James Brown: The Jazz Player

As James Brown, "The Godfather of Soul," continues to tour nationally well into his 60s (his birthdate is listed variously as 1933 and 1928), Polydor continues to repackage his past in a bewildering assortment of CDs, raiding its vaults for every imaginable, previously unreleased tape scrap. A lesser artist might suffer from such exposure, but Brown -- who modestly told interviewers a decade ago that he had composed more songs than Mozart, Beethoven, or Irving Berlin, 5000 at least -- is always worth hearing. The three most recent CD compilations, Foundations of Funk: A Brand New Bag 1964-1969, Funk Power 1970: A Brand New Thang, and Make It Funky: The Big Payback 1971-1975, foreground what most Brown fans and music critics ignore: the King of Soul's new bag held a lot of jazzy flavors.

To listen to Brown with jazz-hungry ears involves listening past the roiling funk syncopations and listening hard for the horn and keyboard solos igniting the longest jams. There is one obvious moment to quicken a jazz fan's heart: Robert McCullough's sax solo on "Super Bad" (from Funk Power). The tenor-saxman responds to Brown's asking him to "blow me some Trane, brother" with a whining, squealing, tipsy, atonal solo that sounds absolutely nothing like Coltrane. It does sound like any number of avant-garde players who followed in Coltrane's wake. Like any good jazz solo, it tells a tale, makes a point, departs into thin air. The sax line parallels Brown's R&B/gospel-flavored raspy vocal line while reaching toward jazz nirvana.

The most astonishing jazz solos extending over multiple sessions are from trombonist Fred Wesley. His solo on "Mind Power" (Make It Funky) is full of rowdy smears, light-as-a-feather slides, brutally percussive staccato phrases, sounding like a blend of Tricky Sam Nanton from Duke Ellington's Cotton Club days and a funky J.J. Johnson. "Make It Funky, Parts 1, 2, 3 & 4," from the same two-disc set, finds Brown loudly exhorting his trombonist to "slide that slide, Fred, get your horn in the groove." Wesley's art does more that that; he dances in and out of the groove, jazzing up the funk so intensely, it's as though he forgot he isn't playing a jazz studio session. Wesley even managed to coax the best jazz piano solo out of Brown on record, on "Papa Don't Take No Mess" (Make It Funky), making Brown sound like an accomplished student of McCoy Tyner.

Make It Funky uses a stellar team of jazz studio pros (hornmen Randy Brecker and Joe Farrell, bassist Buster Williams, guitarist Cornell Dupree) in addition to the legendary trio of Brown instrumentalists, saxophonists Maceo Parker, "Pee Wee" Ellis, and trombonist Wesley. The unrelenting funk groove means that none of the stars has much room for extended solos, but they get in some tremendously tasty licks nevertheless, trading hot solos with one another in the tradition of R&B flavored jazz. In the long line of jazz players with a jump-funk soul -- from Earl Bostic and Illinois Jacquet to Steve Coleman -- James Brown and his bands of the '60s and '70s have earned a place of funky honor.

-- Norman Weinstein