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funk

Daniel Merriweather

Daniel Paul Merriweather, born February 17th 1982 in Melbourne, Victoria is an Australian R&B singer/songwriter. His first commercially released recording was a guest appearance on the track "All I Want" from Australian dance act Disco Montego's self-titled album in 2002. In 2007 Daniel Merriweather put his voice to Mark Ronson's "Stop Me" (cover of The Smiths track) which reached #2 on the UK singles charts, and also co-wrote and featured on Wiley's third single, from his fourth album, Cash In My Pocket which reached #18 on the UK singles chart.

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Mayer Hawthorne & The County

Mayer Hawthorne grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, just outside of Detroit, and vividly remembers, as a child, driving with his father and tuning the car radio in to the rich soul and jazz history the region provided. “Most of the best music ever made came out of Detroit,” claims the singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, who counts Isaac Hayes, Leroy Hutson, Mike Terry, and Barry White among his influences, but draws the most inspiration from the music of Smokey Robinson, Curtis Mayfield, and the legendary songwriting and production trio of Lamont Dozier...

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Directions In Groove

Directions In Groove (aka. d.i.g - not to be confused with the Californian grunge band "DIG" ) burst onto the Australian music scene in the early 90¹s with a sound whose freshness and originality quickly won them an enormous audience of fans. Call it acid jazz, jazz funk or just great grooving music d.i.g delivered a level of musical excitement that has seldom been replicated. Directions In Groove (DIG) were a popular Australian acid jazz band originally from the suburb of Redfern in Sydney, who produced several distinctive acid-jazz / groove / funk albums in the 1990's.

Jon Cleary

A respected session and sideman, British blues pianist and composer Jon Cleary has worked with rock, blues, and soul artists like Bonnie Raitt, D'Angelo, Maria Muldaur, Taj Mahal, and Eric Clapton. Originally a guitarist, Cleary began playing at age five, and started his first band at 15. Raised on blues, jazz, and soul records, his love of new orleans blues and jazz in particular took him across the ocean after he graduated from art school.

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Maceo Parker

Maceo Parker (born February 14, 1943) is a noted African-American funk and soul jazz saxophone player, best known for his contributions to James Brown's distinct sound. He was born in Kinston, North Carolina in a musically-rich environment. His mother and father sang in a church and both his brothers are accomplished musicians (drums and trombones). He and his brother, Melvin Parker, joined James Brown in 1964; in his book Brown says that he originally wanted Melvin as his drummer but agreed to take Maceo under his wing as part of the deal.

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Michael Franti

Michael Franti (born April 21, 1966, in Oakland, California) is an African, Irish, and German American poet, musician, and composer. Franti is the creator and driving force behind Michael Franti & Spearhead, a band that blends hip hop with a variety of other styles including funk, reggae, folk, and rock. Franti was part of the industrial punk band The Beatnigs with DJ Rono Tse, which released a self-titled LP, and an EP Television on Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles Records.

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Gil Scott-Heron

Gil Scott-Heron (born April 1, 1949 in Chicago) is an American poet and musician, known primarily for his late 1960s and early 1970s work as a spoken word performer, associated with African American militant activists. Heron is perhaps most well known for his poems/songs "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" and "What's the Word - Johannesburg" a movement hit during the 1980's South Africa college and national divestment movement in the United States of America.

Jamie Lidell

Jamie Lidell (born September 18, 1973, Huntingdon, England) is a musician and soul singer, signed to Warp. Famed for his largely improvised shows, that see Jamie constructing his tracks live, voicing and layering right in front of your eyes, effortlessly whipping them out of the air and forging them into clanking electro riffs and deathprod funk grooves. Likened to Sly Stone, Prince and Little Richard, he is Britain's voice of soul for the new era.

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Rebirth Brass Band

The Rebirth Brass Band is a New Orleans brass band. The group was founded in 1983 by tuba player Philip Frazier, his brother Keith Frazier and trumpeter Kermit Ruffins, along with other musicians with them at the Joseph S. Clark Sr. High School in the Treme neighborhood of New Orleans. Rebirth is known for combining traditional New Orleans brass band music, including the New Orleans tradition of second line with funk, jazz, and soul influences. In 1992, Ruffins and Rebirth split amicably after Ruffins decided not to accompany the band on a trip to Africa.

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Madlib

Otis Jackson Jr., known professionally as Madlib, is a Los Angeles-based DJ, multi-instrumentalist, MC, and music producer born on October 24, 1973 in Oxnard, California, United States. Known under a plethora of pseudonyms, he is one of the most prolific and critically acclaimed hip hop producers of the 2000s and has collaborated with myriad hip hop artists, including The Alkaholiks, Mos Def, De La Soul, Ghostface Killah, Talib Kweli, A.G.