Defunkt ”Defunkt”

Defunkt

”Defunkt”
( LP Hannibal Records, Island Records 1980 )
Catalog # none, 203 274-320

Tracklisting:
A1 Make Them Dance (7:57)
A2 Strangling Me With Your Love (4:05)
A3 In The Good Times (4:26)
A4 Blues (3:03)
B1 Defunkt (6:21)
B2 Thermonuclear Sweat (3:43)
B3 Melvin’s Tune (2:37)
B4 We All Dance Together (5:40)

Personnel & Credits:
Backing Vocals – Clarice Taylor (tracks: A2, B4),
Janos Gat (tracks: A4) , Michael Riesman (tracks: A4)
Backing Vocals, Percussion [Additional] – Charles Bobo Shaw (tracks: A1, A2)
Bass – Melvin Gibbs
Drums – Ronnie Burrage
Flute, Saxophone – Byron Bowie
Guitar – Kelvyn Bell , Martin Aubert
Keyboards – Martin Fischer (2)
Producer – Janos Gat
Producer, Arranged By [Horns] – Byron Bowie
Trombone, Vocals – Joseph Bowie
Trumpet – Ted Daniel (tracks: A1, A3, A4, B1, B2)

Notes:
Recorded at Big Apple Studios, New York.
Dedicated To Martin Fischer.
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: Germany
Released: 1980

Review:
Trombonist Joe Bowie’s free-wheeling outfit Defunkt avoids categorization. They rip through soul, funk, free jazz, rock, and blues, and stretch the limits of each one. The atmosphere on their records is feverish; they don’t do anything in an easy or simple manner. Not everything they try works, but no Defunkt album is ever dull.
By Ron Wynn (All Music Guide)

More info about Defunkt:
Led by trumpet player Joseph Bowie — the son of a St. Louis-based music teacher, the brother of big band arranger Byron Bowie, and late trumpet player of the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s Lester Bowie — Defunkt created some of the most adventurous sounds of the last quarter of the 20th century. Formed in 1978, Defunkt initially took a danceable approach to jazz. Although their first three albums — Defunkt, Razor’s Edge, and Thermonuclear Sweat — made them leaders of New York’s radical underground music scene, their inability to achieve commercial expectations led them to disband in 1983, with Bowie retreating to the island of St. Croix. Reorganized after Bowie’s return to New York in 1986, Defunkt recorded an additional six albums, including A Blues Tribute: Jimi Hendrix & Muddy Waters and In America, between 1988-1993. Beginning in 1996, Bowie sought a way to combine the big band jazz of the 1930s and ’40s and the dance rhythms and grooves of the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. Expanding Defunkt with the addition of more horn players and background vocalists, Bowie introduced the Defunkt Big Band with a six-week stint at the Knitting Factory in New York.
Biography By Craig Harris (All Music Guide)

By Pier