Jazz-funk - Ambivalence of The Genre

Ambivalence of The Genre

At its conception, the jazz-funk genre was occasionally looked down upon by jazz hard-liners as a sell-out, or "jazz for the dancehalls." It was unsubstantially presumed by these to be not intellectual or elite enough, which led to controversy about the music crossing over, but it was making jazz much more popular and mainstream.

The jazz-funk (as well as a proportion of the jazz) community absorbed the street sound of the funk rhythm, which gave the genre a dance-able rhythm and gained influences from the electric and some new analog electronic sound of fusion. The 1970s included many original stylistic creations, and the jazz-funk genre was very representative of this movement.

From a jazz perspective, the ambivalence towards the jazz-funk genre arose – despite commercial success – because it was "too jazzy" and therefore too complex. Arrangements and instrumental tracks in pop or R&B music requires less initiation and allows the lead singer to relate to the audience, but jazz-funk was more focused on specific notes and overall music writing, so it seldom offered this same interaction with the audience.

Disdained by a part of the jazz community and its inability to top the pop charts, jazz-funk had a long hard time to establish itself. In the UK's nightclubs of the mid to late 1970s, DJs like Colin Curtis in Manchester, Birmingham's Graham Warr and Shaun Williams, and Leeds-based Ian Dewhirst and Paul Schofield championed the genre, along with Chris Hill and Bob Jones in the South. In the late 1980s, the work of rare groove crate diggers–DJs in England who were interested in looking back into the past and re-discovering old tunes, such as Norman Jay and Gilles Peterson and hip hop DJ's such as Marley Marl in the US, have both the jazz community and the pop professionals beginning to understand the value of the genre. Eddie Henderson, Donald Byrd and Herbie Hancock are seldom challenged as major influences on jazz. The Mizell Brothers have received official accolades from the industry and are being listened to widely. Their work has also been sampled in more modern music.

It is also worth noting that the more famous acid jazz movement is often seen as a rediscovery of 1970s jazz-funk, interpreted or produced by contemporary artists of the 1990s. One of the most blatant example is the band US3, who were signed to Acid Jazz Records founded by Peterson and Eddie Piller. US3 covered Cantaloupe Island, originally recorded by Herbie Hancock, and reissue of rare grooves from the era, led by DJ Peterson and Patrick Forge in the United Kingdom. Contemporary jazz artists have also contributed to the rediscovery, most notably Nathan Haines and Courtney Pine.

Examples of artists that explored jazz-funk, soul jazz, or jazz fusion are Herbie Hancock, David Axelrod, Sun Ra, Kung Fu, Roy Ayers, Azymuth, Gary Bartz, George Benson, The Brecker Bros., Tom Browne, Donald Byrd, the Mizell Brothers, Billy Cobham, Lou Marini, The Crusaders, Deodato, Ned Doherty, George Duke, Victor Wooten, Charles Earland, Funkanova, Roger Glenn, Johnny Hammond, Gene Harris, Eddie Henderson, Bobbi Humphrey, Bob James, Kool & The Gang, Rebirth Brass Band, Ronnie Laws, Mass Production, Francine McGee, Jaco Pastorius, Pleasure, Patrice Rushen, Lee Ritenour, Lonnie Liston Smith, Bill Summers, Tower of Power, Soul Rebels Brass Band, Miroslav Vitous, Dexter Wansel, and Leon Ware.

Herbie Hancock was dedicated to jazz-funk on many albums including Head Hunters, Thrust, Man-Child, Flood, Secrets, Sunlight, and Mr. Hands. Post jazz-funk era, later in the early 1980s, he threw in electronic influences into the jazz-funk mix when he created Future Shock and Sound-System.

The genre is also widely incorporated and sampled in R&B and hip hop with countless Mizell Brothers' loops in both styles of music!