Independent Lens: We Want the Funk

It is not a coincidence bass players are so well represented in this documentary. Funk would not be funk without those funky bass lines, so naturally bassists like Marcus Miller, Christian McBride, Michael Veal, and Carlos Alomar are happy to talk about the groovy music. McBride is best known for jazz and Miller has played just about everything, but they were all influenced by funk greats like Larry Graham and Bootsy Collins. Of course, everyone was also influenced by James Brown, who continues to shape music, particularly hip hop, as the most sampled recording artist of all-time (unless you count Clyde Stubblefield, the actual drummer on Brown’s “Funky Drummer” track). Regardless, filmmakers Stanley Nelson & Nicole London chronicle the incredibly danceable music in “We Want the Funk,” which airs tomorrow on PBS, as part of the current season of Independent Lens.

As the battery of bassists explain, funk was built on a deceptively simple sounding groove. However, really locking into the rhythmic patterns required a lot of rehearsal. Alomar would know, because he was hired (and fired) by James Brown. Funk decidedly contrasted with the more “genteel” and scrupulously non-political Motown, as the somewhat polemical opening explains. (However, nobody mentions James Brown’s later endorsement of Richard Nixon).

Nelson, London, and their cast of expert musicians do a nice job explaining how innovators like George Clinton of Parliament-Funkadelic and Sly Stone developed the sounds that became funk, while the messages of James Brown’s anthems such as “Say It Loud” captured the zeitgeist of their era. Brown also became an international sensation, who was beloved throughout the newly independent African nations.

Similarly, Nelson and London explain how African artists like Fela Kuti and Manu Dibango (who also sounded pretty “jazzy”) synthesized American funk, fused it with their Afrobeat and “Makossa” styles, and then successfully re-imported their funk back to American listeners. There is also some nice coverage of Afrofuturistic expressions in funk, which references the great avant-garde jazz bandleader (and self-proclaimed Saturn resident) Sun Ra.

Indeed, the representation of jazz is surprisingly healthy in We Want the Funk, considering it is not really a documentary about jazz. However, it is definitely hip. Nelson and London (who previously helmed documentaries profiling Miles Davis and Hazel Scott) incorporate a rewardingly wide perspective on their subject, even tracing the influence of funk on Kirk Franklin’s gospel music.

As a result, We Want the Funk is packed with talented musicians, many of have decidedly colorful and frequently quite funny stories to tell. Even though the filmmaking techniques employed by Nelson and London are quite conventional, pretty much everything you hear is funky, in one way or another. Highly recommended, We Want the Funk airs tomorrow night (4/8) on most PBS outlets.