Bootsy Collins & The Funk U-nity Band - Don't Take My Funk
I know I said I'd be away until Halloween, but I lied. It wouldn't be the 1st time, but I'm allowed because yesterday was my birthday.
But when I woke up today, I was reminded -- by the ten zillion deserved tributes on Facebook -- that, in my injured state, I'd forgotten a milestone birthday I had wanted to get to this month.
I guess it's kind of returning the favor, as a few birthdays back my husband got me one of those Cameo messages from today's honoree -- who's 15 years, less one day, older than I -- where the man sang me a song, straight off the top of his head.
So how could I not? I soon realized that long ago I had prepared a concert for a previous birthday post about him, so all I had to do was finish dealing with it -- it needed the beginning restored, and a bunch of noises and a dropout or two fixed -- and here we is!
Anyway everybody is familiar with this charter member of The Council On Funk Relations, I trust? From Cincinnati, picked up with his and his brother's band after James Brown fired his existing group in 1970. Graduated to George Clinton's Parliafunkadelicment thang in 1972. Launched a solo career in 1976. A participant in countless projects at the top of music, with a zillion superheavyweights of the firmament. And ever funkin' on...
This set comes from an AVI file made from the original webstream of the whole concert (minus the first few seconds, which was subbed in from an edited broadcast), yet the audio goes to 20 kHz lossless, so it has the taste of one of those pre-broadcast menu items we always prefer for an entrée.
Plus, you get "Kash" Waddy on drums, Bernie Worrell (The Wizard of Woo) on keys and guitar deity Blackbyrd McKnight, for that authentic P-Funk mothership experience we all crave!
Bootsy Collins & The Funk U-nity Band
Jazz à Vienne 2011
Théâtre Antique
Vienne, France
7.9.2011
01 Zha Zha/Ahh... The Name is Bootsy, Baby!
02 Psychoticbumpschool
03 Pinocchio Theory
04 Hollywood Squares
05 Swing Down, Sweet Chariot
06 Cosmic Slop
07 Purple Haze
08 Red Hot Mama
09 Flash Light
10 Bootzilla (Wind Me Up)/Roto-Rooter
11 I'd Rather Be with You
12 Don't Take My Funk
13 One Nation Under a Groove
14 Casper the Friendly Ghost
15 Stretchin' Out (In a Rubber Band)/Touch Somebody
16 "We Want the Funk" chant
17 P-Funk medley incl. Mothership Connection/Dr. Funkenstein/Swing Down, Sweet Chariot
Total time: 1:56:39
disc break goes after Track 11
William "Bootsy" Collins - space bass & vocals
Ouiwey Collins - vocals & percussion
Hazel Denise White - vocals
Candice Aileen Cheatham - vocals
Kyle Jason Smith - vocals
Frankie "Kash" Waddy - drums
Bernie Worrell - keyboards & vocals
Joel "Razor Sharp" Johnson - keyboards
DeWayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight - guitar
Keith Cheatham - guitar
T.M. Stevens - bass & vocals
Charles Brian Hardgroove - bass & vocals
Garry George Winters - trumpet
Sarah Amial Marrow - trombone
John Randy Villars - alto & tenor saxophones
192/48k audio extracted from an AVI file of the event, as broadcast live over the web
spectral analysis is lossless to 20 kHz, making this equivalebnt to a preFM source
converted to 16/44 CD Audio, tracked, denoised, repaired, edited & remastered by EN, October 2026
824 MB FLAC/direct link
824 MB FLAC/direct link
Bootsy was born in 1951, so he is 75 today. But, really, his age can't be calculated in human numbers, but only in Epochs Of Primal Funk.
OK? Ain't no party like a P-Funk party cuz a P-Funk party don't stop! Happy Birthday to Bootsy Collins, the Maestro of the Space Bass, and long may he tend his Thumpasaurus.--J.
