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Classic albums: Funk

Skip text, jump to albums >> FUNK – WHERE IT STARTED FOR ME Funk was where it all started as far as I was concerned - it was the first ‘black’ music that got to me. My elder brother Laurence had gotten into Soul a few years earlier, but sixties Soul (Motown, Stax etc) and Northern Soul was not my thing then. When Laurence started playing Funk that was it. I was hooked. Funk had that edge and flow to it. It was the jazzy bassline, the naggingly infectious rhythm guitar riffs and the tight horns. It was all those...
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Classic albums: Smooth Jazz

Skip text, jump to albums >> THE SMOOTH JAZZ PHENOMENA Few things have created as much controversy within the Jazz world in the last twenty years or so than Smooth Jazz.  Many contend that Smooth Jazz is not Jazz at all and is really instrumental RnB.  The absence of improvisation and the fairly strict adherence to the melody are undoubtedly characteristics of the music.  The musicianship is however of a high quality and many of its protagionists are amongst contemporary Jazz’s finest.  Then there is the song writing which in the cases of the likes of Peter White and Brian...
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Classic albums: Jazz Funk

Skip text, jump to albums >> JAZZ FUNK – MY JOURNEY INTO JAZZ Jazz Funk was my initiation in to the delights of Jazz. I listened to the likes of Herbie Hancock, Grover Washington Jr, Lonnie Liston Smith and the Crusaders, before that my exposure to Jazz was Acker Bilk and Kenny Ball. Fusing James Brown and Sly Stone’s Funk with the musicianship of Jazz, Donald Byrd’s ‘Black Byrd’ and Herbie Hancock ‘Headhunters’ blew us away.  Fresh and vibrant, Jazz Funk sounded like no Jazz I had ever heard. Soon after I bought my first Jazz album; it was Grover...
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Classic albums: Blue Note

Skip text, jump to albums >> BLUE NOTE – ‘FINEST IN JAZZ SINCE….1939’ My fascination with Blue Note came late in life. I began my love affair with Jazz in my teens. It was the Jazz Funk of Herbie Hancock, Grover Washington Jr and Donald Byrd that captured my imagination; there was no need to look back in time to investigate other forms of Jazz, there was just too much great music around at that time. The first two Blue Note records I bought were Donald Byrd’s ‘Black Byrd’ and Ronnie Laws’ ‘Pressure Sensitive’.  See our JAZZ FUNK page for...