Hall & Oates,Sharon Jones & Trombone Shorty at Bangor,Maine’s Waterfront Pavilion on July 14th,2016

Daryl Hall and John Oates provided me with the first pop song I remember hearing in “I Can’t Go For That”. Since their music shaped what I listen for on the radio,it was extremely exciting that these now Rock ‘N Roll Hall Of Famers decided to make a tour stop at Darling’s Waterfront Pavilion,Bangor Maine’s major outdoor concert venue. Attending a Hall & Oates concert with great seats and a price would be amazing in and of itself. But in 2016 they are touring with two of other musical acts that are among the funkiest people at this time: Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews and Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings.

Trombone Shorty was the first act in the set. He and his band were amazing showmen. Especially in Andrew’s facility with both the trombone and cornet.

The interplay between Andrew’s and his two sax players was incredible. And one of them provided some amazing solos as well.

Andrew’s conducted his band in the classic jazz/soul tradition of using his body and dancing as a human baton. This really added to the entire showmanship of his show.

Sharon Jones is a true soul survivor. Her entire performance was based around her still being treated for the cancer that nearly took her life several years ago. Her powerful Tina Turner like vocals and fast,joyous physical moves and dances (plus her bright yellow dress) lit up the stage brighter than the sun that had finally set when she began performing.

The Dap Kings come to LIFE when their horn section are blowing,especially when seen on the stage when your hearing them in person.

Of course,no funk band is quite complete with it’s bass/guitar interplay. And the Dap Kings always have that covered!

Hall & Oates game out to an excited house dancing and singing along. One thing the duo and their amazing onstage band did is present their classic 70’s and 80’s hit songs in new and unique ways. But the people attending the show still loved listening to them.

Daryl & John seem to have been in different areas of Maine before,especially with Daryl restoring an house in Kittery Point. The duo’s interplay with each other flowed so smoothly-in the way that musicians who’ve played together professionally for over 45 years tends to do. When it began to rain,Daryl kept the audience into the show by saying “It’s raining,but your tough in Maine right?”

 

John Oates and the band’s second guitarist really rocked out on solos and lead lines throughout the show-especially between the songs hooks.

One of the very first things I remembered observing about Hall & Oates was the amazing bands they had throughout their career. Between the bassist,drummer/percussionist and a sax player who was almost as much a star of the show as Daryl and John,their musicality shined brightly as a unit as well as with their amazing songs-among them a jazzy funk live instrumental take of “I Can’t Go For That” which went on for over 8 minutes.

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Because the audience was applauding so hard when their names were announced,I never did quite hear the names of Hall & Oates terrific band members. But everyone from that band,Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings and Trombone Shorty were amazing! It is the very first funk/soul revue show I’ve ever seen live in my own hometown. And being able to experience the music,sing it and photograph it is something I will never forget for the rest of my life.

 

 

Andres’ Amazon Archive for 2/21/2015: ‘Love Sex Passion’ by Raheem DeVaughn

Musically the New Jersey born singer/songwriter Raheem DeVaughn’s music has interested me for some time. However something about his previous album A Place Called Loveland left me cold enough to return this album back to the store. The first time I ever actually did so with an album. When I heard the follow up was being realesed this year? I approached it with the idea of having an open mind and heart to an artist that presented the ability with what I’ve heard from him to do wonderful things musically. So considering the fact that DeVaughn seems to be linking each successive album in terms of a conceptual pattern? This still presented it’s own distinctive type of musical power even within that context.

This album essentially balances itself out across several stylistic approaches to it’s cycle of romance lyrical concept. After opening up with a musical recap of the previous album? Songs such as “Black Ice Cream”,”Miss Your Sex”,”Strip” and “Sun Proof (50 Shades)” all evoke different end of the Minneapolis approach to romantic soul balladry with a mixture of multiple vocal responses and dramatic drum machine and synthesizer orchestration-as well as some Southern Soul rhythm guitar riffing on the latter. “Queen” is a thick piano driven slow crawling funky soul ballad while “Nothing Without You” deals with a rhythmically percussive yet stripped down jazzy funk number. “Pretty Love” meanwhile is a passionately rhythmic dance/funk groove featuring the talents of Trombone Shorty-showcasing another strong Afro-Latin inspired percussion solo on the bridge.

“Temperature’s Rising” is a locked right in,bass synth accented slowed up funk stomp with DeVaughn and his own harmony’s acting equally as melodic and percussive elements. “All I Know In My Heart” is a pulsing,stripped down contemporary number while “When You Love Somebody”,”Terms of Endearment” and “Baby Come Back” are all greasy Southern Soul rhythm guitar and organ oriented ballads. “The last section of the album is something of a miniature cinematic soul suite of songs starting with the Leon Ware inspired string and rhythm section uptempo movement of “Countdown To Love,with it’s Brazilian drum pattern. “Feather Rock Lovin'” combines the approaches of Boney James along with The Illadelph Horns to express a mildly slower tempo’d variation of that sound with DeVaughn responding again between his vocal sighs,coos and cries. “Infiniti” ends the album with a climactic piano driven gospel soul tribute to romantic success.

So many male soul/funk artists since the mid 80’s have been somewhat recklessly declared “the next Marvin Gaye. From what I hear from this particular album? Raheem DeVaughn is one of a few artists in contemporary music who truly embody that identity. DeVaughn showcases on this album his grasp of the link in the chain between Marvin and Prince’s lustfully passionate themes as well as their two very different techniques of orchestration big,dramatic soul/funk music. The neo soul aspects of DeVaughn’s basic sound are there-from the vinyl scratch effects to the Southern style rhythm guitars. But the man’s powerfully jazzy gospel/soul pipes and dramatic instrumentation add a vitality and funkiness to the overall sound I seldom hear from artists who came out of neo soul. Honestly one of the very finest and complete musical statements I’ve heard Raheem DeVaughn do thus far!

Originally posted on February 17th,2015

Link to original review here*

Albums Matter: Andre’s List Of The Top Funky Full Length Albums Of From The Past Five Years

The 57th annual Grammy Award ceremony’s this past Sunday seemed to have surprised everyone. Many performances had a far more serious, even evangelical tone with references to domestic violence and the revived understanding of racism bought on by the police violence of 2014. Maturity and growth were very heavily emphasized on every level-performance and presentation wise. It was Prince,who just released two albums at the end of the last year,who got everyone’s attention-with the words printed above spoken as he presented the Grammy for the best album of 2014.

Prince’s words are what moved me to pick this particular topic for this weeks blog. One very important musical factor shared with my blogging partner Rique is our appreciation and advocacy for the full length album as an important artistic format in terms of how the music we love and are socially moved by is presented. To have someone with as rich a musical history as Prince bring this up at a major award ceremony confirmed the 2010’s have been all about the revival of the album as a driving force in the funk/soul/jazz/R&B spectrum in particular. So here’s my list,year by year of the music on that particular playing field that’s deeply effected my listening.

2010

Erykah Badu is always one to throw the unexpected into her grooves. Here her thick,burbling jams blend into songs that are not only a cohesive statement but when sampling is used? They are of things like Paul McCartney album tracks of AOR oriented fusion artists such as David Sancious or Roy Ayers’ Sylvia Striplin. A wondrously sexy celebration of the funk album.

Janelle Monae here was a key figure in the focus of both my music related blogs with her multi-genre embrace of the Afro Futurist ethic. This album was and is a true game changer in that regard.

With both artists always edging just on the border of funk with their own respective releases? The groove burst out completely and with a total fluidity for John Legend and his backing band The Roots-including drummer/producer ?ueslove, for this (so far) one time musical collaboration.

2011

Known more for being innovative in terms of single songs,Beyonce’s fourth solo album gained a complete full length flow with a much more mature sound. Including the very polished Quincy Jones/Westlake style production of “Love On Top”.

Lenny Kravitz always had loads of funk in him. Here and there. Took him a long time before he fully identified with that funkier instrumental groove. And did so on one of his most thorough musical statements to date.

2012

With contemporary electronic pop/hip-hop/dance music usually having enough energy to stretch only across a few songs? Chris Brown,during a less than satisfactory period for him personally no less,managed to take the contemporary musical end of his genre and stretch it out successfully longer than I’ve heard most do such a thing in some time.

This explosively percussion Afro-Funk group recording for Daptone were so connected to the original Afrocentric  pulse that spawned the original funk process groups such as Santana,Mandrill and War that following this album they became the backing band for the Broadway musical Fela! A rebirth of full length poly-rhythm at it’s finest!

Psychedelic,meditative and non traditionally structured sophomore release from new comer Miguel.

Bassist Victor Wooten saw such depth in this material that he released it both as a vocal and instrumental piece. Very original musical presentation at this time.

Macy Gray bought out her inner Sly Stone for this literal celebration of the album-re-making every song in original order from Stevie Wonder’s 1972 breakthrough album Talking Book on it’s 40th anniversary.

Talented bassist/singer Esperanza Spalding brings out the sprawling mid 70’s jazz/funk vibe for what is probably her most defining album as of yet.

Electronica meets boogie funk from a very interesting source blending a hard grooving as well as an ethereal quality.

2013

Potent mix of electronica and boogie/synth funk.

Very bold sound from Georgia Anne Muldrow that embraces dramatic jazz/funk with a boom rap approach to production.

Crescent City native Trombone Shorty presents the instrumental style of horn funk as a genre of sorts all it’s own,with many different tributaries,on this one album.

Flying Lotus bassist Thundercat brings a huge,cinematic approach to psychedelic jazz-funk.

The first of two Justin Timberlake comeback’s this year. Probably a huge re-awakening for the album length music format,complete with 7-8 minute jams,that bough extended soul/funk to the broader contemporary pop audience.

2014

Long time producer emerges as a fully complete solo artist-full of funkified rhythmic energy and shook the world up in a way no funky music has in over three decades with “Happy”.

Kelis returns with an album that takes a very JB like organic instrumental soul/funk turn.

Robin Thicke’s emotionally charged break up album is a full on raw, muscular funk/soul extravaganza

Prince and the female instrumental trio 3rdEyeGirl become part of the double edged album sword in his studio comeback. It showcases a multi hued psychedelic funk/rock sound where the whole is definitely more important than the sum of it’s parts.

Oaklands own Goapele lends the funk of Pharrell Williams and flowing,piano based jazzy soul/pop on an album that celebrates the flow of musical depth,dignity and elegance.

D’Angelo shakes the world up with an extremely funkified statement that is still,at the time of this writing,showing people that black lives (and black music) matter a great deal.

2015 (So Far)

With the month of January often being a driftwood month for new music? Mark Ronson brings Bruno Mars,Mystikal and Stevie Wonder together for some serious,churning “uptown funk? of many colors!

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There were honestly more albums than I could’ve seriously listed in this blog that also fit right into it. But these ones made the most important statements on their own terms perhaps. A single song will always say a great deal. But if one impulse or a series of musical/lyrical impulse can be expanded out in a way that expands the mind naturally through a powerfully grooving auditory experience? Than I saw so much the better. So let’s all have it for the musical impact of the album! It’s a key organ in the anatomy of the groove!

Anatomy of THE Groove 3/21/14: “Long Weekend” by Trombone Shorty

Since it would seem that that New Orleans has the reputation of being the birthplace of the concept of funk itself,what with the first acknowledged jazz musician’s Buddy Bolden’s song “The Funky Butt”,it makes perfect sence that an important element of the modern funk revival would emerge with the Crescent City’s own Trombone Shorty. Originally named Troy Andrews,he grew up in the cities Treme’ region-playing in the local marching bands and eventually becoming a featured member of Lenny Kravitz horn section in 2005. Having already entered into rising adulthood having been reared with a musical synergy of the traditional Dixie Land marches of his local area as well as the late 80’s funk revelations such Cameo’s “Word Up” and Prince’s “Housequake” ,Andrew’s had the musical wherewithal to zero in on a somewhat under-explored middle ground between both those divergent funk approaches on Trombone Shorty’s 2013 release Say This To That with a groove entitled “Long Weekend”.

Kicking off with an announcing drum kick,the rather percussive and slow crawling drumming is immediately joined by a cleanly played,melodic funk guitar line with a high electric organ swirl slowly building in the back round. Another drum kick announces the introduction of Andrew’s expressively earnest lead vocals. When singing the chorus of the song,he’s joined by his own multi tracked backup vocals when the songs title is mentioned. The bass line of the song isn’t generally as prominent throughout the song as the guitar and drum/percussion part is. However at the end of each instrumental chorus,especially before a drum kick,the popping jazz/funk bass line comes to the forefront much more heavily. On the bridge and during the outro of the song,the melodic and rhythmic structure of the song totally changes. The bass is lifted to the forefront scaling down to a powerful bass/guitar chord that intensely amplifies the funkiness in the center and end of the song.

While funk is not as widely known as a musical genre as some of its admirers might think that it is, a majority of musicians performing funk are doing so very much in the late 60’s/early 70’s raw live band type James Brown/Tower Of Power style. Considering his music is strongly based in jazz-fusion/blues and psychedelic soul/rock, Trombone Shorty and his bands’ approach to this song emphasizes a trend in contemporary funk music that seemed to have spawned from Pharrell Williams productions for Justin Timberlake,Robin Thicke and Daft Punk. And that is a strong emphasis on the production style of late 70’s Ohio based funk bands such as Heatwave and Slave. This is a style where the bass/guitar/drum interaction is still hard grooving funk. But the sound is more studiocentric than developed mainly for live performance. Of course Andrew’s adds a more jazz oriented electric piano groove on the bridge to give the song his own type of flavor.

Another element of “Long Weekend” that’s very similar to the music of Slave in particular is how close the lyrical and melodic content of the vocals are to that Ohio bands adolescent party funk aestetic. In particular the way Andrew’s is pitching woo to an older woman,once the subject of a high school type unrequited love and is now old enough to appreciate her-particularly on a somewhat scandalous “long weekend” with this lady that even includes “a trip to the liquor store” to ensure a little physical adventure-even though he doesn’t feel able to tell his peers. Of course this attitude lends itself very well to the near perfect balance of studio production and live instrumental production. Judging from what I have seen in a video of Trombone Shorty performing this song live? Today that late 70’s style of recorded danceable funk music is just as viable on stage as it is on record. And “Long Weekend” emphasizes that very strongly.