Bay Area Funk

Bluesy funk and funky soul. This is an awesome collection of less well known but very funky singles produced in the Bay Area in the late 60s/early 70s. Needless to say, they dig past Sly and the Family Stone, Tower of Power, and Santana. Probably the key feature of Bay Area funk is the diversity between bands and even within bands, which were often multi-racial. Thus it's hard to give a general summary about this CD, however I can say it's all funky. Not a bad track on here, play it and represent the Bay Area.
1) **Starting off right, bluesy sister funk featuring piano
2) **Choppy guitar and vocals, funky bass lead this ode to the ladies in the 510
3) *Horns lead a mid-tempo instrumental
4) **Electric piano groove, message vocals, and some way out wa-wa guitar soloing
5) **Sassy little sister funk, with some powerful breakdowns
6) **Part 1 is classic instrumental funk, horns and wa-wa guitars. Part 2 is a little farther out, with congas, a flute solo
7) *Tower of Power style up-tempo soul with horns and female vocals
8) **Funk instrumental with a pretty hard break
9) *Bluesy narrative about riding the bus
10) **Despite the title, this is hard, up-tempo funk
11) *Mid-tempo instrumental featuring horns
12) *Lush, orchestral with vocal harmonies
13) **Jazzy, nice mix that skips the long intro and gets right into the funky electric piano groove, I'm reminded of Weldon Irvine
14) *Lo-Fi organ and vocals
15) Choppy but plenty of "Uhhh"s to keep things funky.
16) **Crisp mid-tempo funk, the vocals are a bit distant but it's the drums and wa-wa guitar that drive this song anyway
Tom Purcell, November 2003