FUNKY FRIDAY
THE BEST DAMN FUNK FROM THE 70’S
The 1st Friday of every month
Featuring Groove Merchants, Crate Diggers and Dusty Doctors
Supreme Court (Dannys)
Joe Mama (Sonotheque)
Qualls (Dannys)
9pm – 2am
Only $5 cover
With $5 well drinks all night!
Get down on your groove thang and shake your money maker on this night of funky 45 madness. That's right, our 3 wax poets will be spinning the freshest and funkiest 45's and albums of the 70's. Yes, no cds, no downloaded files - just the grittiest grooves and down-right danceable dusties for a night of super sweet struttin'. So we're calling all the dapper dudes, mack daddies and marvelous mamas out tonight for this soul-sensational soiree.
- Funk is a many splendored thing. Funk is a nasty vibe, and a sweet sexy feeling. Funk is funkiness, a natural release of the essence within. Funk is a high, but it is also down at the bottom, the low-down earthy essence, the bass elements. Funk is at the extremes of everything. Funk is hot, but funk can be cool. Funk is primitive, yet funk can be sophisticated. Funk is a way out, and a way in. Funk is all over the place. Funk is a means of release that cannot be denied. Village Voice writer Barry Walters explained The Funk as well as anyone could: “Trying to put that thang called funk into words is like trying to write down your orgasm. Both thrive in that gap in time when words fall away, leaving nothing but sensation.
What Is Funk – Ricky Vincent
In 1964, Justice Potter Stewart tried to explain "hard-core" pornography, or what is obscene, by saying, "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced . . . but I know it when I see it .” An individual is confronted by the same difficulty in explaining what Funk may be whether one is a common layman or a well-versed academic. Funk’s essence, like its musical predecessor Soul, is based on its spiritual/emotional features. It casts its web by tugging on one’s raw primordial feelings, but unlike gossamer its netting is substantial and inherently human. Its musical heat is at times direct and comes on in rush while it can also slowly simmer and build in a measured unhurried pace.
Evolving from both R&B and Soul, Funk’s primary rhythm was driven by an intensive groove using a mixture of a strong interplay between guitar, bass, drums and horns. Its primary accents on the 1 and 3 count (of 4) moved the rhythm to become more prominent and complex with its extensive use of syncopation.
James Brown, the undisputed “Godfather of Funk” began pushing the sound in the late Sixties with his musical innovations that combined frenzied grunts and punctuated movements resembling African polyrhythms. In a 1990 interview, Brown commented on his simple yet altering musical innovation: “ I changed from the upbeat to the downbeat.”
These changes were quickly picked up by other musicians and a style all of its own began to grow. Artists as diverse as Dyke & The Blazers, Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, Black Heat, Funkadelic, The Fatback Band, Kool & The Gang, The Meters , War, The Bar-kays and too many others to list began feeling the heat and developed their own individual take on Funk.
The gospel of Funk was spreading the world and influencing other artists. Its affects became visible with its incorporation with jazz-based musicians and crossed the globe from Africa to Brazil and back. Whether the music came from such luminaries as Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock (with his Headhunters band), Grover Washington Jr. Les McCann and Eddie Harris or was exported to Africa melding itself to finally becoming Afrobeat in the hands of Fela Kuti; Funk moved constantly forward as a powerful voice in popular music. And although the golden era of Funk is long gone, its continual influence is felt in the Washington Go-Go scene and its use of sampling in Rap and Hip-Hop.
Giving tribute to the amazing influence and history of Funk, Sonotheque proudly showcases “Funky Friday – The Best Damn Funk from the 70's” on the 1st Friday of every month. So as George Clinton would shout “Get up on the down-stoke – everybody get up” and “Tear the roof off the mother-fucker” we welcome all super-freaks to shake their booty, leave their inhibitions at the door and get down tonight!
Funky link:
http://funky16corners.tripod.com/intro.htm
http://www.funk45.com/
http://www.blaxploitation.com/
http://www.dustygroove.com/
http://www.djsoulsister.com/
http://www.tuffcity.com/
http://superdeluxe.typepad.com/
http://www.homeofthegroove.blogspot.com/
