Basics - Rhythm - Funk 3

One of my all-time favourite bands - Jamiroquai. Was first exposed to them with their hit single Virtual Insanity when I was younger. They are essentially an acid jazz-funk band that is really all about the grooving and dancing.

Notice the repetitive bassline, with extra fills and fast runs in between, together with a new kinda grooving on the drums where the hi hat fills all four semiquavers of the beat. The bass is just BARELY behind the beat, but it's obvious when you beat out the pulse. The drums is almost completely on the beat, giving the full sound for the music to drive by. And this time the guitar lays back slightly further than the bass. It's quite a sweet groove.

Plus on top of that, they have strings to add on a new layer to the music. This is part of JK (lead singer's) experiments into using orchestras into the band's music. Notice that the orchestra is also slightly behind the beat - a common trait due to the nature of string instruments' response time when bowed.

Sidenote: Great triangle work if you noticed. It's really sweet. It's a small but powerful instrument in adding the subtle drive to the sound. It's slightly ahead of the beat and is also part of the drive.

And as for the vocalist, he tends to lean back mostly, giving the groove feeling, which matches his dancing throughout most of his songs anyway.

This is one of the branches of how funk has gone.



All time favourite fusion band - Weather Report. And one of the most beautiful pieces written, by Joe Zawinul, about Birdland, one of the revered places in jazz history till now, called Birdland. Notice that the starting starts with a riff from the synthesizer, which immediate indicates a kind of funk groove in the music.

Then comes the drums. Obviously way ahead of the beat. Again, with semiquavers played out at the back beat emphasised. The bass comes in with a groove nicely placed just behind the beat. This was the power of the wonderful Weather Report. Funk groove with a lot of R&B flavour and jazz sound in their midst.

Jaco provided the R&B lines and groove for the bassline. And Peter Erskine adds this almost rockish groove to the mix, while Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter add their jazz and world sounds in the midst. This is where funk was also utilised after its creation.

It was this catchy groovy thing that could be used as a hook to portray the power of dancing and happiness that is now pervasive in fusion and a lot of similar music.

Next up, more "poppish" versions of funk.