Here is a sultry slice of funk, driven by a killer bassline, with the sweet sibling vocals of The Pointer Sisters from their third album Steppin’ back in 1975.

(more…)

I’ve never been a jazz-funk fan and the vibraphone would be very low on my list of favourite instruments, ranking alongside the flute and just above the ukelele. But I’d have to make an exception for Roy Ayers.

(more…)

Brass Construction burst out of Brooklyn in the wake of B.T. Express with a similar recipe of supercharged funk with horns blowing up a storm.

(more…)

The late Sixties and early Seventies were incendiary times in politics and music – reflected in the fiery brass sections of funk bands like Tower Of Power.

(more…)

B.T. Express were pioneers of the funky early-1970s Brooklyn Sound with their proto-disco classic Express.

(more…)

Betty Davis is so hot you might need to stand back. And so is the funky groove of Your Mama Wants Ya Back.

(more…)

Here’s a deep cut from Santana… No, it isn’t. It’s by a school band from Nigeria called Ofege, recorded back in the early ’70s.

(more…)

“You got to have a J-O-B if you wanna be with me… No romance without finance.” This is one of the finest funk and soul singles of all time – despite its far-from-feminist materialistic message; it was the ’80s after all. (more…)

This is a fantastic discovery If you like funky horn sections and you like powerful female voices. They don’t come much more powerful than Lydia Pense and her San Francisco-based band Cold Blood.

(more…)

Bobby Byrd ought to be much more famous. He gave James Brown his big break and wrote most of his hits but never became a household name.

(more…)