70's music recommendations

Duke said:

Did I introduce the Haggis Horns to the class, or did others know about them?

I hold you responsible. 

In reply to John Welsh :

Dude, you just channeled my high school days.  Loved some Vaughan Mason and Crew.

Can't believe nobody's mentioned James Brown yet.  I know his best stuff was in the 60's but still, you can't sleep on his 70's hits.

And lest I forget:

Ohio Players

One Way

The Gap Band

TBH, you couldn't swing a stick in the R&B section of a record store back then (remember those) and not hit a decent Funk LP.

In reply to 06HHR (Forum Supporter) :

JB is the Hardest Working King of Funk indeed, but I really consider him a '60s artist.

In reply to Duke :

I get your reasoning, his most groundbreaking material was done in the 60's.  But he had #1 records in the 70's and charted in the 80's. Besides, he's the Godfather of Soul and the originator of Funk, so I give him a pass. 

Rufus (Featuring Chaka Khan)

The Brothers Johnson

Con Funk Shun

Rick James and the Stone City Band

Slave (w/Steve Arrington)

Change (w/Luther Vandross) - Probably more into the 80s though

The Meters

Early Earth, Wind and Fire

I have been listening to Alternative 70's on Spotify for a couple of hours now.  Good stuff.

Oh, not necessarily 70's but definitely funk:

Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers

EU (Experience Unlimited)

Trouble Funk

Technically it's DC area go go, but it's got funk all over it.

Sorry for hijacking the thread, but i'm passionate about funk

I've got prolly a dozen different CD's on hold at the library but I'm much more interested in Instrumental than vocals.  Any specific recommendations for instrumental funk?  

In reply to stroker :

Duke said:

The Meters.

The Haggis Horns, Cooking On Three Burners, and the Mighty Imperials. 

For slightly jazzier funk check out Chris Joss. 

All of those are mostly or entirely instrumental.  Chris Joss is highly recommended and he has put most of his catalogue on YouTube.

Also consider:

Galactic
New Mastersounds
Quantic Soul Orchestra
The Visioneers
GRiZ
Pretty Lights
The Floozies

None of these are from the '70s but they are all heavily funkadelic in various ways.

Love Unlimited Orchestra - they were the studio band for Barry White among others under the TSOP label in the 70's.  Not strictly funk, but killer instrumentals.  (Love's theme is a favorite)

Something tells me the funk brothers (Motown studio band) may have put out something in the 70's after the label moved to LA.  But that's mostly late 60's-early 70's motown R&B stuff, still worth a listen.

For some reason a lot of disco tracks keep running through my head (Fly Robin Fly, A Fifth of Beethoven, Meco's version of the theme from Star Wars)  Not really funk, but they have a beat and you can dance to them. Yes, there was a disco version of the theme from Star Wars, and a dance version of the Ewoks song.

Firecracker by Yellow Magic Orchestra was a sleeper hit on urban radio in the late 's, pretty much a Japanese version of Kraftwerk.  Again, not funk, (Electronic music) but pretty funky.

Speaking of Kraftwerk, Trans-Europe-Express and Numbers were funky, but it's sort of considered electronic music.

Most funk instrumentals were b-sides in the 70's, basically their hit songs without the lyrics,  they were mostly album filler so they are a bit harder to dig up.  Many of the instrumentals that charted were dance (politically correct word for disco) or club hits, so they were singles rather than on an album.  Paul Hardcastle's work comes to mind (19, theme from beverly hills cop.. Axel F i think).

Herbie Hancock did Rockit in the early 80's, that has a bit of everything in it, but it's funky.  A lot of instrumentals that charted actually crossed over from Jazz, Chuck Mangione - feels so good comes to mind. 

Anyway, there's a lot out there to listen to if you're willing to dig a bit.