Download link: Funky Halvor – Jazz & Rain (185MB mp3)

01. Karin Krog – Freestyle – Spring Can Really Hang You up the Most – Odin – 1986
02. Jef Gilson Septet – Avec Lloyd Miller – Le Grande Bidou – Kindred Spirits – 2007
03. Miles Davies – The Beginning – A Night In Tunisia – Prestige – 1955
04. Duke Ellington – The Intimate Ellington – Some Summer Fun – Pablo Records – 1977
05. Thelonious Sphere Monk – Monk’s Blues – Trinkle Tinkle – Colombia – 1991
06. Yusef Lateef – The Many Faces of Yusef Lateef – Revelation – Milestone – 1973
07. John Coltrane – Blue Train – Blue Train – Blue Note
08. Les McCann – Live At Montreux – What’s Going On – Atlantic – 1973
09. Tomasz Stanko – C.O.C.X – Kameleon – Musicorama – 1983
10. Billy Gault – When Destiny Calls – SteepleChase Records – 1974
11. Dakota Staton – Crazy He Calls Me – Invitation – Jasmine Records – 1959
12. Sonny Rollins – Shadow Waltz – Shadow Waltz – Jazzland Records – 1962
13. Eddie Russ – See The Light – Poko Nose – Monument – 1976
14. Weldon Irvine – Spirit Man – We Gettin’ Down – BMG – 1975

Badass Motherfunkers held their first and only concert (for now), Friday January 22nd. 2010. Five musicians aged 19 to 36, some meeting for the first time at the initial rehearsal, played songs by George Benson, Nils Landgren and Stevie Wonder (among others) in front of a happy crowd cheering and dancing their ass off (check out the audio and video clips below and listen while reading if possible). They weren’t the best band on Earth, but they produced the unmistakable feeling of funk after only three rehearsals. This is the story of how it went down.

First and foremost: A quality definition of the funk in Rickey Vincent’s excellent book “Funk: The Music, The People, and The Rhythm of The One” (1996):

Funk is a many splendored thing. Funk is a nasty vibe, and a sweet sexy feeling; Funk is funkiness, a natural release of the essence within. Funk is a high, but it is also down at the bottom, the low-down earthy essence, the bass elements. Funk is at the extremes of everything. Funk is hot, but funk can be cool. Funk is primitive, yet funk can be sophisticated. Funk is a way out, and a way in. Funk is all over the place. Funk is a means of release that cannot be denied… Village Voice writer Barry Walters explained The Funk as well as anyone could: ”Trying to put that thang called funk into words is like trying to write down your orgasm. Both thrive in that gap in time when words fall away, leaving nothing but sensation”.

Mr. Funky Bass: Åsmund Wilter Eriksson.

Inspiration and idea

After living in San Francisco and hanging out with an excellent group of jazz/funk musicians, Jazz Mafia and The Park, I moved back to Tromsø (a small city in the north of Norway) with a mission; I wanted to create the same vibes I’d experienced in SF. I now knew the ingredients needed to make the music go down. I joined the local jazz club and about a year later I suggested putting together a funky jazz band for a musical all-nighter. The idea was to arrange a late night concert during a weekend with jazzy danceable music alternating between a band and a DJ (incidentally me). This wasn’t a normal thing for the jazz club to do or even conceptualize. I wasn’t discouraged. My girlfriend, Guro Vrålstad, was involved with the local film club that each year arranges a party during the city’s international film festival. We suggested for both our boards to unite forces for the occasion. Throughout the project Guro worked hard and pushed on forward. Without her things would never have gone down as they did. Arranging a concert turned out to be quite expensive, but luckily the film club got sponsored by a central film organization making the project seem feasible.

Håkon Skog Erlandsen bustin his balls (right) with Kjetil Andreassen backing up with some excellently executed guitar licks.

Musicians and song selection

I had heard some local musicians I liked and asked them to join. Only one of them had the opportunity, but all were helpful in suggesting candidates they thought would fit into the scheme of things. The band ended up as an instrumental quintet. The only person I’d originally envisioned in the band, Håkon Skog Erlandsen (21), plays saxophone. I’d heard him with a local band and seen potential. On bass, Åsmund Wilter Eriksson (30), a talented cat that plays with one of the city’s most successful bands: Adjagas. A forceful drummer, Jonas Karlsen (22), which I believe learned a thing or two about The Funk during this project. And another learner, Benjamin Nygård (19) on keys. Fortunately we were lucky enough to get the best rhythm guitar player in town, Kjetil Andreassen (36), to join. He turned out to be most experienced with the genre. He’s lived in L.A, seen The Funky Meters live and played with the Swedish funkman Nils Landgren just to mention a few things. As the group slowly came together with a lot of emails and phone calls going back and forth, I found about 15 songs I thought would match the instrumentation and mix of jazz and funk. We ended up choosing five of these: “Simple Life” and “Amtrak” by Nils Landgren, “Flute Song” by Benson & Farrell, “Got To Get Your Own” by Rouben Wilson and “The Night Of The Wolf” by Al Foster Band. In addition two songs came up during rehearsals: “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder and “Cissy Strut” by The Funky Meters. The band agreed to my idea about stretching the songs to around 10 minutes, passing the hatchet around and hitting hard.

Rehearsing and marketing

During the first rehearsal some of the musicians greeted for the first time. It was a Sunday and some (including me) had a slight hangover. I was there as some sort of producer and interested spectator. The groove was there and I understood the project was attainable, but it was at the second rehearsal we all got the funk-foot going. There was another rehearsal before the concert and some rehearsing on the day of the concert. Things moved forward nicely. After throwing some ideas back and forth I came up with the name Badass Motherfunkers toghether with my girlfriend and the boss of the filmclub.  The jazzclub was far from known for doing anything like this, so we had to come up with a good name to make the party vibrations obvious for marketing. The marketing consisted besides this of making an event on Facebook, a poster (see below) and getting information into the local newspapers. All worked out pretty well, but next time I’ll be contacting the newspapers at an earlier stage, so they can write better articles beforehand and review the concert as well. There were an article about the concert beforhand, but no mention anywhere afterward. The night deserved that. Of course information was also spread through friends, the jazz and film clubs homepages.

The local film festival has a reindeer in its logo, so I decided to use one I'd taken a picture of for the promotional poster. I think it's got an interesting eye.

The night itself: DJ’ing, recording and some great live funk

A good friend of mine who’s also a DJ came up from Oslo for the night and to enjoy what the area had to offer (meaning a “few” beers and some heavy hanging out). We began DJ’ing at 10 p.m. and people started showing up in good numbers. In my head I’d hoped for a good dance floor going before Badass started playing. This didn’t happen and we got a bit nervous. Norwegians aren’t exactly used to start shakin before 12. As the band started out at 11.30 with “Got To Get Your Own”,  fortunately people got together in front of the stage and started cheering happily.

We had hooked up an 8 track recording device to document the whole thing, but only got three tracks because of lack of space on the computers hard drive (check below to listen). Another lesson learned. Luckily a friend of mine brought a camera and filmed most of the first song of the second set. The material shows how much tighter the band got during the concert. Something I learned in San Francisco was never to judge a band based on the their first 20 minutes of performance. Musicians need time to really get into the groove.

“Got To Get Your Own” – Reuben Wilson:

“Cissy Strut” – The Funky Meters:

“Night Of The Wolf” – Al Foster Band:

“Simple Life” - Nils Landgren:

When listening to the three tracks recorded, you can literally hear the band getting tighter and it’s a shame I haven’t got the last songs. The crowd got wilder, the band tighter, the solos more adventurous and engaging. I remember being very happy after the first set, the four songs had lasted about 40 minutes! The crowd was digging it and I knew the best was yet to come. With my experience as a DJ I set the playlist together with the band and we’d saved the safest songs for last. So with the first set of more obscure stuff being a success, I knew everything was going to be all right. During the break we had a solid dance floor and as the band entered the stage and started playing the audience couldn’t really tell the difference between us DJ’ing and them playing. This was a goal I had set and told the band about from day one. The audience pretty soon realized though, and the second set was just a great funky trip for everyone involved. It started off with “Simple Life” by Nils Landgren which has a James Brown washing machine funk thang in the bottom. Then moving on to another song by Landgren: “Amtrak”. This was a song we were a bit uncertain of because it’s sort of a ballad, but with its slower tempo and a tightly grooving band it turned out to be a super hit with a great sax solo (all the musicians had great solos, but this is the one I remember most vividly). When the sure winner “Superstition” went down people actually started jumping as the drummer tightened up the groove in middle of the song. The extra number was “Cissy Strut” once more and DJ’ing after that was just one hell of a party; People actually started climbing the walls.

No cash earned

At the end here I have to get back to some more sober realizations. We had a great night with 200+ people in the audience, but we didn’t manage to break even, what saved us was the support we’d already gotten up front. A successful concert like this should make money and I believe the owners of the place we rented did just that. Our expenses were rent (which was pretty high), fees for musicians, some food and drink before and during the concert. The only money we made were tickets at the door which we’d stretched as far as we dared. We should have gotten some of the money made in the bar, but that was obviously not the name of the game. There could have been two guests all night and the price for rent would have been the same; I’ll think twice about renting that place the next time I’m going to arrange a concert. Well, enough said, now it’s about time to get some more gigs for this band. As a team and concept we got a good thing going. We want to funk y’all right on up!

Happy DJs: Me on the left and Rune Johnsrud on the right.

Special thanks to the following people for their contribution to this article: Christian Bruun (photos and video), Kjetil Andreassen (live audio recording), Rune Johnsrud (photo/video editing, audio mixing and layout), Tromsø Jazzklubb, Tromsø Filmklubb, and last but not least James Brown (R.I.P.)!

Download link: Rune mix 06 – Jazz and Beats (152MB mp3).

01. Ulf Sandberg Quartet – Bolivia
02. DJ Cam Quartet – Saint Germain
03. Mark Mac Presents visioneers – Ike’s Mood I
04. The James Taylor Quartet – Fat Boy Stomp
05. The Winstons – Amen Brother
06. Stanley Clarke – We Supply
07. The Jacksons – Destiny
08. Herman Kelly & Life – Dance To The Drummer’s Beat (original 12″ mix)
09. Mother Earth – Riot on 103rd Street
10. The Poets Of Rhythm – Eulogize The Source
11. Jaguar – That’s Your Problem Baby
12. The Grits – Tramp
13. Trouble Funk – Freaky Situation
14. Gonzalez – Just Let It Lay
15. Side Brok – Brænne Brus (improvised jam)
16. Bentzon Brotherhood Play The Sugar Hill Gang – Rappers Delight (12″ mix)
17. Soulive – Cash’s Dream Remix (DJ Spinna mix)
18. Dogg Master – Can’t Live Without Music

The multitude of projects and roles that the man himself has had over the past 30 years or so are too numerous to list here, but since the unit was started back in 1992, they have managed to record nine albums, all strongly rooted in the funk, but with a wide variety of influences from many other genres. Although the members in the unit have varied greatly over time (R.I.P. Esbjörn Svensson), they’ve still managed to create a distinct sound and style that suits them well.

Jazz and funk improvisation has a stronger presence on “Funk For Life” than the previous albums released since 2000, and six of the twelve tracks are instrumental, some of them close to the 8 minute mark — letting the groove lock and then flow freely, allowing ample space for solos is something these highly skilled performers should do more often! I think that was the main reason it took some time for this record to grow on me, but it really has over the past few weeks since its release.

Nils and long time unit collaborator Magnum Coltrane Price are lead singers on the remaining tracks, with the exception of the uptempo Moog bass driven Tower Of Power inspired song “Finish What You Started”, one of the many standouts on the album. The rather laid-back atmosphere that permeates it all, is nicely balanced out by the lively and organic production that really captures the feeling of extensive studio jam sessions recorded and released for our listening pleasure.

Homepage: Funk For Life | Nils Landgren

Purchase & audio samples: Amazon.com (digital download)

Download link: Rune mix 04 – Space is the Place to Chill (118MB mp3).

01. Jazzanova – Soon (feat. Victor Duplaix)
02. De Phazz – Wait ‘Till You See Him (Ella Fitzgerald, Verve Remixed)
03. Jamiroquai – Destitute Illusions
04. Spirit Catcher – Motown Spring
05. Al Green – Light My Fire
06. Rodney Franklin – One From The Heart
07. The Brothers Johnson – Q (album version)
08. Los Amigos Invisibles – Gerundio
09. Ian O’Brien – Amorous Perspective
10. Ian O’Brien – Where Does The Past End And The Present Begin?
11. Herbie Hancock – Bo Ba Be Da
12. Axiom Funk – Under The Influence (Jes Crew)
13. Paul Hardcastle – Rainforest (1985 vinyl album version remastered)