Historically, the term funk or funky had already been utilized in various different musical contexts well before the emergence of funk as a distinct style. As early as the very beginning of the 20th century, the word itself connoted that of a strong offensive smell, and one of its earliest recorded uses in regards to music was in a song credited to New Orleans ragtime cornetist Buddy Bolden... He was alluding to the term to describe the ripe olfactory state of a dancehall after an invigorating dance tune because any crowd of people, black, white, green, gray will get funky when dancing close together and belly rubbing.
In the era where jazz was in its infancy in New Orleans, the term funk was already connoted with the particular black musical traditions of the region, although also in a more general sense with music which was made to dance to, or to literally getting funky to. In the mid 1950’s however, the term funk would become more concretely associated with a particular sub style of the hard bop school of jazz, namely that of funky hard bop, also commonly referred to as soul jazz. Most historians draw narratives which purport that the various hard bop branches evolved as a reaction to previous bebop's, avant garde drifting and solo experimentation, which was presumably distancing jazz from its roots and from mass appeal, or as against cool jazz’s excessive austere dedication to restraint and subtlety, that had reputedly drained the emotional content from jazz. Regardless of which interpretation may have been a greater influencing factor, it is generally accepted that the funkier brand of hard bop took center stage in filling the commercial and aesthetic gap in the jazz world by embracing a return to the pulsing rhythms and earthy emotions of jazz’s roots. These purported roots’were namely that of the blues tradition, as well as those derived from Gospel oriented black Baptist and Spiritualist Churches of the South and the urban ghettos of the North. As David Rosenthal elucidates, in this period, funk was therefore upgraded from implying an unpleasant odor to denoting emotional authenticity, and together with the interrelated term of soul, was applied to express earthy, natural, as opposed to phony, qualities. More technically, though, funk was frequently used to describe the extensive use of blues voicings on tunes that were not strictly speaking blues... funky means earthy and blues based. It might not be blues itself, but it does have that down home feel to it, whilst soul alluded to the harmonic progressions and rhythmic fervor of music derived from Gospel.
September - Creekside Train
In the era where jazz was in its infancy in New Orleans, the term funk was already connoted with the particular black musical traditions of the region, although also in a more general sense with music which was made to dance to, or to literally getting funky to. In the mid 1950’s however, the term funk would become more concretely associated with a particular sub style of the hard bop school of jazz, namely that of funky hard bop, also commonly referred to as soul jazz. Most historians draw narratives which purport that the various hard bop branches evolved as a reaction to previous bebop's, avant garde drifting and solo experimentation, which was presumably distancing jazz from its roots and from mass appeal, or as against cool jazz’s excessive austere dedication to restraint and subtlety, that had reputedly drained the emotional content from jazz. Regardless of which interpretation may have been a greater influencing factor, it is generally accepted that the funkier brand of hard bop took center stage in filling the commercial and aesthetic gap in the jazz world by embracing a return to the pulsing rhythms and earthy emotions of jazz’s roots. These purported roots’were namely that of the blues tradition, as well as those derived from Gospel oriented black Baptist and Spiritualist Churches of the South and the urban ghettos of the North. As David Rosenthal elucidates, in this period, funk was therefore upgraded from implying an unpleasant odor to denoting emotional authenticity, and together with the interrelated term of soul, was applied to express earthy, natural, as opposed to phony, qualities. More technically, though, funk was frequently used to describe the extensive use of blues voicings on tunes that were not strictly speaking blues... funky means earthy and blues based. It might not be blues itself, but it does have that down home feel to it, whilst soul alluded to the harmonic progressions and rhythmic fervor of music derived from Gospel.
September - Creekside Train
- Recorded in: San Jose, California.
- Released on: November 25 1996
- Genres Emo, Post Hardcore, Post Rock
"Formed in San Jose, California in the September of 1994 and ending in the May of 1995, September played a total of two shows and recorded five songs. Four of them can be found on their 10" Erasmia Pulcella album."
Comments
Post a Comment