This cut is the Usain Bolt of funk. Evolutionarily speaking, it shouldn’t have been possible for another twenty years.

These cats were getting so funky more than forty years ago, and here we are thinking we’re so fresh because we record to tape.

Dyke & the Blazers was a perfect storm. It was the hottest players in L.A. unleashing their pent-up syncopation.

You see, Dyke & the Blazers was the same rhythm section as the Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band, but Charles Watts was a controlling dude and wouldn’t really let the musicians do their thing. So when they would do “scab” dates (non-union) with Dyke — and had creative freedom — things got indulgently funky.

Nov. 11, 2011

James Gadson