Saturday 02.11.12: THE NUMERO GROUP & FUNKY SOLE Present: SYL JOHNSON Backed by THE BREAKESTRA @ Echo

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9pm / $15 / 21+

Syl Johnson. ||Watch
I´m not old, I’m original. I’m not old, I’m modern.” To hear Syl Johnson tell it, the sound he was creating in the ‘60s and ‘70s was the only sound. It was good. He knew it then and still does, that’s why he hasn’t changed a thing about it. Despite a recording career that took him to prominent singles-era studios in Detroit, Memphis and Chicago, that one big pop hit had nonetheless eluded him, even if the songs were worthy. Johnson was among the first to directly confront the black experience through popular music. 1969’s “Is It Because I’m Black?” went on to reach No. 11 on the Billboard singles chart that year as his biggest hit, and he could write the sweet soul ballads with as easily as he could the redlining funk melees. He could howl like James Brown and croon like labelmate Al Green, but unlike the legends of funk and soul, the world never knew Johnson quite the same way.

That is until hip hop resurrected Johnson after institutional memory of his body of work had practically faded by the mid 1980s. Now, to know hip hop is to know Syl Johnson. Samples of his music can be heard everywhere from Eric B. & Rakim to Jay-Z and Kanye West. The wicked outro riff to his minor hit “Different Strokes” formed the foundation to Wu Tang Clan’s classic “Shame On A Ni**a” and literally dozens of other hip-hop staples…Yes Weekly

with vinyl funk sounds all night by

The Sole Traveller DJs
Music Man Miles (Breakestra) & Clifton & The Numero Group

FMI: Funky Sole on Myspace
Numero Group