Jazz-Funk

Jazz-funk is a form of Jazz highly influenced by Funk. It incorporates funk's comparatively basic and propelling rhythm and repetitive bass grooves into a jazz setting, replacing jazz's classic swing rhythm with that of funk, favouring a steady groove over melody and chord progressions. Jazz-funk tracks sometimes make use of a horn section supplying riffs, are often lengthy and based on a one chord or two chord vamp of the rhythm guitar and prominent bass line as the starting point for the solo instrument, often a keyboard, saxophone or electric guitar.

Early jazz-funk of the late 1960s shared some similarities with Soul Jazz which started in the late 1950s and was also called 'funky jazz' until the early 1960s. But while soul jazz (like Soul) was influenced by Rhythm & Blues and Gospel, jazz-funk takes its cues directly from funk. Jazz-funk (unlike soul jazz) quickly became associated with funk's typically electric and electronic instrumentation: Most of the genre worked with electric funk guitar lines, electric bass, as well as electric keyboards and synthezisers from the 1960s onwards, influencing the later Synth Funk. Though there are important examples of relatively conventional jazz-funk such as Herbie Hancock's Fat Albert Rotunda (1970), the genre therefore has large overlaps with Jazz Fusion influenced by Avant-Garde Jazz, such as on Miles Davis' record Bitches Brew (1970) or the more tightly groove-oriented On the Corner (1972), which based their fusion sound on avant-garde jazz as well as funk rhythms.

While these more experimental outings remained influential, jazz-funk's mainstream breakthrough is largely attributed to Hancock's hit album Head Hunters (1973) and the records following it, with commercially successful acts like Weather Report throughout the 1970s. This less avant-garde and almost danceable style of jazz-funk remained the template for the following decades, with contemporary bands like Medeski, Martin & Wood leaning towards the former, and artists like John Scofield leaning towards the latter approach. Starting in the 1980s, jazz-funk's groove also impacted the Dance and Hip Hop-influenced Acid Jazz.