Soul Brother Number One, the Godfather of Soul, the Hardest Working Man in Show Business, Mr. Dynamite — those are mighty titles, but no one can question that James Brown has earned them more than any other performer. Other singers were more popular, others were equally skilled, but no other African-American musician has been so influential on the course of popular music in the past several decades. And no other musician, pop or otherwise, put on a more exciting, exhilarating stage show — Brown's performances were marvels of athletic stamina and split-second timing.
Eno said in 1988. "I'd heard James Brown and understood what that was about. Then I heard Fela, and he was an African who listened to James Brown. And he'd taken what James was doing, but really extrapolated it in a big way.
DJ Kool Herc: ... My favorite artist was James Brown. That's who inspired me ...
There are obviously ethical considerations here --it's easy to understand James Brown's outrage as his uncredited beats and
screams underpin much of today's black music-- but at its best, today's new digital, or integrated analog and digital,
technology can encourage a free interplay of ideas, a real exchange of information. Most recording studios in the U.S. and
Europe will have a sampler and a rack of CDs: a basic electronic library of Kraftwerk, James Brown, Led Zeppelin --today's
Sound Bank.
... the musical output of black America around 1970 had changed towards funk - music which was still by predominantly black artists but generally not 4/4 (on the one and the three - James Brown would famously say. Although Brown is known as the 'Godfather of Soul', his musical style defines the difference between soul and funk - his being funk - in British cultural terminolgy, his music being harder and more guitar based and unlike the swirling string and brass sections of the 1960's upbeat soul)
"...ever since Miles Davis and James Brown transferred their primary creative space from stage to studio, the most succesful musical form in the popular arena has been the dance-groove : where cycles of rhythm, circling ever back to their beginnings, allow for small shifts and changes within the structure to bring with them remarkable shock-force." (Hopey Glass in The Wire).
James Brown - There was a Time (1967/8)
James Brown - Give It Up Or Turn It Loose (1969)
2002, jan 02; 00:46:
