Episode 94: A Roller Skating Jam Named Africa Part 2

Today we will return to a theme I kicked off just before the fund drive… thank you again, XRAY nation, for the most impactful fund drive in station history… today we return to African funk with part 2 of A Roller Skating Jam Named Africa. Like the first installment of this theme 3 weeks ago, I’ll be focusing on a lighter and bubblier shade of African funk today… this will not be the dense psychedelic funk of Benin and Western Nigeria, nor is it the choppy militant funk of Fela Kuti’s afrobeat sound. As I said a few weeks ago, those heavy flavors of African funk remind me of James Brown’s new sound band with Bootsy Colllins on the base… that band, along with groups like George Clinton’s Funkadelic, drew influence from the blues, and musicians would sustain and bend notes, coming in late and heavy on certain beats to give the music more dramatic weight. The African sounds I’m playing on today’s show remind me more of the early James Brown bands with a band led by Pee Wee Ellis. These bands played a lot more notes than the new sound band… their fast numbers danced across a flurry of bubbling quarter notes through the entire length of a song.