Sunday, August 23, 2015

Rickey Vincent interview part 1

Pour les connoisseurs, Rickey Vincent alias UHURU MAGGOT est une référence en matière de funk. Il s'était signalé l'an passé (en tout cas un post avait surgi sur le forum Funk O Logy) par une critique très argumentée du biopic sur James Brown "Get On Up", et si vous surfez sur le site de Davey D ( au hasard article intitulé "Hip Hop and Funk...Bay Area Style"), vous verrez, si vous lisez l'anglais des interviews et articles sur les débuts du rap, notamment en Californie, où bien sûr Mister Uhuru Maggot est impliqué. Mais Rickey Vincent, c'est surtout "Funk, The Music, The People and The Rhythm of The One", un ouvrage de 1996 qui traite, vous l'aurez compris, du black metal philippin. Je plaisante bien sûr!! Avec un second ouvrage, "Party Music: The Inside Story of the Black Panthers' Band and How Black Power Transformed Soul Music" qui s'intéresse aux liens entre le mouvement Black Power et la musique populaire afro-américaine, TRZ se devait d'investiguer, injecter un peu d'intellect dans cet hédonisme gangsta rap West Coast, selon les clichés ( Fabe sur les productions de Bass Click, Kuisto je crois? Rêvons, rêvons....). Rickey Vincent parle du choix de son nom de scène/ personnage radiophonique, de l'importance de Sly & The Family Stone pour le funk des années 70 et 80, notamment les innovations de Larry Graham, de la richesse de la scène soul/funk de la Bay Area, du degré d'implication des Black Panthers dans la culture populaire ( musique, cinéma....), à vérifier. On évoque aussi le cas du documentaire sur le P Funk d'Yvonne Smith "Parliament Funkadelic: One Nation Under A Groove", qui ne pourra pas sortir en "physique" avec tous les problèmes de copyright, le projet de livre autour des artistes féminines du P Funk ( "The Girl Is Bad: The Story of the Women of P Funk"), la difficulté d'avoir des biopics de qualité concernant des artistes noirs des années 70, en tout cas ceux cités dans le livre "Party Music". On rappelle par ailleurs qu'un film sur Rick James est envisagé, affaire à suivre, ça n'est pas dans l'interview cela dit. Lisez maintenant, anglophones!! Why the pseudo or nickname "Uhuru Maggot"? At KALX radio, where Davey D and I both started, we were all encouraged to take the most exotic names we could think of. Davey was from the Bronx and already had his. The Reggae deejays were good at taking on characters like Spliff Skankin' and Too Dread, and P-Funk is full of cartoon characters, so wild names are normal. I was working in a deejay crew around 1982 and my partner wanted to call us "Spank Incorporated" which was cool but not wild enough for me. I just thought of Uhuru Maggots as a way to talk about freedom (Uhuru) and funkativity (Maggots). He didn't like the name but I did, and started using it as soon as I got on the air. It was also a way to avoid ever, EVER having someone else show up with the same name. For me Bay Area means ( musically) several things, first of all the rap scene, "hyphy", Thizz Nation for the youngest ones, "Mobb sound" ( E 40, Suga T, B Legit, Celly Cel..) for the older ones, and also Digital underground, Too Short, Spice 1, then the heavy metal scene, especially tharsh bands from the 80ies like Exodus, Mordred, Legacy/ Testament, Death Angel, Metallica ( they came later, from LA), then the punk/hardcore scene with Dead Kennedys, Crucifix, and former Texas acts like Verbal Abuse, MDC, DRI. So what else can people find in the Bay? The Bay belongs to Sly & the Family Stone. The psychedelic funk as we know it truly started in the Bay Area and the P-Funk cats will tell you so. First: Larry Graham on Bass. He was doing distortion and exotic rhythms AND melodies on bass that were only done on guitar before him. Every 70s black band borrowed that from Larry. Stevie Wonder, Ohio Players, War, Mandrill, Funkadelic, Kool & the Gang, Rufus, Temptatons (Norman Whitfield stuff), Isley Brothers, everyone. Bootsy broke it down once on a TV doc: "Everyody was trying to say they did it but no, it was Larry Graham. At that particular time he was doing things with the bass that no one else was even thinking about" Sly was able to arrange all the rock, gospel, jazz and soul onto JB grooves so the fully formed FUNK that we know and love, could exist. Ask ANY funk master alive today and they will say they got the groove from the JB thing, but figured out The Funk from Sly & the Family Stone. The Stand! album in particular. That was 1969, light years ahead of its time. In the Family Stone vein there is: TOWER OF POWER, GRAHAM CENTRAL STATION, THE POINTER SISTERS, & THE HEADHUNTERS (Herbie Hancock's incredible jazz-funk fusion band). Listen to the funk in SANTANA, AZTECA, COKE ESCOVEDO or any other latin fusion group from around here.... The Funk is all up in it. Later there was CON FUNK SHUN, and Foster & McElroy ( who wrote Timex Social Club hit « Rumors », ndm) produced EN VOGUE, and TONY TONE TONI, and some other spinoff groups, ALL of which used the deep Funk formula, even if it did not sound exactly like Sly. Also, the MINNEAPOLIS sound is heavily influenced by the Bay Area. Prince stole SHEILA E from Oakland, and also took Rosie Gaines and a number of other players to Minnesotia from the Bay. Prince is a huge Sly fan and was VERY pissed that Jesse Johnson got ahold of Sly first, and did that duet "Crazy For You" back in 1986. Larry Graham now lives in Minneapolis and is Prince's spiritual advisor (they are both Jehova's Witness) and musical advisor. Later of course you have Hammer and Too Short and DIGITAL UNDERGROUND which is the closest thing to a P-Funk rap group. Also, I think of Shock G as the Sly Stone of rap because his innovations were so far advanced, now that people are trying to put as much flavor in their rhymes as he did, and as much P-Funk into their loops as he did, he's just a ghost in tha machine. But everywhere I listen, there is Great Funk - that can easily be seen as heavy on the Sly Stone formula. So what does the Bay Area have? The special ingredient that made The Funk what it is, that's what! Stupid question but I had to ask, is (and /or was) there a soul & funk scene in the Bay Area? Very much so. Super Soul Souvenirs KSOL radio was so big they put out their own Soul comps. Sly Stone was a deejay there also. But it took many years before CD compilers dug into the vaults and brought the early stuff out. « Get Your Lie Straight » has some great Bay Funk & soul. Notice Lenny Williams, who went on to front TOWER OF POWER during their superstar years. Get Your Lie Straight