Paul Jackson
Funk On A Stick

Review By Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck
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  As Paul Jackson says -- "It's All A Groove" baby, and man does this dude have his groove down. A founding member of the Headhunters under Herbie Hancock, Jackson help form a sound that propelled a new direction in jazz-fusion and funk music and he continues to forge his own unique path for jazz-funk bass playing innovation on his latest outing Funk On A Stick. This is the best possible title for this recording as its some of the funkiest and slickest bass playing I have heard in quite some time.

Bay area standout Tony Adamo (vocals on "Hey Lou") and James Levi (drums on "Funk On A Stick" and "Hawk") get into the mix to make this album extra special for Jackson fans and jazz-funk enthusiasts in general. Your bass playing has to be in the stratosphere for it to sound good as the lead instrument and Jackson certainly proves his point on 13 tracks of funk filled jazz fusion workouts. He is in contact with the human equation on "Pain" and then really tells the whole story about his gig with the title track. "Funk On A Stick" -- it is that simple folks and this man has his chops down in a big way. He has plenty of reason to be struttin' his stuff proudly, I guess you cannot blame him, he is one the best bass players I have ever heard. I really did dig his vocals too, he has that deep and strong masculine thing going on, and it matches his upfront bass playing just perfectly.

Yes sir, "In G-d We Funk" what else can you say? Mr. "Funky Fingers" gets it on from beginning to the end of this CD and proves without any doubt that Herbie Hancock knew exactly what he was doing when he teamed with this man, oh yeah.

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