The Acid Jazz Movement
Lesson time: (2min 55sec)
Course preview
This lesson is part of the course Learn the Fundamentals of Funk Guitar with The Brand New Heavies
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Lesson transcript:
Understanding Acid Jazz
Well, acid jazz was actually a label named as a response to acid house music that came out in the late 80s. A couple of guys, Giles Peterson and Eddie Pillar, started it, and they put out a couple of tunes, including our first album.
The Rise of Acid Jazz
In fact, we had released a single with a label called Cool Tempo. Because acid house came out, they just ditched all the funkier stuff, which was having a little moment in the club scene in London and around the world.
- So, we made our own record and funded it with acid jazz.
- I think the Brand New Heavies work has kind of launched acid jazz beyond what it would have been, more a smaller niche for people who liked a certain type of music.
- We freshened it up and broke out into a sort of pop thing.
Notable Tracks
We had songs like "Dream Come True," which featured a funky riff throughout the whole song. It sounded fresh and funky; it didn't sound like old music; it sounded kind of like new music.
Acid jazz was this combination of:
- Old tunes being released
- New bands reinterpreting and creating new stuff
The Cultural Context
At this time, hip hop was beginning, leading to the incorporation of spoken word from bands like Galliano, a notable acid jazz band. There was a beatnik vibe, along with a fashion scene characterized by old denim and goatee beards.
- Meanwhile, De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest were starting in New York, searching for beats to sample.
- The funk scene was on the lookout for records to play.
It was a synonymous moment.
Innovative Approaches
We eventually made a hip hop album, probably one of the first hip hop records with live instruments on it. This led to a big Hollywood movie called Happy Feet, featuring one of our tunes.
If you're very lucky, I'll play some of that in a minute.
Conclusion
That's acid jazz. It was originally just the name of a label that became a genre. Japan picked up on all this stuff, and we got to tour there very early in America's adoption of the genre.
Just amazing. You got to experience it all around the world.
Phenomenal. Stick with it.
About the instructor
Simon Bartholomew is the guitarist in British funk/pop/soul group The Brand New Heavies - a band known for playing their own instruments live rather than leaning on contemporary computer-based programming. That commitment to real, in-the-pocket playing is exactly what makes him such a great guide to funk guitar, and producer Mark Ronson once told Simon that he and Nile Rodgers were his favourite guitarists. Alongside bandmate Andrew Levy, Simon writes, produces, mixes and oversees the running of a fully working, touring and recording band. The pair met at high school and, after hearing funk at The Cat In The Hat club, began jamming; once the DJs at the club played one of their cuts, 'Catch That Beat', from a cassette, the band began its illustrious journey. From those early days in London to travelling throughout the US and Japan, the band has pretty much toured the whole world, helping drive the early Hip Hop scene in LA and New York and becoming the main proponents of the Acid Jazz movement of the early '90s. The Brand New Heavies have platinum and gold record sales across their many albums and have had several songs featured on film soundtracks - notably Happy Feet, which used a song from their Heavy Rhyme Experience album, cited to be the first rap album that used a live band. Simon's musical influences run deep and wide: Blues, Jazz, Soul, Rock, Punk, Psychedelia, Prog Rock, Classical and Classic Rock - and pretty much anything else, from the live bands and orchestras all over television growing up to the rarer music he discovered on the John Peel Show and through friends' record collections. While he continues to tour and record with The Brand New Heavies, he has also written music for documentaries and worked on projects such as Akimbo and 1ibear, with more in the pipeline. Simon's mission is to fuse Rock and Funk, and as he puts it: 'There is funk in everything if you just take a look and feel for it.' That is exactly the spirit he brings to Learn the Fundamentals of Funk Guitar with The Brand New Heavies. read more