Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Bernie Worrell, Masterful P-Funk Keyboardist, Dead at 72
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/bernie-worrell-masterful-funk-keyboardist-dead-72-40116805
Bernie Worrell, the ingenious "Wizard of Woo" whose amazing array of keyboard sounds and textures helped define the Parliament-Funkadelic musical empire and influenced performers of funk, rock, hip-hop and other genres, has died.
Worrell, who announced in early 2016 that he had stage-four lung cancer, died Friday at age 72. He died at his home in Everson, Washington, according to his wife, Judie Worrell.
Throughout the 1970s and into the '80s, George Clinton's dual projects of Parliament and Funkadelic and their various spinoffs built upon the sounds of James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone among others and turned out some of the most complex, spaced out, political, cartoonish and, of course, danceable music of the era, elevating the funk groove to a world view.
With a core group featuring Worrell, guitarist Eddie Hazel and bassist Bootsy Collins, P-Funk maintained an exhausting and dazzling pace of recordings, from the hit singles "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)" and "Flash Light" to such albums as "One Nation Under a Groove" and "Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome." And the studio music was just a starting point for the live shows, costumed spectaculars of wide-brimmed hats, war paint, dashikis, military gear or perhaps a white sheet with only a fig leaf underneath.
Worrell was among the first musicians to use a Moog synthesizer, and his mastery brought comparisons to Jimi Hendrix's innovations on guitar. Anything seemed possible when he was on keyboards, conjuring squiggles, squirts, stutters and hiccups on Parliament's "Flash Light" that sounded like funk as if conceived by Martians. On Funkadelic's "Atmosphere," his chatty organ prelude, like a mash-up of Bach and "The Munsters," set up some of Clinton's more unprintable lyrics.
</snip>
Bernie Worrell, the ingenious "Wizard of Woo" whose amazing array of keyboard sounds and textures helped define the Parliament-Funkadelic musical empire and influenced performers of funk, rock, hip-hop and other genres, has died.
Worrell, who announced in early 2016 that he had stage-four lung cancer, died Friday at age 72. He died at his home in Everson, Washington, according to his wife, Judie Worrell.
Throughout the 1970s and into the '80s, George Clinton's dual projects of Parliament and Funkadelic and their various spinoffs built upon the sounds of James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone among others and turned out some of the most complex, spaced out, political, cartoonish and, of course, danceable music of the era, elevating the funk groove to a world view.
With a core group featuring Worrell, guitarist Eddie Hazel and bassist Bootsy Collins, P-Funk maintained an exhausting and dazzling pace of recordings, from the hit singles "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)" and "Flash Light" to such albums as "One Nation Under a Groove" and "Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome." And the studio music was just a starting point for the live shows, costumed spectaculars of wide-brimmed hats, war paint, dashikis, military gear or perhaps a white sheet with only a fig leaf underneath.
Worrell was among the first musicians to use a Moog synthesizer, and his mastery brought comparisons to Jimi Hendrix's innovations on guitar. Anything seemed possible when he was on keyboards, conjuring squiggles, squirts, stutters and hiccups on Parliament's "Flash Light" that sounded like funk as if conceived by Martians. On Funkadelic's "Atmosphere," his chatty organ prelude, like a mash-up of Bach and "The Munsters," set up some of Clinton's more unprintable lyrics.
</snip>
Also played kb w/ Talking Heads in Stop Making Sense
Cross gently, Bernie!
10 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
That guy had some serious chops.
Kick in to the DU tip jar?
This week we're running a special pop-up mini fund drive. From Monday through Friday we're going ad-free for all registered members, and we're asking you to kick in to the DU tip jar to support the site and keep us financially healthy.
As a bonus, making a contribution will allow you to leave kudos for another DU member, and at the end of the week we'll recognize the DUers who you think make this community great.