In my fifth selection of funk, soul and jazz jewelry for Laid Back Radio, you will find tracks by the Brad Mehldau Trio, Nancy Wilson & Cannonball Adderley, José Feliciano, The Ramsey Lewis Trio, Zapp, Lord Newborn & The Magic Skulls and Gene Russell. Amongst many others.

Some artists however need a little more contextual information.

Tristeza

First Baden Powell, who is regarded as the greatest Brazilian guitarist of all times. Baden Powell grew up in Rio de Janeiro, a city that proved influential on his musical career. His house was a stop for popular musicians during his formative years and once he started guitar lessons he soon proved a young virtuoso. Powell’s upbringing is reflected in his playing style, which shows a fusion of jazz harmonies and classical guitar technique.

Baden Powell has recorded with many artists, like Ed Lincoln and Vinicius de Moraes, which resulted in some true classics of 1960s Brazilian music. His recordings were released on both Brazilian labels – Elenco and Forma – , as well as on the French label Barclay and the German label MPS/Saba. His 1966 MPS release Tristeza on Guitar is considered – not only by the Royal Groove crew – as one of his finest moments. Baden Powell died on the 26th of September, 2000 in Rio de Janeiro.

Vanguard

As a daughter of Brazilian singer Joyce, Clara Moreno grew up with music too. Moreno (1971) recalls her early musical experiences with great fondness: “Every night my mother would rehearse and we use to go to all her concerts – I grew up listening to music from an early age.”

The wonderful stripped down version of Jamiroquai’s first hit single When You Gonna Learn, with just some acoustic guitar and percussion, makes Clara Moreno one of the vanguards of the new bossa nova movement.

Easy To Be Hard

What’s the similarity between Kid Loco’s Grand Love Theme and the opening sequence of David Fincher’s movie Zodiac? They both use Three Dog Night’s Easy To Be Hard.

Originally brought together in 1968 by Danny Hutton and Cory Wells, Three Dog Night was successful from the start. They sold tens of millions of records through the years and they recorded the music of some of the best – and mostly undiscovered – new songwriters of their time including Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman and Laura Nyro. I suggest to at least listen to their 1969 release Suitable For Framing, that contains the fine track Easy To Be Hard.

Reclaiming Jazz

According to Marc Mac – one half of 4hero – jazz used to be radical and that’s why hip hop producers used to sample it. Marc Mac wanted to put jazz back in the hands of hip hoppers and to pay respect to hip hop producers like Jazzy Jeff, Jay Dee and Pete Rock for introducing him to jazz. It’s about reclaiming jazz and that’s why he recorded Dirty Old Hip Hop, a release with The Visioneers.

The Visioneers, with Luke ‘Hopper’ Parkhouse on drums, Brad Somatik on guitar and Hammond, and Marc Mac on bass, Rhodes and Moog, bring hip hop classics like The Pharcyde’s Runnin’ and Nas’ The World Is Yours plus sample cuts like Ike’s Mood I and Dirty Old Bossa Nova in tight jazz funk versions that you can only dream of.

GRP

People like my good friend Cortez make fun of me when I try to explain my love for some of the releases on the GRP label. GRP, Grusin Rosen Productions, was founded by Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen. Previously, the duo had formed Grusin/Rosen Productions as a freelance production team in 1976, making records for labels such as Blue Note and CTI with artists like Jon Lucien and Patti Austin.

They achieved success with a number of artists, most notably trumpeter Tom Browne and his ‘Funkin’ for Jamaica’. Embracing an all-digital recording philosophy, GRP made early use of Soundstream’s digital recording technology, one of the earliest all-digital recordings outside of classical music.

We have selected two tracks from the early years, 1979-1981, where everything still sounded very fresh. Haboglabotribin’, sampled by Snoop Dogg, is taken from Nard (Arista, 1981), the debut album by Bernard Wright and recorded with some help of Dave Grusin, Marcus Miller, and Don Blackman. Forever More is coming from Love Approach, Browne’s famous album that also contains Funkin’ For Jamaica. Both albums are not that hard to find on vinyl. Give it a try, you’ll be surprised.

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