The Roots Lose Their Bassist

In shocking news from The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Roots Manager Richard Nichols, Owen Biddle, bass player for The Roots has decided to leave the band to focus on his acid jazz funk project Mister Barrington. This comes as a shock to many fans who truly love Owen Biddle‘s rock sensibilities and the extra edge that he brought to the project.

Owen Biddle joined The Roots back in 2007 as their bassist replacing longtime bass player Leonard Nelson “Hub” Hubbard. But before joining, he had already garnered production credits on the band’s award winning, critically acclaimed 2006 release Game Theory. He is not only a talented bassist, but also an actor as well. He regularly plays as his drunk wife Renee in a recurring role on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon’s “The Real Housewives of Late Night“.

Taking his place will be Mark Kelley who not only plays bass, but cello and piano as well. The latter not really needed since they already have 2 keyboardists in James Poyser and James “Kamal” Grey.  Mark will be making his debut as their new bassist on LNJF on Monday when it returns from its Summer hiatus.

While we doubt there will be any hiccups, not much is known by the public of Mark Kelley whose previous credits include Berklee College of Music’s All Star Quartet (video here) and supporting various artists including Meshell Ndegeocello (video here).

We’re curious to see what impact this has on the band, if any, but without a doubt Owen Biddle will sorely be missed. Much love Mr. Bass Man. We’ll watch the wheels of Mister Barrington roll with great interest.

 

Great 60’s R&B Songwriter Jerry Leiber Dies

This makes 2 music icons that died in one day. Nick Ashford of Ashford & Simpson and now songwriter Jerry Leiber has died of cardiopulmonary failure. He was 78.  Jerry had joined forces with Mike Stoller to push out some of the most amazing songs that will live on forever in infamy.

The pair has written classic songs for Elvis Presley, The Drifters, The Coasters, and many more R&B superstars. Most of which would not have even attained the label of superstar if it wasn’t for Leiber and Stoller. The two had such an amazing string of hits, that they even created a Broadway play entitled Smokey Joe’s Cafe strictly to honor their contributions to music.

Leiber and Stoller were responsible for hits such as Stand By Me,  Jailhouse Rock, Young Blood, On Broadway, Yakety-Yak and countless other classics including the Leiber-agitating Hound Dog that is “thorn in the paw” for Leiber who was very annoyed at the liberties that Elvis Presley took with the song and specifically the lyric “You ain’t never caught a rabbit”.

“To this day I have no idea what that rabbit business is about,” he said in 2009. “The song is not about a dog; it’s about a man, a freeloading gigolo. Elvis’ version makes no sense to me, and, even more irritatingly, it is not the song that Mike and I wrote. Of course, the fact that it sold more than seven million copies took the sting out of what seemed to be a capricious change of lyrics.”

Rolling Stone did a fantastic coverage piece on Mr. Leiber on their site and it’s worth a read for nice insight to Jerry and his contributions as well as his obsession with “wanting to be black”.  Rest in peace to one of the greats.

 

Great 60's R&B Songwriter Jerry Leiber Dies

This makes 2 music icons that died in one day. Nick Ashford of Ashford & Simpson and now songwriter Jerry Leiber has died of cardiopulmonary failure. He was 78.  Jerry had joined forces with Mike Stoller to push out some of the most amazing songs that will live on forever in infamy.

The pair has written classic songs for Elvis Presley, The Drifters, The Coasters, and many more R&B superstars. Most of which would not have even attained the label of superstar if it wasn’t for Leiber and Stoller. The two had such an amazing string of hits, that they even created a Broadway play entitled Smokey Joe’s Cafe strictly to honor their contributions to music.

Leiber and Stoller were responsible for hits such as Stand By Me,  Jailhouse Rock, Young Blood, On Broadway, Yakety-Yak and countless other classics including the Leiber-agitating Hound Dog that is “thorn in the paw” for Leiber who was very annoyed at the liberties that Elvis Presley took with the song and specifically the lyric “You ain’t never caught a rabbit”.

“To this day I have no idea what that rabbit business is about,” he said in 2009. “The song is not about a dog; it’s about a man, a freeloading gigolo. Elvis’ version makes no sense to me, and, even more irritatingly, it is not the song that Mike and I wrote. Of course, the fact that it sold more than seven million copies took the sting out of what seemed to be a capricious change of lyrics.”

Rolling Stone did a fantastic coverage piece on Mr. Leiber on their site and it’s worth a read for nice insight to Jerry and his contributions as well as his obsession with “wanting to be black”.  Rest in peace to one of the greats.

 

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett To Separate

According to 3 separate sources (The Examiner, TMZ and the Daily Mail), Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith are planning to separate.

The couple has been in public eye for many years, being married for 13 years and was always seen as the “Hollywood’s couple”.  Both Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith are critically acclaimed actors and even have children (Actor Jaden Smith and singer, Willow Smith) that are kickstarting their own careers right now. Willow “Whip My Hair” Smith is starting out in music where daddy Will got his start as part of the Grammy award winning rap duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince.

Will Smith has always touted the importance of the marriage institution and importance to the children even though he himself is already a divorcee. Additionally, there has been talk that Jada’s TV show Hawthorne has caused some major rifts with the couple that has extremely steamy sex scenes.

Regardless, we hope they can keep it together if only for the kids. They are truly a class act and we hate to see something tear two people apart that are very strong willed individuals that have worked very hard to acquire the success they have now.

 

R.I.P. Nick Ashford of Ashford & Simpson

Photo: Shahar Azran/Getty Images

While no stranger to funk, Nick Ashford was best and arguably only known for his pop hits. He was part of the duo Ashford & Simpson and graced the world with tunes like Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, Solid, Reach Out & Touch Somebody’s Hand, I’m Every Woman (one of biggest hits for Chaka Khan) and many more including Ray Charles’ Let’s Go Get Stoned.  Sadly, Nick passed away at the age of 70 after a battle with throat cancer.

Nick was born on May 4, 1942 in South Carolina. He moved to New York to pursue a dancing career which fell through. He then met his wife Valerie Simpson at White Rock Baptist Church in Harlem and the couple were married for 38 years and have 2 daughters, Nicole and Asia. The couple signed with Motown (the couple would marry in 1974 after leaving Motown in 1970) and wrote the aforementioned string of hits for performers across all music genres even up until recently when they collaborated with the late Amy Winehouse on one of her best recordings called Tears Dry on Their Own off of her now infamous Back In Black album.

We at Funkatopia send our condolences to his family and hope they can take solace in knowing that Nick will forever be remembered as a true music great. While millions of artists try to even get close to his level of accomplishment, Nick can rest in peace as his songs will live on forever.  Verdine White of Earth, Wind and Fire said, “They had magic, and that’s what creates those wonderful hits, that magic. Without those songs, those artists wouldn’t have been able to go to the next level.”  Couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

 

Gavin DeGraw Getting Better After Attack

While not a funkster that we normally would cover since we’re dedicated to funk music, we love us some Gavin DeGraw.  He is an amazing performer and singer that has brought us very great tunes like I Don’t Want To Be, In Love With a Girl and Chariot. So rightfully so we were very bummed to find out that Gavin had been attacked in New York City that resulted in a concussion, black eyes, a broken nose, cuts and bruises.  The worst part being that they were voice affecting injuries even though temporary.  It also caused him to cancel a few shows in which he was the scheduled opener for the Train and Maroon 5 tour currently on the road.  Not cool.

Either way, he’s much better now according to the singer/songwriter as told to VH1.  “I’m feeling much better, but it will take a little bit more time to be back to 100 percent! I’m overwhelmed with the outpouring of support from my fans, friends and family. I can’t wait to get back out on tour and look forward to seeing you on the road sometime soon.”

And this is very good news for us since we are big fans of Mr. DeGraw.  Now he can get back on the road soon to support his new album due to hit the streets in September entitled Sweeter that you can pre-order on his website here. Get better and thanks for the update!

 

fo/mo/deep – Eclecticism

We have to be fair about this release when it comes to putting it up against the Funk-o-Meter because we reached out to fo/mo/deep to request their CD for review based on a review done by ReverbNation that gave it high funk marks. Any time that we hear someone label something as highly funky, we have to check it out ourselves and give it the good old fashioned Funk litmus test.

The CD entitled Eclecticism is instrumental with exception to the track entitled Expansions. However, there really is little need for vocals on this album since the instrumentation should be the primary focus here.  There are no fast moving parts or sleepy grooves here since all of the tracks are presented in a mid-tempo fashion that could probably be sewn together to create a tapestry of similar BPM’s. Every song is designed to be enjoyed and retrospected in a perfect middle ground.  From unusual busy bass lines and snappy drums to the bleeding horns throughout, there’s nothing underwhelming in the delivery and every note seems to have purpose.  Lest we forget the quirky song titles such as Kiggundu’s Bazaar and Mitch Betta Have My Bunny that beg for you to listen just to see what could warrant such a labeling.

The main misinterpretation with pigeonholing fo/mo/deep into the funk corner, as with most bands of this caliber, is that the music comes across as much more freeform funk when heard live than what gets captured on recordings. This is the same anomaly that has plagued bands like Tower Of Power, Deep Banana Blackout, and Robert Randolph for years.  See them live and you’re convinced that they’re the funkiest band you’ve ever seen. Buy the CD and you’re listening to what seems like loose fitting jazz standards. But fo/mo/deep manages to keep their funk edge on the recordings which is a feat in itself that hasn’t been accurately accomplished since Headhunters.  Although, fo/mo/deep thought enough about this possibility to have graced the CD with two live closing tracks including Giant FONKY Steps and the aforementioned Mitch Better Have My Bunny.

To fo/mo/deep‘s credit, this album is very clean and is well crafted jazz musicianship at its best. The Ohio collective has a very eclectic group of musicians (hence the album name), but all are very well established in the Ohio jazz community and their brotherhood is evident on this recording. There isn’t a weak link in this group. All of the full blown members break out their talents on their respective instruments such as mixing up bass styles (fretted, stand up, 6 strings), horns (tenor, alto & flute), pianos (electric, grand and organ), drums and percussion (drums, African & Indian percussion loops & standard percussion).

The bass riffs are fast and tight, the drums are clean and in the pocket, the horns take advantage of every possible melody opportunity they can within arrangements, the keys are tickled and woven throughout, and the percussion is placed with the perfect spatial conservatism to not be over-the-top or annoying. All in all, a very relaxing album that creates soft infusions of jazz and funk melded very well for background driving music, work music, or just plain headphone nirvana.

While we would love to give it a perfect 5 out of 5, it doesn’t meet the full blown funk effect, so we’re giving it a 4 out of 5. Not because it doesn’t deserve a perfect score for its production prowess and excellent musicianship, but because we have to judge under the guise of who we are here as Funkatopians. If we weren’t behind this wall, it would definitely take home the prize of a perfect score.

If you’re looking for a full blown bass heavy funk fix, this isn’t it.  But if your love of funk is more on the fence with acid jazz, this would well be worth a purchase.  Listen to some tracks and get it here!

 – as reviewed by Mr. Christopher

 

Frank Ocean – nostalgia, Ultra

Frank Ocean is a very rare breed, but not as much as one might think.  Frank is a member of Odd Future (aka Wolf Gang aka OFWGKTA aka Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All).  If you heard the two separately, you wouldn’t even put the them together or even possibly imagine that Frank Ocean was a product of the over the top antics of Odd Future. Frank has written songs for Brandy, Justin Bieber, and is working with Beyonce, appears on the Kanye West / Jay Z Throne album and will obviously appear on Odd Future team mate Tyler, The Creator’s Goblin album, which is a very dark and violent rap album and a world and a football field away from this offering from Mr. Ocean.  All before the age of 25.

Frank’s release of his solo album nostalgia, Ultra was distributed by OkayPlayer for free some time back and is extremely reminiscent of early Bilal releases.  The overall spacey grooves that fill the album are layered with incredibly smooth vocals, very occasional slight auto-tuning, and nary a dance tune among the mix. The closest upbeat material on the collection are the songs entitled Songs For Women and lovecrimes.  The standout track that has an opportunity to get some major radio play would be American Wedding that unapologetically uses The Eagles Hotel California as its base melody throughout the entire song complete with the entire guitar solo as he swoons about marriage and divorce.

From a funk quotient, there’s not any hard funk here and not by any stretch of the imagination. The primary reason we even offered to review it even though it’s non-funk related is because it’s got great grooves and it’s free. Yep. You can get it from here; https://s3.amazonaws.com/Mixtape_Zips/nostalgia_ultra.zip . If you find the link broken, you can simply Google “frank ocean nostalgia ultra download” and find a wealth of backup locations.

This is a great love song collection that rivals any slow jam artist out there with tastes of that off-kilter Bilal bizarrity at sporadic points all broken up with the sound of a cassette tape player being stopped and started.  The main reason being that the collection was presented as a “mix tape”.

This is a really good collection of songs and shouldn’t be seen as anything other than a great sex mix.  From an album perspective and what it’s worth, we’d give it a 4 out of 5 for what it intentionally accomplishes and that’s what you should focus on if you could care less whether or not it’s funky. But from a Funkatopian perspective, we’re forced to give it a 2.5 out of 5 because of the lack of any funk even though it has some nice grooves on it which may actually appeal to some funksters.  Why did we review this again?

 

Lee Fields – Treacherous

Leave no doubt that Lee Fields has been involved in the R&B, Soul & Funk music world for more years than most can count. Lee has seen things that would kill most folks having released multiple singles back in the 70’s on various independent labels. The funk and acid-jazz movement overseas brought out the DJ’s crate digging ways that revived the genre that Lee was an integral part of decades ago.  Lee used that as his calling to come back out in the 90’s and start recording once again to bring new material to the public eye starting the revival with 1995’s Coming To Tear the Roof Down and currently ending up at his new release Treacherous.

One look at Lee and you would immediately be disarmed into pigeonholing him as a “soul man” and you’d be only partially right. Lee’s voice is reminiscent of the raspy soul vocals that ruled the radio in the 60’s with The Stylistics and The Delfonics that was heavily popularized by the Motown sound. Lee’s new Treacherous album is backed by studio musicians that have performed on albums from as eclectic as The Dap Kings, Amy Winehouse, and even TV On The Radio.  The result of which is an album that gives everyone a taste of something they like.

Treacherous treads quite a bit on various styles of dance music and a good bit of which verges on techno. The opening track We’re Here To Turn It Out is a straight out dance track and one of the most techno of the albums offerings.  The album makes an unusual jump afterwards into a slow grooving bump and grind ballad titled I’ve Been Hurt with swooning keyboard strings and pads that would be appropriately placed in a candle-lit room with a couple glasses of wine and lingerie.  That is then followed by a slightly more upbeat mid-tempo ballad I Want To Get With You that’s reminiscent of a classic Billy Ocean ballad feel.

The next song on the album called Living For The Gusto is an unusual beast with a slight techno feel that brings the dance grooves back into the fray. It unusually uses the verse keyboard melody from the Duran Duran song Save a Prayer over its chorus while still maintaining the upbeat dance pace.  That song is immediately followed by Manhunt that continues the techno feel of the first track to insure that people don’t think Lee is a one trick pony in the techno dance realm of music.

Treacherous then jumps the track and moves to a reggae tinged song titled He Doesn’t Care About You which has the vocal styling of The Temptations and eloquently captures that 60’s soul sound that speaks to rumors designed to destroy relationships.  As does the following track, the saxophone fueled At The End Of The Day that serves as the perfect follow-up.

The stand-out song of the album is the foot tapping, butt-wiggling Dance Like You’re Naked.  The song has shout outs and chants in the groove of James Brown along with horn stabs that would make Maceo proud. It couldn’t have been more JB sounding if James had penned it himself. If this song was floating unattached to this album, people would immediately claim it as a lost JB song straight down to the clean guitar riffs reminiscent of The Payback.

The album is then closed out with yet another 60’s soul feeling song called I Want You So Bad, but with an added Caribbean taste and then finished up with an instrumental version of the opening We’re Here To Turn It Out.

For fans of 60’s soul, Lee’s primary influences come through here.  Fans of Lee’s previous work won’t be disappointed. The biggest challenge for the album are the varying audio levels due to mixed production assistants on the various tracks.  There are other notable issues with the CD, but none that affect the quality of the collection. Overall, it’s a great CD, but with exception to a couple of tracks, it won’t itch the funk scratch.  But if you love the sound of 60’s soul and a nice dance mix, you shouldn’t hesitate since Lee Field‘s vocals really shine on this album.

Listen to sample tracks and purchase it from Amazon here; Lee Fields – Treacherous. You can also catch Lee performing across the globe by visiting his Tour Page on his website at http://www.leefieldsmusic.com.

 

Mad About Funk Word Usage

I can’t help but get very annoyed when people misuse the word “funk” so often.  We try to make sure that we stay tuned to the news around the world to let us know what’s going on in the funk world.  But nothing gets us ticked when we see people use it in a variety of ways that’s not only inappropriate word usage, but it doesn’t even make sense. Here are the top 3 uses of the word funk that we find the most ridiculous and uncalled for.

“That smells funky”
Insinuates that it has a moldy or powerful odoriferous smell that is offensive to the nose. This one makes us the most annoyed because of the “offensive” nature of the word usage. Funk music is neither offensive or disruptive to the senses except in a good way.

“She makes funky necklaces.”
This one takes a close second. Designed to indicate that the item is unusual or outside of the norm. More frequently used when an item doesn’t fit into any pre-determined category and mostly on things that are overly colorful like bright yellows, reds or odd designs. While funk groups of the 70’s may have dressed flamboyantly in golds and bright colors, that does not sufficiently mean that everything be ordained as “funky” if it looks like a funk group may have worn it somewhere on their outfit.

 “He’s been in a funk lately.”
This one isn’t so great either. This insinuates that the person has either been depressed, sad or, when used with sports, that he’s in a bad slump like a string of losses.  Funk is a good thing and it helps you out of depression. It’s sole purpose musically is designed to lift you up and that makes this specific usage the antithesis of what funk means.

So for the love of all things holy, please stop using the word funk or funky in ways that it was not meant. It not only does a disservice to the true meaning of the word, but it also makes you look shallow and mindless. You need to go to the dollar store and buy a thesaurus and find another adjective.  May I suggest something like Gaga. For instance, “It smells like Gaga in here.”