Sunday, June 24, 2007

Blue Funk

Blue Funk
Blue Note Records (2001)

1 - Who Dun It? - Blue Mitchell
2 - Say It Loud (I'm Black And I'm Proud) - Lou Donaldson
3 - Cissy Strut - John Patton
4 - Ease Back - Grant Green
5 - Hunk O' Funk - Jack McDuff
6 - Tic Tac Toe - Candido
7 - Down Home Funk - Richard 'Groove' Holmes
8 - Cantaloupe Woman - Grant Green
9 - I Don't Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing - Grant Green
10 - Don't Knock My Love - Ronnie Foster
11 - If There's A Hell Below - Lou Donaldson
12 - Bambu - Reuben Wilson
13 - Family Affair - Bobby Hutcherson

The later part of the Blue Note 4000 series coincide with a period of extreme schizophrenia in the jazz world as on the one hand freedom rang out with the ‘new thing’ in full flight. However at the same time jazz's best sellers were the sound of soulful players, either doing easy listening versions of pop hits, or following the Boogaloo beat that had set Lou Donaldson on to great success with his 1967 album 'Aligator Boogaloo'. Blue Note had Stanley Turrentine doing the pop hits and a whole battalion of soul jazz heavy hitters playing a funky boogaloo groove.