FUNK 1956-75
Funk
was concerned with attitude and variety. Just as Parliament and Funkadelic
were the high riders of funk in a rock context, so were the Funk musicians
purveyors of bizarre playing and hard edge attitudes. On one level, the funk
players were concerned with a return to the roots of their African American
heritage, with church call and response, the slow dirge blues, and more traditional
musics, but they were also concerned with getting emotional tone colors.
For
them, Bop was about technical virtuosity rather than emotion, and the Cool
School was too straight and focused on European traditions and styles. The
funk players wanted to invent new compositions based on old inspirations.
Often
the funk players had an overt political agenda. Charles Mingus for instance,
had a tune called Fables of Faubus, which had squawking horns and off the
cuff lyrics that mocked the racist governor.
Then
you have freaky funk, like that played by Sun Ra, who took things into space,
claiming he was from Saturn and that his free form music was from other planets.
Some other musicians you might want to check outv are Art Blakey and Horace Silver.
