In The Jungle Groove

Personnel: James Brown, Bobby Byrd (vocals, organ); Jimmy "Chank" Nolen, Alphonso "Country" Kellum, Phelps "Catfish" Collins, Hearlon "Cheese" Martin, Robert Coleman, Bobby Roach (guitar); Jimmy Parker (alto saxophone); Maceo Parker, L.D. "Eldee" Williams, Robert McCulloch (tenor saxophone); St. Clair Pinckney, Louis Tifford (baritone saxophone); Richard "Kush" Griffeth, Joe Davis, Darryl "Hasaan" Jamison, Clayton "Chicken" Gunnels, Jerone "Jasaan" Melson (trumpet); Fred Wesley (trombone); "Sweet Charles" Sherrell, William "Bootsy" Collins, Fred Thomas (bass); Melvin Parker, Charles Stubblefield, John "Jabo" Starks (drums); John Morgan, Art Lopez, Johnny Griggs (congas).
Principally recorded at King Studios, Cincinnati, Ohio; Criteria, Miami, Florida; Bobby Smith Studios, Macon, Georgia; A & R Studios, New York, New York between 1969 & 1972. Includes liner notes by Cliff White.
IN THE JUNGLE GROOVE documents one of the most important periods in the development of James Brown's music. In 1970, Brown's bandleader/sax player Maceo Parker departed to form his own band, taking much of Brown's group with him. This event heralded the arrival of the JB's, which included monster bassist Bootsy Collins, whose hyperkinetic style made Brown's funk harder, leaner, and meaner. This album gives listeners a bird's-eye view of the change, featuring the final sessions of the Maceo-led band as well as the first recordings of Bootsy and the JB's.
Maceo and company were at their hardest and funkiest at this point, as seen on "The Funky Drummer," where Clyde Stubblefield lays down the drum break that would launch a thousand hip-hop samples. Stubblefield stuck around long enough to be part of the first JB's, whose tracks here are full of frenetic, barely controlled energy. The sense of joy and revelation in the groove is audible in these orgasmically polyrhythmic sessions. Collins and Stubblefield lay down some of the heaviest grooves in the history of recorded music. As Brown himself observes on the aforementioned Maceo-era "Funky Drummer," "it's a mutha!"