Late 70's Jazz Funk Scene

[Mickey Finn 783]

14 hours ago, soul shrews said:

As you have brought Angela up Mickey

Not sure if its a JF classic but it sure is lovely

Cheers Paul

Hi Paul, Tony Monson put that on his second volume of Ethereal Magic  Great track off a great album - I was so disappointed when she ended up doing System-produced electro. Age has softened me but I still think she deserved better - another victim of Clive Davis's great ideas (see also Aretha, Phyllis, Whitney...)

[Stevegods 926]

Saw these guys at the weekend and had forgotten about this great track ... played live love those horns 👍👍👍

[Mickey Finn 783]

When Wayne Henderson left the Crusaders to concentrate on producing, he made significant contributions to JF, also as a solo artist.

First up is Pleasure from 1976, still sounding good today:

A year later came the solitary album from Allspice, from which came this single:

Back to 1975 for the first of a series of albums produced by Henderson on Arthur Adams, who had also been an occasional collaborator with the Crusaders. Adams later did the classic "You got the floor" but Henderson's more earthy "At Home" style of production suited his playing very well:

Hard to pick only a few from an enormous output ... this from drummer Chico Hamilton in 1980 - to these ears at least an inspiration for the "Travelling Light" single recently released by Chris Kingdon:

 

[Mickey Finn 783]

15 minutes ago, stevegods said:

Saw these guys at the weekend and had forgotten about this great track ... played live love those horns 👍👍👍

Great choice. It's ironic that the jazz was ironed out of Kool and the Gang by Deodato of all people. By the time he had finished with them they were producing stuff like "Cherish" and "Fresh" - slick and commercially successful but a pale shadow of earlier glories. Deodato was also going down a more electronic route - his 1984 LP "Motion" is pure electropop. Around the same time he was producing Kleeer, fortunately with much better results!

[concrete 93]

Gary Bartz + NTU troop

[concrete 93]

3 that used to keep the dancers on their toes,the remmix was the only vers of Latin Spirit I could find don't know why as it was just as enjoyable at 4 min+ 

 

 

[Mickey Finn 783]

All the Crusaders recorded solo albums. Wilton Felder has already been featured but it's taken us 4 pages to reach Joe Sample, which is disgraceful  This from 1981, featuring Josie James on vocals:

Wayne Henderson somehow squeezed in some solo LPs while producing for an incredible number of artists - this from 1979 featuring Ron Banks still gets played out:

Henderson also recorded 2 albums with Roy Ayers around the same time. This from their second in 1980 ... for some reason I have a memory of a big half page ad for this album in a contemporary issue of Record Mirror...

Drummer Stix Hooper didn't release as much solo material as the others but this Joe Sample-written tune from 1979 still gets played from time to time:

 

[Mickey Finn 783]

Bob James made a name for himself as both recording artist and in-house arranger for CTI Records before moving across to CBS in the mid-70s, where he continued recording and producing other artists, including on his own Tappan Zee label. So far in this thread we've seen/heard Wilbert Longmire (Black is the color), Richard Tee (First love) and Steve Khan (Darlin darlin baby), but there is so much more from this period. 

Expansion recently released a twofer of the Tappan Zee albums recorded by Mark Colby - this from 1979:

Back in 1976, Freddie Hubbard had already left CTI and was on to his third CBS album (fourth if you count the Japan-only "Gleam"), produced by James. According to James the chemistry between them didn't work, but maybe that explains the intensity of this funk jam:

Someone who pops up a lot in these sessions is guitarist Eric Gale, who was also a regular player for Van McCoy and Ashford & Simpson, among others. In 1977 James produced his "Multiplication" album, from which comes this - also worth checking out for "Morning glory" featuring Alphonso Johnson on bass, and a great gospel tune, "Mary don't you weep":

Back to 1979 for this classic by Mongo Santamaria, who recorded one album on Tappan Zee. Featuring Hubert Laws on flute, gorgeous summer sound:

 

[Stevegods 926]

Next month going to see these guys that also haven't had a mention yet ... great as individuals but together made a great sound ...

 

 

 

[Mickey Finn 783]

They always manage to bring something new to the covers they make, and that's certainly a classic. Should be a great concert. I saw Lee Ritenour last year, was well worth it. Thanks for posting.

[Stevegods 926]

Nice one ... I too am going to see Lee Ritenour with Dave Grusin at Ronnie Scott's ... love all those guys that era ... big fan ... 

He didn't do too much Jazz Funk , but Billy Cobham could boy bang those skins ... "Spanish Moss - Storm   " 

 

And the great man signed my copy for me .. honour to meet him ...

[Mickey Finn 783]

Nice one  Lee Ritenour signed his new cd for me but there was a huge queue so no pic. His son was drumming on the tour, and certainly has the chops for it - definitely one to watch. Must say I'm jealous - Dave Grusin is a very very smart and gifted musician, done so many great things. One of my favourites is the album he produced for guitarist Kevin Eubanks in 1986, featuring Marcus Miller on some tracks - the combination of acoustic guitar, Miller's bass and Grusin's string arrangements is hard to beat:

As for Billy Cobham, for me he ranks with Alphonse Mouzon, in terms of styles covered and sheer technique. This relatively recent tune (2001) got some airplay in Finland on commercial radio believe it or not...

 

[Tomangoes 1,695]

It was a time when the newly released and played soul oriented music of the North and South kind of merged.

Did it last long?

Is there any difference today with a modern soul event up north to the same darn sarf.?

Ed

 

[Soul Shrews 454]

Y"know I remember this getting played @ Wigan Casino as a new(ish) release. I"m pretty sure it was Russ W who played it too

5:08

 

Jazz Funk - Eddie Henderson - Prance On

[Soul Shrews 454]

This one just popped into my head

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ronnie+foster+argentina

Cheers Paul

 

[paul-s 380]

Palais downstairs and Cleethorpes Winter Gardens upstairs late seventies

 

Edited June 22, 2017 by paul-s

[son of stan 253]

On 6/20/2017 at 08:30, stevegods said:

Saw these guys at the weekend and had forgotten about this great track ... played live love those horns 👍👍👍

A bit of a tangent but didn't Contempo release a full-length, seven odd minute version of this crammed onto one side of a seven inch 45? Lol!

[Bruv 1,818]

 

George Benson - Love Ballad   excellent version of the LTD Soul ballad classic....    

[britishbarry 99]

Here's one I don't think has been mentioned yet 

 

[Mickey Finn 783]

On 22.6.2017 at 22:09, soul shrews said:

Y"know I remember this getting played @ Wigan Casino as a new(ish) release. I"m pretty sure it was Russ W who played it too

5:08

 

Jazz Funk - Eddie Henderson - Prance On

This even made the pop charts at the time, showing how popular the genre really was, especially considering how selective the compilers were. 

 

 

[Mickey Finn 783]

On 22.6.2017 at 18:11, tomangoes said:

It was a time when the newly released and played soul oriented music of the North and South kind of merged.

Did it last long?

Is there any difference today with a modern soul event up north to the same darn sarf.?

Ed

 

I don't claim any expertise, but I think there are regional differences. Darn sarf you might find more 90s onwards (street-style rnb) and reggae, as well as jazzier flavours, whereas oop north it tends to be more gritty and/or slanted towards older tunes. That said, there's also variation there, as there's more jazz and uptempo boogie flavoured stuff played in the north west in my (limited) experience, including newer releases. Much depends on the event/promoter/jocks of course, and it will be easy to find opposite examples everywhere, but these are just my general impressions.

The Reading alldayer story always makes me chuckle, wish I could have seen it, but choosing a record like "magic fly" by Space supposedly to bring the scenes together shows that it wasn't only the northern scene that was struggling to maintain quality in the late 70s. There was a lot of questionable stuff smuggled into the jazz funk scene through disco, which was cheapened by the cash-in releases of people like Ethel Merman, Max Bygraves, even Sinatra for goodness sakes. Boundaries were very fluid and "disco" included Tina Charles, Leo Sayer, John Miles, Abba, Bee Gees, Blondie... see countless comps for proof. "Disco" was also used by the industry to mean black popular music more generally, hence the need for "underground" disco as a way of separating the wheat from the manure. But with blurred lines not really separating disco/funk/jazz-funk/funk-soul/soul, and record majors exploiting it for all it was worth, it's not surprising that there remained separate scenes as people found refuge in music that had greater authenticity. By reacting against the commercial dross, people might also have closed their ears to anything different.

In one way the blurring and diluting of all these styles opened the ears of many people to music they might otherwise have never appreciated. A jock like Tony Blackburn makes no apologies for that, and doesn't need to as he has championed soul music for decades. But he also describes Chris Hill's approach as "elitist", which may have come as a surprise to those attending that Reading alldayer.

[Steve S 60 8,281]

On 2017-6-14 at 18:29, DB said:

 

Just watching Fargo on catch up and Jingo featured on the soundtrack.

[trevorq 15]

Notts Palais - Bali hi downstairs - at alldayers & sunday nights in-between , Parkers Manchester Mr Serling & Dean  Casinella's -(excuse spelling)   Highland room @ Blackpool Mecca, Brass Construction rocked the place!!  Blue Note Club in Derby - (Roy Ayres was Brilliant & had a beer with us at the bar afterwards!) Just a few - there were lots of others- if I can remember them.

A fav tune - 

Himiko Kikuchi - What's baby singing

 

Tee

[concrete 93]

Here's a little mix of a few JF items I've found it hard to part with

[Rick Smith 131]

One of my faves from The Mecca era of funk and jazz

 

[concrete 93]

Couple from the harder edge of the  Jazz Funk scene.

[concrete 93]

whilst spending some time in London during the 80's I used to go to the Horseshoe on the Tottenham Court Road there Paul Murphy dj'ed and introduced me to these 3 tunes at least, (still in the collection) he also ran a shop specializing in import cut outs.

the later got a review (complete with BPM) from none other than James hammy Hamilton on record mirror's disco page !

ps anyone remember the jap jazz album by Kanu Sukalagwan  

 

[Bruv 1,818]

 Another excellent spin from the wonderful George Benson - Breezin       

[concrete 93]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/757285501117677/?ref=br_rs  here's a link to my facebook page ,loads of Jazz Funk Jazz Dance Rare Groove & Latin have a look and post your own discuss and comment 

[steviehay 122]

Well have to admit not so much of the dark side but a blend of fresh tunes and air,even when wigan was going through the pop dirge, the ritz in manchester put on by the amiable Mr Rushton seemed to have it all considering back then it was a one roomed event,looking back northern followed by a jazz funk set set a few tongues wagging,hence cassinellis,angels ,rafters and a few others springing up at the time with the likes of chick correa-love castles ,incognito - parisienne girl, benny golson - the new killer joe ,grover washington jnr - sausalito etc which was a bit of a change from do ya wanna get funky- peter brown ,get another love - chantal curtis ,runaway love - linda clifford  and the like but boy all great tunes rather listening to nine times out of ten, joe 90 if you get my drift so in my eyes it was a refreshing change to have more musical knowledge thrown into the brain cells as said on here though "MODERN" tends to be be put into smaller rooms (unless its a massive venue) but that's the same with most genres except northern.The "MODERN" scene has changed somewhat over the last 20 years or so with soulful house coming to the fore so another trip into the brain, at the end of it all is it like Northern  Soul the Modern scene ?? As with Norther Soul DEFINE Modern Soul..............debate no.????  

Edited June 28, 2017 by steviehay

[steviehay 122]

On 19/06/2017 at 22:26, Grayman45 said:

At the Blackpool Weekender there was a room that was supposedly playing Jazz Funk All Dayer Memories. Everything sounded like it was remixed to the same drum beat. Not the Jazz Funk I remember. Bit disappointed! 

andy had a drum machine rolling in the background and i have to agree with you....no need for it 

 

[Bruv 1,818]

 

I've been giving this beauty a good blast out, I don't think it's been posted yet, The Players Association - Turn The Music Up  

[Mickey Finn 783]

Absolute classic. If there is any group that successfully blended jazz funk with disco whilst keeping its soul, Players Association is that group. The UK 12 of this had the rarer 12 inch mix of Goin to the disco, which is another top tune.

[Bruv 1,818]

13 minutes ago, Mickey Finn said:

Absolute classic. If there is any group that successfully blended jazz funk with disco whilst keeping its soul, Players Association is that group. The UK 12 of this had the rarer 12 inch mix of Goin to the disco, which is another top tune.

One of the first 12's I bought Mick, love the way the Sax takes charge half way through, pure class.  

[Peter 9]

On 09/06/2017 at 22:03, Grayman45 said:

I'm waiting for this scene to get big again so I can start my DJ-ing career. Got hundreds of 12" singles and albums.

Has anybody mentioned that Colin Curtis was a big name on this scene. I suppose most people know that. 

Couple of tracks to mention: Ripple - The Beat Goes On;  

                                                T S Monk - Candidate For Love

                                                Kay Gees - Latican Funk

Ripple , love it !!!! Heres a Kay Gees track remember this?

 

 

[Bruv 1,818]

 Yet another fabulous spin from the 1970's era...  Willi J. & Co - Boogie With Your Baby...     

 

[Soul Shrews 454]

Peter and Bruv I love the last 2 records posted but theres no way  I would not call them JazzFunk.

But hey whats in a name/term eh ?

Cheers Paul

[Peter 9]

I suppose they don't come under "jazz funk" genre, another term was New York Disco. Would you say Wilbert Longmire "Black Is The Colour" was jazz funk.?

[Soul Shrews 454]

Yes I would say Wilbert Longmire is J/F

Cheers Paul

[Mickey Finn 783]

It's as much about what the "scene" adopts as its own. There's a good few tunes popular on the northern scene that don't fit any standard definition of NS. So also with JF, as danceable tunes that were not out and out disco or boogie were incorporated into the scene. The last two tracks posted are examples of how compatible certain tunes were/are with JF crowds. And it's not so difficult to find the jazz influences if you listen hard enough ... jazz is much much more than tiddly plonk.

[Soul Shrews 454]

On 8-7-2017 at 12:50, Mickey Finn said:

It's as much about what the "scene" adopts as its own. There's a good few tunes popular on the northern scene that don't fit any standard definition of NS. So also with JF, as danceable tunes that were not out and out disco or boogie were incorporated into the scene. The last two tracks posted are examples of how compatible certain tunes were/are with JF crowds. And it's not so difficult to find the jazz influences if you listen hard enough ... jazz is much much more than tiddly plonk.

 

On 7-7-2017 at 20:09, Peter said:

I suppose they don't come under "jazz funk" genre, another term was New York Disco. Would you say Wilbert Longmire "Black Is The Colour" was jazz funk.?

I really don"t want to get into an argument over musical genres/terms, here on Chris"s excellant thread. If you guys hear jazz funk in the Kaygees and Willie J then thats fine with me and good luck to you. I own the Kaygees LP and  I have owned the Willie J 45(which I prefer the instrumental side) so have listened to them really hard but still don""t hear (to me) J/f, but hey like I said whats in a name, I mean if its good its good which both are to me and I wouldn"t be outraged hearing them at say a J/F revival night

tiddly plonk Paul

[Soul Shrews 454]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I mean its all about loving the music right ?

 

 

Cheers Paul

Edited July 9, 2017 by soul shrews
working on link

[Soul Shrews 454]

Cheers Paul

[Soul Shrews 454]

Can"t  have enough Donald

Cheers Paul

Edited July 9, 2017 by soul shrews
spelling

[Stevegods 926]

On 23/06/2017 at 19:01, britishbarry said:

Here's one I don't think has been mentioned yet 

 

Really love this track and just played it before playing the 2007 Incognito version ... and have to say , Francis played this as the opening track of his DJ ( Incognito v Brand New Heavies ) set .. massive remix 

 

[neiljon31 110]

just thought I'd say what a great thread is and thanks to all contributors and Chris for kicking it off.

Some dynamite music ; some I know, some I have and loads thats new to me.

top stuff  

 

[Chris Turnbull 934]

4 minutes ago, neiljon31 said:

just thought I'd say what a great thread is and thanks to all contributors and Chris for kicking it off.

Some dynamite music ; some I know, some I have and loads thats new to me.

top stuff  

Likewise, delighted so many have taken it up and kept it running

[Bruv 1,818]

  Not Jazz Funk, but a great track that I think is worth a post up on this excellent thread. Change with the Great Luther Vandross on vocals - The Glow Of Love  

[Mickey Finn 783]

A good example of a tune that crossed boundaries and was/remains part of the JF scene. Change always had top singers - Luther was replaced by James Robinson, who had appeared on Lonnie Liston Smith albums, and then Rick Brennan took over for the "Change of heart" album produced by Jam & Lewis. The quality of the musicianship and production was always very high and considering how much turnover there was of musicians and producers they had a really consistent run of albums quality-wise.

[DaveNPete 982]

Who was the female lead on Angel in my Pocket?

Dx