Bootsy Collins & The Funk Unity Band – The Funk Unity Tour 2011

Bootsy Collins & The Funk U Band – July 9, 2011 – Jazz A Vienne, France:
The Pinocchio Theory, Hollywood Squares, Swing Down Sweet Chariot, Cosmic Slop

Bootsy Collins has assembled a monster band of P-Funk alumni (calling them the Funk Unity Band) for his 2011 Funk Unity Tour in support of his new album, Tha Funk Capitol Of The World. And if that sentence didn’t have enough Funk for ya, I’m about to hit you off with even more!

You can start by pressing play on the above audio track. Then move on to the full course, this 2 hour pro-shot video of the full show from July 9, 2011 in Vienne, France:

When you’re done with that i’ve got some downloads for you. I’ve ripped the above video and you can download the 800mb flash video file via: MEGAUPLOAD or TORRENT.

I’ve also got audio of the next night’s show at North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands from July 10, 2011. It’s a 103 minute untracked audio file and you can download it in either MP3 or FLAC. I recorded it from the NSJF webstream, so it is soundboard quality, although it was only streaming at 192kbps.

Bootsy Collins & The Funk Unity Band:
Bootsy Collins: space bass, vocals
Frankie “Kash” Waddy: drums
Bernie Worrell: keys
Joel “Razor Sharp” Johnson: keys
DeWayne “Blackbyrd” McKnight: guitar
Keith Cheatham: rhythm guitar
T.M. Stevens: bass
Brian Hardgroove: bass, vocals (of Public Enemy)
Garry Winters: trumpet (of the NastyNattiHorns)
Sarah Morrow: trombone (of the NastyNattiHorns)
Randy Villars: saxophone (of the NastyNattiHorns)
Dani “Razzberry Hershey” Cox: vocals
Candice “Candi-Yam” Cheatham: vocals
Kyle Jason: vocals
Ouiwey Collins (Bootsy’s son): MC

The Roots Picnic 2011: Esperanza Spalding, Nas, Little Dragon

The Roots & Nas – Get Down / The Boss (James Brown cover) 6/4/11 @ The Roots Picnic

Funk It presents full audio downloads of 3 sets: Esperanza Spalding with The Roots, Little Dragon, and The Roots with Nas. Scroll down for the download links in both MP3 and FLAC formats!

Esperanza Spalding & The Roots
June 4, 2011
Philadelphia, PA @ 4th Annual Roots Picnic – Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing
SBD > WXPN webcast > Cool Edit Pro > WAV > CD Wave Editor > FLAC/MP3
01. Precious
02. I Know You Know http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHtvEAANA4o
03. Predator (Weather Report cover) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-D181tf5fk
04. I Can’t Help It (Michael Jackson cover) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8C-mOWjXlg
MP3 download link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IQK9R09U
FLAC download link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5JXH0KG0

The Roots & Nas & Brass Heaven
June 4, 2011
Philadelphia, PA @ 4th Annual Roots Picnic – Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing
SBD > WXPN webcast > Cool Edit Pro > WAV > CD Wave Editor > FLAC/MP3
01. Intro > Dilla Interlude > Proceed >
02. Quills >
03. Step Into The Realm >
04. The Fire >
05. Respond/React >
06. Stay Cool >
07. Concerto Of The Desperado >
08. The Mic (w/ Truck North) >
09. How I Got Over >
10. Here I Come >
11. Get Busy (w/ Dice Raw & Peedi Peedi) >
12. Jungle Boogie [Kool & The Gang cover] >
13. Get Down (w/ Nas) >
14. It Ain’t Hard To Tell (w/ Nas) >
15. The World Is Yours (w/ Nas) >
16. Made You Look (w/ Nas) >
17. One Mic (w/ Nas) >
18. Nas Is Like (w/ Nas) >
19. If I Ruled The World (w/ Nas)
20. Hip Hop Is Dead (w/ Nas) > Apache outro >
21. The Next Movement >
22. The Seed 2.0 >
23. The Bottle [Gil Scott-Heron cover] >
24. Men @ Work [Kool G Rap & DJ Polo cover]
25. Radio Outro
MP3 download link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OMUHIGKE
FLAC download link: http://filepost.com/files/8631dd2m/RootsNas2011-06-04.webstream.flac.zip/

Little Dragon
June 4, 2011
Philadelphia, PA @ 4th Annual Roots Picnic – Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing
SBD > WXPN webcast > Cool Edit Pro > WAV > CD Wave Editor > FLAC/MP3
01. A New
02. Little Man (new song)
03. My Step
04. ??? (?new song?)
05. Feather
MP3 download link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TX2N7YLE
FLAC download link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HAQ5BN23

The Roots & Brass Heaven – 2007 Tour

The Roots & Brass Heaven – Game Theory > Star > Sing A Simple Song > Long Time > I Ain’t No Joke > Get On The Good Foot (3/11/07 NYC @ Nokia Theatre)

Back in early 2007, The Roots went on tour with a 4 piece brass band named Brass Heaven. In my opinion, this tour was the absolute apex of The Roots as a touring unit.

The setlist was awesome, with covers of tunes by Sly Stone, Rakim, James Brown, The JBs, Kool & The Gang, The Police, The New Birth and even Ram Jam’s “Black Betty.”

The energy on these shows was just through the roof. Questlove had a glow in the dark, black and white camo drum kit and even brought out a small trap kit to play at the front of the stage for the JB’s portion of the show. They closed each show with a 15 minute funked out version of The New Birth’s “I Can Understand It” (this arrangement eventually morphed into the arrangement used for the title track on the Roots last album, How I Got Over) complete with a Soul Train Line with each and every band member dancing through.

The track at the top of the page is the first 20 minutes of the show (taken from an excellent audience recording, courtesy of It’s All The Way Live). That track begins with The Roots & Brass Heaven marching into the theatre from the back, unamplified, in New Orleans street parade fashion.  Note Black Thought’s dead on recital of Rakim’s “I Ain’t No Joke” verses (& the pitch perfect recreation of the horn stabs of The JB’s “Pass The Peas,” which Eric B. & Rakim sampled for the original track).  Also, don’t miss the subleties that the sousaphone adds to the bottom end throughout.

The Roots & Brass Heaven – Gimme Some More > Way With Words (2/20/07 Austin, TX @ Stubbs BBQ)

This second track is from the middle portion of the show (taken from a SBD source). It begins with a workout on The JB’s “Gimme Some More,” played by only Brass Heaven & Questlove (playing at the front of the stage on a small trap kit).  This segues into the re-entrance of the full Roots band and the performance of an unreleased tune, roughly titled “Brown Sugar Jawn” aka “Way With Words.” The tune is based on the music of D’angelo’s Brown Sugar with Black Thought’s “Way With Words” verses on top.

Big thanks to sol-exposure for the Tuba Gooding Jr. pic. Check out her site, as she has many great live music pictures.

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