Funk

I first encountered it when I was 15 years old.

Today I'm going to talk about music, not photography.

When I was 15 years old, I happened to hear a song on the radio that knocked me out. It was a song called “Serpentine Fire” by Earth, Wind & Fire. That was the beginning of my musical history. The first live concert I ever experienced was Earth, Wind & Fire's first tour in Japan in 1979. The experience at that time was overwhelming.

After that, I started listening to music voraciously. I listened to a lot of music of various genres, including Japanese music, but the music that made my heart dance was mostly black-based music such as Funk, Soul, R&B, and Jazz. I was especially fascinated by the 16-beat funk music that used a gorgeous horns and lots of syncopation.

For example, the musicians (bands) that I was obsessed with at the time were as follows.

Earth, Wind & Fire / Brothers Johnson / Quincy Jones / Michael Jackson / Dazz Band / Gap Band / George Clinton / Parliament / Funkadelic / Maze featuring Frankie Beverly / KC & The Sunshine Band / Chaka Khan / Rick James / Patrice Rushen / George Duke / Herbie Hancock / S.O.S. Band / Average White Band / Isley Brothers / Ohio Players …etc.

And this is the Spotify playlist I created for funk music beginners. If you are interested, please give it a listen.