Jamaica Queens was the stage for a funk movement fuelled by a couple of musicians that had obviously done their homework. Don Blackman, Bernard Wright, Tom Browne, Bobby Broom, Lenny White, Marcus Miller and some other cats mainly from the GRP-house put the boogie in the funk and left the disco for what it was. All their grooves were tight, heavy, nasty, but very musical at the same time, a mix of P-funk and jazzfunk that came to the masses thanks to the biggest tune they did "Funkin'for Jamaica". These underappreciated legends all released albums during the late 70s and early 80s, and each and everyone of them is a killer. Check out Bernard Wright's album "Nard", you'll be shocked how many songs have been sampled in the last 2 decades. Here is the dedication mix we did, beware, dancing is a must:
Space Funk is a little cousin to the big Uncle Jam, George Clinton and his cleverly chosen army of virtuoso musicians, the P-Funk. This group based around producer/singer/writer George Clinton set the standard when it comes to the funk, and still people can't seem to copy that delicious sloppiness and anarchy inside the beauty of the songs. It's impossible to be comprehensive when it comes to Parliament, Funkadelic and the numerous spin-offs, often backed up by Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell, the Horny Horns and their army of guitar players. We love the way they use analog synths in it's funkiest, nastiest forms, Bootsy's seemingly simple but stomping basslines, George's vocals and those Jimi-influenced overbended fuzzy guitars, it's the funk on the 1... Check out the tribute mix we did:
Another one of our great inspirators, being it as a songwriter, producer, singer, keyboardist or sideman, is Herbie Hancock. After winning big at the Grammy's he managed to draw attention to himself AGAIN, just like he did in the sixties composing Maiden Voyage and working as a sideman for Miles Davis among others, in the seventies with his supergroup the Headhunters best known for one his most defining songs Chameleon, and in the eighties once more with Rockit. Check out the beautiful structures he builds with synthesizers that we borrowed a lot from. Also check out Harvey Mason, one of the drummers Herbie worked with mostly during the seventies. The interaction between these virtuoso's has never been matched if you ask us... We compiled some of our favourites, some more obscure tracks, and some stuff he did on albums for Stevie, Chaka Khan and Milt Jackson.
Ronald Snijders is considered to be the most swinging flautist in the Netherlands thanks to his extreme skills and creativity, and fortunately this has not passed unnoticed, as he is appreciated by Chick Corea (“You’re a great flautist and an excellent composer… I’m sure people here in the United States will like your music a lot”) among others for his improvisation and compositions. His out-of-print records now run for 200 pounds in UK’s vintage record stores. He has released over twenty albums with innovative compositions of his own varying in style, always staying true to his Surinamese roots, but never afraid to shock the listener with complex jazz progressions and African, Brazilian and Caribbean rhythms in a mixture of jazz, funk, and African music reminiscent of the early work of Herbie Hancock, George Duke and the other masters of the seventies. Flautist/ composer Ronald Snijders was born in 1951 in Surinam, South America and lived from 1970 on in the Netherlands. He won several prizes for his musical expressions and released over 20 albums since his debut Natural Sources. This album, together with Quartz and Bijlmerjazz are considered classics to music lovers worldwide. Over the years he has gathered the cream of the Dutch crop to accompany him live or in the studio (Randal Corsen, Jesse van Ruller, Eric Calmes, Ishaq van Niel to name a few) and tours extensively across the globe in very diverse formations, from a one-man gig to a full-on Afro-Caribbean orchestra, doing gigs anywhere from Senegal to New York. Recently he released a live album recorded at the BIM-huis on his own label Black Straight Music. This guy is off the hook, we did two recordings for our new album and we were amazed, the expression: tear-jerking, his stories: very surprising! Check him out on Youtube:
Innavision sent me this picture by Dennis de Groot, together with Mindeye and Esperanza Spalding@Boogie Ball, somewhere that night after the North Sea Jazz Festival where the Jazzsolians did a DJ-gig back to back with Esperanza Spalding and Om'Mas Keith. Displaying their Obama shirts Innavision made himself, shirts are now up for pre-order, and guess what, their all one of a kind. The only thing is they don't have a price tag yet. I heard Esperanza ordered one...I want one with Stevie on it! Check this out, Esperanza Spalding at the White House performing for Obama, a tribute to Stevie Wonder, how appropriate:
Jazzsole, made up of Innavision and Mindeye, can back-up their names, definitely when it comes to music (and dancing). Together we created a series of gigs at Toko94 that were uncontainable and unconventional, putting artist that we're really a little too big for the venue in a miniclub, which is actually a restaurant...sounds weird, but it created some amazing musical memories, both for the crowd and the artists. You can check out snippets of their gigs on the Jazzsole Youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/JazzSoleSession . Here are two little snippets of a gig Vikter Duplaix did at Toko94, backed up by an amazing band, shout out to Kenneth Crouch on keys (who also plays with George Duke, imagine how fckn good you have to be to back him up...) and Stephen Brunner on bas (also playing with Snoop and Erykah B):
Uncle Henk is the guy that introduced us to the sounds of GRP, Bernard Wright, Noel Pointer, Bobby Lyle and Pleasure, some of the heavy jazzfunk papi's of the 70's. We met him about 5 years ago and discovered his charismatic lyrical flow through a voice that reminds me of Andy Bey somehow...He operates under different alter-ego's, mostly working under the name Proto, his collective featuring Nelson&Djosa, Erik Ritfeld and Ntjamrosie. We did about 30 recordings with Henk over the years, here's a song we did a while ago, video by Unoximus Prime once again:
