Chico Science / Nação Zumbi - Da Lama ao Caos (1994)

Chico Science Nação Zumbi's debut album represents a seismic shift in Brazilian music from the '60s tropicalia generation headed by Gilberto Gil, Milton Nascimento, and Caetano Veloso. Da Lama Ao Caos is a revelation, an organic fusion of the forceful maracatú rhythm from the Recife region delivered by massed surdo drums with overlays of metal-tinged hard rock or James Brown-style rhythm guitar, Chico Science's convincing rap vocals, and the creative sensibility of the dub/mix generation.


The opening monologue's twanging berimbau and pounding drums set the tone before sweeping seamlessly into the power chords married to funk-riffing attack on "Banditismo por Uma Questão de Classe." "A Praieira" is centered on a staggered riff that drops down into the parade drumming perfectly and "Côco Dub (Afrociberdelia)" is a savvy maiden voyage into dubwise sound science. The artfully layered arrangements and impeccable command of dynamics enables the group to shift gears from the funky "Samba Makossa" to the title track's heavy guitar without missing a beat. Lino Maia's guitar is savagely intelligent throughout, the fierce rhythmic undertow never lets up, and Chico Science's staccato vocal bursts fit the musical framework like a glove. Rarely can you point to an album as the definitive marker of a change in musical generations, but the new Brazil started with Da Lama Ao Caos.

1 - Monólogo ao Pé do Ouvido (Vinheta)
2 - Banditismo por Uma Questão de Classe
3 - Rios, Pontes & Overdrives
4 - A Cidade / Boa Noite do Velho Faceta (Amor de Criança)
5 - A Praieira
6 - Samba Makossa
7 - Da Lama ao Caos
8 - Maracatu de Tiro Certeiro
9 - Salustiano Song (Instrumental)
10 - Antene-se
11 - Risoflora
12 - Lixo do Mangue (Instrumental)
13 - Computadores Fazem Arte
14 - Côco Dub (Afrociberdelia)

Chico Science - Vocal
Lúcio Maia - Guitarra
Alexandre Dengue - Baixo
Toca Ogan - Percussão
Gilmar Bola 8 - Alfaia
Jorge dü Peixe - Alfaia
Gira - Alfaia Canhoto - Caixa

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Afrique - Soul Makossa (1973)

The first articles on "disco music" appeared in 1972, and the invention is credited to a Cameroon-born and Paris-based jazz saxophonist, Manu Dibango, who in that year released Soul Makossa (1972), an exciting mixture of funk-jazz saxophone lines and hypnotic African beats.

After it was issued, David Mancuso found a copy in a Brooklyn West Indian record store and often played it at his Loft parties. The response was so positive that the few copies of "Soul Makossa" in New York City were quickly bought up. The song was subsequently played heavily by Frankie Crocker, who DJed at WBLS, then New York's most popular Black radio station.Since the Dibango failed to register the copyright, 23 or more groups quickly released cover versions to capitalize on the demand for the record.

This album witnesses a band of studio musicians hell bent on creating not only a club and jukebox 45 hit of the Dibango original, but an entire set of groove-driven instrumentals that could be issued as 45s for the juke market. There is plenty of wah-wah excess, saxist angst, and drunken careening rhythm to propel a soul train from one end of the continent to the other.

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1:: Soul Makossa
2:: Kissing My Love
3:: Sleepwalk
4:: Let Me Do My Thing
5:: Slow Motion
6:: Hot Mud
7:: House Of Rising Funk
8:: Dueling Guitars
9:: Hot Doggin’
10:: Get It
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Bass - Chuck Rainey
Drums - Ray Pounds
Guitar - Arthur Wright , David T. Walker
Organ - Charles Kynard
Percussion - Charles Taggart , Chino Valdes , King Errisson , Paul Humphrey , Wallace Snow

Saxophone [Baritone] - Steve Kravitz

Saxophone [Tenor] - Joe Kelso , Paul Jeffrey

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Fred Wesley & the J.B.'s Band - Doing it to Death (1973)

"In spite of James Brown's 1974 hit "The Payback" and his future canonization in rap, 1973's Doing It to Death was, as the title now suggests, the sound of James Brown obsessing the almighty funk into commercial irrelevance. His tight circle of musicians was still creating a brand of R&B as distinct as it was influential. (You can hear it in the music of artists as disparate as Nigeria's Fela and Germany's Can.) But on his home turf, James was already competing with post-Superfly wah-wah pedal hoppers and the pre-disco Philly sound. So it's not surprising that he soaked up loose change from his pre-sold followers with cut-'n-press JB's albums like this one on his indie label, People.

Though composed by bandleader Fred Wesley and a bigger hit than any single released by James under his own name that year, the talky 10-minute title cut is still pure Godfather. And the unexpectedly solid album constructed around it is every bit a classically Jamesian combination of loose lip and tight ship. The boss man's mug is missing from the sleeve, but if there's any doubt who's in charge, just listen to the way he introduces the bass solo on "More Peas," relinquishing the groove only after giving the band notice that "if he lose the funk we gotta chunk him out."

The theme song, "You Can Have Watergate Just Gimme Some Bucks and I'll Be Straight," is ironic given James' re-election endorsement of the vulnerable funky president. JB had hoped to pressure Nixon for a Martin Luther King holiday ("You can't change a house from the outside," he'd told hecklers at the Apollo). By '73, he just wanted his 40 acres. Instead, he got a call from the IRS and belated thanks "for inventing modern music" some 23 years later". Peter S. Scholtes

"An incredible album -- a landmark piece of funk that nobody should be without, funk fan or not! The album is the second to feature James Brown's famous backing combo of the early 70s -- and unlike their first one, which was really more of a collection of singles, this album has the group playing hard, long, and loud, in the free funk improvisational mode that was James' real contribution to the music at the time. The tracks are all long, with James at the forefront, egging the band on with shouts and comments -- but also letting them open up large instrumentally, playing in a mode that's as much jazz as it is funky soul. The whole thing's peppered with some nice shorter seques between tracks -- but the long cuts are the winners, and are some of the best funk ever recorded" Dusty Groove America

1 - Introduction to the J.B.'s (0:23)

2 - Doing it to Death - Parts 1 & 2 (9:49)
3 - You Can Have Watergate Just Gimme Some Bucks and I'll Be Straight (0:14)
4 - More Peas (8:16)
5 - La Di Da La Di Day (5:32)
6 - You Can Have Watergate Just Gimme Some Bucks and I'll Be Straight (0:14)
7 - Sucker (8:00)
8 - You Can Have Watergate Just Gimme Some Bucks and I'll Be Straight (6:22)

James Brown - lead vocal

Fred Wesley - trombone

Darryl "Hasaan" Jamison - trumpet

Jerone "Jasaan" Sanford - trumpet

Ike Oakley - trumpet

St. Clair Pinckney - tenor saxophone

Eldee Williams - tenor saxophone

John "Jabo" Starks - drums
Jimmy Nolen - guitar

Hearlon "Cheese" Martin - guitar

Fred Thomas - bass
Maceo Parker - alto saxophone

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