Wednesday, July 20, 2005  

Grant Green
"Ain't It Funky Now!"
Green Is Beautiful
(Blue Note, 1970)
Ain't It Funky Now!
(Blue Note, 2005)

THE BOOM,
THE BAP!
On this James Brown cover, Idris Muhammad, augmented by Candido (congas) and Richard Landrum (bongos), proves he's just about the funkiest jazz drummer ever. And Saint Francis of Assisi, bless Wes Montgomery and early George Benson, but there's no doubting Grant Green's jazz-boogaloo supremacy.

Sometimes 1960s & 1970s soul-jazz covers of James Brown songs are too flabby--the tunes were meant for tight riffing, not loose-limbed improv. But this version so very kills as a jazz number and as a fierce booty-shaker. I love, too, that the song fades after nearly 10 minutes of gutbucket funk; the band probably played for another 10, easy.

Buy.... Or buy.

Posted by CP | Link |

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