Customer Reviews

The Best of the Funk Brothers: 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Well, no, the Funk Brothers never released an album or single under that name, but as Earl Van Dyke & The Soul Brothers they released an album in 1965. Van Dyke was a keyboardist and the Soul Brothers were really the Funk Brothers. 5 tracks from that rare Motown release are included here. Basically, as detailed in Harry Weinger's excellent liner notes, the band "riffed" over their original backing tracks on such classics as "How Sweet It Is" and "Come See About Me". To be honest, with Van Dyke's keyboards playing a prominent role they veer closer to the sound of Booker T. & The MG's. There are 3 non-covers which are pretty good, and the CD ends with the backing tracks of "What's Going On" and "Papa Was A Rolling Stone." This is a good artifact of a great band. While not as essential as the classic Motown songs that they played on, it's good to have a catalog title with the Funk Brothers name front and center.

Music: 5 stars; Compilation: 3 stars.

As we know by now, the Funk Brothers, the 'back-up band' for countless Motown hits, finally got their moment in the sun when the documentary "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" was released some years ago. Following the success of that movie, the Funk Brothers (or what was left of it) started touring again, and I actually saw them open for the Dead a few years back, if you can believe that (true story, though).

"20th Century Masters: The Best of the Funk Brothers" (12 tracks, 38 min.) brings us a snippet of their overall musical output (at budget price, it should be pointed out). Found here are the instrumental versions of such Motown classics as "Come See About Me", "How Sweet It Is", as well as latter days "What's Going On" and, best of all, "Papa Was a Rolling Stone".

The musical importance of the Funk Brothers cannot be overestimated. This is not a bad album, but there's just not enough music on it, reason I cannot rate this higher. For a true measure of their music, check out instead the recently issued 2CD deluxe edition of the soundtrack of "Standing in the Shadows of Motown", a true 5 star album.

Arguably one of the most unsung heroes in the Motown catalogue, The Funk Brothers were (along with "Booker T & The M.G.'s), one of the most talented, and rhythmically accomplished instrumental acts in the evolution of the R&B/Funk Motown sound. Providing the backing instrumentation of some of the Greatest Motown tracks ever produced ("Marvin Gaye's - I Heard it Through the Grapevine", Stevie Wonder's - I Was Made to Love her"), only confirmed that, had they been pushed more as more of a Studio band in their own right, rather than providing the jaw-dropping instrumentals for Motown singers, that they would have been a far better know group in their own right.

Legend goes, that the saying "Once The Funk Brothers had recorded the instrumental part of a song, it didn't matter who sang over it". Certainly rings true, when you hear their music. Moving easily between Southern R&B, Memphis Soul, R&B & Funk, they were masters at taking a rhythm or Groove, and building exceptionally well-composed arrangements around it. And this release brings together a handful of tracks (in this case "12 Tracks"), as a quick and easy reference point for the band. Although fairly slim in terms of the number of tracks included, there's no doubt that this is the sound of the group that were at the top of their game, and the release is something of a truly perfect entry point for first time listeners of The Funk Brothers, or merely Causal listeners that are familiar with their sound. But such is the brilliance of The Funk Brothers work and stellar performances that a one Disk overview, does fall painfully short of highlighting the considerable overall brilliance of this group. And they are a group that are simply crying out for a boxset of some description!! (such a boxset, does not exist). But to mark down this compilation purely because it couldn't possibly contain all their essential material is pointless, as this is intended as a beautifully compiled introduction to the group (which it is). And I have no hesitation in giving this budget priced compilation a 5 Star recommendation.

But for those of you that either (A) have sampled this release and would like to hear more of their work. (B) Would rather have something with substantially more tracks to wade through, or (C) Are familiar with their work and would like to jump straight in.....then I'd have to steer you in the direction of the finest available summary of the Funk Brothers work, the seminal: "Standing in the Shadows of Motown: (Deluxe Edition)", which is the greatest overview of one of Motown greatest bands. As this would be the ulitmate addition, for those keen to hear more of this Phenomenal bands work.

Although they had played on thousands of records for Motown, until the documentary film Standing In The Shadows Of Motown in 2002 few had heard of the Funk Brothers by name, and even fewer knew the names of the master musicians who did so much to create the identity of Motown from the snake pit at the Hitsville Studio in Detroit throughout the sixties. Until Marvin Gaye insisted on having them credited on his album What's Going On in 1970, their names had apparently never even appeared on a Motown sleeve.

Names like bandleader and keyboard player Earl Van Dyke, bassist James Jamerson, guitarists Robert White, Joe Messina and Eddie Willis, and drummers Benny Benjamin, Pistol Allen and Uriel Jones, to mention a few, are gradually seeping into our consciousness as we backtrack through the mighty ever-expanding Motown archives.

Occasionally the band were let loose and allowed to add lead instruments over the backing tracks originally recorded for the various Motown singers, and in 1965 an album appeared by Earl Van Dyke and the Soul Brothers (Berry Gordy didn't approve the name Funk Brothers because of what he considered its improper connotations) called That Motown Sound.

The tracks were mostly led by Earl Van Dyke's Hammond organ, with extra guitar fills by Robert White or Joe Messina, and six of them are included on this Best Of, including All For You and I Can't Help Myself, which came out as singles in the UK and America respectively, with B-sides Too Many Fish In The Sea and How Sweet It Is. Given the 38 minute playing time, it is a shame space could not have been found for the rest of the album. Also, as the first five tracks come from the stereo version of the album, it is a pity that the single mono mix of I Can't Help Myself has been used.

Three other Earl Van Dyke singles are included in mono: Soul Stomp (1964), Six By Six (on which the Funk Brothers are joined by the six-piece Motown Brass)(1966) and Runaway Child, Running Wild (1969). Soul Stomp was a cover of a Contours song which wasn't released.

The Stingray is a funky workout taken from a 1970 Earl Van Dyke live album called The Earl Of Funk. Marvin Gaye's single What's Going On featured the instrumental backing track (with backing vocals) on the flip side, with Eli Fountain's memorable opening sax line, but sounds slightly incomplete, though it is a welcome inclusion as it is a first-time stereo mix. The final track is similarly the (mostly) instrumental B-side of the mighty Tempts' track Papa Was A Rolling Stone. This is the most recent recording on the record, having been made on 28 June 1972, though it remains sadly in mono, so for the full effect you need to turn to the near twelve minute version on their album Psychedelic Shack/All Directions or All Directions.

There are no new unreleased tracks here (two can be found on the A Cellarful of Motown! compilations) and the playing time is skimpy, but it's what's in the grooves that counts and this is a testament to the creators of some of the finest grooves to be found.

This allows the listener to hear the amazing music behind the vocals of many a great tune. Just about any vocalist would sound good over these tracks (no offense to the great motown vocalists). The feel is all there!! Highly recommended!!!

They were the no-questions-asked best R and B studio aggregation in the United States this side of Booker T. and the MGs at Stax in the 1960s and early 1970s, and it took until a couple of books (especially Nelson George's "Where Did Our Love Go: The Rise and Fall of the Motown Sound" and Alan Slutsky's "Standing in the Shadows of Motown") and a warm, unforgettable television special (based on the Slutsky book and with the surviving members of the aggregation) to get them their absolute, no-questions-asked due, even if the critical core of the aggregation (keyboard ace/bandleader Earl Van Dyke, bassist extraordinaire James Jamerson, drummers Benny Benjamin, Uriel Jones, and Pistol Allen, and guitarist Robert White) are no longer with us to bask in it.

Now, if only the Funk Brothers could get their due on CD, it would be---well, about as close to complete a repayment, for the magnificent work they performed in making the Motown sound, as could be asked. This disc is just an overview for the uninitiated, or for those poor souls who still persist in wondering what the hell was the big deal? In some ways, it's a kind of reminder as to both how highly and how little Motown mastermind Berry Gordy, Jr. thought of his house musicians---on the one hand, he kept them on generous salaries (at least in the context of their time and art, considering the Funk Brothers were notorious moonlighters whose work as moonlighters only began with the Capitols' "Cool Jerk" and Jackie Wilson's "Higher and Higher"); on the other hand, when they itched to record on their own (the musicians themselves came out of the jazz and blues worlds), the most Gordy would allow---with a few notable exceptions, some collected here---was to let them play the charts for the Motown hits ("Earl Van Dyke and the Soul Brothers Play That Motown Sound," the title of the first such album, was emblematic of the dilemna; "Soul Brothers" came because Gordy apparently feared "funk" would offend), with Earl Van Dyke featured on electric organ.

We can only imagine what might have been if Gordy had let his house musicians really cut loose in their own right in addition to their incandescent studio work. Some of the Earl Van Dyke and the Soul Brothers sides are remarkable music in their own right; the absolute best of those sides, "All for You," gives a tantalising taste of what might have been if Motown had been comfortable allowing pure bluesmen to join the label. The rollicking rhythm and backbeat splat could have been a Temptations session, but the Funks' exuberance on this striking blues shuffle---just listen to the way bassist Jamerson and drummer Benjamin jam, the way Van Dyke betrays an admiration for bluesy jazz titan Jimmy Smith, the way White strikes his ringing guitar triads---is a joy to hear. You wonder why any number of blues bands slogging the bars looking for ways out of the usual shuffle shucking haven't caught hold of this one; you ought to lament, too, that its near equal, "Hot 'n' Tot," isn't on this set. "Soul Stomp," the closest the Funk Brothers got to a hit single in their own right, is here, though, and it has the rip-roaring party ambience of the best of Junior Walker's early sides, enough so that you wonder why Walker didn't sneak in and blow a chorus here and there, not that Van Dyke's exuberant organ is a bad substitution.

The sides on which Van Dyke was pressed into laying organ solos over the Funks' reiteration of their Motown hit backings aren't terrible by any means, even if there's something a little too much drawn from the old roller skating rinks in these versions of "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)" and "Come See About Me." But the treats here that are equal to the Funks' non-Motown-hit sides are the backing tracks they set down for two of Motown's most revelatory hits, Marvin Gaye's groundbreaking "What's Going On" and the Temptations' harrowing masterwork "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone." What music! You almost---underline that, folks---don't miss Gaye's pleading, pulpit-deep vocal or the Temptations' half-noirish, half-primal wall of grief when you hear the musicians creating the beds over which those artists worked. "What's Going On" without Gaye is about the closest Motown ever got to what would be called, soon enough, smooth jazz, and it's a hell of a lot deeper than most of what goes by that label; "Rollin' Stone" is the kind of extended cinematic funk the most celebrated of the hard funk practitioners only wish they had come up with.

You could make a parlour game out of what's missing here; if you've ever heard the tracks for the Spinners' hit "It's a Shame," the Supremes' "The Happening" (on which the only known Funk Sister, flautist Dayna Hartwick, keeps the song's melody intact since she echoed Diana Ross's original lead vocal on the hit single), or the Four Tops's "Standing in the Shadows of Love," you get the idea. (Wouldn't it be great, too, to hear nothing but the Funk Brothers on such transitional works as the Temptations' "Cloud Nine"---you get only a small taste of it with "Runaway Child, Running Wild"---or "Masterpiece"; or, the Four Tops's "Still Water"?) Somewhere there's a definitive Funk Brothers anthology to be compiled and loved, even by people who wouldn't ordinarily sit listening to backing tracks. Because these were no ordinary backing tracks, and these were no ordinary musicians. Mitch Miller once said, derisively, that if you took away the microphone most pop singers would be slicing salami in delicatessens. One listen to the Funk Brothers on their own and you could almost make the case that a lot of Motown's hitmakers would have been slicing salami in delicatessens if not for what Van Dyke, Jamerson, Benjamin, and company gave them.

As an introduction (or re-introduction, if you will), this CD will do nicely enough. But these were the men who really made the Motown Sound. It's great that they've gotten their way overdue props as the musical titans they were, but it would be even better to have an anthology equal to that overdue justice. Let's hope it comes our way soon.

Excellent CD. I bought it for the sake of James Jamerson. Bass lines, which are always a pleasure to listen -from his early recordings to the last masterpieces.

Its about time folks hear the genius of The Funk Brothers! These guys DROVE Motown to the heights they obtained. Do yourself a favor and not only WATCH the documentary but recognize that they created most of ; if not all the incredible music that is in the Hall of Fame...this cd is an awesome collection that SHOWCASES JUST THEIR MUSIC! Thank you! What a treat!

I was disappointed on this one. Not enough of their great hits on here. Loved the video/movie of these amazing musicians - wish the CD did them justice!

People have asked me my favorite group of the Detroit soul music of the 60's, and I've always answered all the songs were great,loved them all . Now I know why, it was the same muscians ! This is because of the Funk Brothers. Love their music, and it matters not who is singing , it's the sound, the music behind the voices that was great, timeless and will forever be recognised as the Detriot soul music sound. Thank you so much for the education as to how the sound came about. It's truely a peice of history.