Just some straight, grimy funk for your Friday afternoon. “Maceo! Blow your horn!” That’s how James Brown would dynamically signal his favorite horn player to take another stinging sax solo — and Maceo Parker never once let his boss down. Parker‘s jabbing workouts in the midst of “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” and “Cold Sweat” made him […]
Funk Friday: Dazz Band – Let It Whip (1982)
If this song doesn’t get you in the mood for the weekend, I don’t know what will. The Cleveland-based Dazz Band was one of the more popular funk groups of the early ’80s. Bobby Harris formed the group in the late ’70s, merging two Cleveland funk bands, Bell Telefunk and Mother Braintree.* After myriad lineup […]
Funk Friday: Slave – Slide (1977)
When looking at the great soul music geographies of the past quarter century, perhaps the most criminally overlooked is Ohio, the breeding ground for a generation of hot funk acts that came into their own in the 70s and early 80s, including the Ohio Players, Heatwave, Zapp, Lakeside, Midnight Star and Dayton. One of the premiere Ohio […]