James Last was known for a certain sound he created, named as Happy Sound. He was a Big Band Leader, especially popular in Britain and in Germany. This one audio above is not very much representative of his unique sound with somewhat peculiar horns section arrangements. - OMG, I love those shirts in the latter, linked video. Wanna have them all, not to mention James' suit!!!
Back when I was 15 years old, I managed to infest my dad with "Wish You Were Here" - but failed to convert him away from the above and such... perhaps justifiably so, as I realized much later.
Stuff with a lot of "wah" pedal (a/k/a "baw chicka wow wow"), heavy bass grooves and solid drumming, vocal optional. Not quite jazz, definitely in the funk category. Early Kool and the Gang are definitely there (forgot I have that in my iPod!). Issac Hayes/Shaft would probably be the poster child (but I could take a little more cheese). I have quite a bit of HHancock's stuff, Miles is good but still too jazzy. Forgot about Mayfield (sorry!). That will DL tonight.
I actually have the Acid Jazz set that Painted_Turtle posted. Jamiroquai ("Jamma-rOcky!" between my friends and I) is defnitely Acid Jazz. Acid Jazz would be defined as 70s funk with 80s and 90s electronica mixed in. Definitely groove oriented but updated. Being a bop fan, I'd probably have to say that Acid Jazz isn't actually Jazz though. For a while there (and even now) anything instrumental with a solo was/is jazz. Kenny G IS NOT JAZZ, whether he drops acid or not! ;)
Much to think about - many thanks folks (feel free to keep posting!)
After Norman cook (fatboy slim) left the housemartins he was part of Freakpower and that got roped into the acid jazz movement. I remember one hit they had.
Stuff with a lot of "wah" pedal (a/k/a "baw chicka wow wow"), heavy bass grooves and solid drumming, vocal optional. Not quite jazz, definitely in the funk category. Early Kool and the Gang are definitely there (forgot I have that in my iPod!). Issac Hayes/Shaft would probably be the poster child (but I could take a little more cheese). I have quite a bit of HHancock's stuff, Miles is good but still too jazzy. Forgot about Mayfield (sorry!). That will DL tonight.
I actually have the Acid Jazz set that Painted_Turtle posted. Jamiroquai ("Jamma-rOcky!" between my friends and I) is defnitely Acid Jazz. Acid Jazz would be defined as 70s funk with 80s and 90s electronica mixed in. Definitely groove oriented but updated. Being a bop fan, I'd probably have to say that Acid Jazz isn't actually Jazz though. For a while there (and even now) anything instrumental with a solo was/is jazz. Kenny G IS NOT JAZZ, whether he drops acid or not! ;)
Much to think about - many thanks folks (feel free to keep posting!)
Acid jazz a broad category. Kind of like dance but without the thump, kinda like trip hop but cheerier, kinda like George Clinton, definitely the groooviest of the groovy but no drums.
Sly and the FS does not fit into this category. Neither do the BarKays. Jamaroqui does.
There was an acid jazz scene around the early nineties which was basically sampling old soul jazz bass lines like curtis mayfield, james brown, stevie wonder, miles, coltrane etc and then then adding some extra bits to make them more commercial to an ectacy popping generation. It seemed to me that if you weren't in the mood for some 180bpm techno you would go to an acid jazz night.
In some ways it was a gateway for people to go and dig out the original stuff so iit had it's plus points.
A good example of this, to me, is US3's "Cantaloop" and the sampling it does of Herbie Hancock's "Cantaloupe Island" (which I hadn't known about prior to the US3 song).
EDIT: Though I'm not all that sure this would fall into the category of "acid jazz"...
Here is the wiki entry. Basically, it was a movement in the 80s and 90s that combined jazz elements with the electronica scene while keeping the groove.
Ahhh, so now I'm conjurring up images of King Sunny Ade on his electronic Synchro-System album or some of the old Sly and the Family Stone beats, or the Electric Light Orchestra or even the Grove Collection.
But most of all, the Unknown soldier song is playing in my mind from the Weather Report's "I Sing The Body Electric" album.
Have you ever listend to the Nubian Sundance song from their Mysterious Traveller album. That was back in the 70's, it was probably one of the first songs I would call a "world music" song. (just in my own mind..I'm no music ethnologist)
There was an acid jazz scene around the early nineties which was basically sampling old soul jazz bass lines like curtis mayfield, james brown, stevie wonder, miles, coltrane etc and then then adding some extra bits to make them more commercial to an ectacy popping generation. It seemed to me that if you weren't in the mood for some 180bpm techno you would go to an acid jazz night.
In some ways it was a gateway for people to go and dig out the original stuff so iit had it's plus points.
Not sure that it's the stuff that Omega is talking about, but songs like "Jungle Boogie" and "Tell Me Something Good" (Rufus and Chaka Kahn) and "Brick House" (The Commodores) are what I think of when I think of that early 70s "sticky, groovy" music.
I think I may just have to crank up my groovelicious playlist and dance around the apartment now...
