Jazz-funk Totally Explained

Everything about Jazz-funk totally explained

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 riffs, and jazz solos, and sometimes soul vocals. Jazz-funk is a mostly 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. Other possible names for this genre include soul jazz and jazz fusion, but neither entirely overlap with jazz-funk. Notably Jazz-funk is less vocal, more arranged and featured more impro than Soul-Jazz, and retains a strong feel of groove and R&B Vs 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), for example 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 funk, 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 synthesizers. 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.

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 presumed not intellectual or elite enough, which led to controversy about the music crossing over, but it was making jazz much more popular and mainstream. Binary rhythm has nothing to envy of ternary. Most electric guitars and keyboards are widely accepted as jazz instruments. Hard-liners of straight-ahead jazz are indeed sometimes known to dismiss the biggest. Some of their reactions to John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Herbie Hancock. Donald Byrd was similarly heavily criticised when he released Black Byrd on the Blue Note label. This LP became the best-selling album by Blue Note during the era.
   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 electronic sound of fusion. The 1970s included many original stylistic creations, and the jazz-funk genre was 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. By the middle of the 1990s, the work of rare groove crate diggers–DJs who were interested in looking back into the past and re-discovering old tunes–such as Norman Jay, and Gilles Peterson, have both the jazz community and the pop professionals beginning to understand the value of the genre. Today, Eddie Henderson, Donald Byrd, and Herbie Hancock are seldom challenged as influential jazz musicians. The Mizell Brothers have received official accolades from the industry and are being listened to widely. Their work has also been sampled in more modern music. The genre is widely imitated and sampled in R&B and hip hop with countless Mizell Brothers' loops in both styles of music. Other genres that have sampled jazz-funk house music from Erykah Badu and DJ Dimitri.
   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 grooves 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 David Axelrod, Roy Ayers, Azymuth, Gary Bartz, George Benson, The Brecker Bros., Tom Browne, 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, & Leon Ware.

The role of producers

Many mainstream artists in jazz 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 80's.

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 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 , first as Light of the World 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 and Gonzalez.
   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 shows and at club nights.
   The music has over the years featured heavily in the 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).

Current state and future of the Jazz-funk/Soul-Jazz/Fusion genre

Some heavy producers (Jazzanova 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 non 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 doesn't 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 (for example K. Tatham), Germany (for example Jazzanova), and Japan (for example Kyoto Jazz Massive) dominate today's production of Broken beat which is however starting to take-off in the USA.

Notable musicians and albums

In alphabetical order by last name or first non-article.

Musicians/Ensembles/Producers

Albums

Black Talk! by Charles Earland

City Beat by Bobbi Humphrey

Flood by Herbie Hancock

Gambler's Life by Johnny "Hammond" Smith

Head Hunters by Herbie Hancock

Places and Spaces by Donald Byrd

School Days by Stanley Clarke

Think! by Dr. Lonnie Smith

A Dummies Guide to Jazz by The Jazz Funk Collective Further Information

Get more info on 'Jazz-funk'.

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