ARCHIVE
THE SPECIALIST
James Brown &The JB’s live in East Ham, London, March 1971
DAVID REDFERN/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES)
THE JB’S
Food For Thought/Doing It To Death/ Damn Right I Am Somebody
PURPLE/CHERRY RED
9/10
Theworld’s funkiest band do it to death on two-CD set of crowning glories
SINCE no measurement device can calculate the full magnitude of what Bootsy Collins dubbed “The One”, we have no objective means of determining the funkiest music ever recorded by The JB’s, perhaps the funkiest band to ever strut across the Earth. Some experts point to the snaky line sketched by Fred Wesley’s trombone over the airtight groove in the final minute of “Pass The Peas”. Others favour the gale-force blast that opens “The Grunt” before the players lock into the rhythm that became a fundamental hip-hop building block. Of course, no discussion is complete without the formidable combination of squelchy cosmic slop and prime uncut funk in “Blow Your Head”.