by Max Green
Historically listeners would have to pick up a good old record, or even a concert ticket to listen to the absolutely groovy sounds of artists like Art Blakey or Herbie Hancock. But in today’s age all you have to do is click on a video that looks mildly interesting and you can be taken down a surreal lane of discovering a new band or genre. There are obviously many pro’s and con’s for each of these approaches to discovering music, however one thing is for certain: Jazz and Funk transcend generations and any form of discovering the genre.
I compiled a playlist of songs on Youtube, for two reasons. First off, Ryo Fukui is nowhere to be found on Spotify. Secondly, all but one of these absolute bangers was brought to me by our lord and savior Youtube Autoplay. Ironically, almost any aging jazzhead would scoff at this generations digital consumption of sounds.
This is a chronological playlist of Jazz and Funk from the late 50’s to the present is intended to introduce y’all to some Jazz/Funk.
Through the years these Funky juxtapositions of chord progressions and solo’s have stuck to our culture. In fact, many of these beats inform, or are downright recycled in some of the Hip Hop we all know and -hopefully- love. So, I implore you to dawn your preferred brand of headphones and dig your teeth into a rough sixty minutes of smooth and ever engaging Jazz and Funk.