Word: funke
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...scene. When their first album, Ruby Vroom, spread its funkified wings in 1994, thousands of hungry, pulsing teenagers gasped. Here, at last, was a thing of beauty. Here, at last, was something that made you go "Oh God, yeah, Oh God, I wanna, God, I wanna DANCE." Body-throbbing funk with a deep, heavy low-end, witty lyrics that read like poetry and presuppose (gasp) intelligent listeners, and the seductively quirky voice of lead singer Michael Doughty all melded together on Ruby Vroom to create nothing short of a miracle. Their second album, Irresistible Bliss, released in 1996, lost some...
...many jazz musicians found themselves marginalized by rock and soul. Then in 1970 Miles Davis received the first gold record of his life, for Bitches Brew, a sonic eye opener that experimented with electric instruments and rock and funk rhythms--a strange, primal, remarkable album. Soon, however, a whole generation of musicians was squandering its talents on increasingly vapid (though profitable) jazz-rock hybrids that came to be called fusion. Known today as smooth jazz, or as "that crap they play when Regis and Kathie Lee go to commercial," fusion continues to thrive; it even has its own Billboard chart...
...months have seen a number of albums push the boundaries of the music, making thoughtful attempts at mixing jazz with contemporary pop or, even more promisingly, world music. And so on one hand you have woodwind player Don Byron cutting Nu Blaxploitation (Blue Note), an album of overtly political funk and rap; it's not an entirely felicitous concept, but what a treat to hear Byron's clarinet--the fuddy-duddy instrument of Woody Allen!--snaking in and out of dark, fertile electric grooves. On the other hand you have saxophonist David Murray recording his latest album, Creole (Justin Time...
...electric tunes (though listeners who actually lived through the 1970s may not be eager to reacquaint themselves with the sound of Moog synthesizers) but reaches its peak with an acoustic, rhythmically virtuosic version of the Sly Stone title song that somehow manages to swing while also suggesting the original funk beat. McBride says he's trying to provoke: "How many more concept albums can you handle? Such and Such plays the music of Gershwin--a lot of that is getting so tired." He points out that when it comes to pop, his generation grew up listening not to Frank Sinatra...
...album opens with a skit in which the gospel singer-choir leader is put on trial for blending the secular and the sacred. Unlike most skits on music albums, this one hits home: Franklin has proved himself to be a threat to musical orthodoxy. His blend of gospel, funk and hip-hop is ingenious and unique; and in pop music it's certainly harder to advocate positive religious values than it is to be Marilyn Manson. On this album Franklin has refined his sound further; his melodies are stronger, the vocal arrangements more graceful. Hard, beat-driven songs like Revolution...