RSS Feed Bentley's Bandstand
Funk can be funny stuff. It’s not something you can really learn how to play. The notes may be right, but unless that extra element of mysterious feeling is in the music, the sound lays there like a limp pickle. Stuff never had a problem like that. They were died-in-the-fatback funkateers from the time they got together in small New York clubs, mostly for the sheer fun of it. What is sometimes forgotten in the record business is that real musicians love to play with those that push them higher. And these five fine fellows did some serious pushing like few others--before or since. Just saying their names now is good for a few shivers: drummer Steve Gadd, bassist Gordon Edwards, keyboardist Richard Tee and guitarists Cornell Dupree and Eric Gale. Around the studio scene on the East Coast in the ‘70s, they were the kind of players that inspired absolute awe. It was like each was the street specialist on their particular instrument: not jazz players, but the funk that comes from knowing rhythm & blues music front to back and then being capable of adding an indescribable magic that makes time fly. Stuff didn’t tour too often, being way too busy backing up so many superstars. So this live recording from the Montreux Jazz Festival is a rare gem. Every person on the bandstand is totally on, swinging and stinging like they were all born at once, and have been working together ever since. The quintet goes from soul standards to burning originals without blinking, and even if they make it sound easy, you know it’s not. This is grown up music, made by men who work for a living. No one could funk it up like Stuff. ‘Nuff said.
