TOP 40 JAZZ FUNK 1975-1981

[tyree_kevin]

How about Faze Action`s "Astral Projection"? Circa 1998 but fits this format. I love this cut. It has that multigenre going on a la Fila`s "The Sheriff" Whatever happen to Jeff "The Funk" Walker? Maaaaaan what a name!

[D C]

Here's our Jazz Funk 7 mix:

Quincy Jones - Summer In the City
Blackbyrds - Wilford's Gone
War - Platinum Jazz
Ramsey Lewis - Love For A Day
Chic - Sao Paulo
Lalo Schifrin - Quiet Village
Eddie Fisher - Cosmic Blues
Bobbi Humphrey - Harlem River Drive
Donald Byrd - Change (Makes You Wanna Hustle)
Crusaders - Feel It
Ned Doheny - To Prove My Love
Lonnie Smith - For The Love Of It
Pleasure - Joyous
Players Association - I Like It
Rhythm Makers - Monterrey

Download/stream it from here:

http://sixmillionsteps.com/drupal/node/551

DC

[SandraDee]

Here's our Jazz Funk 7 mix:


Ned Doheny - To Prove My Love

I so love this track - I always thought it was a 1980 track but later discovered it came out originally in 1978 on his fab 'Prone' LP. A belated hit!

[D C]

I so love this track - I always thought it was a 1980 track but later discovered it came out originally in 1978 on his fab 'Prone' LP. A belated hit!

There's a rare Japenese extended version too that I need to get my hands on.

He's a great songwriter too. Probably his best known amongst the disco fraternity was Tata Vega's Get It Up For Love.

DC

[SandraDee]

He's a great songwriter too. Probably his best known amongst the disco fraternity was Tata Vega's Get It Up For Love.

DC

Yes that track is fab, but probably my fave Ned Doheny song is 'Whatcha Gonna Do For Me' that Chake Khan & the Average White Band both did.

[FranceJoliFan]

SandraDee: Good observation!

This always struck a nice jazz/funk balance:

[DJPETE]

I am a DJ on an online Radio Station www.jfsr.co.uk

I stumbled upon this thread and thought I would post an all time top 20 Jazz Funk Tunes as voted by the listeners of the station about 11 months ago. What makes this interesting is the mix of US and British Jazz funk tunes. The majority of the listeners are UK based with a smaller amount of stateside listeners.

Here it is as voted and played on my show about 11 months back

1Expansions - Lonnie Liston Smith2Eddie Russ - Zaius3Norman Connors - Mr C4Brazillian Love Affair - George Duke5Jazz Carnival - Azymuth6Light of The World - Petes Crusade 7Ramsey Lewis - Spring High 8Roy Ayers - Running Away9Lesette Wilson - Caveman Boogie10Johnny Hammond Smith - Los Conquistadores Chocolates 11Surface Noise - The Scratch12Earth Wind & Fire - Running13James Mason - Sweet Power (Your Embrace) 14Rodney Franklin - The Groove15Roy Ayers - Love will bring us back to together 16Hiroshi Fukumura - Hunt up wind 17Manfredo Fest - Jungle Kitten18Willie Bobo - Always there19Light of The World - London town 20Morrissey Mullen Band - Slipstream

[MarcusGarveyLives]

What makes this interesting is the mix of US and British Jazz funk tunes. The majority of the listeners are UK based with a smaller amount of stateside listeners.

I guess that would account for the slightly surprising inclusion of the two Light of The World tracks as well as Surface Noise and Morrissey Mullen in an 'all time greats' list.

"Pete's Crusade" is indeed highly underrated and a fine example of the genre as expressed in the UK, although I am not sure if "London Town" is really jazz funk.

Were you and / or your listeners surprised to not to see Eddie Henderson's "Prance On" or anything from Herbie Hancock, The Crusaders or Grover Washington Jr in the list?

[boogyjuice]

i can't really make specific track-choices because there are imo too many to choose from,
so here's a random mix of artists with albums from that era :

- Airto Moreira & Flora Purim
- Alex Blake
- Al Jarreau
- Alphonse Mouzon
- Azimüth/Azymuth
- Banda Black Rio
- Bennie Maupin
- Bill Summers & Summers Heat
- Billy Cobham
- Bob James
- Bobbi Humphrey
- Bobby Hutcherson
- Bobby Lyle
- Brecker Brothers
- Caldera
- Casiopea
- Cesar Camargo Mariano
- Charles Earland
- Chico Hamilton
- Cornell Dupree
- Crusaders
- David Bendeth
- David Benoit
- David Sanborn
- David T. Walker
- Donald Byrd
- Dee Dee Bridgewater
- Earl Klugh
- Eric Gale
- Ernie Watts
- Freddie Hubbard
- Friendship
- Gene Harris
- George Benson
- George Duke
- Grover Washington, Jr.
- Harvey Mason
- Herbie Hancock & Headhunters
- Hiroshima
- Hubert Laws
- Jeff Lorber (Fusion)
- Joe Sample
- John Kaizan
- John Klemmer
- John Hammond
- Karma
- Kazumi Watanabe
- Kinesis
- L.A. Connection
- Larry Carlton
- Lee Ritenour
- Lenny White & Twennynine
- Lesette Wilson
- Lips (Stanley Clarke's horn section)
- Luis Gasca
- Marcos Ariel
- Marlene
- Michael Henderson
- Michael Urbaniak & Urzula Dudziak
- Nat Adderly, Sr.
- Native Son
- Neil Larsen
- Noel Pointer
- Norman Connors
- Patrice Rushen
- Paulinho Da Costa
- Paul Jackson
- Phil Upchurch
- Pieces Of A Dream
- Richard Tee
- Robben Ford
- Rodney Franklin
- Roland Bautista
- Ronnie Foster
- Ronnie Laws
- Roy Ayers & Ubiquity
- Sadao Watanabe
- Seawind
- Sheila & Pete Escovedo
- Shunzo Ohno
- Spyro Gyra
- Stanley Clarke
- Stanley Turrentine
- Stix Hooper
- Teremusa Hino
- Teruo Nakamura
- Tiger Okoshi
- Tom Grant
- Tom Scott
- Victor Feldman's Generation Band
- Wayne Henderson
- Weldon Irvine
- Wilton Felder
- Yellowjackets
- Yasuko Agawa

- Early GRP/Arista era :
Angela Bofill / Bernard Wright / Bobby Broom / Dave Valentin / Dave Grusin /
Don Blackman / Jay Hoggard / Roland Vazquez / Scott Jarrett / Tom Browne

- Potter & Tillman - New York , L.A. Coasting (Poet Records)
- Potter & Tillman - Space Rapture (Poet Records)
( I found their first album years ago and discovered online about their second album which has been reissued)

- Tarika Blue's same-titled album, on the same label as James Mason's classic album.


i might add more later ...

[LondonRaver19881989]

In the UK the jazz-funk scene of the late 70s and early eighties must be THE forgotten musical scene. I know it was massive where I lived ie London and the South East - when I was in my mid teens around 81-83 if you lived within about 40 miles radius of the centre of London and were working-class there was a good chance you were actually either a part of the scene or played the records.

Although I wasn't old enough to be fully involved until towards the end (about 1982-84 in my case - and I've heard from a lot of people who were older that 1983 was the last real year it existed in its purest form ) what more could you want - we had out own radio (the London pirates/Robbie Vincent on Radio London) , clubs (all over the South East), pubs (my local was a jazz-funk pub - jukebox full of the stuff, deserted for Caister weekends, coach trips to the clubs etc ), magazines, weekenders (Caister and Bournemouth), record shops, fashions etc.

I think by 1985 it was basically all over and we really needed the arrival of the first big house records in 1986/87 (at first just played in certain funk clubs/on the pirates amongst all the usual stuff until it all coalesced in 1988) other to get things going again - obviously a lot of the more forward thinking djs and a lot of the punters from the old jazz/funk/soul times helped start the Acid House scene in London.

PS I didn't know jazz-funk etc was popular outside on London and the Home Counties until I read the stuff on here - but thinking back I suppose I should have known from what I read in James Hamilton's column.
It's interesting that the 2 areas that had the most significant jazz-funk/soul scenes in England ie London and the South-East and Manchester and the North West were those areas that are most synonymous with the later Acid House scene.

[buckaroo]

PS I didn't know jazz-funk etc was popular outside on London and the Home Counties until I read the stuff on here - but thinking back I suppose I should have known from what I read in James Hamilton's column.
It's interesting that the 2 areas that had the most significant jazz-funk/soul scenes in England ie London and the South-East and Manchester and the North West were those areas that are most synonymous with the later Acid House scene.

The whole British soul and jazz-funk scene of the '70s and '80s, has been totally ignored by the mainstream media since it appeared to die a death. They'd rather regurgitate their same old stories and documentaries about the Punk scene, which usually involved going out and spitting at your fellow music fan, from what I've heard. Ironically, when the soul scene was at it's height, there were quite a few reports about it on television; 20th Century Box, The London Programme, Old Grey Whistle Test etc, all broadcast features on the then underground 'yoof' scene that was happening across England.

Alas even today, channels like BBC4 continue to ignore the Brit-Soul/Funk scene, and only make programmes that tell us how great Prog Rock /Punk / and British Pop music were in the past, even though British Funk and Soul paved the way for much of the dross (from the likes of Chipmunk, et al) that fills up the modern pop charts right now.

[DJPETE]

The total number of submissions from memory covered well over 250 tracks. There are so many outside of that Top 20 that I would have personally thought would be in it and likely another person would have a different opinion. The final count was the collective input of the listening audience. Prance On? Yep I just looked back and that was in the top 50. Herbie Hancock? Just Around The Corner was in the top 100. Biggest surprise was that Chameleon didn't even get a single vote? Anyway ...long live the Jazz Funk era
100

I guess that would account for the slightly surprising inclusion of the two Light of The World tracks as well as Surface Noise and Morrissey Mullen in an 'all time greats' list.

"Pete's Crusade" is indeed highly underrated and a fine example of the genre as expressed in the UK, although I am not sure if "London Town" is really jazz funk.

Were you and / or your listeners surprised to not to see Eddie Henderson's "Prance On" or anything from Herbie Hancock, The Crusaders or Grover Washington Jr in the list?

[StevieFinn]

I have been reading this blog with interest & want to play tribute to Colin Curtis. I was a young Northern Soul acolyte in the early 70's, dancing at a 100mph for hours on end. I used to attend Sunday nights at what was then the Bali Hai in the smaller part of Tiffanys in Newcastle -U-Lyme. I would have been 16-17 at the time, occasionally there would also be an all dayer & I later when lucky enough went to the Mecca itself.. Colin started to shift away from the traditional NS sound by gradually introducing tracks with a funky edge to them, this was later called the Mecca sound. He also played tracks with a jazzy feel to them e.g. " The Bottle" - Bataan, " Strange " - Tradewinds, " The Chicago theme " - Hubert Laws. It might sound surprising these days but these tracks were very sophisticated compared with what had come before. As time went by the music became funkier & jazzier which gave Colin a contrast with Ian Levine who played what was then called " New York Disco". The combination worked well however as you had disco funk & jazz funk to choose from. I loved to dance to them all, the difference was I preferred to listen to the jazz stuff. I later followed Colin to "Rafters" Manchester, where it was even jazzier. A lot of the jazz funk stuff got me listening to the rest of the album tracks, where there would often be more straight jazz pieces. At one time Colin used to play Weather Report's " River People", I bought the album & turned into a ( another label) progressive or jazz rock fanatic. River People is not in any of the lists & I would doubt it was a floor filler. I have a memory of getting to an all dayer at a place called Trentham Gardens on a freezing cold night, quite late walking to the dance floor while it was playing, the floor was about half full. The next song was "Sing, sing - Gaz, instantly the floor was a seething mass, particulary one beautiful girl who was shaking her ass, & to whom I think I owe this memory.

I am surprised by the exclusion of 2 Spyra Gyro tracks. " Shaker song" & " Morning dance" & " Time of the season" - Gap Mangione, but not surprised by not seeing " Poinciana "- Gato Barbieri. There was also " Fusion Juice" - Jeff Lorber, " Streetwave "- the Brothers Johnson, " Let the music play" - Charles Earland & " Snowflake" & "Cosmic reign" - The Crusaders.

I think one of the attractive things about these minority scenes is that the majority of attendees truly love the music, there is always an element of poseurs in any situation.

Thanks Colin for making me dance to music I could also listen to & which lead me down musical paths I would have not otherwise followed.

[SandraDee]

I have a memory of getting to an all dayer at a place called Trentham Gardens .

OMG, I was born just up the road from Trentham Gardens (my mum worked on the chair lift!) & I grew up in North Staffordshire. I used to go to Tiffanys in Newcastle-u-Lyme in the 80s (it was called Ritzy by then & it lies empty at the moment) but the music policy wasn't much cop unfortunately! I can't believe this thriving soul/jazz/funk/disco scene was going on in my home town when I was a kid & too young to go clubbing. I wish I'd been born 10 years earlier!