Bootsy Collins - Ahh...The Name Is Bootsy, Baby! (2014) [Hi-Res]

One of the key figures in the development of funk, Bootsy Collins played bass in James Brown's JB's in the late '60s and early '70s and was later an integral member of George Clinton's Parliament/Funkadelic ensemble. Collins' approach to the bass is like none other. He plays it like a guitar, adding long, dazzling fills while simultaneously anchoring the band with a heavy, elastic bottom-end. During his P-Funk tenure, Collins' personality (exemplified in both his playing and his freakishly glamorous on-stage persona) became so popular that he soon began his own outfit--Bootsy's Rubber Band. 1977's AHH...mines the psychedelicized grooves born of the P-Funk formula--adding equal parts superior musicianship, dance floor abandon, space-age thematics, and a silliness intended to subvert and liberate. Tracks like 'Rubber Duckie' are unabashed dance anthems while 'The Pinocchio Theory' amends the P-Funk philosophy with another anti-rule ('Fake the funk and your nose will grow'). AHH...has more than its share of slow-tempo, ballad-like numbers, but killer bass solos from the man himself make even these worthwhile. In all, this is vintage Bootsy Collins.

'...On [this] late-'70s album, coproduced by George Clinton, Collins leads the charge with slippery bass lines and rubbery vocals. There's a party going on here, with tunes that stretch and vamp into an old-school sunset.' (Entertainment Weekly)

Bootsy Collins, vocals, guitar, drums
Gary 'Mudbone' Cooper, vocals, drums
Robert 'P-Nut' Johnson, vocals
Casper, guitar, drums
Garry Shider, guitar
Glen Goins, guitar
Michael Hampton, guitar
Phelps 'Catfish' Collins, guitar
Maceo Parker, saxophone, horns
Randy Brecker, saxophone
Rick Gardner, trumpet, horns
Fred Wesley, trombone, horns
Richard 'Kush' Griffith, horns
The Brecker Brothers, horns
Joel Johnson, keyboards
Bernie Worrell, keyboards
Frankie 'Kash' Waddy, drums
Jerome Brailey, drums

Recorded at Hollywood Sound Studio; United Sound Studios
Engineered by Pat Kraus, Jim Callon, Jim Vitti
Produced by William Collins, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins

Digitally remastered