Funk Guitar

This album starts off with the funk groove "Too Tight," which peaked at number eight on the Billboard R&B charts. Complemented by the swinging horn intro, the lyrics and the vocals are an enticement to the dancefloor. It's followed by another dance-flavored track, "Lady's Wild," which features a catchy hook and a party ad lib. Two mellowed-out numbers in "Give Your Love to Me" and "Can't Say Goodbye" never made the charts. The former offers jazzy interlude solos by Michael Cooper (rhythm guitar) and Felton Pilate (trombone), and the latter is a quiet storm favorite. ~ Craig Lytle

Start taking your fusion playing to the next level with an injection of jazz and practical theory. Lessons by Levi Clay. In this excellent DVD, Levi Clay introduces the jazzy sounding melodic minor scale based on the sound, teaching you how to hear this scale in music. After taking you through simple ways to introduce this harmony into your improvisations via the pentatonic scale, Levi teaches you all melodic minor fingerings and a selection of 15 licks and phrases designed to bring out the sound of the scale.

Legendary Detroit arranger, producer and guitarist Dennis Coffey released ‘Evolution’ in 1971 and sampled-heads will know the importance of the breakbeat funk of ‘Scorpio’ – much sampled in the hip-hop world, but also check the driving groove of ‘Getting It On’. The heavily percussive ‘Son Of Scorpio’ develops the theme while the funker ‘Theme From Enter The Dragon’ is classic 70s soundtrack action. The clavinet laced ‘Can You Feel It’ is also another highlight on a set that includes 11 bonus cuts mainly lifted from the ‘Electric Coffey’ LP as well as the ten that made up the original album.

One of the dangers anytime an artist decides to forgo the organic approach and back his primary instrument with electronic effects is relying too much on the machinery. Fortunately, Ryo Kawasaki, as strong a producer as he is a lyrical electric guitar master, makes sure his silky urban rhythms on Sweet Life are simply an enhancement, rather than a burden, to his fluid lines. Whether the track is straight-out funk, smooth late-night seduction, or a loping ride like the title cut, his hypnotic synth lines simply set the mood. Kawasaki's plucky, winding way with a melody is textured over that, working its way toward varying degrees of emotional resonance. While the fully plugged-in mode carries the majority of the collection, Kawasaki earns his most memorable kudos for the simple and sparse acoustic gems, a lush cover of Janet Jackson's "Again" and on "Sweet Life," which improvises a flamenco-like edge over fingersnap percussion that sounds more real than machine-generated.