Bernie Worrell is turning 72 today. He was part of P-Funk from it’s earliest inception-being entrenched as a member of Funkadelic when they were still the instrumental backing band for George Clinton’s doo-wop group The Parliaments. This child prodigy from Plainsfield,New Jersey was of course writing a piano concerto by 8 years old. And went onto study music at Julliard and the New England School Of Music. As grim as this sounds,Worrell is still battling stage 4 lung cancer. So there’s no telling how long he’ll be with us. While I’ve covered his work as a member of Funkadelic,his solo career is a key aspect of his career.
When Worrell introduced his thundering minimoog bass to Parliament’s highly successful groove “Flashlight” in 1977,he basically wrote the blueprint for the synth/electro funk sound that would emerge in the decade to come. By the time that song really broke out,P-Funk began sprawling into a number of spin off groups and soloists. And Worrell decided to make a contribution of his own to the burgeoning outgrowths of P-Funk. The result was his first solo album entitled All The Woo In The World. The entire group of P-Funk musicians from George Clinton himself,Bootsy,Mudbone,Gary Shider,Billy Bass Nelson,Fred and Maceo were all involved-including the opening number “Woo Together”.
Worrell’s Clavinet opens the song as part of a thick,cinematic intro along with the phat,squawking bass and low rhythm guitar. These are accented by the string arrangements of Dave Van De Pitte. The main thrust of the song is a bluesy groove where the strings keep on playing along with the bass line along with Clavinet and the ever present backing vocals of George,Bootsy,Junie and the Brides Of Funkenstein. There are also several instrumental bridges throughout the song that buttress each chorus and refrain exchange. These feature the strings playing call and response style along with Worrell’s Clavinet. The refrain is where the groove officially fades.
As a whole the P-Funk sound was pretty unique. In his autobiography George Clinton mused that many in the music industry were concerned he was creating another Motown on the terms of mostly black musicians. One thing he did take from that record labels approach was being able to add the touches of individual artists to a distinct instrumental approach. And Bernie Worrell’s debut certainly begins with that ethic. The strings of Dave Van De Pitte act in the same fashion that Fred and Maceo’s Horny Horns normally would-dancing directly by the beat of the rhythm section. Therefore Worrell was able to revive his own type of cinematic soul within the heavy P-Funk instrumental spectrum.
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