James Brown died yesterday
12.27.06 (12:46 am) [edit]
I think it is impossible to over-estimate the impact James Brown had on music. We lost a truely amazing artist and performer. I'm going to try to point out somethings that he did, and maybe convey some sense of the range of impact he had.
When you listen to his earliest recordings you hear a pretty typical R&B artist. Shortly after that though the real James Brown sound or formula or system starts to emerge. He rightfully saw the importance of rhythm in the musical experience, and understood the role of space in music. He focused on the rhythm section of his band, creating with them parts that made more sense when heard as a whole than as individual parts. He came up with the parts, the musicians played exactly what he wanted them to, so once we start hearing the "James Brown" sound we are hearing his ideas and not the musicians ideas in his songs like with most artists.
When you listen to the bass lines in his music, regardless of which bassist he has at the time, the parts are full of space and rhythmic bursts that sit in the drummer's groove perfectly. Once you learn to hear a bass line in the James Brown way, you will never play bass in the same way again. Bootsy might have had more freedom than other bass players, but I also think that Bootsy never sounded better than his early days with James Brown.
The guitar parts in James Brown's system are also the archetype for guitar interaction. Typically in&n bsp;his songs o ne guitar would play chords up on the treble strings and the other guitar would play a sinlge note line on the bass strings. The key to hearing how these parts fit, or how he came up with them goes back to the drums. Everything feeds off the drums. It seems to me that the single note guitar line comes last, adding a busyness and foward motion to music. The repetition of the parts then become the canvas upon which the rest of the music built.
The horns often were just another layer of the groove, which was much more like a machine than a band up till that point in time. This system allowed James to create a vocal line that now that I think about it might have been more like a blues guitar solo than singing. It is tough to compare James Brown's way of singing, but easy to contrast. Just listen to Sam and Dave or the Four Tops or anyone for a contrast. In the same way that riffs and hooks and rhythmic phrasing replaced harmonic progression in his system, these same elements replaced most standard melodic devices. All the subltle aspects of songcraft were pushed aside for a much more emotionally charged almost seemingly free form chanting or riffing for lack of a better word.
The impact this had on other musicians is staggering. Every funky drummer that practially blows off the rest of the drum kit for the snare, kick and hi-hat is pledging allegiance to the Godfather of Soul. Every bassist that leaves the space playing staccatto, sneaking in 16th note Root - octave or root fifth flurries working almost solely off the "box" pattern R-Octave-b7-5 is ripping off James Brown. The 16th note groove might have been underneath a lot of music as the foundation, but James Brown put it out front saying it was&n bsp;all that wa s needed. He broke it free f rom all the&nbs p;restrictions of&nb sp;nice arranging&nb sp;and structures&nb sp;and instead he let it run amoke.
It would be silly to list all the 70's funk and soul acts that count James as the primary influence. It shouldn't be neccessary to point out that hip-hop would have nothing to sample if not for James Brown, he was the primary source with noone of significance in second third or fourth place. Listen to today's "Jam bands" for yet another logical extention of James Brown's ideas on what makes music groove. His band laid down the ultimate beats to blow over for jam bands in the same way they were the ultimate beats to rap over in the late 70's and early 80's.
Listen to "Afro-pop", and the various kinds of electric music coming out of Africa. Two things happend that changed the music in Africa, James Brown toured Africa, and Bob Marley toured Africa. The inspiration they gave to the local musicians (not to mention the jamming they did) gave us every shade of Afro-pop that we have. Listen to Fela Kuti's music, or King Sunny Ade (but now that I mention it, listen to Fela Kuti for some more life changing music).
I not one for hyperbole, but it is safe to say that James Brown is as important as Chuck Berry or the Beatles or John Coltrane or Miles Davis in terms of impact.
When you listen to his earliest recordings you hear a pretty typical R&B artist. Shortly after that though the real James Brown sound or formula or system starts to emerge. He rightfully saw the importance of rhythm in the musical experience, and understood the role of space in music. He focused on the rhythm section of his band, creating with them parts that made more sense when heard as a whole than as individual parts. He came up with the parts, the musicians played exactly what he wanted them to, so once we start hearing the "James Brown" sound we are hearing his ideas and not the musicians ideas in his songs like with most artists.
When you listen to the bass lines in his music, regardless of which bassist he has at the time, the parts are full of space and rhythmic bursts that sit in the drummer's groove perfectly. Once you learn to hear a bass line in the James Brown way, you will never play bass in the same way again. Bootsy might have had more freedom than other bass players, but I also think that Bootsy never sounded better than his early days with James Brown.
The guitar parts in James Brown's system are also the archetype for guitar interaction. Typically in&n bsp;his songs o ne guitar would play chords up on the treble strings and the other guitar would play a sinlge note line on the bass strings. The key to hearing how these parts fit, or how he came up with them goes back to the drums. Everything feeds off the drums. It seems to me that the single note guitar line comes last, adding a busyness and foward motion to music. The repetition of the parts then become the canvas upon which the rest of the music built.
The horns often were just another layer of the groove, which was much more like a machine than a band up till that point in time. This system allowed James to create a vocal line that now that I think about it might have been more like a blues guitar solo than singing. It is tough to compare James Brown's way of singing, but easy to contrast. Just listen to Sam and Dave or the Four Tops or anyone for a contrast. In the same way that riffs and hooks and rhythmic phrasing replaced harmonic progression in his system, these same elements replaced most standard melodic devices. All the subltle aspects of songcraft were pushed aside for a much more emotionally charged almost seemingly free form chanting or riffing for lack of a better word.
The impact this had on other musicians is staggering. Every funky drummer that practially blows off the rest of the drum kit for the snare, kick and hi-hat is pledging allegiance to the Godfather of Soul. Every bassist that leaves the space playing staccatto, sneaking in 16th note Root - octave or root fifth flurries working almost solely off the "box" pattern R-Octave-b7-5 is ripping off James Brown. The 16th note groove might have been underneath a lot of music as the foundation, but James Brown put it out front saying it was&n bsp;all that wa s needed. He broke it free f rom all the&nbs p;restrictions of&nb sp;nice arranging&nb sp;and structures&nb sp;and instead he let it run amoke.
It would be silly to list all the 70's funk and soul acts that count James as the primary influence. It shouldn't be neccessary to point out that hip-hop would have nothing to sample if not for James Brown, he was the primary source with noone of significance in second third or fourth place. Listen to today's "Jam bands" for yet another logical extention of James Brown's ideas on what makes music groove. His band laid down the ultimate beats to blow over for jam bands in the same way they were the ultimate beats to rap over in the late 70's and early 80's.
Listen to "Afro-pop", and the various kinds of electric music coming out of Africa. Two things happend that changed the music in Africa, James Brown toured Africa, and Bob Marley toured Africa. The inspiration they gave to the local musicians (not to mention the jamming they did) gave us every shade of Afro-pop that we have. Listen to Fela Kuti's music, or King Sunny Ade (but now that I mention it, listen to Fela Kuti for some more life changing music).
I not one for hyperbole, but it is safe to say that James Brown is as important as Chuck Berry or the Beatles or John Coltrane or Miles Davis in terms of impact.
posted by: musicalhair (reply)
post date: 12.26.06 (10:25 pm)
I don't know what is with that typo on the line about the guitar parts, I keep fixing it and a new on pops up. I'm not typing that stuff, it is like backspaces and things being recorded in "advanced view". Everyone probably already knows this stuff anyway.
