The Real Origin Of Funk Bass (New Orleans & Congo Square)

[00:00:00]Hey everybody, welcome back. If you're watching this on YouTube, this is a part of the New Orleans funk workshop that we're doing over at Groove School. My name is Ted Gold. I'm a bass player and educator based in the city of New Orleans. I'm from New Orleans. I spent several years in the bass chair with New Orleans funk legend Ziggaboo Modilist of the Meters. And through TED Talks Bass and Groove School, I help bass players just like you make sense of this stuff through one simple philosophy, and that is it ain't rocket science, it's pocket science. Music is a language and that is the first approach that we take on this channel and at grew school. If you like the content on YouTube, I invite you to subscribe. If you want to go deeper, check out Guru School at TEDtalkspace.com.

[00:00:42]All right, you can just go there and hit the groove school link and try it for 7 days.

[00:00:48]Okay, today we're going to get just a little bit academic because in order to understand funk, we got to go all the way back. We're going back to the transatlantic I can never say that word.

[00:01:00]Transatlantic slave trade. Back to the source. And here's what I want you to do. Bookmark sections of this video, but watch it all the way through because there's a discussion question at the end and I want you to engage with it. Okay?

[00:01:14]Engagement is one of the ways you really retain information. So with that, let's get started. Let's talk about why we are starting here. Now look, I know that you didn't come here for a history lecture.

[00:01:28]I get it. But here's the thing. You can't understand Strut or Funky Miracle or Hey Pocky Way or Aiko if you don't understand the rhythm. Every ghost note, every syncupation has a lineage.

[00:01:42]And that lineage doesn't start with the meters or the wild magnolia or the wild chapatulas or the the Nevilles. It doesn't even start with New Orleans. It starts on the other side of the ocean.

[00:01:53]It starts with rhythm. All right. Now, stay with me because this isn't a detour from playing bass. I'm not going to play bass in this video. This is a foundation. All right. So, that's why we're starting here. Between the 1500s and the 1800s, millions of West and Central Africans are forced into slavery. And when we talk about that history, of course, we talk about great loss, rightfully so.

[00:02:27]But something else happened, and we're going to keep it in in the realm of music, but people carried knowledge with them that nobody could take away. For the purposes of this video and this workshop, we're talking about things like rhythm, call and response, poly rhythms, where you have multiple patterns that are stacked on top of each other. And this is this is the the architecture that funk is built on, right? That's the structure. A lot of times when we, you know, we hear that bass needs to lock in with the drums.

[00:03:03]But in funk music, you ever wonder why funk baselines feel like they're talking to or with the drums instead of just following them? I mean, truth be told, I think about the bass as a tuned drum.

[00:03:17]We'll get to James Brown, but this is the source. You ever trip out on that call and response?

[00:03:25]That's older than the bass guitar itself. That's older than me and you.

[00:03:30]Think about Strut.

[00:03:35]Call a response. Right now, here's where it gets specific to us and specific to the city of New Orleans.

[00:03:50]Most of the American South banned drumming and gathering outright. Of course, there was fears of uprising. So, those laws were pretty heavy-handed.

[00:04:01]I mean, everything was heavy-handed.

[00:04:03]Most places the rhythmic tradition only survived in fragments and sometimes it was lost completely. But New Orleans was different. Not free, but it was different. So in 1724, Louisiana's code noir, the French colonial law that was shaped by Catholic tradition set aside uh Sundays as a day of rest for enslaved people. That's not a right to gather.

[00:04:30]Nobody handed them freedom. Kind of cracked the window open a little bit.

[00:04:34]And through that window, these gatherings happened on and off inconsistently until 1817 when a city ordinance drew a line and they said, "Okay, fine. If you're going to gather, you gather right here in one place, what we now call Congo Square." I grew up not far from Congo Square. It's interesting. I didn't realize how special this place was until I left. But we have to be real about the the rest of the history. All right? This didn't last forever.

[00:05:05]not out in the open, not unbothered. In 1856, New Orleans banned public drumming outright as well, and the city caught up to the rest of the country. But by then, the rhythm had already taken root in generation after generation in that square on those Sundays. That's why New Orleans sounds like it does today. And that's why the city has held on to a public visible link to African rhythm longer than almost anywhere else in the country. Okay, listen. If you are enjoying this content and you watching on YouTube, I invite you to go deeper where we have deeper discussions. Join us over at group school. You can find that link again at ttalkspace.com. Click the grooveschool link and try for 7 days. I have weekly live calls again community and a growing video library.

[00:05:59]What actually made it across through Congo Square and all the way into your my hands today. Three things.

[00:06:08]Number one is poly rhythm. Multiple rhythms stacked played at once. The second thing is call and response. A leader starts something, a group answers. Now again, I gave you the example of Strut, but you can hear this in several baselines uh from this tradition.

[00:06:26]And I really want you to start thinking about the bass as a drum. All right?

[00:06:32]It's not just the baselines. Okay?

[00:06:35]The bass and funk music is more like a tune drum. The third thing is syncupation, accenting the offbeats instead of the down beats. And that's probably the single biggest reason why funk lines feel alive instead of mechanical.

[00:06:51]So here's what I want you to do. I want you to write those down. Okay?

[00:06:57]Poly rhythm, call and response, syncopation. Everything we build on everything else that we build in the workshop is going to sit on top of those three things. All right? From the square to the street. It doesn't stop with Congo Square. It moves. Congo Square becomes the second line tradition. Brass band tradition becomes what you and I call funk. It's got the same rhythmic DNA, new instrumentation, new context, a living thing that keeps adapting and never loses its root. You can also hear some of this in bounce music. You dig?

[00:07:36]Okay. So here is the study hall discussion. I'm going to invite you again if you're watching on YouTube, subscribe if you are a part of groove school. Here's the study hall discussion. Where else where else in music where I can read where else in the music you already listen to do you hear call and response even when nobody's singing? Now, since this particular video is on YouTube, drop it in the comments.

[00:08:15]If you're in study hall, drop it in the comments. You know, I read every one of those things. I'm in there every single day. All right. Again, if you want to join that party, here's the information that you need. We have weekly live calls, a growing video library, and community.

[00:08:35]Some sources for you to check out. I will leave this deck in group school study hall. You guys get this uh get this deck and I look forward to the discussion. As always, it ain't rocket science, it's pocket science. Peace.