various artists - Classic Jazz Funk Volume One

The whole point of this blog is to share the out-of-print, the cheaply-acquired, the nearly-forgotten. This, the first of three volumes of MVP/React's Classic Jazz Funk series, falls under the the third category.

And, by that, I don't mean the artists appearing herein. I assume you can stream Herbie Hancock's "Cantaloupe Island" or Roy Ayers' "Running Away" just about anywhere, so the out-of-print part doesn't really apply. As for cheaply acquired? Well, I bit the bullet, having already owned and shared copies of Volumes Two & Three, and plunked down $3.99 plus shipping for this copy. Not quite the dollar bin fare I live to share here, although it's less than I ever spent seeing Fugazi, so there you go.

No, it's the nearly-forgotten that I think best applies here. Are the crate diggers still on the hunt for old Flying Dutchman pressings? What do the kids know about Tom Browne? Ronnie Laws? Shit, do they even fuck with George Benson? Is Groove Holmes just a deep cut Beastie Boys reference to folks today?

Look, it is geting hot as hell out here. Even the PNW was nearing 90 this weekend. But when the darkness comes around 9pm these days, this is the perfect cooldown soundtrack, a perfect play at the pool to get the people amorous and have the trainspotters say, "oh, shit, I know that sample!"

Discogs

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various artists - Classic Jazz Funk Volume Two

I don't love this as much as I do Volume 3, but I do dig this. There's some good-ass Blue Note catalog here (Grant Green, Lou Donaldson, Donald Byrd), an all-time slammer from Roy Ayers, and some early period Kool & The Gang. Esther Phillips leads things off with her version of Gil-Scott Heron's "Home Is Where The Hatred Is"; Ramsey Lewis covers Bob Dylan, and Benny Golson wraps things up with an update to his standard "Killer Joe".

Everything here slaps hard, is what I'm saying.

Discogs

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various artists - Classic Jazz Funk Volume Three

A lesson in cognitive dissonance and prejudice:

"Jazz funk" has always been a bit of a punchline in my house, going back to being a kid, and my mom's best friend's husband being snickered at for his fandom (and prog rock, too). And, to borrow a term from another culture, it has such poncy connotations. It stinks of pipe smoke and open shirts down to the belly button and fart-smelling virtuosity and gatekeeping and every 70s excess, not to mention white dudes co-opting Black and Latin culture. It was damned near the worst, personified (rightly or wrongly) by Ron Burgundy playing jazz flute in "Anchorman". Just fucking obnoxious.

And yet! I got a promo of this, the final volume in a long running series of Polygram/EMI deep catalog comps, when it came out in '97. I held onto it because I knew Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders from their shared association with the Master himself. I'm glad I did, because every track here is a full-blown banger. Drawing from the likes of the Impulse!, Blue Note, A&M, CTI, and Columbia catalogs, there's a wealth of great tracks from great artists, a veritable crate digger's delight of cuts. It's the first chance to hear "Nautilus" outside of a sample, the first time I'd ever experienced Roy Ayers and Donald Byrd, This one is sneaky good if you can get past your own hang-ups.

Discogs

Click here to download.