As the most influential African-American performer of the last half of this century, James Brown laid a foundation for the funky soul groove that will carry well into the next millennium. The Godfather Of Soul, the Hardest Working Man In Show Biz, Mr. Dynamite, Soul Brother Number One--they were probably all titles among the many Brown thought up for himself, but that doesn't make them any less fitting. With a live-wire stage show based on stamina, style, sex and turn-on-a-dime syncopation, Brown led American black music into ever-harder and meatier territory, from R&B through soul and into modern funk.
A hardluck dropout born in 1928 in Macon and raised in Augusta, Georgia, Brown's famous screech made its debut in gospel choirs at the local church. At 20, after leading several imitative vocal groups and receiving a conviction for armed robbery, Brown joined with noted gospel singer Bobby Byrd to form the Flames, which became James Brown & His Famous Flames after the vocal quartet scored a 1956 million-seller with the torchy future show-stopper "Please Please Please" for Federal/ King Records. The nine singles that followed flopped, causing the original Flames to leave. King was about to give up on Brown when "Try Me" went gold in 1958. It was the second of Brown's 74 R&B hits that crossed over to 40 pop chart hits on their way to selling 50 million records (surprisingly, none ever made it to the top of the pop charts).
James had to share the spotlight with soul royalty like Aretha and Otis, but he positively stole it when he pushed soul down the funk groove path. After recording the seminal barn- burner Live At The Apollo in 1963 (against King Records' wishes), Brown went on an adventurous streak that yielded new, intricate beats and jazz-informed horns. His increasing knack for extemporaneous composing meant studio tapes often captured the bursting creative fire of interactions with his like-minded band. Song lyrics were replaced by chants, grunts, howls and screams while extended grooves chugged over spots where verses would normally change to choruses. "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" and "I Got You (I Feel Good) hit the top 10, and funk was born.
Brown's emphasis on sharp musicianship saw his big bands populated with top-shelf players including trombonist Fred Wesley and saxmen Pee Wee Ellis and Maceo Parker, drummer Clyde Stubblefield, and guitarist Jimmy Nolen. The fines Brown levied against his musicians for missing notes and dropping beats were legendary, and after one particularly harsh assessment in 1970, Parker and the band walked out. Two of the replacements were Bootsy and Catfish, the Collins brothers, later major funkmasters with P-Funk. Band members returned, occasionally recording on their own as the JBs, with Mr. Dynamite sitting in on organ or drums. But morale problems, usually due to lack of a paycheck, were common.
Polydor/ Chronicle's James Brown CD reissues now include: his first three albums, 1959's Please, Please, Please and Try Me!, and 1960's Think!; the second Live At The Apollo, Raw Soul, Out Of Sight, and Say It Loud, all from the late '60s; plus most of his '70s LPs through 1974's Reality. A good chunk of Brown's other 80-plus albums, which sometimes overflowed with filler, are out of print. Others, like Super Bad and the otherwise stellar Sex Machine didn't even contain the single versions of the title songs! Not to worry. Those and other late '60s/ early '70s title cuts--including "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag," "Cold Sweat," "I Got You (I Feel Good)," "It's A Man's Man's Man's World," "Cold Sweat," "Sex Machine," "Hot Pants," "Get On The Good Foot" and "Payback"--are also available in multiple versions on various compilations. And there are dozens of live James Brown recordings, some very worthwhile despite a tendency toward canned applause. Lesser-known but top-shelf rocking gospel, doo-wop ballads and hard soul tracks from Brown's first decade fill the ear-popping Roots Of A Revolution. For knock-down, drag-out party grooves, the potent Star Time, Foundations Of Funk: 1964-1969 and James Brown's Funky People collections can't be beat.
Most of the anthologies focus on Brown's first two decades, illustrating the end of his chart dominance in the mid-'70s, when the recycled material grew thin. This fade only worsened Brown's widely-publicized financial, tax and domestic troubles. His career was re-energized by "Unity" (his single with Afrika Bambaataa), by the 1986 hit "Living In America" from Rocky IV, and through the hundreds of samples of his voice and bands on modern hip-hop discs. He was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1986. His resurgence was interrupted by a 1988 interstate car chase with police that earned Brown a six-year sentence. Freed in February 1991, Brown is no longer the Hardest Working Man In Show Biz as he creeps into his seventies. But his still-sharp senses of timing and arrangement guarantee that his groups will remain the Hardest Working Bands.
Polydor's James Brown CD reissues and anthologies are exemplary packages with detailed session annotations and incisive essays by insider archivists. The jackets for Brown's late-'80s/ early-'90s CDs on Scotti Bros. offer little info besides track listings.
Written by Tristram Lozaw
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