazz and adult contemporary saxophonist.-Life and career:Haines was born in 1972. His father, Kevin, played jazz bass, and his brother, Joel, played guitar. Haines played gigs with Joel across New Zealand, before moving to New York in 1991 to study jazz...
and Courtney Pine
Courtney Pine
Courtney Pine CBE is an English jazz musician. At school he studied the clarinet, although he is known primarily for his saxophone playing. Pine is a multi-instrumentalist, also playing the flute, clarinet, bass Clarinet and keyboards...
.
Examples of artists that explored jazz-funk, soul jazz, or jazz fusion are Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, David Axelrod
David Axelrod (musician)
David Axelrod is an American composer, arranger and producer, working in several musical genres.-Biography:...
, Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Sun Ra was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama...
, Roy Ayers
Roy Ayers
Roy Ayers is an American funk, soul, and jazz composer and vibraphone player. Ayers began his career as a post-bop jazz artist, releasing several albums with Atlantic Records, before his tenure at Polydor Records beginning in the 1970s, during which he helped pioneer jazz-funk .- Biography :Ayers...
, Azymuth
Azymuth
Azymuth is a three-piece electric funk jazz group from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Formed in 1972, the members are Jose Roberto Bertrami , Alex Malheiros , and Ivan Conti .-History:...
, Gary Bartz
Gary Bartz
Gary Bartz is an American alto and soprano saxophonist and clarinetist.Bartz graduated from the Baltimore City College high school and The Juilliard School...
, George Benson
George Benson
George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....
, The Brecker Bros.
Dreams (band)
Dreams was one of the original prominent jazz rock bands in the period of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and recorded for Columbia Records. Dreams was formed by Jeff Kent and Doug Lubahn, who together wrote and arranged all their original songs. The band began as a trio and evolved into a...
, Tom Browne, Donald Byrd
Donald Byrd
Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd is best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...
, the Mizell Brothers, Billy Cobham
Billy Cobham
William C. Cobham is a Panamanian American jazz drummer, composer and bandleader, who has called Switzerland home since the late 1970s....
, Lou Marini
Lou Marini
Lou Marini, Jr. is an American saxophonist, arranger and composer. He is noted for his work in the jazz, rock, blues and soul music traditions.-Early life and range of musical experience:...
, The Crusaders
The Crusaders
The Crusaders are an American music group popular in the early 1970s known for their amalgamated jazz, pop and soul sound. Since 1961, more than forty albums have been credited to the group , 19 of which were recorded under the name "The Jazz Crusaders" .-History:In 1960, following the demise of a...
, Deodato, Ned Doherty, George Duke
George Duke
George Duke is a multi-faceted American musician, known as a keyboard pioneer, composer, singer and producer in both jazz and popular mainstream musical genres. He has worked with numerous acclaimed artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and professor of music...
, Charles Earland
Charles Earland
Charles Earland was an American jazz composer, organist, and saxophonist in the soul jazz idiom.-Biography:...
, Funkanova, Roger Glenn, Johnny Hammond, Gene Harris
Gene Harris
Gene Harris was an American jazz pianist known for his warm sound and blues and gospel infused style that is known as soul jazz....
, Eddie Henderson
Eddie Henderson (musician)
Eddie Henderson is an American jazz trumpet and flugelhorn player. Henderson's influences include Booker Little, Clifford Brown, Woody Shaw and Miles Davis.-Family influence and early music history:...
, Bobbi Humphrey
Bobbi Humphrey
Barbara Ann Humphrey is an American jazz flautist and singer who plays fusion, jazz-funk and soul-jazz styles. Bobbi Humphrey has performed for audiences around the world....
, Bob James
Bob James (musician)
Robert McElhiney James is a jazz keyboardist, arranger and producer.-Biography:During the 1970s, Bob James played a major role in establishing the smooth jazz genre. "Angela", the instrumental theme from the sitcom Taxi, is probably Bob James' most well-known work to date...
, Kool & The Gang
Kool & the Gang
Kool & the Gang are an American jazz, R&B, soul, and funk group, originally formed as the Jazziacs in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1964.They went through several musical phases during the course of their recording career, starting out with a purist jazz sound, then becoming practitioners of R&B and...
, Ronnie Laws
Ronnie Laws
Ronald Wayne "Ronnie" Laws is an American jazz, blues and funk saxophonist. He is the younger brother of jazz flautist Hubert Laws.-Biography:...
, Mass Production
Mass production
Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines...
, Francine McGee, Jaco Pastorius
Jaco Pastorius
John Francis Anthony Pastorius III , known as Jaco Pastorius, was an American jazz musician and composer widely acknowledged as a virtuoso electric bass player....
, Pleasure
Pleasure
Pleasure describes the broad class of mental states that humans and other animals experience as positive, enjoyable, or worth seeking. It includes more specific mental states such as happiness, entertainment, enjoyment, ecstasy, and euphoria...
, Patrice Rushen
Patrice Rushen
Patrice Rushen is a Grammy Award-winning African American R&B and jazz vocalist, composer and pianist.-Biography:...
, Lee Ritenour
Lee Ritenour
Lee Mack Ritenour is an American jazz guitarist who has recorded over 42 albums, appeared on over 3000 sessions, and has charted over 30 instrumental and vocal contemporary jazz hits since 1976. One of his most popular songs was the smash hit, “Is It You” in 1981. Ritenour is considered to be a...
, Lonnie Liston Smith
Lonnie Liston Smith
Lonnie Liston Smith, Jr. is an American jazz, soul, and funk musician who played with important free jazz artists such as Pharoah Sanders and Miles Davis before forming Lonnie Liston Smith And The Cosmic Echoes, recording a number of albums widely regarded as classics in the fusion / Quiet Storm /...
, Bill Summers, The Tower of Power
Tower of Power
Tower of Power is an American R&B-based horn section and band, originating in Oakland, California, that has been performing for over 43 years. They are best known for their funky soul sound highlighted by a powerful horn section...
, Miroslav Vitous
Miroslav Vitouš
Miroslav Ladislav Vitouš , is a Czech jazz bassist.-Biography:Born in Prague, he began the violin at age six, and started playing the piano at age ten, and bass at fourteen. As a young man in Europe, Vitouš was a competitive swimmer. One of his early music groups was the Junior Trio with his...
, Dexter Wansel
Dexter Wansel
Dexter Gilman Wansel is an American keyboardist, raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He contributed to the development of the Philly Sound and worked with producers Gamble and Huff at Philadelphia International Records. Wansel led the musical group, Yellow Sunshine...
, and Leon Ware
Leon Ware
Leon Ware is a soul music singer, songwriter and producer. Best known for crafting the hit album, I Want You, originally recorded for Ware, until friend and Motown icon Marvin Gaye was assigned to the album in 1976...
.
Herbie Hancock was dedicated to jazz-funk on many albums including Head Hunters
Head Hunters
Head Hunters is the twelfth studio album by American jazz musician Herbie Hancock, released October 13, 1973, on Columbia Records in the United States. Recording sessions for the album took place during September 1973 at Wally Heider Studios and Different Fur Trading Co. in San Francisco, California...
, Thrust
Thrust (album)
Thrust is a jazz fusion album by Herbie Hancock, released in 1974 on Columbia Records. It served as a follow-up to Hancock's album, Head Hunters , and achieved similar commercial success, as the album reached as high as number 13 on the Billboard Hot 200 listing...
, Man-Child
Man-Child
Man-Child is the seventeenth album by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock. The album is arguably one of his most funk influenced albums and it represents his further departure from the "spacey, higher atmosphere jazz," as he referred to it, of his earlier career. Hancock uses more funk based rhythms around...
, Flood
Flood
A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water...
, Secrets, Sunlight, and Mr. Hands. Post jazz-funk era, later in the early 80s, he threw in electronic influences into the jazz-funk mix when he created Future Shock and Sound-System
Sound-System (album)
Sound-System is the thirty-sixth album by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock and the second of three albums with the Rockit Band.-About the Album:The second of the three Rockit band albums, Sound-System was another smash for Herbie Hancock....
.
The genre is also widely incorporated and sampled in R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
and hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
with countless Mizell Brothers' loops in both styles of music!
The role of producers
Many mainstream artists in jazzJazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
used the talents of a few producers who were specialists in the genre and generated great commercial success. While Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
was always his own producer, he teamed up with Mike Clark and Paul Jackson
Paul Jackson (bassist)
Paul Jackson is an American jazz bass guitarist and composer. He has played with many of the great jazz artists, most notably playing bass on several of Herbie Hancock's seminal albums, Head Hunters, Thrust, and others. He was born in Oakland, California and began playing bass at the age of nine...
and formed "The Headhunters
The Headhunters
The Headhunters are an American jazz-funk fusion band, best known for their albums they recorded as a backing band of jazz keyboard player Herbie Hancock during the 1970s. Hancock's debut album with the group, Head Hunters, is one of the best-selling jazz/fusion records of all time.-History:Herbie...
". The Mizell Brothers
Mizell Brothers
The Mizell Brothers were a record producing team in the 1970s, consisting of Larry Mizell and Alphonso "Fonce" Mizell .-History:...
- Larry and Fonce - were responsible for a lot of the jazz-funk wave as they single-handedly produced many of the major jazz-funk artists (Donald Byrd
Donald Byrd
Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd is best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...
, Johnny "Hammond" Smith, Bobbi Humphrey, Gary Bartz
Gary Bartz
Gary Bartz is an American alto and soprano saxophonist and clarinetist.Bartz graduated from the Baltimore City College high school and The Juilliard School...
, and more). Other producers included Dexter Wansel
Dexter Wansel
Dexter Gilman Wansel is an American keyboardist, raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He contributed to the development of the Philly Sound and worked with producers Gamble and Huff at Philadelphia International Records. Wansel led the musical group, Yellow Sunshine...
, Bob James
Bob James (musician)
Robert McElhiney James is a jazz keyboardist, arranger and producer.-Biography:During the 1970s, Bob James played a major role in establishing the smooth jazz genre. "Angela", the instrumental theme from the sitcom Taxi, is probably Bob James' most well-known work to date...
, Dave Grusin
Dave Grusin
David Grusin is an American composer, arranger and pianist. Grusin has composed many scores for feature films and television, and has won numerous awards for his soundtrack and record work, including an Academy award and 12 Grammys...
, generally acclaimed musicians (especially arrangers) themselves who tried their hand at sound-engineer, arranger, or composer (the Mizell Brothers
Mizell Brothers
The Mizell Brothers were a record producing team in the 1970s, consisting of Larry Mizell and Alphonso "Fonce" Mizell .-History:...
produced most of Byrd's and Johnny "Hammond" Smith's Jazz-funk) other artists. It was typically during this era - the mid 1970s - that the producers gained their arms and paved the way for others later, such as super R&B producers Nile Rodgers
Nile Rodgers
Nile Gregory Rodgers is an American musician, producer, composer, arranger, and guitarist.-Biography:...
and Bernard Edwards
Bernard Edwards
Bernard Edwards born in Greenville, North Carolina, was a bass player and record producer, both as a member of the Funk/Disco band Chic and on his own. He died of pneumonia while touring in Japan.-History:...
from Chic
Chic (band)
Chic was an African American disco and R&B band that was organized during 1976 by guitarist Nile Rodgers and bassist Bernard Edwards. It is known best for its commercially successful disco songs, including "Dance, Dance, Dance " , "Everybody Dance" , "Le Freak" , "I Want Your Love" , "Good Times"...
in the early 80s.
Focus on the UK
Jazz-funk in the UK is more biased towards soul, funk and disco than the US production of soul jazz or jazz fusion, which is more jazz oriented.Several British jazz-funk artists and bands emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s who broke away from the disco and commercial scene, encouraged by club DJs like Chris Hill, Robbie Vincent
Robbie Vincent
Robbie Vincent is an English radio broadcaster and DJ whose catch phrase for many years was "If it moves, Funk it"He started life as a journalist although Robbie Vincent's broadcasting career began as one of the pioneers on BBC Radio London in early 1974 during the miners' strike and Three-day week...
who was then on BBC Radio London
BBC London 94.9
BBC London 94.9 is London's BBC Local Radio station, and part of BBC London. Broadcasting across Greater London and beyond on 94.9 FM, DAB, Virgin Media Channel 930, Sky Channel 0152 and also online...
, and Greg Edwards who had a Saturday evening show on London's first ever commercial radio station Capital Radio
Capital Radio
Capital London is a London based radio station which launched on 16 October 1973 and is owned by Global Radio. On 3 January 2011 it formed part of the nine station Capital radio network.- Pre-launch :...
, and Norman Jay
Norman Jay
Norman Jay MBE is an innovative and pioneering British DJ. He first came to prominence playing unlicensed or 'warehouse' parties in the early 1980s, such as Shake 'n' Fingerpop. His diverse and deep musical knowledge and his refusal to be restricted to playing from any single genre distinguishes...
.
This type of music was also heavily played on Europe's first soul radio station, Radio Invicta
Radio Invicta
Radio Invicta is the name of more than one radio station:*Radio Invicta, 1960s offshore station, later known as KING Radio and finally Radio 390*Radio Invicta , 1970s/1980s pirate station in London...
. The first of these self contained bands to establish a real UK identity was Light of the World formed by Breeze McKrieth, Kenny Wellington, Jean-Paul 'Bluey' Maunick
Jean-Paul 'Bluey' Maunick
Jean-Paul 'Bluey' Maunick is a British guitarist, bandleader, composer and record producer. He has led the British acid jazz band Incognito since its formation in 1979. With Incognito, he has released fourteen studio albums as well as a number of live albums, remix albums and compilation albums...
, Paul 'Tubbs' Williams, Peter Hinds and David Baptiste.
Chris Hill and Robbie Vincent were instrumental in starting the Caister Weekender on the east coast of England in the late 1970s. It ran for several years until the mid 1980s, but a reunion in 1992 at a holiday camp on the south coast was to spark a revival in the event, and it returned to Great Yarmouth on the east coast, to the Vauxhall Holiday park in 1996. The weekender continues to attract thousands of soul, jazz, and jazz-funk fans to the camp, three times a year in May, October and on New Year's Eve. It is called the Caister Soul Weekender and focuses heavily on this genre, but with two or three venues running simultaneousely throughout the events other styles including jazz-funk, Latin jazz, Northern soul
Northern soul
Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged from the British mod scene, initially in northern England in the late 1960s. Northern soul mainly consists of a particular style of black American soul music based on the heavy beat and fast tempo of the mid-1960s Tamla Motown sound...
and nu-jazz now featuring heavily.
Chris Hill signed many artists to his Ensign record label. Some of the best known UK jazz-funk acts include Beggar & Co who reformed twice and are currently recording as Beggar & Co featuring The Funk Jazz Collective http://www.myspace.com/beggarandco, first as Light of the World http://www.myspace.com/lightoftheworldmusic and then as Incognito
Incognito (band)
Incognito is a British band, as well as one of the members of the United Kingdom's acid jazz movement. Their debut album, Jazz Funk, was released in 1981, with thirteen more albums following, the last of which, Transatlantic RPM, was released in 2010....
http://www.incognito.org.uk. The prime mover in all three bands was Jean-Paul 'Bluey' Maunick
Jean-Paul 'Bluey' Maunick
Jean-Paul 'Bluey' Maunick is a British guitarist, bandleader, composer and record producer. He has led the British acid jazz band Incognito since its formation in 1979. With Incognito, he has released fourteen studio albums as well as a number of live albums, remix albums and compilation albums...
. Although Light of the World continue to perform in its own right without Bluey. The Light of the World website includes a discography. Some of the band's albums contain tracks from Beggar and Co, and Incognito highlighting the overlap between the three bands, although by 2006, the website was a little out of date.
Incognito was influenced by Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
's "Chameleon
Chameleon (composition)
"Chameleon" is a jazz standard composed by Herbie Hancock in collaboration with Bennie Maupin, Paul Jackson and Harvey Mason, all of whom also performed the original 15'44" version on the 1973 landmark album Head Hunters featuring solos by Hancock and Maupin....
", but without its leader Bluey the band has moved towards R&B and house music rather than playing pure jazz-funk and are now signed to Rice Records, based in London.
Other British jazz-funk bands include: Central Line
Central Line (band)
Central Line were a British pop and jazz-funk group, based in London, England. They recorded three albums for Mercury Records in the 1980s, and had two hit singles in the United States, as well as one Top 40 success in their native country.-Career:...
, Level 42
Level 42
Level 42 are an English pop rock and jazz-funk band who had a number of worldwide and UK hits during the 1980s and 1990s.The band gained fame for their high-calibre musicianship—in particular that of Mark King, whose percussive slap-bass guitar technique provided the driving groove of many of the...
, Freeez
Freeez
Freeez were a United Kingdom dance music group from London, known initially as one of the UK's main jazz-funk bands of the early 1980s. Initiated by John Rocca, Freeez consisted of various musicians, originally with Rocca and others such as Andy Stennet Freeez were a United Kingdom dance music...
, Heatwave
Heatwave (band)
Heatwave was an international funk/disco musical band featuring Americans Johnnie Wilder, Jr. and Keith Wilder of Dayton, Ohio, Englishman Rod Temperton , Swiss Mario Mantese , Czechoslovak Ernest "Bilbo" Berger , Jamaican Eric Johns and Briton Roy Carter .They were known for their successful...
, The Real Thing
The Real Thing (group)
-Albums:Studio albums* Real Thing - UK #34* 4 from 8 * Step Into Our World , retitled Can You Feel the Force - UK #73* ....Saints Or Sinners? Live albums* The Real Thing Live Compilation albums...
, Atmosfear
Atmosfear
Atmosfear were a British jazz funk band formed in 1979. They consisted of bassist, and keyboardist Lester J. Batchelor, drummer Ray Johnson, guitarist Andy Sojka, saxophonist Stewart Cawthorne, and producer Jerry Pike. A year later singer and guitarist Tony Antoniou joined the main line up...
, FBI, Morrissey - Mullen
Morrissey - Mullen
Morrissey Mullen was a British jazz-funk/fusion group of the 1970s and 1980s.Considered one of the most popular jazz groups in London, the band was led by Dick Morrissey on tenor and soprano saxes and flute, and Jim Mullen on guitar, who joined forces in 1975, their playing together for sixteen ...
, Shakatak
Shakatak
Shakatak are an English jazz-funk band, founded in 1980.-Career:Shakatak scored a number of chart entries, including two Top Ten hits in the UK Singles Chart, "Night Birds" and "Down on the Street" plus a further 12 entries in the Guinness book of British Hit Singles...
, Hue and Cry
Hue and Cry
Hue and Cry is a pop duo formed in 1983 in Coatbridge, Scotland by the brothers Pat Kane and Greg Kane . They had a number of modest hits in the UK Singles Chart in the late 1980s, and early 1990s, and have released sixteen albums from 1987 to date.-Career:Their first single "Here Comes...
and Gonzalez
Gonzalez (band)
Gonzalez were a British R&B and funk band. They became well known as a backing band for touring R&B, funk and soul stars. Their eponymous album was released in 1974 and they recorded a total of six albums before disbanding in 1986,...
. Notwithstanding the significantly sophisticated musical quality of these bands, to the even remotely trained ear, these UK bands productions are more dance and pop oriented thant their American counterparts such as Herbie Hancock, Billy Cobham or Eddie Hendreson, who make more place for improvisation in their productions Vs catchy choruses.
The 2003 album British Hustle: the Sound of British Jazz Funk 1974 to 1982, compiles tracks by some of the above artists. It's recorded on the Soul Jazz label, ASIN: B0000C84NU, Catalogue Number: SJRCD82.
The album has extensive sleeve notes charting the history of jazz-funk in the UK, and provides a good sample of British jazz-funk. In 2006, it was still available on CD and 12" vinyl.
Many national and regional DJs including Gilles Peterson
Gilles Peterson
Gilles Peterson , is a DJ, record collector and record label owner from London, UK. Through his labels Acid Jazz, Talkin' Loud, and latterly Brownswood Recordings, he has been associated with the careers of well-known artists of the 1990s such as Erykah Badu, Roni Size and Jamiroquai...
, Norman Jay
Norman Jay
Norman Jay MBE is an innovative and pioneering British DJ. He first came to prominence playing unlicensed or 'warehouse' parties in the early 1980s, such as Shake 'n' Fingerpop. His diverse and deep musical knowledge and his refusal to be restricted to playing from any single genre distinguishes...
and Tony Blackburn
Tony Blackburn
Tony Blackburn is an English disc jockey, who broadcast on the "pirate" stations Radio Caroline and Radio London in the 1960s and was the first disc jockey to broadcast on BBC Radio 1 in 1967. In 2002 he was the winner of the ITV reality TV programme I'm a Celebrity.....
have, and continue to play jazz-funk tracks on their national (sometimes international) radio shows and at club nights.
The music genre has over the years featured heavily in the UK magazine Blues & Soul
Blues & Soul
Blues & Soul is a British music magazine covering black music. Genres covered include soul, R&B, jazz, hip hop, reggae and world music. It was first published in 1966 and is known for first using the term Northern Soul....
- it also has an online version of the magazine.
American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz-funk, soul jazz, or jazz fusion artists and producers from the 1970s and 80s are now widely recognised as pioneers in jazz, and their music quality has stood the test of time, has gained their peers' recognition, and the most recognised artists in straight ahead jazz have, for a large majority, adopted it in one or more of their tracks. They have now become academic themselves and often hold key influential roles in the music industry (see Patrice Rushen
Patrice Rushen
Patrice Rushen is a Grammy Award-winning African American R&B and jazz vocalist, composer and pianist.-Biography:...
, Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, Dave Grusin
Dave Grusin
David Grusin is an American composer, arranger and pianist. Grusin has composed many scores for feature films and television, and has won numerous awards for his soundtrack and record work, including an Academy award and 12 Grammys...
, Bob James
Bob James (musician)
Robert McElhiney James is a jazz keyboardist, arranger and producer.-Biography:During the 1970s, Bob James played a major role in establishing the smooth jazz genre. "Angela", the instrumental theme from the sitcom Taxi, is probably Bob James' most well-known work to date...
).
Current state and future of the jazz-funk/soul jazz/fusion genre
Some heavy producers (JazzanovaJazzanova
Jazzanova is a German Berlin-based DJ/producer collective consisting of Alexander Barck, Claas Brieler, Jürgen von Knoblauch, Roskow Kretschmann, Stefan Leisering, and Axel Reinemer. Formed in 1995, the group is one of the foremost proponents of the nu-jazz, chillout and jazz house styles of music...
or Kaidi Tatham, also known as Agent K from Bugz in the Attic
Bugz in the Attic
Bugz in the Attic is a collective of DJs and producers based in West London, who are prominent in broken beat. The collective includes Orin Walters , Paul Dolby , Kaidi Tatham, Daz-I-Kue, Alex Phountzi , Cliff Scott, Mark Force, Matt Lord, and Mikey Stirton. The group also has a label, BitaSweet...
), some of whom are trained in classical music and jazz, are taking the elements of jazz-funk and using them in the full-electronic and computer assisted era. These movements are called nu jazz
Nu jazz
Nu jazz is an umbrella term coined in the late 1990s to refer to music that blends jazz elements with other musical styles, such as funk, soul, electronic dance music, and free improvisation...
, and broken beat
Broken beat
Broken beat is an electronic music genre that can be characterized by syncopated rhythm typically in 4/4 meter, with staggered or punctuated snare beats and/or hand claps....
and are however heavily dominated by not musicians, but rather by DJs.
Yet some (including those quoted) are outstanding achieved arrangers and producers, heavily influenced by jazz-funk, and therefore full musicians taking the jazz-funk genre into the 21st Century. The hard-liners will without a doubt complain again about the movement which often does not use session musicians, but uses computers to play some of the music. The more open-to-change liners will call this notes, rhythms, arrangements, improvisation, harmony, production, melodies, themes, and therefore composition, writing and jazz just the same. The UK (e.g. K. Tatham), Germany (e.g. Jazzanova), and Japan (e.g. Kyoto Jazz Massive
Kyoto Jazz Massive
Kyoto Jazz Massive is a musical project specialising in broken beat and electronic styles, consisting of the two brothers Okino Shuya and Okino Yoshihiro. The group has also included Hajime Yoshizawa, the pianist producer, on a number of works and albums...
) dominate today's production of broken beat which is however starting to take-off in the USA.
Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
is said to have played most of his songs with jazz-funk in mind.
Notable musicians and albums
In alphabetical order by last name or first non-articleArticle (grammar)
An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some...
.
Musicians/Ensembles/Producers
- Haircut 100Haircut 100Haircut One Hundred are a British pop group formed in 1980 by Nick Heyward. The band had four UK Top 10 hit singles between 1981 and 1982, including "Favourite Shirts " and "Love Plus One".-Career:...
- John ScofieldJohn ScofieldJohn Scofield , often referred to as "Sco," is an American jazz guitarist and composer, who has played and collaborated with Miles Davis, Dave Liebman, Joe Henderson, Charles Mingus, Joey Defrancesco, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, Pat Martino, Mavis Staples, Phil Lesh, Billy Cobham,...
- Nils Landgren
- Brian CulbertsonBrian CulbertsonBrian Culbertson is a musician and instrumentalist from Decatur, Illinois, United States. Son of jazz band director and trumpeter Jim Culbertson, Brian's instruments include the keyboard and trombone....
- 3 Pieces
- Grover Washington, Jr.Grover Washington, Jr.Grover Washington, Jr. was an American jazz-funk / soul-jazz saxophonist. Along with George Benson, John Klemmer, David Sanborn, Bob James, Chuck Mangione, Herb Alpert, and Spyro Gyra, he is considered by many to be one of the founders of the smooth jazz genre.He wrote some of his material and...
- Roy AyersRoy AyersRoy Ayers is an American funk, soul, and jazz composer and vibraphone player. Ayers began his career as a post-bop jazz artist, releasing several albums with Atlantic Records, before his tenure at Polydor Records beginning in the 1970s, during which he helped pioneer jazz-funk .- Biography :Ayers...
- Banda Black RioBanda Black RioBanda Black Rio is a Brazilian musical group from Rio de Janeiro that was formed in 1976. It has a repertoire based on funk but also including samba, jazz and Brazilian rhythms.-History:...
- Gary BartzGary BartzGary Bartz is an American alto and soprano saxophonist and clarinetist.Bartz graduated from the Baltimore City College high school and The Juilliard School...
- The BlackbyrdsThe BlackbyrdsThe Blackbyrds were an American rhythm and blues and jazz-funk fusion group, formed in Washington, D.C. in 1973.-History:The group was inspired by trumpeter Donald Byrd and featured some of his Howard University students: Kevin Toney , Keith Killgo , Joe Hall , Allan C. Barnes , and Barney Perry...
- Donald ByrdDonald ByrdDonaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd is best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...
- California Flight
- The CrusadersThe CrusadersThe Crusaders are an American music group popular in the early 1970s known for their amalgamated jazz, pop and soul sound. Since 1961, more than forty albums have been credited to the group , 19 of which were recorded under the name "The Jazz Crusaders" .-History:In 1960, following the demise of a...
- Stanley ClarkeStanley ClarkeStanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores...
- Miles DavisMiles DavisMiles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
- George DukeGeorge DukeGeorge Duke is a multi-faceted American musician, known as a keyboard pioneer, composer, singer and producer in both jazz and popular mainstream musical genres. He has worked with numerous acclaimed artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and professor of music...
- Charles EarlandCharles EarlandCharles Earland was an American jazz composer, organist, and saxophonist in the soul jazz idiom.-Biography:...
- FattburgerFattburgerFattburger is a jazz group, best categorized in the jazz-funk, contemporary jazz, or jazz fusion subgenres. The band was formed by saxophonist Hollis Gentry, keyboardist Carl Evans Jr., bassist Mark Hunter, drummer Kevin Koch, and guitarist Steve Laury in San Diego during the early 1980s...
- Ronnie FosterRonnie FosterRonnie Foster is an American funk and soul-jazz organist, and record producer. His albums recorded for Blue Note Records in the 1970s has obtained a cult following after the emergence of acid-jazz.-Biography:...
- Greyboy Allstars
- GalacticGalacticGalactic is a funk and jazz jam band from New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.-Origins and background:Originally formed in 1994 as an octet and including singer Chris Lane and guitarist Rob Gowen, the group was soon pared down to a sextet of: guitarist Jeff Raines, bassist Robert Mercurio,...
- Groove CollectiveGroove CollectiveGroove Collective is a contemporary jazz group. In 2007 they were nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album of the Year for the release People People Music Music on the Savoy Jazz label.-Style:Groove Collective was formed in 1990...
- Herbie HancockHerbie HancockHerbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
- Gene HarrisGene HarrisGene Harris was an American jazz pianist known for his warm sound and blues and gospel infused style that is known as soul jazz....
- SouliveSouliveSoulive is a funk/jazz trio that originated in Woodstock, New York, and is known for its solos and catchy, upbeat songs. The band consists of Eric Krasno , Alan Evans , Neal Evans...
- Level 42Level 42Level 42 are an English pop rock and jazz-funk band who had a number of worldwide and UK hits during the 1980s and 1990s.The band gained fame for their high-calibre musicianship—in particular that of Mark King, whose percussive slap-bass guitar technique provided the driving groove of many of the...
- Freddie HubbardFreddie HubbardFrederick Dewayne "Freddie" Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the bebop, hard bop and post bop styles from the early 1960s and on...
- Bobbi HumphreyBobbi HumphreyBarbara Ann Humphrey is an American jazz flautist and singer who plays fusion, jazz-funk and soul-jazz styles. Bobbi Humphrey has performed for audiences around the world....
- Akari KaidaAkari Kaidais a video game music composer. She has composed musical scores for Capcom games including Resident Evil, Dino Crisis and Ōkami...
- Ronnie LawsRonnie LawsRonald Wayne "Ronnie" Laws is an American jazz, blues and funk saxophonist. He is the younger brother of jazz flautist Hubert Laws.-Biography:...
- Bobby LyleBobby LyleBobby Lyle is a jazz, soul jazz, and smooth jazz pianist. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee but grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota in a home near the corner of Park Avenue and 32nd Street. His father, reportedly, was a sports writer for the Star Tribune newspaper.He had his first gig at 16 and...
- Harvey MasonHarvey MasonHarvey William Mason is an American jazz drummer. He has worked with many jazz and fusion artists such as Bob James, The Brecker Brothers, Lee Ritenour, Herbie Hancock's Headhunters and almost all the Mizell Brothers productions with Donald Byrd, Johnny Hammond, Bobbi Humphrey and Gary Bartz...
- Marcus MillerMarcus MillerMarcus Miller is an American jazz composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Miller is best known as a bassist, working with trumpeter Miles Davis, singer Luther Vandross, and saxophonist David Sanborn, as well as maintaining a prolific solo career...
- Medeski, Martin, and Wood
- The Mizell Brothers
- Alphonse MouzonAlphonse MouzonAlphonse Mouzon is a well-known jazz-fusion drummer and percussionist, and the Chairman/CEO of Tenacious Records. He also composes, arranges and produces, as well as acts...
- Patrice RushenPatrice RushenPatrice Rushen is a Grammy Award-winning African American R&B and jazz vocalist, composer and pianist.-Biography:...
- Oliver SainOliver SainOliver Sain was an American saxophonist, songwriter, bandleader, drummer and record producer....
- Anthony Smith
- Johnny Smith
- Lonnie SmithLonnie Liston SmithLonnie Liston Smith, Jr. is an American jazz, soul, and funk musician who played with important free jazz artists such as Pharoah Sanders and Miles Davis before forming Lonnie Liston Smith And The Cosmic Echoes, recording a number of albums widely regarded as classics in the fusion / Quiet Storm /...
- Wayman TisdaleWayman TisdaleWayman Lawrence Tisdale was an American professional basketball player in the NBA and a smooth jazz bass guitarist. A three-time All American at the University of Oklahoma, he was elected to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.-Early life:Tisdale was born in Fort Worth, Texas...
- Victor WootenVictor WootenVictor Lemonte Wooten is an American bass player, composer, author, and producer, and has been the recipient of five Grammy Awards....
- Dexter WanselDexter WanselDexter Gilman Wansel is an American keyboardist, raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He contributed to the development of the Philly Sound and worked with producers Gamble and Huff at Philadelphia International Records. Wansel led the musical group, Yellow Sunshine...
- The Jazz Funk CollectiveThe Jazz Funk CollectiveThe Jazz Funk Collective is a jazz-funk band from the United Kingdom. The band has released two albums, Messin' Around and A Dummy's Guide to Jazz...
- David Cain & Senses
- Jaco PastoriusJaco PastoriusJohn Francis Anthony Pastorius III , known as Jaco Pastorius, was an American jazz musician and composer widely acknowledged as a virtuoso electric bass player....
- SantanaSantana (band)Santana is a rock band based around guitarist Carlos Santana and founded in the late 1960s. It first came to public attention after their performing the song "Soul Sacrifice" at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, when their Latin rock provided a contrast to other acts on the bill...
Albums
- Funky Serenity by Ramsey LewisRamsey LewisRamsey Emmanuel Lewis, Jr. is an American jazz composer, pianist and radio personality. Ramsey Lewis has recorded over 80 albums and has received seven gold records and three Grammy Awards so far in his career.-Biography:...
- Alive! by Grant GreenGrant GreenGrant Green was a jazz guitarist and composer....
- Instant Death by Eddie HarrisEddie HarrisEddie Harris was an American jazz musician, best known for playing tenor saxophone and for introducing the electrically amplified saxophone. He was also fluent on the electric piano and organ...
- Pure Cane Sugar by Sugarman Three
- Living Black by Charles EarlandCharles EarlandCharles Earland was an American jazz composer, organist, and saxophonist in the soul jazz idiom.-Biography:...
- Funk Inc. & Chicken by Funk Inc.
- Live At Club Mozambique by Dr. Lonnie Smith
- Out Louder by Medeski Martin & WoodMedeski Martin & WoodMedeski Martin & Wood is an American jazz trio formed in 1991, consisting of John Medeski on keyboards and piano, Billy Martin on drums and percussion, and Chris Wood on double bass and bass guitar....
- Wildflowers by Connie Price & the Keystones
- 102% by The New MastersoundsThe New MastersoundsThe New Mastersounds are a four-piece funk band based in Leeds, England.In the late 1990s, guitarist and producer Eddie Roberts was running a club night in Leeds called "The Cooker." When The Cooker moved into a new venue with a second floor in 1999, there was space and the opportunity to put a...
- No Place Like Soul by SouliveSouliveSoulive is a funk/jazz trio that originated in Woodstock, New York, and is known for its solos and catchy, upbeat songs. The band consists of Eric Krasno , Alan Evans , Neal Evans...
- The Budos Band by The Budos BandThe Budos BandThe Budos Band are an instrumental band recording on the Daptone Records label. The band has ten members who play instrumental music that is self-described as "Afro-Soul," a term and sound which - in a 2007 interview - baritone saxophone player Jared Tankel elucidates as, being drawn from...
- Step It Up by The Bamboos (funk band)The Bamboos (funk band)The Bamboos are a Soul band from Australia.-Biography:The Bamboos were formed in 2000 in Melbourne Australia by NZ-born guitarist Lance Ferguson. The initial line-up consisted of Ferguson, Ben Grayson on Hammond Organ, Stuart Speed on Bass and Scott Lambie on Drums...
- Hit the Floor by BreakestraBreakestraBreakestra is a funk music project of Miles "music man" Tackett's based in Los Angeles, California.Breakestra was first formed in 1997 as a strictly live ensemble playing "covers" of funk & soul-jazz music that had been sampled in late 80s & early 90s hip-hop seamlessly blended into each other...
- The Origin Of Captain Hammond by Captain Hammond
- In The Raw by The Whitefield Brothers
- Soul Strike by Calypso King & the Soul Investigators
- Hutspot by Lefties Soul ConnectionLefties Soul ConnectionLefties Soul Connection are a Dutch funk band from Amsterdam.The band was formed by guitarist Onno Smit and organist Alviz in August 2001, with Cody Vogel joining on drums by the end of the year. Bram Brosman joined as full-time bassist early in 2002, as the group solidified a mostly instrumental...
- Destination Get Down! by The Diplomats of Solid SoundThe Diplomats of Solid SoundThe Diplomats of Solid Sound is a soul band from Iowa City, Iowa. The current members are Doug Roberson on guitar, Nate Basinger on Hammond Organ, Paul Kresowik on drums and percussion, David Basinger on baritone sax, and Eddie McKinley on tenor sax, Sarah Cram on vocals, and Kathy Ruestow on vocals...
- Sahara Swing by Karl Hector & The Malcouns
- Head Hunters by Herbie HancockHerbie HancockHerbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
- Places and Spaces by Donald ByrdDonald ByrdDonaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd is best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...
- School Days by Stanley ClarkeStanley ClarkeStanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores...
- Fat Albert Rotunda by Herbie HancockHerbie HancockHerbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
- Back to Back by The Brecker Brothers
- Need Want by David Cain & Senses
- Bringing Back the Funk by Brian CulbertsonBrian CulbertsonBrian Culbertson is a musician and instrumentalist from Decatur, Illinois, United States. Son of jazz band director and trumpeter Jim Culbertson, Brian's instruments include the keyboard and trombone....
- California Flight Project II by Jerry J
- Gambler's Life by Johnny "Hammond" Smith
External links
- Jazz funk (History in Britain)
- Blues & Soul Magazine Online
- Global Funk Radio
- The Mizell Brothers - Sky High Productions
- Jazz-Funk Rare Grooves Dj Mixes and Radio Show
VIkash