Jazz-Funk

Jazz-funk on vinyl: grooves, breaks and the seventies

In short: Jazz-funk combines jazz improvisation with the grooves of funk and soul, often with electric piano, synthesizer and electric bass. It grew big in the seventies with Herbie Hancock, Donald Byrd, Roy Ayers and Lonnie Liston Smith. The Vinyl Room currently has 389 jazz-funk records – US classics as well as rarities from Japan, Brazil and Europe.

What is jazz-funk?

In the early seventies, jazz musicians picked up electric instruments and the rhythms that were filling the dance floors. Herbie Hancock’s “Head Hunters” and Donald Byrd’s “Black Byrd” (both 1973) became best-sellers. Labels such as CTI and Kudu, Blue Note and small companies such as Strata in Detroit released records that are sought after today. Add library music from Italy and England – music made for film and television that is now a collecting field of its own. Many breaks from these records were later sampled in hip hop.

What to look for

With small seventies labels some originals are hard to get; good reissues are then an affordable way to the music. Label, catalogue number, runout and cover together tell you whether you have an original – more on our page “How to spot a first pressing”.

From our stock

First pressings

Jazz-funk on Blue Note

Still sealed

New in

→ Jazz on vinyl · Funk & soul on vinyl · How to spot a first pressing · Grading explained · Plattenparty on YouTube

FAQ

What is jazz-funk? Jazz with funk grooves, mostly on electric instruments – it grew big in the seventies.

Which jazz-funk records should you know? For example Herbie Hancock’s “Head Hunters” and Donald Byrd’s “Black Byrd”, both from 1973.

What is library music? Music that publishers recorded for film, television and advertising. Many of these records from the sixties and seventies are sought-after collector’s items today.