This new instalment of New Orleans Funk subtitled 'Two-Way-Pocky-Way, Gumbo Ya Ya and the Mardi Gras Mambo' features more classic New Orleans funk in all its forms.
The syncopated percussion beat of the second line jazz parade bands, the secret language and dances of the Mardi Gras Indians, the mambo and latin rhythms of Professor Longhair and the city’s many piano players help make New Orleans a unique musical melting pot.
New Orleans long musical heritage begins at Congo Square with the creation of jazz, the original creole culture clash of African heritage and European instrumentation.
In the 1960s and into the early 1970s add to this the creative powerhouses of Allen Toussaint, The Meters, Eddie Bo and others alongside the famous musical families of the city – the Nevilles, the Marsalis’s, the Lasties – and we find ourselves at the birthplace of the original sound of funk - New Orleans Funk.
A seemingly endless line of amazing singers - Lee Dorsey, Betty Harris, Willie West, Eldridge Holmes – released a constant stream of stunning 45s, backed by the super-funk Meters and produced by Allen Toussaint. The multi-talented Eddie Bo, similarly wrote and produced for an elite set of artists including The Explosions, Chuck Carbo and others.
But limited local record distribution meant that most of these artists remained unknown outside of the city borders and as a consequence many of these records are serious collectors items today.
Add to this the syncopated poly-rhythm funk of Mardi Gras Indians with a rare version of the carnival classic Two-Way-Pock-A-Way, and the parade band jazz of the Rebirth Jazz Band (with their twisted take on the Blackbyrd’s rare groove classic Do It Fluid) and you have the latest instalment in Soul Jazz Records’ New Orleans Funk series.
Read Quietus large feature here
REVIEWS:
"The hallmark of a great Soul Jazz compilation is the balance between the stone cold classic and the well selected deep cut, and this compilation serves up both well." Quietus
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"The Soul Jazz label’s long-running curation of New Orleans’s funky past has already yielded several premier league collections for hungry musical gumbo fans. The latest catch from the Nola freak scene... doesn’t disappoint with its swaggering and swinging line of classic cuts." The Irish Times
“Every New Orleans Funk release confirms that Soul Jazz Records should keep a triple A in the genre of Soul/Funk.” 90BPM