War were founded in 1969 in Los Angeles by Eric Burdon, and for a while they acted as his backing band. After parting company,
they became one of the most innovative funk groups in the USA (and one of the
few multi-racial groups). They were
also commercially successful, starting with Spill The Wine (1970), but
their albums offered, above all, a totally new form of dance music.
War (1971) was their artistic manifesto. Armed with an experienced
line-up featuring
guitarist Howard Scott, bassist Morris Dickerson, drummer Harold Brown,
keyboardist Lonnie Jordan, saxophonist and flutist Charles Miller
(the original pre-Burdon quintet),
Danish-born harmonica player Lee "Oskar" Hansen (the group's main composer) and percussionist Thomas "Dee" Allen, and sharing vocal chores, War proceeded to
concoct the eight-minute blues melodrama Vibeka and the eleven-minute Cuban-tinged Fidel's Fantasy.
After a mediocre sophomore album, they struck gold with
The World Is A Ghetto (1972), that ran the gamut from
infectious dance ditties such as the languid ten-minute soul-jazz ballad The World Is A Ghetto (1972) to the 13-minute hyperkinetic proto-disco jam City Country City (1972),
released just a few months after Dibango's huge international hit Soul Makossa.
The Caribbean-tinged The Cisco Kid (1972) and especially Low Rider (1975) added a Latin touch to their progressive-funk sound.
|
(Translation by/ Tradotto da xxx) Se sei interessato a tradurre questo testo, contattami
|