Breaks
Back in the days everything started with the breaks: the break sections of different records were put together and played on and on to make the B-Girls and B-Boys dance.
A break in a funk, soul, rock or any other type of song featuring funky drums is mostly built upon a drum solo, where the percussive rhythms are most aggressive and hard driving, sometimes supplemented by other instruments (bass guitar, congas, bongos…).
Still today, the most famous and most played records at Breaking events and in practice spots are records from the time when everything started: the 60s and 70s.
The Incredible Bongo Band: “Apache”
The Incredible Bongo Band's “Apache” is simply legendary in the world of dance music. The track is not only one of the most sampled tracks of all time and a staple for Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash at the Bronx block parties of the 70s; it has become an all-time Breaking anthem and is revered as the original break of all original breaks.
Michael Viner formed the Bongo Band as a loose, informal conglomerate of musicians (Jim Gordon on drums and King Errisson on percussion) who came together to record the soundtrack of a blaxploitation movie called “The Thing with Two Heads”, and percussive versions of established pop classics, from The Shadows' “Apache” to Iron Butterfly's “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” and the Rolling Stones' “Satisfaction”.
The status of The Incredible Bongo Band was comparable to that of James Last records in Europe, until DJs like Kool Herc used some of the tracks in their mixes. Today “Apache” can be found on every good funk and B-Boy compilation.
Discography
- Bongo Rock (Pride, 1973)
- The Return of the Incredible Bongo Band (Pride, 1974)
The Jimmy Castor Bunch: “It's Just Begun”
Jimmy Castor (June 2, 1943 – January 16, 2012) was a singer, writer, arranger, saxophonist, percussionist and producer in one person. With the exception of James Brown, no other performer's music weathered the changes in R&B as well as Jimmy Castor's. From the street-corner harmonies of Sugar Hill to the scratching turntables of today, Castor's music stayed in the limelight for decades.
In 1956 Jimmy, who lived in Harlem, formed his own vocal group, “Jimmy & The Juniors” (Al Casey Jr. singing bass, Johnny Williams tenor and Orton Graves baritone). The group cut two discs before they split up in early 1957. From then on Jimmy managed, produced, formed and signed different groups. These were the years when he learned a lot about the music business (studios and clubs, talents and musicians, labels, recording sessions…), which is why he got the nickname “The Everything Man”.
Castor recorded a few singles for different labels like My Brothers, Jet Set, Decca and Smash. By 1966 there was a new sound in Harlem; doo-wop was out. The new sound, inspired by the large and growing Puerto Rican population of Harlem, was Latin soul. Castor's answer to this new direction was one of the all-time great New York Latin soul discs, “Hey, Leroy, Your Mama's Callin' You”. “Hey, Leroy” was and is irresistible, with its fat melodic bass line, descending piano triplets, timbales and conga grooves, wailing sax, and the call-and-response refrain “go to yo' mama, go to yo' mama”.
By this time The Jimmy Castor Bunch were uptown New York heroes: in addition to Jimmy on sax, timbales and vocals, there were Gerry Thomas on trumpet and piano, Harry Jensen on guitar, Lenny Fridle Jr. on congas, and old Harlem doo-wop buddy Doug “Bubs” Gibson on bass. Their first LP, “It's Just Begun”, was released in March 1972, followed by the single “Troglodyte (Cave Man)”.
“It's Just Begun” is Castor's masterpiece, the most fully realized example of his vision. In addition to tapping into his doo-wop and Latin soul roots, the Bunch had developed a funky groove, with thumping, slapping bass, fuzz-tone guitar and layered percussion. “Troglodyte (Cave Man)”, which exemplifies this, was one of the monster records of 1972, rising to #6 on the pop charts by May of that year, and one of the discs that defined the coming funk explosion of the mid 70s. It opens with a spoken introduction (which would become a favorite sample of Afrika Bambaataa at New York's Roxy): “There was a time when men lived in caves… Now we're gonna go back, way back… cave men, cave women, Neanderthal, Troglodyte!” Then the groove fades in and Castor begins the wild tale of primitive love. It's funny, menacing, and funkier than anything that had come before it.
“It's Just Begun” was never issued as a single but remains one of Castor's best-known classics. The track turned up in the big Breaking battle scenes of “Flashdance” and “Beat Street”. It can also be found as a sample on countless rap records and is heard on the dance floor to this day (thanks to the many bootleg 12″ singles that made the rounds in the 80s).
The Jimmy Castor Bunch cut two more LPs for RCA in 1972 and 1973; in 1974 they switched to Atlantic, and in 1979 to Cotillion, a sublabel of Atlantic. The re-formed Jimmy Castor Bunch kept performing into the 1990s. Jimmy Castor died in 2012 at the age of 68.
Discography
- It's Just Begun (RCA LP, 1972)
- Phase II (RCA LP)
- Dimension III (RCA LP)
- Butt of Course (Atlantic LP, 1974)
- Supersound (Atlantic LP, 1975)
- Bertha Butt Boogie (Atlantic, 1974)
- The Everything Man (Atlantic, 1974)
- King Kong (Part 1) (Atlantic, 1975)
- Potential (Atlantic, 1975)
- Supersound / Drifting (Atlantic, 1975)
- Bom Bom (Atlantic, 1976)
- I Love a Mellow Groove (Atlantic, 1976)
- E-Man Boogie (Atlantic, 1976)
- Everything Is Beautiful to Me (WEA, 1979)
James Brown: “Give It Up or Turnit a Loose”
Today's music (such as rap or techno) has its roots in James Brown's funky people and their records of the late 60s and 70s.
The most common criteria for breakbeats are clear drums and percussion in a 4/4 measure. The snare usually plays on 2 and 4 (so 1 2 3 4). Nearly all breakbeats descend from the breaks on James Brown records, where he goes crying and shouting and the band stops. Basically, a breakbeat is the beat in that break. James Brown's drummers (like John “Jabo” Starks or Clyde “the funky drummer” Stubblefield) created syncopated beats (off the measure), very often around the third beat.
One of the first such beats was James Brown's “Give It Up or Turnit a Loose” from 1968. This original version (not the one everybody thinks of, with the “clap your hands, stomp your feet” break) was the basic inspiration for the original hit version of “Sex Machine”. James Brown then re-recorded both songs for the LP.
The other version was recorded on July 22, 1970 at the King Studios in Cincinnati, Ohio. The musicians were James Brown (vocals), Bobby Byrd (organ), Darryl Jamison and Clayton Gunnells (trumpets), Robert McCollough (tenor sax), Phelps Collins (guitar), William “Bootsy” Collins (bass), Clyde Stubblefield (drums) and Johnny Griggs (congas).
Discography
Too much to name. Check James Brown on AllMusic.
Thanks to Pesa! Check his site for even more info: planetfunk.ch.