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One bus stop under a groove….

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The Guardian had an interview this week with Bill Curtis and Gerry Thomas from the Fatback Band.

”They first met in 1967 while in a band playing “weddings, bar mitzvahs, parties” in Queens, says Thomas. “This was before the DJ era, so we played the hits that people liked to dance to.”
And Fatback have been going strong on and off ever since. And they have a great relationship with their British fans.

”Thomas, then playing with the Jimmy Castor Bunch, was taken to a club after a performance in Liverpool in 1975, where he witnessed Fatback’s song Wicky Wacky (from Keep On Steppin’) pack the dancefloor. Thomas mentioned he played on Wicky Wacky and was mobbed. “I called Bill and said: organise some dates in England, they love Fatback.” So began a relationship that continues to this day.
“We got in the van and played every pub, club and cowshed,” says Curtis, “and the people came to dance and have a good time. That built us a loyal following – Britain and Fatback, we got a good thing goin’ on!”

“In the US there’s a form of cultural amnesia,” adds Thomas. “People forget, and embrace the new. Over here we get different generations of fans – they keep Fatback’s music alive.”

Of course, I then had to treat myself to treat myself to a few Fatback Band tracks.

Bus stop is four minutes of sheer, ridiculously funky, musical joy. Talk about an incentive to use public transport! Who wants to listen to the ULEZ Whingers when they can groove with Fatback?

Anybody else got any Fatback favourites? Or perhaps some other classic funk tracks which deserve to be dusted off and given a play at Disco Afterwordia?

Here’s a chance to dance your way
Out of your constrictions

Getting down just for the funk of it!

0

Comments

    • Darn right! Ms Khan is a very smart cookie! Who wouldn’t want to recycle that bass line!

      Incidentally, is there anyone Chaka hasn’t sung with?

      From The Muppets

      to Miles Davis!

      A fairly remarkable career.

  4. One of my sisters was into what we called disco at the time. Today the likes of James Brown, War and Fatback are funk,not disco. Being a smart art student she changed a 3 on her raffle ticket to an 8 and won a copy of the Yum Yum album which got played alot in our house. Having been pilloried by my fellow rock loving school friends for declaring a liking for reggae, I kept my love of Fatback to myself. But they were great.

    • I recognise that @Alias.

      Thanks to The Clash, liking reggae was acceptable. But disco and funk? Completely out of the question! Blokes with guitars! That was music.

      Then again, oddly enough, it was probably the NME that introduced me to Funkadelic.

      But I suspect that Fatback were far too glittery, hedonistic and show-business-like,
      to be acceptable to the New Modern Army of the New Music Express.

      Maybe the wonderful Cameo were weird enough to acceptable?

      • Fact check. Maybe the readership were exclusively interested in white boys with guitars in the main, but going by best of year lists the writers always gave a nod to soul, disco, funk, reggae and rap. Some years more than others. 1986’s top 5, for example, includes Prince, Cameo, Janet Jackson and Anita Baker. The rogue act is Sonic Youth – Evol, also a great album. Elsewhere in other years you find Earth, Wind and Fire, Bobby Womack and Brass Construction.

        • Thanks for putting me straight on that, Diddley.

          I am glad to hear it. However I suspect that the likes of Anita Baker or EWF rarely graced the cover. Then again I may be wrong.

          It reminds me of how Peel became rather fed up with the predictability of the Festive 50.

          Time for some Brass Construction.

          And some Bar Kays

          And Gap Band

          • Well it wasn’t the NFE. I suppose they can seem like token gestures, although in the 80s things did get pretty diverse. Cover-wise I see Marvin Gaye twice, Grace Jones twice and Bobby Womack once, all in the 80s. Not a lot but a step up. I looked up this stuff as I think it’s interesting. 90s becomes wall to wall white again.

            • As a little sidebar, these were NME writers’ Top 12 singles of all time, as voted for in 1987:

              1. I Say A Little Prayer – Aretha Franklin
              2. Tired Of Being Alone – Al Green
              3. Walk On By – Dionne Warwick
              4. Kiss – Prince
              5. This Old Heart Of Mine – The Isley Brothers
              6. (Get Up I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine – James Brown
              7. King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown – Augustus Pablo
              8. Young Hearts Run Free – Candi Staton
              9. Sexual Healing – Marvin Gaye
              10. Move On Up – Curtis Mayfield
              11. Midnight Train To Georgia – Gladys Knight And The Pips
              12. Shame – Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King

              All 12 are soul/funk/reggae singles by African American or Jamaican
              artists.

              https://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/nme_singles.htm

              • That’s a pretty good (& obviously deliberately contentious Top 10).
                As for ‘Shame’, it’s the track that launched a thousand Cortina 1600E’s with green sun strips reading ‘This is a family car, powered by Jazz, Funk & Soul’, so beloved of all the Soul Boys & Funkateers where I was raised – & it’s still glorious!

        • I always saw the weekly music press as rock orientated, in the 70s Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye were deemed acceptable, but I don’t recall much else in the soul/funk/disco genre. I follow an account on Twitter called Sounds Clips which shows scans of certain pages of Sounds from this day in any year from the mid 70s to the early 80s. I find the writers’ playlists on the charts page interesting. One week a writer’s 3 choices were all Art Ensemble Of Chicago albums. This would have completely passed me by at the time if I had seen it.

          But anyway, this is a funk thread right? I don’t think we have had anything James Brown related yet, so this will put that right.

          Maceo and the Macks – Cross The Tracks

      • I recently picked up a Reggae compilation entitled ‘Midnight To Six Man… First Time From Jamaica’ which features Delroy Wilson, Leroy Smart, Ken Boothe and Dillenger – all the acts on 5th June 1977 and later listed in WMIHP by the (no-hits) Clash.

        A simple idea, but it took until 2018 for someone to think of it.

  5. A quintessential singles band. An album worth is too much, but an awesome singles band. Here’s one of the very best inspro/cash ins from the scifi late 70s music boom. That bassline!
    ‘Did you have a close enounter of a funky kind?’
    ‘I don’t know. I must have been exposed.’
    Indeed.

    • You understand me so well, Cheshire! No tangential meanderings on my threads! We stay strictly on topic.

      However, as a chap who thoroughly enjoys a visit to the dancefloor, you got me thinking.:

      Is there any overlap between folk and funk?

      That may seem like a rather far-fetched question. But a good folk band, like Bellowhead, can certainly get a groove going.

      So how far is it to Fatback?

      This guy certainly believes that “folk funk” is a genre.

      https://paulhillery.co.uk/a-brief-history-of-folk-funk/

      I’m not completely convinced. But there are many folk bands who exist to provide dance music at ceilidhs etc, so I’m open to persuasion.

      Maybe there are folk funk bands like Earth Wind and Firewood and Grass Construction?

      • Terry Callier who had given up his career in music to work as a computer programmer in Chicago, was persuaded to return to music when his music was picked up by the acid jazz and rare groove scenes in the UK. His first album was called The New Folk Sound Of Terry Callier. He is labelled as folk funk these days. To add another genre to his repertoire, this one was big on the Northern Soul scene.

        Ordinary Joe

  9. Also, I have a soft spot for this one, with the unforgettable line “I’m funky, but I’m clean – if you know what I mean”! Grootna – I’m Funky:

  10. YouTube suggested this clip for me. I am glad they did

    “September In The Park is the ultimate Earth Wind & Fire and Chicago Tribute band!”

    Who wouldn’t want to hear the wonderful songs of EWF recreated by this talented, enthusiastic combo?

    One comment hit the nail on the head:

    “Maurice White is smiling up in heaven”

    https://www.septemberinthepark.com/

  11. Meanwhile at a bus stop in Bahia….

    Not as well-kown as bossa nova and MPB, Brazil has a lively funk music scene.

    It all began in the 60s as young Brazilians became aware of James Brown etc

    This article provides an excellent overview.

    https://blackbraziltoday.com/black-rio-the-rise-of-black-music-and-dances/

    Ed Motta comments on those early days

    “Ademir’s other major contributions were his excellent compilation LPs. Contrary to the accepted assertion that Disco Gold and Gloria Gaynor’s Never Can Say Goodbye (both mixed by disco re-mixer Tom Moulton) were the first LPs to feature songs played back to back to create a non-stop, disco-like experience, Ademir released his first of four compilation albums in 1970, predating these American landmarks by five years. For Ed Motta, keeper of the Brazilian funk flame and nephew to Brazil’s number-one soul brother Tim Maia, Ademir’s selections still surprise. “Actually, he has some records from these sessions that are very hard to find, independently released soul and funk [45s], like the DJ Shadow compilations [Brain Freeze with Cut Chemist]. People don’t know, for example that some DJs from these days used to travel using cheap chartered flights, flying thirty-five hours to buy records [in the U.S.], then coming back to Brazil.” (3)

    DJ Ademir himself explains:
    “It all started with my love. I was passionate about “funky” and decided to spread it. But the thing really started when the soul began to be played and the people started to dig Kool and the Gang, James Brown, and Wilson Pickett. Then it broke at the Baile da Pesada at Canecão. It was a party that brought people from the north and south zones [of Rio de Janeiro]. There wasn’t discrimination between Black and White; it was the real deal, with real soul.” (4)

    A few tracks. First, Tim Maia, the first Brazilian soul superstar.

    Banda Black Rio, pioneers of the black music scene in Rio.

    Funk como le gusta

    • This takes me back to the early 80s when I was coming across Brazilian music thanks to friends who were into jazz funk, jazz dance or rare groove (although I never met anyone narrow minded enough to limit their listening to only one of those genres).

      Here’s a sample of some of the big tunes from back then:

      Gilberto Gil – Todo Menina Bahiana

      and Roda

      Marcos Valle – Os Grillos (yes it is that Crickets Sing that a Spice Girl covered)

      Airto Moreira – Samba De Flora

      • Four cracking tunes there, @Alias.

        Gilberto Gil was probably the first Brazilian artist I saw live.

        Back in 1984, I was back-packing around South America for a couple of months and our trip ended in Rio. I didn’t really know much about who the big names were in Brazilian music, but with some help from Brazilians I talked to, and staff in record shops, I bought about 10 albums. One of these was Gilberto Gil’s Extra.

        And then I found out he was playing at a theatre on Copacabana, and of course we had to get tickets. What an extraordinary evening! To see one of Brazils biggest stars playing for his local fans. To describe the audience as very enthusiastic would be an understatement.

        Here’s a song from that album: Funk-se quem poder.

        And here are the lyrics translated into English.

        https://lyricstranslate.com/en/funk-se-quem-poder-funk-yourself-ones-who-can.html

        Funk yourself the ones who can¹
        It’s imperative to dance
        To feel the impetus
        Move the buttocks
        In the tasting of the rhythm

        Funk yourself the ones who can
        It’s imperative to put²
        Fire in the vertebrae
        Fire in the muscles
        Music in every single atom

        Our atlantic and athletic
        Romantic and poetic
        Republic of the music
        Urges the physicists, mystics
        Barbarians, peaceful
        Indigenous and the pale-faceds³
        Our amys, politicians
        Ecclesistical power
        And the committee of the Carnaval.

        For the Portuguese speakers here are the original lyrics.

        https://lyricstranslate.com/en/gilberto-gil-funk-se-quem-poder-lyrics.html

        I saw Gilberto Gil at the Konserthuset here in Stockholm recently.: 40 years or so after our first encounter. He’s still wonderful but doesn’t jump around stage quite so much. These days he is duetting with his grand daughter.

        Back to 1983…

  14. Time to introduce Brazilian megastar Antônio Carlos Santos de Freitas who took his stage name in hommage to his idol. I am of course talking about Carlinhos Brown who is a great fan of the Sex Machine Hitmaker.

    Flamboyant, exciting, melodic. A remarkable showman. He is something else.

    He played a Culture Festival gig in Stockholm about 20 years ago. It was completely OTT and quite remarkable.

    Carlos hails from Salvador and has done a lot of social work with young people, not least with his extraordinary mega- ensemble Timbalada.

    Here’s Mr Brown in slightly more laid-back mood with supergroup Tribalistas (him plus Marisa Monte and Arnaldo Antunes)

    Their album is excellent.

    Time now for something as unlikely as a Funky Geordie!

    It’s ex-Animal Eric Burdon who teamed up with Oakland funk combo, War.

    Spill the Wine is in a class of its own.

    And on the subject of War….

  15. Before this thread vanishes into the Bus Depot of Despond, I must put in a word for funk from New Orleans.

    And I really can’t do that without mentioning Souljazz Records who have now released four compilation of NOLA funk.

    Here’s Volume 1 which was solid gold.

    https://midlandrecords.com.au/new-orleans-funk-volume-1/

    It included, The Meters (who morphed into the Neville Brothers Band

    I don’t want this thread to get too academic.. But I’m not going to neglect Professor Longhair.

    Or that remarkable GP, Dr John.

  17. Nice work, @Alias. I bought Brasiliero at the time but had no idea who Carlinhos was.

    I googled and found this long very interesting interview about how the album was made.

    http://thebraziliansound.blogspot.com/2014/08/sergio-mendes-talks-about-brasileiro.html

    Chris: “What is This?” by Carmen Alice of Vai Quem Vem is really something unusual. I don’t think I’ve heard a Bahian rap song before.
    Sérgio: It’s their reading of the American rap style. In Bahia, they hear everything—rap, reggae, merengue—and adapt it. Carmen’s song is so raw and pure, I thought the simplicity and purity of it were really interesting. It’s very Bahian.

    Chris: It’s a lot of fun and so different. Big booming drums to open, very catchy. A rap song played on Brazilian drums and percussion, which we’ve never heard up here in North America. And a funky berimbau.
    Sérgio: We were recording in Rio at Polygram, and having no luck with a couple of songs. Finally, I said, ‘Can you play me something different?’ And this young girl from Vai Quem Vem named Carmen grabbed the microphone and started doing this incredible rap in English! She is an English teacher from Salvador, as well as a percussionist and singer. Her neighborhood there is called Candeal, it’s a poor place, and this rap is about it. It’s her reading of the American rap style. It was part of their repertoire that I hadn’t heard. I added my synthesizer. I call it organic rap. It’s so raw and pure. Here we have the rap rhythm on surdos, etc., instead of on drum machines, giving it a different flavor. It’s my first rap.

  18. I’m pushing my luck a little here but…..

    The magnificent drummers of Timbalada reminded me of this fine combo who also drum up a magnificent noise.

    But ….how funky can it be?

    On a similar vein: how funky can Bollywood tunes get?

    I asked YT and they came up with this..

    We had an Indian Cultural Festival here in Stockholm yesterday and were treated to some very lively Bollywood dance numbers. The crowd (about 95% Indian) were singing along and really getting into it all.

  19. Who is the funkiest band or artist you’ve ever seen?

    In my top ten you would definitely a reggae band. Kingston’s finest: Toots and the Maytals.

    I was lucky enough to catch them at the Top Rank Brighton in the mid 1970s and they were on fire.

    If you watch clips of their gigs from this time, you’ll see what mean. Toots was quite a showman.

    • Surely the biggest ‘underground’ UK funk hit that paved the way for plenty of others including Junior & Linx.
      I’m a little underwhelmed by the journalist’s knowledge of the subject TBH, the line he quotes from this track is NOT ‘play some funk’ – it’s ‘Bless the funk’. Makes me suspect he ( bound to be a he) only heard it just before penning the article.
      I actually saw Hi Tension line around the time of the record at of all places, Bracknell Sports Centre ( I also saw Blondie there on their 2nd UK tour).
      The band were superb , but the whole venue was under siege throughout from a mob of assorted hooligans & racist herberts more aligned with Martin Webster than Martin Luther King.
      It kicked off all over the place repeatedly & was pretty ugly. Glad to report that by & large the forces of funk came well out on top.
      Thankfully, times have changed beyond recognition in this respect at least.

      • Thanks a lot @Junglejim for putting the record straight with your chronicle of darker times. Glad to hear the forces of funk won the day. But important to be reminded that this sort of thing could happen.

        It’s a cracking tune.

        This YT note was interesting:

        “Hi Tension sold over a 1/4 of a million 7″ singles to reach number 12 in the Charts. The 12″ version outsold the 7″ version by more than double, as copies of the 7″ ran out of stock. Unfortunately, the 12″ was not counted towards the chart position at the time, as 12″ singles were a new format. However, within months the 12″ format became recognised, equally, for the count towards chart positions, to late for Hi Tension chart position.”

  21. Reading your comment, @Junglejim, made me realise how pitifully ignorant I was about Britfunk.

    I don’t think I even knew the term.

    This wiki piece put me straight on a lot. For example, how Light of the World members went on to form Incognito and Beggar & Co.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brit_funk

    And that led me to this fine article by Alexis Petridis.

    https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/apr/02/how-britfunk-overcame-racism-to-reinvigorate-uk-pop

    “This rawness set the new bands apart. There had been British funk before – Cymande, the Average White Band, Gonzalez, the Real Thing and Heatwave – but the Britfunk bands were marked out by, well, their Britishness. Hi-Tension declined to sing in fake American accents. “A lot of players on the Britfunk scene have Caribbean backgrounds,” says McLean. “That had a lot of influence on it: a looser rhythm, hints of reggae in the sound.”

    It mentions problems with the National Front.

    “Despite its commercial success, not everyone was delighted by the rise of Britfunk. Rocca remembers being locked in the Royalty club by police: the National Front had turned up outside to attack the multiracial crowd. When Light of the World toured, Maunick says, they regularly discovered “this wasn’t really an accepted thing”.

    “We went up to the Lake District early on, and they tore our motors apart when we were inside playing the gig. There was nothing left of our vehicles when we came out. We went to Margate and the locals were like: ‘What’s this? Black people mixing with white people?’ They stoned the building. Every piece of glass got put through with a rock. But this movement had some spunk: we went out there and tore into them. There were pitched battles, fist fights, to protect what we had. We were proud of who we were. We weren’t going to put up with it.”

    And finally a very comprehensive playlist which should keep me busy all week.

  22. Before Linton Kwesi Johnson appeared on stage in Stockholm yesterday evening for an interview at Kulturhuset, they were playing a lot of 70s British reggae.

    I’ve been in similar musical territory this morning and and as a result just stumbled this remarkable British psychedelic funk band: Cymande.

    “In 1973 they made history as the first British band to headline the Apollo Theater in New York,and they also performed on Soul Train.” (Wiki). Way ahead of their time, they disbanded in 1974.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymande

    But their fame spread and they reformed.

    “Cymande released A Simple Act of Faith in 2015 – the band’s first new album in 41 years.”

    Now that’s what I call a gap between albums!

  23. Discovered this 20 years ago on one of the late Charlie Gillett’s BBC Radio London shows.

    .
    Started as a studio project of producer Richard Blair, who worked on a lot of Peter Gabriel’s Real World albums. He went to Colombia in ’93 and has stayed there pretty much ever since.

    • Thanks @Mike_H. That is a beaut, This thread is certainly leading to many new discoveries- and a chance to revisit old favourites.

      A band that sounds as though it will be a feisty lesbian backed by a combo of sixth formers…Dyke and the Blazers.

      A classic from the vaults. Charles Wright was a new name for me.

      And a more modern, Curtis Mayfield treat from the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio.

  24. Let’s start the weekend with the funky sounds of the Souljazz Orchestra from Ottawa.

    http://www.souljazzorchestra.com/

    And now another splendid combo who should have been mentioned days ago: The Bamboos from Melbourne.

    I got burned

    Keep me in mind

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bamboos_(funk_band)

    And look who they’ve been sailing with! Our new pals Cymande! Perhaps @Locust was on board? You deserve a Caribbean cruise, Lo!!!

    “The Bamboos began 2023 with performances in the Caribbean on the ocean-going Jam Cruise festival, alongside George Porter Jr., Cymande, John Medeski and others.”

    https://tonedeaf.thebrag.com/the-bamboos-talk-new-influences-expanding-on-the-funk-bringing-it-back-to-the-band/

    • Luisito Quintero and Ocho really hit the spot @Alias. Both floorfillers.

      Ocho amusingly was a seven piece band led by Chico Mendoza who were part of the Nuyorica sound of the 70s. There’s a compilation on Soul Jazz Records.

      https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/sjr/product/ocho-best-of-ocho

      They led to this Nuyorican Funk playlist.

      Lots of gems there! Like Mongo Santamaria.

      That made me remember this old fave from the band Nuyorican Soul: I am the black gold of the sun.

      • I was going to post some Mongo, but I s post the joke instead. Despite having seen Blazing Saddles several times, it wasn’t until it was shown on TV again about a year ago that I appreciated this.

        There are plenty of other Latin percussionists we haven’t mentioned yet. So, first off, Edwin Bonila’s cover of the Kool and the Gang classic Jungle Boogie.

        Next Pucho and the Latin Soul Brothers a big name on the acid jazz scene with another fine cover.

        And finally for now, Manteca with Afro Funky. I have this album but it has almost no information. This is annoying because it’s almost criminal that the bass player is uncredited.

  27. That Nuyorican Funk Experience had a track by the Orchestra Harlow. That led me to this wonderful clip from 1971 of a NY street party.

    The fashions, the dancing, the crowd. You are going to enjoy this @Alias. It’s a clip from a film, Our Latin Thing, about the birth of salsa music.

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0833608/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_3_nm_1_q_our%2520latin%2520thing

    Larry Harlow is the man! He went on to become the pianist of the Fania All Stars.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Harlow_(musician)

  28. Our Latin Thing from 1972 was directed by Leon Gast who directed more than a few fine movies.

    https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0309382/?ref_=tt_ov_dr

    The Grateful Dead Movie
    Celia Cruz and the Fania All Stars in Africa
    B B King in Africa
    Salsa

    Gast won an Oscar for best documentary for When we were kings – Mohammed Ali vs George Foreman :The Rumble in the Jungle.

    And then Our Latin Thing. Here’s good news.
    The complete movie is there to watch on YT.

    If you are at all interested in New York’s musical history, i suspect you will enjoy this.

    Another scene from the film featuring Cheo Feliciano.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUhJer1w634

  29. I stumbled across the Blaxound from Barcelona on a Spotify playlist of funk instrumentals.

    Marta Roman writes the material which is then arranged by her band. Promising!

    Another track with vocals.

  32. I can see one copy of This Is Afro Cuban Funk online, and it’s £50, so I will also listen on Spotify. This brings back memories of the fantastic Descarga.com website, sadly no longer with us. It had such a wealth of information on Latin music and their CD and DVD recommendations were 100% reliable. I think Amazon and eBay killed them. That’s where I heard of Palo, and you won’t be surprised to hear that they were very highly recommended.

  33. I think I will have to join the New York Public Library to get a look at that book! The contributors, I think were knowledgeable enthusiasts. One guy I knew worked in the Latin music shop Mr Bongo. He really knew his stuff.

    I’m reminded of the Funk Experience series of CDs on the Nascente label. They included French funk, Italo, Scandinavian, Bollywood and Cuban amongst others. Here’s a track from the Jamaican Funk Experience.

    Bumps Jackson – Funky In Jamaica

    • Obrigado, @Alias. That Nascente series looks like it’s going to be really great fun to explore.

      The first one I found was the Brazilian Funk Experience. 20 tracks. Some by artists I know quite well: Djavan, Elis Regina, Marcos Valle, Joyce.. And a lot I’ve never heard of who sound very promising.

      https://rateyourmusic.com/release/comp/various-artists/patrick-forge-presents-the-brazilian-funk-experience.p/

      Here’s a little background on Patrick Forge who is a well-known London DJ.

      https://www.acidvisions.com/various-artists-patrick-forge-presents-the-brazilian-funk-experience-2006/

      Some smashing tunes!

      Evinha

      Djavan

      Joyce

      Doris Monteiro

      • A very accurately named album. Quantic compiled one of the Tropical Funk Experience albums. From it, here’s Wganda Kenya. They’re a Colombian band pretending to be African in order to cash in on the popularity of African music in Colombia in the 1970s. A great job they do too.

        • “A Colombian band pretending to be African”! You’ve really come up trumps with that, @Alias.

          The sleepy, autumnal suburb of Bagarmossen is going to be warmed up today by all those tropical tracks!

          Here’s a little background to the band:

          https://www.musicamacondo.com/2016/04/wganda-kenya/

          “Wganda Kenya are one of Colombia’s most innovatory live ensembles and a key proponent in bringing the boundless energy of Afrobeat to the streets and dance halls of Colombia’s Caribbean coast. Between the 1970s and the late 1980s, Wganda Kenya formed part of a small collection of pioneering Afro-Colombian bands that ruled the airwaves in Northern cities like Cartagena and Barranquilla.

          Along with sister group Afrosound they were put together in the 1970s by Discos Fuentes, the famous Medellín-based label (often described as Colombia’s version of ‘Motown’ for it’s instrumental role in introducing the nation to its popular Afro-rhythm genres of Cumbia, merengue, porro, fandango and salsa.) Their spearhead, ‘Fruko’ Estrada, was a Colombian icon and salsero who also led the popular 1970s salsa group Fruko Y Sus Tesos.

          A title that itself invokes an African heritage, their music combines the furious rhythms inherited from the Fela Kuti albums that were arriving in Colombia’s coastal regions at the time with a large spoonful of 70s funk and their own electric, Latin flavour.”

          Fela making waves in Colombia!

          It was a Glaswegian who broke the band in the UK.

          “A band little known outside of Colombia, they were given fresh limelight when Glaswegian producer and tastemaker JD Twitch decided to land a fully licensed 12” release with three Wganda Kenya tracks as part of his Autonomous Africa project. ”

          The entire Tropical Funk album is on YT.

          And here’s a tracklist.

          https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/sjr/product/quantic-presents-tropical-funk-experience

          I’m looking forward to giving that a listen.

          “Quantic presents Tropical Funk Experience features the steamiest vintage cumbias and hottest tropical rhythms from Colombia and neighbouring countries compiled by the Colombian-resident and globe-trotting DJ and music producer!

          His latest artist album “Tradition In Transition” was a peon to old-time cumbia and Latin jazz and on“Quantic presents Tropical Funk Experience” he features many of the old cumbias & vintage tropical grooves that have inspired his recent musical outings.

          Virtually all the tracks are impossible-to-come-by outside of Latin America and have been mastered by Quantic from his personal collection.”

  34. So much to explore!

    The Eastern Bloc Funk Experience

    https://www.discogs.com/release/3906245-Yuriy-Gurzhy-Phil-Meadley-Eastern-Bloc-Funk-Experience-Psych-Funk-Satellite-Soul-And-Cold-War-Disco

    The French Funk Experience

    https://www.discogs.com/release/2780838-Kid-Loco-French-Funk-Experience

    The Scandinavian Funk Experience

    https://www.discogs.com/release/3660112-Rickard-Masip-Scandinavian-Funk-Experience

    Wow! Some seriously obscure tracks just waiting to be enjoyed,

    • Funk certainly got around the world! Even to some very unlikely places. Even the KPM Library Music company recorded some funky gems. Labels like Strut and BBE have put together some fine compilations of jazzy, funky library music.

      Big Shot

      This thread has got me hunting through my collection. It seems that James Brown was popular everywhere. Here’s Nigerian Orlando Julius ‘ tribute to him.

      James Brown Ride On

      The St Vincent Latinaires did this great cover of Hot Pants

      • Wonderful bit of research, @Alias. I am convinced you are right. James Brown had a charisma and energy which totally transcended language and cultural barriers.

        Suddenly I was reminded of this song by that legendary band: Patto.

  35. As regards James Brown’s influence on Africa I found this article,@Alias. It is rather rambly and have never heard of most of the musicians he mentions,.

    https://dailynews.co.tz/see-unseen-james-brown-in-bongo-flava/

    But this quote got me thinking.

    “It was in 1974 when James Brown performed live in Africa during the Rumble in the Jungle project in Kinshasa. After his performance, James Brown changed the whole music of East and Africa at large.

    Jimmy Nolen’s guitar style initiated the cavacha guitar style of the then Zaire in 1974. Though it didn’t observe Nolen’s chicken scratch style, playing it to facilitate body and leg shakes was the major exponent of cavacha guitarists of the era like Mpia Mbongongo Porthos, Professor Samunga Tendiagaye, Bongo Wende (Bojack) and Djuke Mokanda who played for Kiam.

    Lidjo Kwempa of Zipompa pompa fame was quoted as telling reporter Ado Yuhe that James Brown initiated changes in Zaire Music and mentioned Bongo Wende among the notable disciple of James Brown funky guitar.”

    The movie Soul Power described the music festival.

    This article provides some interesting background.

    https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/james-brown-joined-muhammad-ali-zaire/

    As regards funky acts from Africa, @JuniorWells maybe has a few comments?

    The article’s reference to Zipompa pompa led me to this. Very good it is too.

    And then this ginormous Spotify playlist. It’s 315 hours long!

      • @Alias
        I saw Celia Cruz here in Stockholm about 20 years ago, not long before she died.

        She still had the voice and the charisma but she certainly wasn’t dancing too much.

        So it was quite a revelation to see this clip of her at the height of her powers, sashaying away and giving it some Cuban welly.

        Even in her everyday clothes at the sound check she was a force of nature!

        A little more background.

        https://musicorigins.org/item/celia-cruz-and-the-fania-all-stars-performed-in-zaire-africa-in-1974/

        “Thirty-one performing groups, 17 from Zaire and 14 from overseas, performed. Featured performers included top R&B and soul artists from the United States such as James Brown, Bill Withers, B.B. King, and The Spinners as well as prominent African performers such as Miriam Makeba, TPOK Jazz, and Tabu Ley Rochereau.

        Complete concert line-up:

        Zaiko Langa Langa
        Trio Madjesi
        Fania All-Stars
        The Pointer Sisters
        The J.B.s
        James Brown
        Les Stukas feat. Lita Bembo
        Pembe Dance Troupe
        The Jazz Crusaders
        Bill Withers
        Miriam Makeba
        B.B. King
        Afrisa with Tabu Ley
        Abeti
        Franco and OK Jazz
        Big Black
        Sister Sledge
        The Spinners
        Lloyd Price
        Verckys

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