Customer Reviews
Bringing back the funk! - By: Michael J. Parlett, 21 Jun 2008 
Bornin Decatur Illinoisin 1973 now basedin Los Angeles California, keyboardist, trombone player, drummer, bassist & producer Brian Culbertson has always been the youthful & jovial fresh face of the smooth Jazz scene. Over the past number of years Brian has earned his stripes as a pioneerin the field of goodtime funky cool jazz. His total live performance experience, regular cavorting & jumping around the stage at his concerts with trombonein hand, grins, funny faces & poses with incredible playing from behind the Roland keyboard from where he stands show him as the true all round visual musical artist & entertainer.
Whenever I have attended any of the shows I have always been immediately impressed with not only the musical talent Brian manages to surround himself but also the sheer joy everyone appears to be having on stage while playing the music. The shows are highly entertaining, always packed & are totally suitable for anyone of any age or musical persuasion. Brian is definitely a jazz musician that does not take himself too seriously but seeks to make his music as accessible to the general pubic as possible. He has worked alongside some highly respected namesin smooth Jazz including Dave Koz, Jeff Lorber, Rick Braun, Richard Elliot, Marcus Miller, Patti Austin, & Bob James to mention only a very few.
`Bringing Back the Funk' is a stepin a slightly new direction for Brianin musical content, performance & presentation. The album is a collection of some classic & lesser-known funk anthems from across the last couple of decades along with some inspired original material. Like it saysin the title, the music is very muchin keeping with the established school of Funk with such veterans as Bootsy Collins of Parliament, one of the undisputed originators of funk from the 70s & Earth Wind & Fire's Maurice White taking his place as co-producer, along with Larry Dunn & Sheldon Reynolds along with many others. The intention of this work was to step away from the highly programmed & produced offerings of the current day & take the music back to its organic funk roots.
The album took only 5 days to record & under 3 months to fully complete & mix the production. Most unusual for the expected time required to find drum loops samples & beats so prevalentin today's output from the industry! Brain informed mein my interview with him on my show on that the connection with Maurice White came from Sheldon Reynolds, ex-Earth Wind & Fire & now the lead guitarist/singer of Brian's band, the Funk Experience. Sheldon gave him the contact to co-produce. Maurice was so inspired by the proposed project that he offered to become the executive producer for the whole album lending his authentic credibility to the work.
With Messrs White & Dunn on board it was very easy to make the connections with all the `A-list' funk & Jazz gurus & legends. Brain said to me `All I had to do was call people on my wish list & say I'm making a funk record with Maurice White to which they replied, `OK, where & when?' You can really hear the Earth, Wind & Fire, Tower of Power, Parliament & Classic 70s/80s raw funk band influences throughout the album. All tracks include stars both new & old featuring such names as Gerald Albright on a cool funky slightly slower reworking the Kool & the Gang cover `Hollywood Swinging' with amazing pastiche of a Maceo Parker alto sax solo, bass playing from Culbertson himself & quality lead vocals from Musiq Soulchild.
Bootsy Collins is placed up front singing & rapping on the first track `Funkin' like my Father' an inspired original written by Collins, Reynolds & Brian. Other singing talents include the incredible Ledisi on a charming interpretation of a lesser-known Bill Withers track `The World Keeps going around' originally from `live at Carnegie Hall' album with an interesting & ingenious twistin the arrangement. Includedin this version is a full & well-written brass arrangement. In fact every track on the album has a full horn section. The personnelin the horn section on the album boast such names as Gerald Albright, Tom Scott, Eric Marienthal, Lee Thornberg, Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker & of course Brian himselfin the line up playing trombone. Arrangements by Greg Adams of Tower of Power make for some authentic powerful sounds from the brass.
Larry Graham is featured on bass on `The House of Music' recordedin Minneapolis. The song was conceived by Brian & Larry singing parts on the phone to each other & finally Brian flying over to record the song with a band. The track is a mid tempo bluesy original featuring the legendary Ronnie Laws on tenor saxophone. There are also the usual groovy smooth jazz styled tracks for which Brian is known & loved. Examples include `Always remember' with piano lead & a rather natty Tower of Power crafted break downin the middle, Jam track `Excuse me...what's your name' with Brian taking the lead melody on trombone with a synth doubling & the final track `Let's stayin tonight' with some interesting harmonic content & infectious vocal hook from the Take Six/Earth Wind & Fire referenced chorus.
`You've Got to Funkatize' is a faithful cover of the original Tower of Power with some wonderful baritone sax from Eric Mariental & rip roaring lead vocals from Chance Howard all topped off with a tasty `bone' solo from Culbertson. The track breaks out into a gospel styled shout at the end. I was up & clapping, I was sure I wasin church! Some other names of great musicians & singers includedin the line up are such names as the great Paul Jackson Jr, Lenny Castro, Ricky Peterson, Ray Parker Jr., Tony Maiden, Bobby Watson, Ice Candi, The Peri Sisters, Sam Sims, & Oscar Seaton.
In my opinion Brian Culbertson's `Bringing back the funk' is a refreshing, well balanced authentic & innovative work which sets out to unashamedly do what it says on the packet! Well worth a listen.
Mike Parlett
Pretty good, but.... - By: Mr. Richard Rosson, 15 May 2008 
I was expecting more for a project with such names on the tin like Bootsy Collins, Larry Graham & Mauric White. It's a pretty good funk/jazz album however, it has an overproduced/manufactured feel to it. I think if I knew nothing about it I would like the album but it doesn't quite live up to the hype of it's credit list. Get it if you're a die hard funk fan but if not go for the real thing & pick up Bootsy, Larry Graham & Earth Wind & Fire's 70s albums for the real deal. x
