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Free Soul or Free Funk?

bropsbrops 182 Posts
edited April 2006 in Strut Central
This might sound stupid - but does it exist soul music with a "free jazz expression". I mean, soul music with a more eccentric sound, maybe a little psychedelic and funky, but with good vocals (not the spoken word kind of stuff, like Last Poets and all that). I'm sitting here listening to Dewey Redman, Cecil Taylor and Elvin Jones, and I'm thinking about making a free jazz/funk/soul mixtape for tomorrows party before a concert with Phil Niblock here in Oslo. So I'm looking for something new and exciting to play for my nerdy music friends (nothing wrong with that). Make me wiser.

  Comments

  • SoulhawkSoulhawk 3,197 Posts
    Phil Niblock



    there are funky things like 'theme de yoyo' by avant jazz groups heading in a soulful direction.

    some crude funk 45 stuff is so loose as to be inadvertently 'free'.

    ---
  • bropsbrops 182 Posts
    Thanks, I'll see what I find. Really I'm just looking for some vocals inbetween the jazz stuff, to loosen it up a little bit, so it doesn't have to be rares or anything like that. Just some soul that's not straight Motown.

    Phill Nilblock is playing at a "club concept" called Random Cube, arranged every year by some friends of mine (the first year it was more like a small festival, and Animal Collective was one of the headliners, and last year it was more electronic with Carsten Nicolai headlining together with norwegian artist Biosphere and Ryfylke). I think Niblock will be playing together with the german sax player Thomas Ankersmit, so that would be exciting. Kevin Blechdom is also playing. Saw her last year, and she's just crazy with all that nudity and blood and shit. And the norwegian jazz/rock/noise band MoHa! is also playing, so it will be a fun night.
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    It sounds like you're asking for early 70's funk in general, which was very experimental.

    I'd go with the two Warner Bros. albums by Earth, Wind & Fire; Kool & the Gang; Mandrill; Funkadelic; Cymande; War; that Counts album on Westbound. And stick with the stuff recorded between 1969-75.
  • bropsbrops 182 Posts
    Funkadelic and Cymande could work, but was Earth, Wind & Fire really that experimental in the early 70s? I have always stayed away from them really, because of their later records as, in my point of view, is not very good. But I'll check it out.
  • wholewheatwholewheat 437 Posts
    was Earth, Wind & Fire really that experimental in the early 70s? I have always stayed away from them really, because of their later records as, in my point of view, is not very good.[/b] But I'll check it out.

    ?
  • bropsbrops 182 Posts
    Like "Boogie Nights" and that kind of stuff. Allright for parties, but not something I would listen to regularly. My dad have been working with them late in their careers, and released a live compilation a few years ago (or in the late 90s, can't rememeber really). I've kind of growed up with them in my ears now and then, but never really catched on. I like a rawer sound, so I might like the early stuff better, though.

    Edit: With "Boogie Nights" I really ment "Boogie Wonderland", but I guess you figured that out.
  • JazzsuckaJazzsucka 720 Posts
    I would say that these EWF's fit your bill perfectly:





    You can't really go wrong with these two Pharaohs records (which are EWF related btw)





    Couple of soul/funk 45's with unconventional elements:

    Symphonic Four: Who Do you think you're fooling

    Leroy and the Drivers: Sad Chicken
  • bropsbrops 182 Posts
    Thanks. Can't seem to get the Earth, Wind & Fire albums from Soulseek right now, but I'll continue looking. I have this list so far:

    Art Ensemble of Chicago - Theme de Yoyo / Jackie McLean - Frankenstein / Paul Bley - King Korn / Anthony Braxton - To Pianist Cecil Taylor / Sam Rivers - Earth Song / Dewey Redman, Cecil Taylor & Elvin Jones - Spoonin' / Eric Dolphy & Booker Little - Ode to Charlie Parker / Kool & the Gang - Kool & the Gang / Ornette Coleman - Space Jungle / Charles Earland - Aquarius / Roscoe Mitchell Sextet - Ornette

    Feel free to fill in whatever suits. I'm not gonna mix this all together, but just throw them at a cd-r in a suiting order.
  • noreillenoreille 270 Posts
    Feel free to fill in whatever suits.

    I have no way to post a soundclip or even to post a picture of the cover of this fantastic french only funk 45 wich is exactly suiting to what you're after:

    MARVA BROOME "Mystifying mama / For all we know" on HORSE RECORDS 400 506.

    This one is hot, really funky and backed by The Art Ensemble of Chicago. Free funk with an african touch... unique! I guess you can hear it with a quite bad sound quality on funk45.com. I also guess it is pretty tough to find...
  • Dabney_SoulmanDabney_Soulman 890 Posts
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    Funkadelic and Cymande could work, but was Earth, Wind & Fire really that experimental in the early 70s?

    Yes. Those two Warners albums were from early in their career, and were a lot more avant-garde than the E,W &F most know. Maurice White loved his kalimba, and that instrument can be heard all over their earliest LP's. The covers are reprinted up thread.

    To that, I'll also add:
    - Last Days & Time (1972 - on Columbia by now, but still in the same Warner Bros. vein)

    And once you get past the hits, they were STILL in a semi-jazz vein on:
    - Head To The Sky
    - Open Our Eyes
    - That's The Way Of The World
    - Gratitude

    After that, things get dicey when the disco influence takes over.

    their later records as, in my point of view, is not very good.

    I agree 100%, but then again you could say that about most funk bands. If they lasted past 1975, nine times out of ten they lost their edge and got more discofied. Not just E,W & F, but War and Kool & the Gang as well.
  • bropsbrops 182 Posts
    If they lasted past 1975, nine times out of ten they lost their edge and got more discofied. Not just E,W & F, but War and Kool & the Gang as well.

    True. My mom was listening to a lot of this kind of late 70s disco/funk bands when I was younger, so I have a lot of War and Kool & the Gang records from the late 70s. Never liked it that much. I was only listening to hip hop at the time, and it wasn't untill I turned 17-18 or something that I started check out other stuff, and then it was the late 60s and early 70s sound that catched my ear at first. I do like records from the late 70s and early 80s as well, but that is mainly punk and rock.

    But well, now I've learned some more about my own ignorance, and I'll check out some of the Earth, Wind & Fire stuff I've bypassed up to now
  • noreillenoreille 270 Posts

    This is a great record... In a funky spiritual jazz vein. It is at home and frequently played... The Marva Broome 45 I was talking about is really the definition of a FUNKY FREE SOUL track. The vocals are great and strong (quite in an african way), the instro part by the Art Ensemble is incredible: psycho harpsichord and a powerful horn section. Oneness of Juju is very jazzy but it is "cosmic" afro jazz, in the Strata-East vibe, definitely not free oriented.
  • yuichiyuichi Urban sprawl 11,332 Posts

    whatever the hell it is, it's been one of my cherished finds.
  • noreillenoreille 270 Posts
    whatever the hell it is, it's been one of my cherished finds.

    Definitely essential!
  • ovulationistovulationist 290 Posts
    Like "Boogie Nights" and that kind of stuff. Allright for parties, but not something I would listen to regularly. My dad have been working with them late in their careers, and released a live compilation a few years ago (or in the late 90s, can't rememeber really). I've kind of growed up with them in my ears now and then, but never really catched on. I like a rawer sound, so I might like the early stuff better, though.

    Edit: With "Boogie Nights" I really ment "Boogie Wonderland", but I guess you figured that out.

    I cringed while reading this.

    Two words.......Loves Holiday.
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    This might sound stupid - but does it exist soul music with a "free jazz expression".

    Free Jazz Soul or Free Soul Jazz...........





    And MANDRILLAND - MANDRILL.
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    Harold Alexander's Sunshine Man album on Flying Dutchman.
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