Date: April 9, 2010
Venue: B.B. King Blues Club
Text and photos by Stephanie Keith
Jimi Hendrix loomed large at George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars concert at B.B. King Blues Club in Times Square. There’s a pink paisley guitar with matching jacket and Jimi Hendrix t-shirt, Jimi Hendrix sticker on a guitar, peace bandanna, dreds with bandanna, and African print shirt. (My favorite fashion, though, was the vocalist with the vintage windbreaker from “Catalyst Security” who looked like he just dropped in after work.) Also looming were those Jimi-influenced guitar licks and the entire era of peace and love.
Just before the set started, a big cloud of smoke went up over the crowd amidst jokes that it’s gotta be in their contract. The band didn’t just command the stage; they crowded on two electric pianos, trumpet, saxophone, four guitarists, bass player, five back-up singers, a drummer and a rotating crew of vocalists including the one and only George Clinton. They stomped, they boogied, they partied and their energy was inspiring – making one wonder what the world would be like if the counter-culture had triumphed in culture wars of the 1970’s.
One of the standout vocalists was Belita Woods whose smoky, sexy voice resembled Dionne Warwick. Her voice seemed to come from an era when Pam Grier was in the movie theaters. A pre-Guiliani New York when there would be the grit and glamour outside on the streets of Times Square instead of mini-vans filled with Jersey tourists. I miss those times and was happy to step into the world conjured by her voice.
The band did not take us on a journey through their 40 year history at the concert. They went straight for the big numbers in their repertoire including the Parliament classics and a smattering of songs from the Funkadelic era including an extended version of “Cosmic Slop.”
The audience basically consisted of young hipsters who didn’t grow up during the Funkadelic heyday and African Americans who did. Asking the crowd about fandom, Reggie Taylor, age 55, says he has been a fan since 1968, practically the year the band started as Funkadelic, when he saw them play a live concert. Another fan, Josh Hackett, age 26, a corporate insurance associate, says he has been a fan since 11th grade when he saw George Clinton in a movie called PCU, a cult favorite. George Clinton is meaningful to completely different people. But, as Reggie says, “The truth, it’s on the beat, baby” – meaning that funky beat.
Ain’t nothing but a party!
Starchild here, Citizens of the Universe!
I bring forth to you the Good Time
On the Mothership.
– lyrics from “Mothership Connection”
The Mothership is a part of the universe created by the P-Funk music. It is a fictional utopia, where there’s a non-stop party and a great groove feeling. But more than that, it is a community and a forum for African-American empowerment. Concerts verge on religious experience in a hybrid of ghetto experience, hippie culture and African Diaspora religion. In this narrative arc, there are several characters who play a role in sending the P-Funk message. One of the characters was Sir Nose D’Voidoffunk who attempts to end the Funk because he is too cool to dance. At the concert, he is a sexy young man dressed as a pimp and wearing a phallic extension on his nose.
As seen through the lens of religion, Sir Nose could represent one of the Spirits of descended from African religions. As a pimp, he represents the easy life, but also Death because he is the negation of all that is good a/k/a Funk. His phallic nose costume alluded to African masks and reminded me of the Haitian Vodou Spirit of Death, Guede, who is represented by the phallus and is quite sexual in nature. No doubt that George Clinton would tap into a deeper consciousness. I love when music is not just about the sounds, but also when it conjures an alternate reality.
Absent unfortunately from this evening’s line-up was Gary Shider, “the energy of the group”. The show was dedicated to him. He also usually plays a role in the narrative by wearing diapers on stage. He was surely missed.
