Anybody For Instrumental Funk???

[visuals]

This past year, I have gotten turned on to a lot of stuff that I never knew existed, In terms of funk....All kinds of funk....African funk, Instrumental funk, Northern funk, Funky 45's and so on. I just want to know if anyone here has gotten into:

Fela Kuti & Africa 70 - funk a'la James Brown
Daktaris - more funk a'la James Brown
Lafayette Afro Rock Band-Afrobeat but very funky(Heihachi)
Magnum - kind of Mandrill'ish but not as polished
Black Heat - these cats murdered Kool & The Gang's "Love The Life You Live"
24 Karat Black
Funk Inc. - tight instrumental funk/jazz
Dennis Coffey
Ripple - a'la Mandrill but not as polished...still good stuff
The Counts - reminds me of early ohio players (Westbound Funk)

I can think of many more but I just want to know if some of the experts out there can direct me to some other groups along the styles of this stuff. I LOVE instrumentals....Help me out ya'll!

[Nano]

Kool & The Gang's early records have a lot of funky-tribal instrumentals... I specially recommend the 11-minute track "Wild & Peaceful".
Roy Ayers also plays that kind of stuff, and he did one album with Fela Kuti in 1981: it's called Africa Center of the World (I never heard it).
More in a jazzy vein, you have Herbie Hancock's "Headhunters" (1973) or Miles Davis' strange "On the corner" (1972).
From recent years, the Groove Collective multirracial unit is something to check out. "Dance of the drunken master" (1998) is one of their best, but all GC albums are good.

[originalbigm]

Check out a group called The Meters.They played an instrumental style known as New Orleans funk.Real earthy bar band style funk.Songs of theirs I really enjoyed were Cissy Strut,Here Comes The Meter Man and Sophisticated Strut.

[daMaddin]

Great topic.....there are a three early-afro-funk-must-haves that also have to be mentioned:

Candido - Thousand Finger Man (All Candido-stuff ist great, but htis is my favourite one)

Jay berlinger - bananas are not created equal (a lucky pick i discovered recently....plain rough instrumental hitters from 72)

Soul Makossa - Afrique (there is a reissue out there, but the original one is still to get)


Yeah, keep on digging bros :-)

[visuals]

Thanks for the replies fellas! Nano....I agree with you in regards of Kool & The Gang's Wild & Peaceful track....I had that whole album on wax back in the day and I also have the CD. I dig basically all of early Kool & The Gang stuff (I'm not anti-JT Taylor) but JT seems to be anti-funk. I also have Herbie's Headhunters (that was a solid album that I don't really call jazz because it's just too funky. Even though there were only 4 tracks, The whole album was a keeper from start to finish. If you like Headhunters you might want to check Herbie's "Manchild" & "Thrust" albums.
Manchild is the closest to Headhunters that Herbie gets. Thrust is a pretty good album....Not as good as the aforementioned albums but still good material. I also have heard a couple of tunes from Mile's "On The Corner" album....Very funky. My two favorite tunes being "Black Satin" & "Helen Butte". I only other Miles material that I own is "Bitches Brew", Which I honestly can't stand. I never got into Roy Ayers but have heard lots about him. Thanks for recommending.

Originalbigm....I LOVE ther funky Meters.These brothers had that raw,live JB's style of funk. Cissy Strut & Sophisticated Strut were funky indeed. I loved the Look-A-Py-Py & Struttin' albums. All I have on disc is the anthology which is also satisfying. These brothers stuck with the formula....a drummer,a guitarist,a bass player and an organ player. simple but raw funk.

daMaddin.....I must admit that you have me stumped....Of course I am hip to Soul Makossa by Manu Dibango and also the Lafayette Afro Rock Band's version but I never even heard of Afrique... :o ..I gotta dig deeper. As a matter of fact, The only thing I heard by Candido is a track called Jingo, which is a Santana classic. I looked up Thousand Finger Man and am planning to order. Never heard of Jay Berlinger. :o Sounds like I have work to do. Thanks for hipping me and keep digging in those crates!

[daMaddin]

Yo visuals!

Oooopsieeee, i made a small faux-pas .....

Jay BERLINGER...his name is Jay BERLINER

and the BAND is called Afrique ...their ALBUM Soul Makossa

and finally ...the old Candido Stuff is maybe more big-orchestra-stuff than "a drummer,a guitarist.......",
so i dunno if it fits your style.

Huiuiuuiiii.....Digging can be confusing :oops: :oops: :oops:

[Blaxman]

Hi Visuals and friends,

Man, I'm an instrumental funk fan too!!! Luckly, I have a godd amount of these tracks in my collection. I can sugest you to take a look at:

Fatback Band (early recordings)
New Birth
Commodores (early recordings)
Bar-Kays (early recordings)
Soul Providers
The JB's (of course!!!)
Nite-Liters

......my memory sucks, I'll see at home and tell you more later.

Oh.....you can try the Blue Note artists from the late 60's - early 70's:

Lou Donaldson
Donald Byrd
Jack McDuff
Blue Mitchell
.....and many more I cant remember right now.

That's it for the momment,

Peace.

Blaxman 8)

[K-Bee]

Fatback was mostly known for their "I Found Lovin'" track in 1983 (a real monster for UK fans) but two years ago a CD was released collecting their works from the New York based label Perception in the early 70s.

Entitled "Street Dance" and reased on Disky in 2001 it's definetely worth checking out. :)

[buckaroo]

...but I just want to know if some of the experts out there can direct me to some other groups along the styles of this stuff. I LOVE instrumentals....Help me out ya'll!

:lol:
I'm no expert, just a lover of the music. Try some of these on for size.
AZIMUTH 'Partido Alto.'

THE INVISIBLE MAN'S BAND 'Love Has Come, Love Won't Come.' (1980)

DEODATO 'Night Cruiser' (1980)

PLEAURE 'Ghettos Of The Mind'

any good to ya?

[zelddan]

i'm no expert either but from what hasn't been mentioned before
new jersey kings
james taylor quartet
nucleus,snakeships etcaetera album,1975
larry corryel,late 70's albums
brooklyn funk essentials
donald byrd's "ethiopian knights",forget bitches brew...
dayton sidewinders,there's funky in here(1973?)
medeski martin & woods
john scofield,newest albums though
disjam
funky french family
must have missed some

[SandraDee]

Check out the Olympic Runners early stuff for good instrumental funk. (forget their post'76 stuff though as it was more vocal & commercial 'disco' which isn't what you're looking for.)

[PeaceFroggy]

My jazz band plays Pick Up The Pieces by Average White Band (I'm on the piano) and boy do we get a funky groove going. So I would have to list that up there.

[ol'skinflint]

Kool & The Gang's early records have a lot of funky-tribal instrumentals... I specially recommend the 11-minute track "Wild & Peaceful".
Roy Ayers also plays that kind of stuff, and he did one album with Fela Kuti in 1981: it's called Africa Center of the World (I never heard it).
More in a jazzy vein, you have Herbie Hancock's "Headhunters" (1973) or Miles Davis' strange "On the corner" (1972).
From recent years, the Groove Collective multirracial unit is something to check out. "Dance of the drunken master" (1998) is one of their best, but all GC albums are good.

Nano: since you mentioned Miles Davis and funk, he did an inCREdible funk tune called "U 'n' I" on his album called "Star People". In fact, most of that album is great and far more conventional than a lot of his work. The title track is an 18 minute, lazy blues that I love. Highly recommended.

[Ian Rose]

The METERS!!!!
Dennis Coffey-Scorpio
Oh, I cant name the all....
Say original Hip Hop breaks...
The best.

[Disco Funk]

Oh boy, this is an old thread! A lot of those tunes I've known about for years. There are so many great compilations floating around there with funk instrumentals, it's really hard to name them all.

I'll just throw out a few names that haven't been mentioned yet:

Soul Searchers - Ashley's Roachclip
The Backyard Heavies - Just Keep Truckin', Chitlin Strut, etc...
Fame Gang - Grits & Gravy, Chicken Strut
Lafayette Afro Rock Band - they never sang, so in addition to Hihache, you got other tracks like Darkest Light and Azeta

Disco Funk

[Simon White]

I raided the meagre Funk 45's shelf here and was surprised to realise how many of them have a chanted vocal ! Some of these do, some don't... do they count?

Pick Up The Pieces On By One - A.A.B.B. ( the Above Average Black Band !)
Soul Line ( Instrumental) Don Gregory & The Soul Trainers
Parrty - Maceo & The Macks
Across The Tracks - The Masai
Same Beat - Fred Wesley & The JB's
Bessie - The JB's Wedge ( bit more uptempo this one )
Do The Choo Choo - Jack Ashford and The Sound Of New Detroit (always loved this...bit more uptempo again)
Half Of Seven Minutes Of Funk - The Whole Damn Family (also on 12" ? )

I'll scan the UK release Afrique's version of 'Soul Makossa" and put it up. It's not that different from Manu Dibango's

[Ian Rose]

Half Of Seven Minutes Of Funk - The Whole Damn Family (also on 12" ? )

Yes there is a 12" of this, just was on ebay for cheap. Sometime people are sleeping on stuff.

-Ian

[Afroboy]

Hmmm ..... How nobody has mentioned any of the 100's of Lp's that came out on the CTI & Kudu Labels is beyond me .. :icon_confused:
Whole albums without vocals .....
To mant to list but I recently played Freddie Hubbards "Sky Dive"
& Im currently listening to Art Farmer "Crawl Space" as I type .
Both Lp's feature massive slabs of funk & all without vocals !! tracks that run for well over 10 minutes ..... enjoy :icon_biggrin:

[Super D]

These are a few more popular instrumentals that I absolutely love!

Brass Construction, 'Movin'
Ray Parker Jr and Raydio, 'For Those Who Like To Groove'

super_d(motordetroit)

[FranceJoliFan]

On the flip side of Lay It On Me (1977), Sylvia Robinson had a jazzy instrumental called Stop (Boy). It's a crazy little tune I can never get enough of.

[efunk_adelic]

Average White Band - Goin' Home (from Soul Searching) LP.
Ohio Players - Climax

[boogyjuice]

- Bar-Kays - Backseat Driver ( 1981 / Mercury )
- Cameo - The Soundtable ( 1981 / Chocolate City )
- Dazz Band - Beyond the Horizon ( 1980 / Motown )
- Dazz Band - T. Mata ( 1983 / Motown )
- Ebonee Webb - Gonna Get Ya ( 1981 / Capitol )
- Mtume - To Be or Not to Bop ( That's the Question, Whether We Funk or Not ) - 1984 / Epic
- Strangers - Stimulation ( 1983 / SalSoul )

[efunk_adelic]

this one is borderline w/ lyrics....

People's Choice - Do It Anyway You Wanna

and I can't believe nobody mentioned this classic

Cameo - It's Serious

[boogyjuice]

- Cameo - The Soundtable ( 1981 / Chocolate City )

[Mr.Ree]

Check out a group called The Meters.They played an instrumental style known as New Orleans funk.Real earthy bar band style funk.Songs of theirs I really enjoyed were Cissy Strut,Here Comes The Meter Man and Sophisticated Strut.

did you think the Meters album "Fiyo on the Biyou" was that great? I had read Keith Richards raving about it in an interview, so the next time I saw a copy at a good price I decided to give it a try. I thought it was good but not exceptional.