You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - 7 Funkiest Breaks/Intros

Episode Date: February 7, 2020

Things get funky in the PodSuite today as Peter and Adam list off the 7 funkiest breakdowns in recorded music history.7 Funkiest Breaks/IntrosHerbie Hancock - "Swamp Rat"The Meters - "Look-Ka Py Py"Graham Central Station - "Hair"Roy Hargrove - "I'm Not So Sure"Tower of Power - "Soul Vaccination"Michael Jackson - "Rock With You"James Brown - "Funky Drummer"There's a new course from Open Studio: Elements of Solo Piano! Learn from modern jazz master Geoffrey Keezer as he shows you the strategies and techniques to become a better solo pianist. You'll also get Guided Practice Sessions featuring Adam Maness, where he walks you through how to practice each lesson in the course. And for even more piano courses, sign up for the Piano Access Pass.Interested in more music advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase. And be sure to check out our All Access Pass - every course from Open Studio on every instrument.Let us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Okay, we ready? Mm-hmm. Here we go. Hey, Peter. Hey, Adam. You ready to get funky? Let's get funky. I mean, are you ready to get funky?

I'm born ready. And I smell bad, too. Good. I'm Adamannis. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear at podcast. Daily Jazz advice coming at you. Coming at you today, sponsored by Open Studio.

Go to Open Studio. J.com to check out all of our courses. Oh, you're like an old funk announcer there. Oh, J. WJ. 109.1. WOSJ. Today we are talking about our favorite funkiest breaks and intros. We kind of updated, it was just going to be breaks,

but we realize that there are so many funky intros that it's hard to exclude the funky intros. We could have done two episodes, but we just really wanted to focus on what we consider to be the chief causes of major stank face. within our households. But like next level, stank face. Not just, I mean, jazz stank face is one thing. Like when you hit that sharp 9, flat 13, sharp 11, woo, you know.

But fuck stank face. First of all, it's funky. So it actually legit stanks sometimes. But I mean, that kind of like, oh, ouch. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And what's cool about this is I think this has a little bit, it's a little controversial for me. Is it okay for me to get a little controversial here?

Please. Okay. Please do. Jazz police might come after me. Whatever. Okay. We're the Jazz Army up in here. That's right.

My name's Adam Manus. I'm about to say this. I'm going to tweet coat, my right? No, but I mean, this kind of stank face has a little bit more universal appeal, I'd even say, than what sometimes is done is jazz face. I, e, these records sold. Well, yeah, I don't mean to be as crass. It's just to go by, but I'm like saying, like, you hit this kind of beat. I've seen people around the world get down on this.

I mean, jazz, jazz stink face, too, but this is just so, because it's so much more. like just right in the dance idiom usually, right? So this first one is one I chose. I've been listening to this record a lot the last month, so you nominated me for this 10-day album challenge? Yes. It's all about posting covers of albums that had an impact on you. This is from Herbie Hancock.

This is from his headhunters, Herbie Hancock. You ever heard of that? Yeah. Only if I listen to this podcast every day. Decent keys player, but obviously huge influence on us. But when I was in high school, you were not in high school in the 70s, my friend. No, no, no, no.

But someone was like, hey, you should check out. I actually joined a funk band. And the bass player was like, you need to check out headhunters. Well, so I went to the record store. And you know how before you could just get anything whenever you wanted at all times? Yeah.

The only Headhunters era record they had at the record store that I went to was Secrets. And so I got that one. And I actually didn't listen to like headhunters. That's not Headhunters, though, is it? Yeah, I mean, it's kind of. of the tail end of that era. Paul Jackson is still in the band.

Different drummer. I forget who's playing drums. Bill Summers, is he playing still? I don't know. I have to check on the personnel, but it was kind of like a change from the original lineup for sure. And even different from like Manchild and Thrust. But see, I didn't even discover Manchild Thrust

or Headhunters until maybe two years after just digesting secrets nonstop. So I've come at Secrets from like, that's my Herbie 70s experience, totally. And so I know these... Not a bad experience to have, my friend. Oh, my goodness, it's so good. Well, this is, towards the end of the record, this is Swamp Rat,

and I remember very vividly the first time I heard this. I had such stank face as I was driving my 84 S-10 that I almost had to pull over off the road. Because this section where it breaks down to just Wawa Watson and Paul Jackson is so funky. Come on. Are you going to hear it? How funky is it?

Just wait. I mean, this is already pretty funky, right? But we're definitely setting a move. You know what I'm saying? Bend it, bend it. And it just goes on and on, man. That is one of my favorite moments in recorded music history. Nice.

That's awesome. Yeah. All right, yours is up. You got to tell me my computer. So the first one we have is the meters. Look at Pi Pi. Okay. So we might have to, well, we can listen to the beginning,

but then we can kind of jump to the drum. So this is one of the funky intros. Oh, this is one of the funky, yeah, but then there's another little, there's another drum break too, but it starts off out the gate. Come on. And the meters ever make anything that didn't feel great? Oh, here's the break right here. And you know what's crazy about, so that drum groove, as funky as it is, is super complex.

And like drummers, you know, that are into this kind of, like, Stanton's stuff is really a, he's got great analysis of Zigaboose stuff. Zigibu, most wonderful drummer for the meters originator of some of the hippest funk grooves. But what that is, it's almost like,

I hear it as like a variation on the big four in the New Orleans groove. It's not your typical funk beat with a straight backbeat because it's basically a backbeat on the end of three as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And if you hear, just play just the beginning of again,

because like if you hear the slow four, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, One and two and three I mean man What a what a placement And then that whole intro too Is like full of humanity man

It's a little bit It's a little wacky It's a little raggedy Yeah that makes it very Oh man it pulls it together For sure And it's like I mean it's part of the reason No disrespect intended

But the Jonas brothers are not on this list Because no no Because you know the whole dispute With the New York Times And our friends over at Switched on Pops It was so funky And I mean it is funky on a kind of 2018 level.

I mean, yeah, it's a funky pattern, but this is like a funky performance. That's the thing is the fun. This is actually the opposite. You know, it's the same thing actually with the first one with the Herbie with the, you know, the don't do you know, the, like there's, it's not exact.

It is not quantized. There's a lot of like, my toe is kind of dragging in the dirt, you know, and it feels right. It's swap rat. Come on, man. Swamp rat. This is a swap. This is a pie. So actually, we're going to move on here to.

I don't ever want to move on from that, but okay. Well, this is very similar because this has a super funky intro and setup, and then just after the first chorus, there is another funky breakdown. This is from Larry Graham and Graham Central Station. This is hair. A lot of clavine egg in what we're listening to today. Clavenet's a funky-ass instrument. Excuse me my language.

We need to invest in a you'll hear at D6. I think we might. A swampy funky group there. It's got a little milk to it. The length of his hair What a cool voice, too. Oh, let's break it down. It's Larry Graham's

Graham Central Station, hair. He stayed funky. I was looking up, because I was trying to remember for you's from California because, of course, Slying the Family Stone he played with there,

but he's actually from Beaumont, Texas. Oh, yeah. It's always fun to see. Totally funky. And actually, one of my breakdowns, but I couldn't remember, okay, maybe one of our listeners

could let us know in the comments what this is from, because there was that, I think it's from something, Larry Graham, I want to say, damn it.

I don't know, but there's a break. Bo do, bo do, bo do, ba-do-d-do-d-d-do-d-d-d-d-d-d-up. What is that? It's like a nice little horn break. Yeah, listeners, if you recognize that nice little horn break, let us know. I'm not even going to announce this one. And there's one more I'm not going to announce it first to see, because it's all about the intro on this one.

Come on now. Give it to me. So let's see what you got. It's Roy Hargrove from Ear Food. I'm not so sure. That kicks off the album, isn't it, if I'm not mistaken? I'm not sure, but that's, yeah. I think that that's...

I'm not so sure. I'm not so sure. You got to follow me. That is Gerald. Not Gerald. On piano. It's Gerald Clayton, is it? Joe Clayton, exactly.

Yeah. I was thinking, I was going to say Gerald Cannon. He actually was playing bass around that time, too. But yeah, Gerald Clayton, exactly, on piano, who I just saw on the jazz crews. Hey. Yeah. Was killing it.

But yeah, so that, I just, I mean, I think already, what is that? I'm not screw this up. Whatever it is. You know, it's like, it's such a, it comes in at such a, it comes in at such a funny place, but he comes in so confidently within the rhythm. It's kind of subtle. He's not like hammering it, but it's just so cool the way he comes in. And then when Montez comes in, ding, tank, ding. I mean, that's just like locks. It's like, don't make it too obvious, but you're still in the pocket. Like, it's almost like the players already know where the pocket is.

Yeah. And you're inviting the listener in in stages, you know. I love that. Sorry that I butcher that. Whatever it is. I'm going. I'm going mess it up twice. Bam. Just keep going. See the third time if you want. All right. This next one, it has a great intro. So I'm going to play in the beginning, but right after that first chorus, there's just, there's three or four seconds of David Garibaldi magic. This tower of power,

soul vaccination. I think this will work on the coronavirus. No problem. I feel vaccinated. Got that Heineken virus. Yeah. Ooh, I like it. Just put a lime in it.

I don't take care of it. Here we go. How nice is that? That was killing. And you know what, set that all up? That's like a baseline, kind of a tricky baseline, precision executed every time with nothing extra put in. That's a key to funk. That's like that is Tower of Power in a nutshell.

Precision baseline, nothing extra put in. All right. For this next one, this is another one. Now we're getting into the intro again, right? Yeah, I'm just going to see. I just want to just a reaction here. Let's do that again. Yeah.

Just for the people in the back. Wait, wait, wait, wrong one. You couldn't stay away from the tower. I don't know. All right. Here we go. One more time. Ah, I got you again.

I got you again. All right. All right. All right time. One more time. One more time. Hold on. Here we go.

I'm going to keep going. Oh, you got to. You got to. Greatest disco album of all time possibly? Man, yeah, we were talking about this. A lot of people would not consider, I would consider this. I mean, you know, you always feel like you're insulting something when you call a disco. Not that record.

Not that record. That's killing. John Robinson on drums. I was trying to remember. Yeah, I knew Greg Philling Gaines. But there's a bunch of bad cats on here. And it's just, you know, of course, Michael Jackson, rock with you. I think Rod Temperton and Quincy Jones wrote almost all this stuff.

Probably Rod Temperidgeon produced by Quincy Jones. Yeah. And that was number seven. And so that's our seven funky breaks and intros. Was that good enough for y'all? We have a bonus. We have a bonus. But before then, we want to tell you about our sponsor, OpenSudio.

Go to Open StudioFunk.com. Oh, that's next, man. We got to get that. We got to get that. I know what? We have some funky lessons. especially on the jazz piano method, even on Christian McBride's fundamentals of jazz bass.

He covers some funky stuff. He gets into a little fine. He can't help it. He can't help it. He's fundamentally funky. And then Jeff Keiser in his first course has the funky stacks of hipness. That's just a voicing technique. I don't know if we would, but it is funk.

They are funky. That's what I'm talking about. Funk comes in all different flavors. And they are stacks of hipness. All right, we're going to go out today on really the one of the funkiest drum grooves and brakes ever used. Well, well, you put it out there now, my friend. But no, this is actually like objectively

funky. It's been used by pretty much every hip-hop producer from 1985 to 19, 2006 or something. It's James Brown funky drummer towards the end of the seven-minute track. He just breaks it down. That's just fun, man. It's nice starting off the session, like in a funky little mood.

Check it out, check it out. Ain't it funky. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Question and answer. Thanks, everyone for listening. Go to you'll hear it.com. And until next time, you'll fuck it.