Essential Albums
- The pleasure here lies in listening to James Brown and his band go long. Even on slow jams like "Doing the Best I Can", they groove to their limits, the Godfather baring his soul while instruments enter and exit. As you lock in, the feeling is almost psychedelic—what he calls the JBE (James Brown Experience) on liberating closer "Mind Power". And where the jazzy funk explorations of “Stone to the Bone” push you to unexpected lands, “Forever Suffering” offers soulful comfort.
- 1972
- Only the second half of <i>Sex Machine</i> was recorded during a 1969 concert; the first consists of studio sessions with Brown’s crackling band, the J.B.’s. The Godfather of Soul is a live wire throughout, spontaneously testifying on “Bewildered”, riffing on the electrifying “Get Up I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine” and punctuating all with his patented screams and shouts. The group ups the ante with swooping horn flourishes and stop-start rhythms, making for big-band funk unlike any other.
- 1970