Various
Artists | Florida Funk 1968-1975
Jazzman Records
Reviewed
by Peter Aaron
Everyone
loves those funky old soul sounds. The rump-rolling jams put forth
first by the music’s late creator, James Brown, and then by
his disciples Sly Stone, P-Funk, the Ohio Players, and legions of
other hitmakers are infectious enough to make even the stiffest
pinstripe type bust a move. But you’re only getting the tip
of the iceberg until you’ve bumped up on the raw fatback dropped
via no-budget regional indie labels in the late 60s and early 70s.
Much
like how the earlier Nuggets, Pebbles, and Back From The Grave compilations
chronicle the wealth of 60s garage rock obscurities, newer reissue
labels like Stone’s Throw, Soul Jazz, and Jazzman are now
mining America’s thrift stores and junk bins for scarce funk
tracks to include on their own series of DJ-pleasing, dance floor-filling
anthologies. Taking a regional approach, the UK-based Jazzman has
already issued stellar volumes covering Texas and the Midwest; this
latest installment rounds up 22 of the Gator State’s grittiest,
greasiest, and grooviest.
Naturally,
the influence of Soul Brother Number One lives large all over Florida
Funk: “Quit Jive’in” (sic) by Miami’s Pearly
Queen is an outright retooling of JB’s “Get on the Good
Foot,” while Orlando’s Bobby Williams (“All the
Time”) is remembered in the set’s deep liner notes as
the state’s leading Brown clone (and one whose tight band
even drew praise from the Godfather himself). Still, just as the
music of the spirited teen bands aping British Invasion acts on
the above-mentioned garage compilations adds up to something more
than how it might appear on paper, so it is with these more musician-ly
but equally determined wannabes. In other words, here attitude trumps
originality—but your dancin’ booty still wins big
time.
CONTINUE...
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