funk – Page 6

Tigran Hamasyan (feat. Berklee Middle Eastern Fusion Ensemble) | Drip

“With pianist/composer Tigran Hamasyan,” reports the artist’s own website, “potent jazz improvisation fuses with the rich folkloric music of his native Armenia … he’s one of the most remarkable and distinctive jazz-meets-rock pianists of his generation … Tigran’s career has included an impressive number of accolades, including top piano award at the 2013 Montreux Jazz Festival and the grand prize at the prestigious 2006 Thelonious Monk Jazz Piano Competition … he was applauded by NPR Music: ‘With startling combinations of jazz, minimalist, electronic, folk and songwriterly elements … Hamasyan and his collaborators travel musical expanses marked with heavy grooves, ethereal voices, pristine piano playing and ancient melodies.'”

Our regular contributor Carlo Migliaccio has submitted Tigran’s tune “Drip,” performed here in 2018 with the Berklee College of Music Middle Eastern Fusion Ensemble. The tune combines elements of Middle Eastern music with metal — just for starters. Carlo hasn’t taken on the huge task of charting the tune out, but sends his initial findings: “The tune starts in B minor. The first modulation is at 5:03, which seems to ascend up a major third to D#, but it quickly drops down a half step in a modal shift. The tonal center definitely moves to D on a G harmonic minor scale … so is that D harmonic minor mixolydian(?) The second modulation is at 7:08 and travels briefly down a major third to Bb minor, a half step below the starting key. A few bars later, the final modulation takes it down another half step for an ending in A minor, a whole step below the starting key … I think. My ears are playing tricks on me with this one, but I’m now on a Tigran Hamasyan kick as a result of this tune.”

Maxime Cholley, a French drummer and Berklee alum now based in New York City, has long been a proponent of Tigran’s work. Maxime performed on this track and recounts the session: “Working with Tigran Hamasyan was an incredible experience. He was very humble, patient, and thrilled to play with us and try new ideas on his own songs. At the end of a rehearsal, Tigran was working on a part and I joined him while the rest of the band packed up. As we played together, I clearly felt something that could be described as his ‘musical aura.’ His playing enhanced mine and both our sounds merged in the most satisfying way — as if each of his notes had some kind of sonic glue on it. His presence was absolutely mind blowing!”

Sun Rai | Chase the Clouds

Australian native Rai Thistlethwayte‘s website reports that “his mother was a classical piano teacher, and his father was a language teacher who played bass and guitar in local rock bands. Influenced by his parents, Rai developed an appreciation for a wide variety of music, including classical, rock, pop and jazz.” He served as a keyboards and vocals sideman for multiple acts early in his career. One of his more prominent projects as sideman has been with the band Knower. In an interview with Abstractlogix, Thistlethwaite explains:

“With Knower, I’m playing much more in the ‘synthesizer’ world, lots of rhythmic stabs, a few keyboard solos with lead sounds. I’m using a laptop based setup, so that garners a very different sound in terms of tone color … If it’s not grooving, it’s not happening. I don’t overthink an ‘approach’ to playing, I just try and do what seems musically sound for the task at hand!”

From our regular contributor Carlo Migliaccio comes a tune by Thistlethwayte’s own project, Sun Rai: 2013’s “Chase the Clouds.” Sun Rai’s spare funk-tinged duo sound features Rai on vocals, keys, and keyboard bass, with only the support of kit drums, recorded live in the studio. Starting in Bb minor, there’s a jump to Bb major at the chorus (1:05.) The Bb major/minor line is straddled some more until 4:22, where there’s a key change to B major.

Teena Marie | I Need Your Lovin’

“No white artist sang R&B more convincingly than Teena Marie,” notes AllMusic. “Marie grew up in west Los Angeles in a neighborhood that was nicknamed ‘Venice Harlem’ because of its heavy black population. The singer/songwriter/producer was in her early twenties when, around 1977, she landed a job at Motown Records.”

Pitchfork notes that “despite earning (Motown boss) Berry Gordy’s approval, she worked with an assortment of songwriters over nearly three years with no luck. While rehearsing at the label’s L.A. studio one day, Marie finally got the right person’s attention: Rick James, fresh off 1978’s Come Get It!, his debut Top-10 R&B album that would launch his outrageous, sequin-studded ‘Super Freak’ era. The funk-rock svengali took an instant shine to Marie. ‘I expected to see a writer-producer … and instead I found this short, tiny white body sitting at the piano, singing like the gods had come into her spirit.’ Her production and songwriting prowess has been instructive for generations of musicians Marie has influenced over the years … Mary J. Blige, another powerhouse of R&B, cites her as a formative influence constantly. ‘It bugs me out that only 1 out of 20 people knows about Teena Marie.'”

Released in 1980 in a post-Disco era when roller rinks thrived (and, unlike dance clubs, were open to all ages on some nights of the week), “I Need Your Lovin'” clearly bears Rick James’ signature percolating bassline style. The tune’s saturated instrumentation is in high gear from its first measures, but reaches a pinnacle as it transitions from B minor to C minor at 4:11. The strings, horns, and backing vocals duel it out thereafter — both before and after a false ending at 6:11. The track reached #37 (US Pop), #9 (US R&B), and #2 (US Dance). Many thanks to MotD regular Rob Penttinen for this submission!

Average White Band | A Love of Your Own

“Their self-effacing name to the contrary, Average White Band are anything but — one of the few white groups to cross the color line and achieve success and credibility playing funk,” AllMusic reports. “With their tight, fiery sound also belying their Scottish heritage, evoking American R&B hotbeds like Detroit, Memphis, and Philadelphia instead.”

Wikipedia details that the band had several soul and disco hits between 1974 and 1980: “They are best known for their million-selling instrumental track ‘Pick Up the Pieces’, and for their albums AWB and Cut the Cake … They have influenced others, such as the Brand New Heavies, and been sampled by various musicians, including the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, TLC, Too Short, Ice Cube, Eric B. & Rakim, Nas, A Tribe Called Quest, and Arrested Development, making them the 15th most sampled act in history.” Despite many changes in lineup, as of 2020, the band continues on — 48 years after it was formed.

“A Love of Your Own” (1976) starts in F# minor, shifts to A minor at 0:44, then returns to F# minor at 1:12. The pattern holds through a second verse (through 2:24), where a wholesale shift upwards to G minor kicks in for the balance of the tune — which amounts to an extended 3-minute chorus/outro. Many thanks to stalwart mod wrangler JB for submitting this tune!

Little Feat | Mercenary Territory

AllMusic describes Little Feat as “long-running purveyors of funky southern boogie (by way of Los Angeles). Though they had all the trappings of a Southern-fried blues band, Little Feat were hardly conventional. Led by songwriter/guitarist Lowell George, Little Feat were a wildly eclectic band, bringing together strains of blues, R&B, country, and rock & roll. The band members were exceptionally gifted technically and their polished professionalism sat well with the slick sounds coming out of Southern California during the ’70s. However, Little Feat were hardly slick — they had a surreal sensibility, as evidenced by George‘s idiosyncratic songwriting, which helped them earn a cult following among critics and musicians.”

This live version of “Mercenary Territory” is from the 1978 live album Waiting for Columbus. Mostly in D major, the tune takes us through a brief but trippy key-of-the-moment patch from 1:18 – 1:25. We then embark on an extended D minor instrumental bridge from 1:55 – 3:36 featuring a boisterous romp of a sax solo, ending in stratospheric off-the-horn glissando fireworks (a horn section wasn’t a regular part of the instrumentation, but no less than the Tower of Power horns joined forces with Little Feat here). At 3:36, there’s a prominent shift back to D major.

Many thanks to recurrent contributor JB for this submission!

Dirty Loops | Old Armando Had a Farm

Swedish funk/pop phenoms Dirty Loops have been doing their best to stay sane and keep their skills sharp during the gig-less period known as COVID-19 with their Songs for Lovers series. With “Old Armando Had a Farm,” Henrik Linder (bass) and Aron Mellergard (drums) cook up a country/funk/bluegrass concoction without their frontman, vocalist and keyboardist Jonah Nilsson.

In the spirit of the band’s typical humor, the supporting cast (from steel guitar to hand claps to hair colorist!) are all mentioned in the end credits. The tune modulates multiple times, starting at 0:43.

Robin Thicke | Brand New Jones

American-Canadian singer/songwriter Robin Thicke makes his MotD debut with “Brand New Jones” from his 2002 debut studio album A Beautiful World. Thicke has collaborated with Usher, Christina Aguilera, Mary J. Blige and Jennifer Hudson among others, and currently serves as a judge on the Fox reality singing competition show The Masked Singer. Key change at 3:12.

Judith Hill | Cry, Cry, Cry

“Cry, Cry, Cry” was the single released from American singer-songwriter Judith Hill‘s 2015 debut album Back in Time. The album, co-produced with Prince, marked Hill’s first foray into solo performing after she appeared as a backup singer with Michael Jackson (including as a featured soloist on his This is It tour) Josh Groban, and John Legend. Hill’s story was also featured in the acclaimed 2013 documentary 20 Feet from Stardom, for which she was awarded a Grammy Award. The tune starts in B major, and modulates to C at 3:38.

Gnarls Barkley | Going On

Gnarls Barkley’s smash debut hit “Crazy” was considered by many to be 2006’s global song of the summer. Last.FM reports that it was “the first #1 UK single to be obtained solely through Internet downloads.” The band, a duo comprised of producer/multi-instrumentalist Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton and funk/soul vocalist Cee Lo Green, continued to crank out unpredictable tunes until 2010, straddling multiple genres of psychedelia-tinged hiphop, soul, neo-soul, and funk.

Playing up the psychedelic aspect, the video for “Going On,” filmed in Jamaica, centers around “a group of people celebrating the discovery of a door that leads to another dimension,” according to MTV.com. The song garnered a 2009 Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Performance; in 2011, Time Magazine listed the lo-fi, dance-centric video among its 30 All-Time Best Music Videos, calling it a “sucker punch of joy …(a) three-minute piece of percussive pop perfection.”

Featured on the duo’s second album, The Odd Couple (2008), “Going On” alternates between an uptuned Eb minor and F minor throughout. The tune features an intro in Eb minor, verse one in F minor (0:18), chorus in Eb minor (0:47), etc.

The Dregs | Bloodsucking Leeches

“One of the top jazz-rock fusion ensembles ever, the Dixie Dregs combined virtuoso technique with eclecticism and a sense of humor and spirit too frequently lacking in similar project,” reports AllMusic. From Music Aficionado’s profile on the band: “During the Georgia-based Dregs’ heyday in the late 70s and early 80s, their output consisted of longish instrumental workouts that mixed elements of southern rock, bluegrass, prog, metal, classical, jazz and fusion, among other styles, all of it shot through with ridiculously complex technical acrobatics,” The band’s name was initially The Dixie Dregs, but the group dropped “Dixie” from the name towards the end of its run. The group was led by guitarist Steve Morse (also known for his work with Deep Purple).

Founding bassist Andy West says of “Bloodsucking Leeches” (1982), via Music Aficionado: “This song is our statement on the music industry at the time, which is where the title comes from. The feel of this one, to me, it’s not quite metal, but it’s definitely rock. If you trace it back, it’s like a Led Zeppelin kind of thing, if Led Zeppelin had kept on going.” Maybe — if Zeppelin had “kept on going” right off the edge of the planet and into its own unique universe of southern-fried funk/rock!

Starting in E major, 0:38 shifts to a focus on the closely-related key of A major, a much bigger jump to G major at 1:25, back to A at 1:53, and a return to E at 2:13. The shifts continue until the tune settles back into E major in its final seconds (3:54).