Funk Festival at Nathan Phillips Square

Keeping James Brown alive

Daryl Brown (biological son of James) and Fred Thomas (an original bassist) perform with the Soul Generals in the Luminato Funk Festival.

I came to the show with mediocre expectations but the band was incredibly tight, performing authentic renditions of most of the James Brown hits.

Two minor criticisms

• There was a tendency for the band’s beat to creep away from James Brown’s signature emphasis on the 1s to the more conventional and less funky 2s and 4s.
• The outro was a bit awkward; hip hop dancers were added to the mix and the the lead guitarist combined heavy metal arpeggios with performance tricks borrowed from Jimi Hendrix.

After an interlude provided by DJ Starting from Scratch, Morris Day and The [motherfuckin] Time took over. At the end of the performance, Morris brought a handful of pre-selected females from the crowd and lined them up on stage, evaluating their dancing and other “assets”. To add to the creepy-factor, remember that he’s in his 50s and was wearing a fur coat on this year’s hottest day yet.