On Sunday, August 5, a Mothership commander will land on the Fort
Adams stage when the 76-year old vocalist, songwriter, producer, bandleader,
icon and Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame Inductee George Clinton and his supergroup,
the Grammy Award winning Parliament Funkadelic, perform for the first time at
the Newport Jazz Festival® presented by Natixis Investment Managers. In support
of his latest CD, Medicaid Fraud Dogg, and part of a landmark, worldwide tour
that will end with his retirement from touring in 2019, Clinton is sure to
bring the funk and more to Narragansett Bay.
"I had
to get this music out there," Clinton said in an interview posted on the
website www.consequenceofsound.net. "I felt real creative urgency to give
the world this, right now."
Simply put:
With the exception of James Brown, Clinton has done more than anyone to elevate
and expand the African-American music genre known as funk, first with his
R&B vocal group, The Parliaments with their 1967 hit, "(I Wanna)
Testify." In the next decade, Clinton - who first formed the band as a
doo-wop group in his hometown of Plainfield, New Jersey where he worked in a
barbershop - expanded the group, moved to Detroit, where he briefly worked for
Motown and with some independent local labels. As a songwriter, he augmented
the group's music, with a funkier edge, drawing from Brown and Sly Stone, with
touches of Afro-psychedelic, talismanic iconography. Parliament featured
colorful characters like the square, non-dancing Sir Nose D'Voidaffunk, who was
the nemesis of Starchild, his polar opposite who always knew where "The
One" was. And, there was the Mothership - an Afro-American version of the
Apollo Moon Module that literally landed onstage, where Clinton as "Dr.
Funkenstein" would emerge from the ship, exhorting his funketeers to
"give up the funk."
Throughout
the 70s, Parliament produced a number of R&B hits, including "Up for
the Downstroke," "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off The
Sucker)," "Aquaboogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop)" and
"Flash Light," from their equally impactful albums including
Funkentelechy vs. The Placebo Syndrome, The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein,
Mothership Connection, and The Motor-Booty Affair. With the jazzy horn lines
supplied by saxophonist Maceo Parker and Pee Wee Ellis and trombonist Fred
Wesley - all from James Brown's groups - Parliament set the bar high as one of
the most influential ensembles in 20th century music.
As
Parliament was to funk, Clinton's other equally influential ensemble Funkadelic
was the Black answer to rock. The group's roots go back to 1964, when it was a
touring band created to back The Parliaments. The band, which was named by the
group's original bassist Billy Bass Nelson, came into its own as a distinct
entity from Parliament, even though there was some overlap and interchange
between groups with the same musicians. And though both groups were next to
none in terms of dance grooves, Funkadelic was more guitar-oriented, abstract,
and daringly political.
Its classic
albums including Maggot Brain, America Eats Its Young, Hardcore Jollies, Uncle
Jam Wants You, and One Nation Under a Groove, yielded several singles including
"(Not Just) Knee Deep," "Standing on the Verge of Getting It
On," "Comin' Round the Mountain," and "Cosmic Slop."
Guitarists Garry Shider and Glenn Goins, keyboardist Bernie Worrell, and
vocalists Walter "Junie" Morrison (who also played keyboards) and
Philippé Wynne of The Spinners, were some of the stars that made Funkadelic the
premier band that it was. With Clinton at the helm, his groups sang and riffed
on a number of subjects that included extraterrestrial life, The Bermuda
Triangle, Egyptology, drugs, Atlantis and the inner city, drawing from any
musical source he deemed worthy.
"I'd
bite off the Beatles, or anybody else," Clinton told Rolling Stone.
"It's all one world, one planet and one groove."
Parliament
and Funkadelic were but two of Clinton's ever-growing cadre of groups, which
included Maceo Parker Horny Horns, the all-female outfits Parlet and the Brides
of Funkentstein, bassist Bootsy Collins and his Rubber Band and The P-Funk
All-Stars. In the early 80s, after long, legal battles with record companies,
Clinton became a solo artist, with his most successful single, "Atomic Dog"
becoming one of the most iconic videos of all time. Clinton was also a force
beyond touring and recording. He wrote the theme song to The Tracey Ullman
Show, hosted the HBO series Cosmic Slop, and he appeared in several films
including Prince's Graffiti Bridge, and House Party. Clinton's influence on pop
music and hip-hop is massive. Prince, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Tupac
Shakur and Digital Underground have sampled, and have been inspired by his
music, and Clinton was a major influence on the rock group, The Red Hot Chili
Peppers and Brit-rocker Thomas Dolby, among many others. Clinton also guest
stars on the track, "Wesley's Theory," from Kendrick Lamar's rap
masterpiece, To Pimp a Butterfly, and in 2014 published his memoir, Brothas Be,
Yo Like George, Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard On You?
When Clinton
steps on the Newport stage, he'll do so, with six decades of funk and Black
rock under his belt, with a new generation of funkateers, poised to carry
"The One" onward and upward. "This is to let them know that
"Atomic Dog" and "Mothership Connection" are not the end of
the story, Clinton told Consequence of Sound. "So when you see Medicaid
Fraud Dogg, you'll see Sir Nose is still out there ... and Dr. Funkenstein is
out here inoculating people with the funk." Newport, get ready.
The 2018
Newport Jazz Festival presented by Natixis Investment Managers takes place
August 3 - 5 at Fort Adams State Park and the International Tennis Hall of Fame
at the Newport Casino. Artists include Charles Lloyd's 80th Birthday
Celebration with three different bands; Pat Metheny with Antonio Sanchez, Linda
May Han Oh, & Gwilym Simcock; Andra Day; George Clinton & Parliament
Funkadelic; Jon Batiste; R+R=NOW; Alicia Olatuja; Michel Camilo; Grace Kelly;
Laurie Anderson & Christian McBride Improvisations with special guest Rubin
Kodheli; and Roy Hargrove.
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