Coming soon...

Maceo Parker

March 23rd, 2011

Le Bikini, Toulouse, France

approx. 180 minutes

Stay tuned...

Bernie Goes Jazz!

The Wizard Of Woo is back with a new album! Bernie Worrell's newest album is scheduled for June 7th, and its name says it all: "Standards" is a collection of 9 jazz classics, covered by the insurance man for the funk himself. However, this ain't your ordinary jazz standards compilation, and Bernie wouldn't be Bernie if he wasn't funkin' up these tracks with his unique sound and style of playing..."Take The 'A' Train"? Check! "Take Five"? Yes, check! "Bye Bye Blackbird"? Of course! Wow, I'm really looking forward to this...

The album was obviously already scheduled to be released on March 15, but i haven't seen it before, and so I'm assuming it was postponed. Players include guitarist Smokey Hormel, bassist Melvin Gibbs, drummer J.T. Lewis and saxophonist Darryl Dixon. Finally, it seems noteworthy that Bernie played a show with exactly these 9 songs on January 20th, 2011, at the "Bitter End" in NYC. But it seems as if this was rather a promotional gig, and the album itself consists of all-studio recordings...

You can already listen to snippets and buy the digital download version on Bernie's website.

Bernie Worrell: Standards

Scufflin Records

Cat.-No.: 1155292 

1 Take The 'A' Train 

2 Take Five 

3 Agua De Beber 

4 All The Things You Are 

5 You're My Thrill 

6 Watermelon Man 

7 Killer Joe 

8 Moon River 

9 Bye Bye Blackbird (on digital download card only)

Bootsy Collins @ Mo'nique Show

The much-anticipated Bootsy Collins episode of the Mo'nique Show finally gets aired. As Bootsy posted on Facebook, the show will be aired on Wednesday, June 29, 2011, at 11 pm EST on the BET network show. For European funkateers, that's 5 o'clock in the morning, on June 30. Stay tooned!

All aboard!

Another newsflash from the Dr.'s funkbook:

George has been released from the Hospital and is getting ready to board the Mothership for Tour.

So, prepare to get on board everybody, and catch the funk live!

2011-05-31 B.B. King Blues Club, New York City, NY

2011-06-02 BAM Rhythm & Blues Series @ Metrotech, Brooklyn, NY

2011-06-03 Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, CT

2011-06-04 Maine State Pier, Portland, ME

2011-06-10 DTE Energy Music Theatre Detroit, MI

2011-06-11 Smokey Hill River Festival, Salina, KS

2011-06-13 Recher Theatre, Towson / Baltimore, MD

2011-06-16 Prairie Des Filtres, Toulouse, France

2011-06-17 Riverenhof Amphitheater, Antwerp, BE

2011-06-18 HMV Forum, London, UK

2011-06-19 The Hague Jazz Festival @ Kyocera Stadion, Hague, NL

2011-06-20 Rockefeller, Oslo, Norway

2011-06-22 Prague, Czech

2011-06-23 La Machine, Paris, France

2011-06-24 Festival Med, Faro, Portugal

2011-06-25 Casa da Música, Porto, Portugal

2011-06-26 Festival Jazz à la Defense, Paris, France

R.I.P. Gil Scott Heron

These are sad times. We just lost another great musician, an innovator and a true legend. Gil Scott-Heron, poet, musician, singer, songwriter, spoken-word pioneer, political thinker and author, passed on Friday afternoon, aged 62. 

All his famous creations will probably (well, hopefully) be heared on the radio today, on your home stereo, on the TV and the Woo Tube: The Bottle, Johannesburg, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Winter In America, and many more... But since we're writing "funk" with a capital "P" over here, here's a track in his honour that was released in 1984, showing just another side of GSH: "Re-Ron", recorded with Bernie Worrell and the Laswell/Material syndicate.

Rest in Peace, GSH!

The FUNK will survive, just like it always does...

UPDATE! Here's the latest post from Bootsy:

Yep! it's official Captain George of the P-Funk Enterprise is in full control of the ship, all shields are up and armed, so nothing will harm him! Do not, I Repeat, do not be alarmed, we will steady the course and continue to Funk U-Up with the Good News about the Funk!

 And here's another update, posted by GC's Funkprobosci blog, Saturday morning:

 

GC UPDATE - George is doing really well, he is in great spirits and he will be released this weekend. Many Thank Yous to all Funkateers, Fans and Family.

Dr. Funkenstein hospitalized!

I'll stick to re-posting two messages from Bootsy's Facebook for now.
This was posted 10 hours ago:

Okay funkateers, our Captain of the Mothership has been hospitalized. Ineed yall to send up smoke signals, love vibes, prayer's whatever you got, because our great Dr.Funkisien needs us all right now, so stop whatyour doing and lay your hands on the radio and let the vibes flow through. The funk not only moves it Re-Moves, Dig! Thanks! Bootsy!!!

And this is the update we got 4 hours ago:

Funk ALERT, Funk ALERT! I just got off the phone with our Capitain of the Mothership, I must say that your love vibes and prayer's are workin'. Our Capitain is a Warrior, and want to take it straight to the people from where it came and some parts of the system don't like how the funk endures. Funkateers together we stand, devided we fail! Medi-Really-Don't-Care, so we have too. Hold him up yall! Bootsy!!!

Please send some strong 

{{{{{{{{HEALING VIBES}}}}}}}} 

y'all. We need everyone on the one now...

"THE FUNK WILL SURVIVE, JUST LIKE IT ALWAYS DOES.... 
FLY AWAY.... FLY AWAY...."