Hip-hop, R & B, urban contemporary rap, drum-n-bass, nu-jazz, call it what you want, but it's got to be FUNKY. The word "funk" has become a general description of everything with a booty moving bass. You know when you hear it, but what exactly?

History

Funk bass pioneers prevailed among the 60 and 70 in dance and pop. Four decades after most of the tracks for the Motown label in Detroit ,included the players today that James Jamerson was the king of funky Motown bass. Jamerson had a talent for solid rhythmic establishing while under bass hooks that defined Top Hits of the age.

Larry Graham was one of the first funk to slaping into the arsenal of electric bass techniques. His pop and slap style which he calles "Thumpin" and "Pluckin" emulates the drums. The thumb represents the bass drum thud, the pop is the snare drum crack. He define the sound to Sly & the Family Stone from 1967-72, and later went to form his own band, Graham Central Station.

William "Bootsy" Collins appeared on the radar in 1970 to play with the "Godfather of Soul", James Brown. Bootsy played with the J.B.s, as the rhythm section for only one years. Funkify went to groups like Parliament / Funkadelic and Bootsy's Rubber Band, and most recently, Prince. He is still active and plays and producing music in the Pfunk mold.

Many bass players contributed to the James Brown sound, including Hubert Perry, David "Hooks" Williams, Charles "Sweets" Sherrell, Fred Thomas, Tim Drummond, and the inimitable Bernard Odum. Logging more than a decade of concerts with the Godfather of Soul, Odum's legacy of ultimately funk grooves stands out.