Are there any decent mixes from this era archived on the internet? I'm curious how these folks patched the tracks together. Was the scene more mix based, or fade out/in the tracks?
THEE epitome of rare groove
- Thread starter skel
- Start date
Mastercuts comps are always on the money.
Tracklist
A1 Eighties Ladies - Turned On To You
A2 Faze-O ??? Riding High
A3 Leon Ware ??? Why I Came To California
B1 Breakwater ??? Say You Love Me Girl
B2 Steve Parks ??? Movin' In The Right Direction
B3 Patrice Rushen ??? Number One
C1 Rome Jefferies ??? Good Love
C2 Kinky Foxx ??? So Different
C3 Sass ??? Much Too Much
D1 Roberta Gilliam ??? All I Want Is My Baby
D2 LaBelle ??? Moonshadow
D3 Ethel Beatty ??? It's Your Love
Tracklist
A1 Eighties Ladies - Turned On To You
A2 Faze-O ??? Riding High
A3 Leon Ware ??? Why I Came To California
B1 Breakwater ??? Say You Love Me Girl
B2 Steve Parks ??? Movin' In The Right Direction
B3 Patrice Rushen ??? Number One
C1 Rome Jefferies ??? Good Love
C2 Kinky Foxx ??? So Different
C3 Sass ??? Much Too Much
D1 Roberta Gilliam ??? All I Want Is My Baby
D2 LaBelle ??? Moonshadow
D3 Ethel Beatty ??? It's Your Love
Russ' series all happened after Dingwalls had wrung the juice out of the first flush of the jazz dance scene. But no RG night ever had Sombre Guitar in it, surely.
Certainly the RG nights and crowds I moved in had almost zero jazz component.
Gilles and Bangs did a few one nighters called Cock Happy where some funk/soul syncopation was added via the likes of Breakwater or Steve Parks, but the RG scene was more Nirman's baby.
I do recall the occasional GP/NJ crossover event, and of course Norman played jazz rooms at Southport etc.
But more than a handful of strutters are in confusion over what constituted rare groove versus acid jazz versus jazz dance scenes back then.
The intervening decades and locational bias plays its part in that, no doubt.
Certainly the RG nights and crowds I moved in had almost zero jazz component.
Gilles and Bangs did a few one nighters called Cock Happy where some funk/soul syncopation was added via the likes of Breakwater or Steve Parks, but the RG scene was more Nirman's baby.
I do recall the occasional GP/NJ crossover event, and of course Norman played jazz rooms at Southport etc.
But more than a handful of strutters are in confusion over what constituted rare groove versus acid jazz versus jazz dance scenes back then.
The intervening decades and locational bias plays its part in that, no doubt.
skel said:
But more than a handful of strutters are in confusion over what constituted rare groove versus acid jazz versus jazz dance scenes back then.
The intervening decades and locational bias plays its part in that, no doubt.
In my perception, "rare groove" refers to, a certain vibe of music** that surfaced post soul jazz. (so very rougthly speaking c.'74-81?) That's why for me the archetypal rare groove artist is Roy Ayers cos it covers his hey day and style, and why a track like Clarence Wheeler's Right On doesn't really fit for me, being more of an earlier soul-jazz n funk vibe. When I think of "Roy Ayers" and "rare groove " in the same sentence I'm more likely to think of some Uno Melodic side or Ramp than Pretty Brown Skin or We live in Brooklyn Baby even though the latter's one of his best known pieces. I think the confusion comes from the very specific UK origins of the term and the fact that the words "rare" + "groove" are so generic that they can be transfered to bascially any music that grooves and isn't common. So when the phrase came to have some commercial significance in the early 90s, labels like blue note jumped on with their "Rare Groove" reissue series for LP's like Ronnie Foster's Two Headed Freap which for me are not strictly speaking "rare groove". Of course none of all this matter a jot, but I'm curious to know if it's just my skewed mind-garden perception of things of if it has some resonnance with you funky boy and girls out there?
**as you put it "too funky for soul and too soulful for funk"
But more than a handful of strutters are in confusion over what constituted rare groove versus acid jazz versus jazz dance scenes back then.
The intervening decades and locational bias plays its part in that, no doubt.
In my perception, "rare groove" refers to, a certain vibe of music** that surfaced post soul jazz. (so very rougthly speaking c.'74-81?) That's why for me the archetypal rare groove artist is Roy Ayers cos it covers his hey day and style, and why a track like Clarence Wheeler's Right On doesn't really fit for me, being more of an earlier soul-jazz n funk vibe. When I think of "Roy Ayers" and "rare groove " in the same sentence I'm more likely to think of some Uno Melodic side or Ramp than Pretty Brown Skin or We live in Brooklyn Baby even though the latter's one of his best known pieces. I think the confusion comes from the very specific UK origins of the term and the fact that the words "rare" + "groove" are so generic that they can be transfered to bascially any music that grooves and isn't common. So when the phrase came to have some commercial significance in the early 90s, labels like blue note jumped on with their "Rare Groove" reissue series for LP's like Ronnie Foster's Two Headed Freap which for me are not strictly speaking "rare groove". Of course none of all this matter a jot, but I'm curious to know if it's just my skewed mind-garden perception of things of if it has some resonnance with you funky boy and girls out there?
**as you put it "too funky for soul and too soulful for funk"
Jazz dance was a short lived late eighties, very early nineties thing for me ...a couple of the funkier jazzers very occasionally got played in RG sets (and, no, Nick Straker doesn't count) but the jazz dance scene was a bit more purist. RG was really about 70s/80s soul and funk. Jazz dance was about silly hats. And Murilley.
Flomotion said:Jazz dance was a short lived late eighties, very early nineties thing for me ...a couple of the funkier jazzers very occasionally got played in RG sets (and, no, Nick Straker doesn't count) but the jazz dance scene was a bit more purist. RG was really about 70s/80s soul and funk. Jazz dance was about silly hats. And Murilley.
Conversely, to me jazz dance is early/mid-80s. Colin Curtis and Hewan Clarke on Tuesdays at the Berlin in Manchester, ACR's Airto period and Simon Topping playing hardcore salsa/latin jams at peak-time Saturday night at the Hacienda, while Hewan played stuff like Mark Murphy's Someone To Light Up My Life, the Brasil 66 version of Cinnamon & Clove, Don'tcha Worry 'Bout A Thing by Carmen McRae, Ritchie Cole's Groovin' On A New York Afternoon. Oh, and the most bad-boy jazz dance crew ever, Hulme's very own Jazz Defectors. Not seen this footage for almost 30 years.
Conversely, to me jazz dance is early/mid-80s. Colin Curtis and Hewan Clarke on Tuesdays at the Berlin in Manchester, ACR's Airto period and Simon Topping playing hardcore salsa/latin jams at peak-time Saturday night at the Hacienda, while Hewan played stuff like Mark Murphy's Someone To Light Up My Life, the Brasil 66 version of Cinnamon & Clove, Don'tcha Worry 'Bout A Thing by Carmen McRae, Ritchie Cole's Groovin' On A New York Afternoon. Oh, and the most bad-boy jazz dance crew ever, Hulme's very own Jazz Defectors. Not seen this footage for almost 30 years.
Yeah, there was a big jazz/latin surge in the early/mid-Eighties. Down South it seemed that events like the Brighton Jazz Bops marked the golden period although that was obviously built on the back of a scene that had been steadily growing over the previous few years. Manchester was a step ahead, I think. Used to love watching the IDJ dancers in action, too:
Carmel. That kind of bongo/cowgirl-boho kind of gained currency somehow.
Working Week were getting shine around this time too IIRC.
Brit-Funk... Light of The World/Spandau Mashup
Wherever there are horns, there will be jazzers...
Put the whole ethic together with a world-class hottie vocalist (the one H. F. Adu), and have we identified the pre-cursors/Savant torchbearers to Snowboy and dem Acid Jazz days?
Working Week were getting shine around this time too IIRC.
Brit-Funk... Light of The World/Spandau Mashup
Wherever there are horns, there will be jazzers...
Put the whole ethic together with a world-class hottie vocalist (the one H. F. Adu), and have we identified the pre-cursors/Savant torchbearers to Snowboy and dem Acid Jazz days?
Call me crazy but when I hear "rare groove", I don't think British doofus dances circa the late 80's. I think my mom taking me shopping with her during the 70's in New Orleans and that Donald Byrd/Roy Ayers/Lonnie Liston Smith soul jazz sound being native to just about every type of pre-mega mall boutique there ever was.
I had these 2 charly records rare groove comps " the message" and "got to get your own" that came out in ??86/??87 iirc. They were subtitled "some rare grooves" and had tracks by joe quaterman, cymande, eddie bo, reuben wilson, african music machine, ann sexton and a couple more obscure ones. But generally, it was more an early 70??s funk sound than the stuff posted above. I always was wondering who was behind the compiler credits: family funktion & shake and fingerpop. Anyone got any info on that?
Family Funktion was the name of Judge Jules' crew and Shake And Fingerpop was Norman Jay's firm. I'd imagine Femi and Mark were regulars at their parties - pretty fair to say that the YDs were absolutely a product of that original rare groove/warehouse scene from the late 80s.
Family Funktion
Soul II Soul
Africa Centre on top of the world
Norman Jay with Shake & Fingerpop
Westwood with his (fresh) hip hop
Said a Mr Derek Boland on his smash hit, 'Get Down'
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