 |
Keb Darge (born 1957) [1] is a Scottish DJ and music producer, in the genres of Northern soul, deep funk, garage punk, and rockabilly music. He is credited with inventing the term 'deep funk'.
|
Keb Darge (born 1957) [1] is a Scottish DJ and music producer, in the genres of Northern soul, deep funk, garage punk, and rockabilly music. He is credited with inventing the term 'deep funk'.
Darge has described himself as "a bit of a thug" in his youth. [1] In his late teens, he "picked a fight with the only English boy in the town" and the other teenager gave him a drubbing, using taekwondo moves. Surprised, Darge asked him how he had done it, then began taking taekwondo classes. [1] He eventually became Scottish taekwondo champion.[ citation needed ]
Darge began Northern soul dancing in his late teens and entered local disco dance competitions (dancing in the "northern soul style") in the North of Scotland. He made an appearance in the nationally televised 1979 UK disco dance finals. Along with his Scottish dancing, he also danced at the Wigan Casino. Darge began buying records for what would eventually become his ultimate passion and career for the rest of his life.
Soon after he began dancing, he was DJing in Wigan at a club next to the casino, and around Scotland as well with his record collection throughout the 1970s. At the age of 22, Darge moved to London, ceasing to be a DJ. Music promoters from then approached him, asking him to come back to DJing. He obliged, and gave the Northern soul phenomenon exposure in London through his performances, bringing in people from northern England to London who were previously associated with Wigan's Northern soul scene before it dissolved. Meanwhile, he worked in various jobs, including butcher's boy, window cleaner and delivering leaflets.
During the 1970s, his work in tracking down vintage funk and soul music led to friendships with American musicians including Isaac Hayes, Curtis Mayfield, Harold Melvin and George Clinton. [1] In 1987, he sold many of his Northern soul records to pay for his divorce but he had left over in his loft many other records of what he then referred to as "junk music" that he had picked up in the United States on his many jaunts to find Northern soul records there and in the UK. This "junk music" would be the beginning of what Keb would later call "Deep Funk", having underestimated the potential of these leftover records.
In 1989, during the heyday of acid house in the UK, Keb decided to play these funk records, and managed for a short while to get a night to perform regularly at "The Wagclub", a club specializing in acid jazz. After his night there ended around 1992–93, he met fellow funk record collector Mark Cotgrove, aka Snowboy, at Club Ormonds in London where the first funk-only night in the city was held, called 'Deep Funk'. The night was named by Keb (he would later go on to use the name to describe the sound of the funk records he would play), but arranged by the club owners.
After this, Keb and Snowboy wanted to further expand on the "deep funk" sound, and decided to start their own all-funk night in on old restaurant, but this failed to catch on after a few months due to the burgeoning popularity of house music in the UK at the time, forcing Keb and Snowboy to close up shop there. After this Snowboy left to focus on his jazz dance events. Shortly afterwards, Keb heard about Madame Jojo's, a strip club located in the Soho district of London. He managed to arrange with the club a night for himself and various guests to perform weekly. The club accommodated him and Keb's funk nights there became an instant success (and still are the leading club nights for funk in London today). Madame Jojo's closed down their strip nights, becoming a full-time music club, partly due to Keb's success there.
Until early 2010, Keb held a funk night at the club every Friday, called "Legendary Deep Funk". He also tours around the world DJing and runs a record label, Kay-Dee, with Kenny Dope. He has released several albums of compiled classic deep funk tracks, most notably the Funk Spectrum: Real Funk For Real People and Keb Darge's Deep Funk compilations released on BBE Records. Keb Darge is a leading authority on deep funk and soul music of the 1960s and 1970s. He has also helped to produce the modern-day funk group The New Mastersounds. In 1995, Keb had a cameo part in the surf film, Blue Juice , starring Sean Pertwee and Catherine Zeta-Jones, where he can be seen dancing in the village hall.
Darge has been married four times. His middle two marriages ended in divorce with hefty settlements, and caused him to sell off much of his prized record collection. He is currently married to a woman from the Philippines, and decided to move to the Philippines in the early months of 2012. After Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines in 2013. Keb provided food and shelter to victims of the storm. He also criticized the stockpiling of food aid by corrupt local politicians on his Facebook page. [2] He has a passion for militaria and is an avid collector of military miniatures.
François Kevorkian, also known by the stage name François K, is a French-born, U.S.-based DJ, producer, remixer and label owner of Armenian descent, who started his career DJing in clubs such as the Paradise Garage and Studio 54. Kevorkian has produced and remixed work by a diverse range of musicians including the Smiths, Adam Ant, Kraftwerk, Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, Diana Ross, Gloria Estefan and U2, and is considered one of the forefathers of house music.
Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged in Northern England and the Midlands in the early 1970s. It developed from the British mod scene, based on a particular style of Black American soul music with a heavy beat and fast tempo.
Gilles Jérôme Moehrle MBE, better known as Gilles Peterson, is a French broadcaster, DJ, and record label owner. He founded the influential labels Acid Jazz and Talkin' Loud, and started his current label Brownswood Recordings in 2006. He was awarded an honorary MBE in 2004, the AIM Award for Indie Champion and the Mixmag Award for Outstanding Contribution To Dance Music in 2013, the PRS for Music Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music Radio in 2014, and The A&R Award from the Music Producers Guild in 2019.
Tuff Crew is a hip hop group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, dubbed "Philly's first Rap Supergroup". Members include Ice Dog, L. A. Kid, Tone Love, Monty G, and DJ Too Tuff.
Dimitri from Paris is a French music producer and DJ of Greek descent. His musical influences are rooted in 1970s funk and disco sounds that spawned contemporary house music, as well as original soundtracks from 1950s and 1960s movies such as Breakfast at Tiffany's, La Dolce Vita and The Party, which were sampled in his album Sacrebleu. Dimitri fused these sounds with electro and block party hip hop he discovered in the 1980s.
Deep funk is a subgenre of funk music which features a "hard, lean" sound and emphasis on groove, improvisation, and musicianship over traditional songwriting. The term is also used to describe rare funk recordings sought out by collectors and DJs. Artists such as James Brown and the Meters were basic reference points for the style.
Larry Dunn is an American keyboardist, producer and musical director. He was one of the early members of the music group Earth, Wind & Fire. Dunn was later inducted, as a former band member, into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Colorado Music Hall of Fame. Within which he's also been bestowed with ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Heritage Award, 7 Grammy Awards, 4 American Music Awards and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Dunn is a co-composer of EWF's "Shining Star", a song that's been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
The New Mastersounds are a British four-piece jazz fusion and blues/funk band from Leeds, England. Over the last 16 years, they have issued ten studio albums, two live dates, two remix collections, and a compilation album.
Acid Jazz Records is a record label based in East London formed by Gilles Peterson and Eddie Piller in 1987. The label is the namesake of the acid-jazz subgenre of jazz music for which it is most famously known for producing.
Barely Breaking Even (BBE) is a British record label started by two DJs, Peter Adarkwah and Ben Jolly. The name BBE comes from The Universal Robot Band's 1982 track "Barely Breaking Even". It has two sublabels: Deep Funk, and Urban Theory. BBE is also notable for its Beat Generation series of LPs.
Snowboy is an English percussionist, bandleader, DJ and journalist.
King Britt is an American educator, DJ and record producer from Philadelphia.
Mike Perras is a Canadian DJ from Montreal, Quebec. He produced the 1991 singles "Beginning of Life" and "Keep Moving" on Bassic Records.
Nik Weston is a DJ, music producer, record label owner of Mukatsuku Records and music buyer for Juno Records. Based out of London, UK, he was from the late 1990s to 2007 a key player in the promotion and distribution of Japanese recording artists and their releases outside of the country, as part of the late 1990s into 2000s revival in the jazz dance, soul-jazz and electronic Japanese music scene. He is a keen advocate of the vinyl record format.
Katalyst is an Australian DJ and producer. He won awards at the 2002 Australian Dance Music Awards for Best Album and Best Producer.
Eddie Fowlkes is an American techno DJ. He was influential to the early Detroit techno scene.
Colin Curtis is a British DJ whose career spans several decades and musical developments.
The Craig Charles Funk and Soul Show is a British radio programme, broadcast on BBC Radio 6 Music on Saturdays, between 6 pm and 9 pm, and from 2016 until 2022 between 10 pm and 12 midnight on BBC Radio 2. The Radio 6 Music show is presented live by Craig Charles and produced by Simon Hodge, Ben Appleyard and Ellen Orchard for TBI Media. All varieties of funk and soul music are played, from classic tracks to contemporary releases. It is the longest-running show on BBC Radio 6 Music.
Sulene Fleming is a British singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist for the band the Brand New Heavies from 2016 to 2018.
Kaydee were a four-piece pop rock band from Kilkenny, Ireland
