Jazz-Funk & Disco: Part 4

Part 4: The studio becomes the main source

11 — THE BRIDGE TO HIP-HOP

The connection between Disco, Jazz-Funk and Hip-Hop is impossible to ignore.

Hip-Hop DJs were digging through the same musical history, finding inspiration in classic Disco, Soul, Funk and Jazz records, looking for breaks and discovering the possibilities.

A powerhouse drum break, a bassline that commanded the groove or a percussion section that could be dropped seamlessly into the beat. A few seconds of music that could become the foundation of something new.

Chic's Good Times became one of the most famous examples of Disco crossing directly into Hip-Hop, however what happened next is particularly revealing.

When The Sugarhill Gang recorded Rapper's Delight in 1979, they didn't sample Chic's original backing track. Instead, Sylvia Robinson had musicians from Sugar Hill Records' house band, Positive Force, recreate the groove, including Bernard Edwards' instantly recognisable bassline.

The samplers that would transform Hip-Hop were still several years away, so rather than simply lifting the Chic master recording, the musicians replayed the music and the result was so close to the original that decades later, people assumed it was sampled.

So close, in fact, that Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards recognised their composition immediately and threatened legal action. The dispute was eventually settled, with Rodgers and Edwards receiving songwriting credits.

It is an important moment in the evolution of recorded Hip-Hop.

The technology to sample entire pieces of recorded music had not yet arrived, but the idea of taking an existing groove and building something new around it was already firmly established.

The musicians reconstructed the original groove, the rappers added the lyrics, DJ culture supplied the inspiration and Disco provided the blueprint for one of Hip-Hop's first commercial success stories, which laid the foundations for a global phenomenon.

The age of sampling was coming, but first, Hip-Hop learned how to reinvent the break.

The 12” fuelled the DJ culture & remix mentality, and the sampler would eventually allow DJ’s & producers to reimagine classic cuts and introduce the next generation of collectors, party people and DJ’s to the artists and music that made it all possible.

The crate became the archive and the source meterial.

12 — THE RECORDS THAT CONNECT THE DOTS

This is where digging becomes particularly rewarding.

Take Stevie Wonder's Superstition. It's Funk, but listen to the Clavinet, the drums and the harmonic sophistication.

Or Richie Havens' Going Back to My Roots. A Soul/Funk record that would find another life on the dancefloor.

Indeep's Last Night a D.J. Saved My Life. The title alone tells you how important the DJ had become.

And Rockers Revenge — Walking on Sunshine. A bridge between Disco, Funk and the emerging electronic dance sound.

Gino Soccio — Try It Out.
Julia & Company — Breakin' Down (Sugar Samba).
Young & Company — I Like (What You're Doing to Me).
David Bendeth — Feel the Real.

These records reveal a musical world where genres are constantly overlapping.

Jazz musicians were making Funk.
Funk musicians were making Disco.
Disco producers were embracing electronics.
And DJs were turning everything into raw material.