Soulfunkjazz’s Blog

City Life (1975)
The Blackbyrds — a jazz-funk outfit formed in a university class taught by jazz trumpeter Donald Byrd, who produced the albums and wrote most of the tunes — were more of an Earth, Wind & Fire-style horn band than a purist jazz crew, but few groups were better in their chosen style, and 1975’s City Life is probably their best album. It’s certainly their most successful, including the pop hit “Happy Music” and what has become their signature tune, a percolating Latin-flavored jam called “Rock Creek Park” that’s one of the pinnacles of ’70s jazz-funk. As on the bouncy title track, the lyrical content is minimal, a simple hypnotic chant, but the fluid interplay of the musicians, who are masters of the unison horn section and the polyrhythmic groove, is what’s important about this music. Other highlights include the funky southern-style soul of “Hash and Eggs” and the lyrical ballad “Love So Fine.” This is often-sublime stuff ripe for rediscovery by fans of ’70s funk, soul, and fusion. (AMG)
Tracks:
1. Rock Creek Park
2. Thankful ‘Bout Yourself
3. City Life
4. All I Ask
5. Happy Music
6. Love So Fine
7. Flying High
8. Hash And Eggs
**Listen**

Saturday, Saturday Night (1981)
From Los Angeles, Zoom were signed to Polydor Records in 1981 and were taken under the wing of session drummer James Gadson (who was a former member of a Kansas City group called the Carpets). Nolan Semien, the lead singer, was a local vocalist, singing at bars before joining the group. That year the band released an album on Polydor entitled ‘Saturday, Saturday Night’. The album has, since it’s release, become highly sought after for the rare groove ballad ‘Love Seasons’, with it’s unusual synthesiser noises by session musician Wayne Stallings. James Gadson had Wayne Stallings, on the synthesiser, hit the same note that Nolan Semien hit for that high note he held, following which he had the synthesiser trailoff the note to make the listener believe Nolan held it longer and higher. The group recorded a further album a year later, this time without the assistance of James Gadson.
Direct rip vinyl, remasterized by members for Soulfunkjazz.wordpress.com
Tracks:
1. Saturday, Saturday Night
2. Move And Groove
3. Walk That Thing
4. Raid
5. I Believe In You
6. Bye Bye Baby
7. Love Seasons
8. Distant Destiny
**Listen**

Good, Bad & Funky (1978).
Shotgun was a band that never lived up to its potential – not creatively, not commercially. The Detroit outfit never enjoyed a major hit, nor did it provide any albums that were truly mind-blowing. But the potential for greatness was definitely there, and with the right guidance and direction, it might have developed into something special. Unfortunately, ABC’s A&R department let them settle for competent instead of pushing it to excel. Although their second album, Good, Bad and Funky, isn’t bad, it isn’t great either. Everything on the 1978 LP is merely decent; this is true of the hard funk offerings (which include “Fire It Up” and the title song) as well as sleeker sophisticated funk (“I’m All Strung Out,” “Love Attack,” and “Danger of the Stranger”), and the smooth Northern soul ballad “I Wish I Could See You Again.” Throughout the record, one finds himself/herself admiring Shotgun’s attractive sound – which is best described as a combination of the Ohio Players, the Bar-Kays, and Cameo – while knowing that the writing could be stronger. Again, Good, Bad and Funky isn’t bad, but Shotgun was capable of a lot more.
Tracks:
1. Good Bad and Funky
2. Love Attack
3. Danger of the Stranger
4. I Wish I Could See You Again
5. I’m All Strung Out
6. Sister Love
7. Fire It Up/ Space-N/All Spaced Out All Funked Up (8 and 9)
**Listen**

Varius Artist.
Tracks:
1. Packjammed With the Party Posse – Stock, Aitken & Waterman
2. Rapp Payback (Where Iz Moses?), Pt. 2 [12"] – James Brown
3. Boogie Down (Get Funky Now) [12] – Real Thing
4. Do What You Wanna Do [12] – T. Connection
5. One Nation Under a Groove [12] – Funkadelic
6. Fantastic Voyage [12] – Lakeside
7. Funky Sound [12] – Sequence
8. Pick Up the Pieces [12] – Average White Band
9. Do It [Mix] – BT Express
10. Loose Caboose [12"] – Joe Tex
**Listen**

The Best Of Cameo (Funk Essentials-1993).
Larry Blackmon and his Cameo mates ruled funk’s domain for over a decade. Cameo evolved from its origins as a horn-based and dominated ensemble into a synthesizer-oriented group that still featured sturdy basslines and exuberant vocals, but was in tune with urban and black America’s new sensibility. These 14 selections range from the formative cuts “Rigor Mortis,” “Shake Your Pants,” and “It’s Over” to the definitive “Word Up,” “Candy,” and “Back and Forth.” Blackmon’s alternately sneering, defiant, and aggressive vocals were the constant from Cameo’s beginnings in the 1970s to their emergence as funk’s reigning champions in the 1980s.
Tracks:
1. Word Up!
2. Single Life
3. Candy
4. Shake Your Pants
5. Rigor Mortis
6. Attack Me With Your Love
7. Talkin’ Out the Side of Your Neck
8. Sparkle
9. Back and Forth
10. Flirt
11. She’s Strange [12 Rap Version]
12. I Just Want to Be
13. Skin I’m In Blackmon
14. It’s Over
**Listen**

Funkentelechy Vs. The Placebo Syndrome (1977).
Parliament simply poured it on for this amazing album, clearly one of its all-time best. At least one band named itself after a lyric – Urge Overkill, taken from the song “Funkentelechy” itself – while the amount of times this album has been sampled for the music is uncountable. Besides having an absolutely wonderful name, it contained at least three of the finest Parliament tunes ever, including arguably its signature song. “Flash Light,” which closes Funkentelechy on a riotous high, has it all – a brilliant fake ending, instant singalong value, a synth-bassline to kill for from Bernie Worrell, and so much more. As the album ends, so too does it begin, with a stone-cold classic – “Bop Gun (Endangered Species).” Starting with a brisk little guitar figure and beat, it turns into an instant party on all fronts, with great lead vocals and an addictive chorus, the Horny Horns and company hitting the grooves and blasting hard. Worrell’s laser noises and shimmering keyboard leads and Cordell Mosson’s monster bass squelches send everything all that much more over the top. Another song title says it all – “Sir Nose D’Voidoffunk (Pay Attention – B3M).” Treated with vocoders to an absurd degree, Sir Nose became the legendary enemy of funk, specifically the Starchild, on many a P-Funk recording (that’s the two of them on the hilarious cover, the Starchild himself operating the Bop Gun). The throwaway lines in this song are almost legendary in and of themselves, while the music itself is a great slow build and burn rhythm that piles more on as it goes, with singers, horns, and more taking it to a climax. “Funkentelechy” and “The Placebo Syndrome” both have plenty of goodness as well, while “Wizards of Finance” is an amusing retro diversion, helping make Funkentelechy the highlight it is.(AMG).
Tracks:
1. Bop Gun (Endangered Species)
2. Sir Nose d’Voidoffunk [Pay Attention - B3M]
3. Wizard of Finance
4. Funkentelechy
5. Placebo Syndrome
6. Flash Light
**Listen**

That’s The Way Of The World (1975)
Earth, Wind & Fire has delivered more than its share of excellent albums, but if a person could own only one EWF release, the logical choice would be That’s the Way of the World, which was the band’s best album as well as its best-selling. Open Our Eyes had been a major hit and sold over half a million units, but it was World that established EWF as major-league, multi-platinum superstars. Fueled by gems ranging from the sweaty funk of “Shining Star” and “Yearnin’ Learnin’” to the gorgeous ballad “Reasons” and the unforgettable title song, EWF’s sixth album sold at least five million units. And some of the tracks that weren’t major hits, such as the exuberant “Happy Feelin’” and the gospel-influenced “See the Light,” are equally powerful. There are no dull moments on World, one of the strongest albums of the 1970s and EWF’s crowning achievement. [The 1999 CD reissue has five previously unreleased “sketches” from late 1974, including much briefer instrumental run-throughs of “Shining Star” and “That’s the Way of the World,” the first take alternate vocal of “All About Love,” an alternate of “Happy Feelin’,” and the jazz-oriented jam “Caribou Chaser” (the only one of the five not to be represented in a different version on the proper album). (AMG)
Tracks:
1. Shining Star
2. That’s the Way of the World
3. Happy Feelin’
4. All About Love
5. Yearnin’, Learnin’
6. Reasons
7. Africano
8. See the Light

Original Sketches (Previously Unreleased)
9. Shining Star
10. All About Love (First Impression)
11. Happy Feelin’ (Anatomy of a Groove)
12. Caribou Chaser (Jazzy Jam)
13. That’s the Way of the World (Latin Expedition)
Link  send me e-mail