James Brown – At Studio 54 (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 53:04 minutes | 650 MB | Genre: Funk, Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Culture Factory (France).

Needless to say it wasn’t a stretch for the late James Brown to play at Studio 54, the storied palace of decadence and dance. The funk he laid down from the beginning dug the foundation for the good-time sounds and musical sophistication of the genre. It’s also true that in 1980 when this was recorded, disco music itself was way on the wind down, giving way to a much more urbane form of dancefloor soul. But this performance is as hot, sweaty, and full of backbone slip groove as anything else, despite rather dodgy sound quality (sounds like a worn board tape). The Godfather lays down his hits as professionally as ever with some interesting textures in the arrangements and horn charts to accent the disc’s reliance on circular rhythm, repetitive basslines, and hopped up dynamics. Brown could truly run the spectrum, but only does so on “Please, Please, Please,” and the medley of “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” and “Lost Someone” (and you can feel the restlessness of a crowd who wants to do more lines and dance). He gives them plenty more of that as the speeds of his up-tempo numbers are furious, revved but deeper in the pocket to encourage the free-form aspects of the disco for the serious dancers. The band is spot on and never played better, so utterly tight, focused and “on” that the groove never suffers and in fact transcends the Godfather himself at times. – Thom Jurek

(more…)