DETROIT – Funkadelic’s 1978 hit “Cholly (Funk Getting Ready to Roll!)” famously declared, “I was strung out on Bach, and Beethoven was my thing. I dug jazz, I dug rock, anything with a swing.” Now, the legendary funk band is taking a symphonic turn.
This weekend, the Detroit Opera will present an orchestral rendition of some of George Clinton’s and Parliament-Funkadelic’s most celebrated tracks. Expect to hear classics like “Flash Light,” “(Not Just) Knee Deep,” and “One Nation Under a Groove” rendered by violins, cellos, and horns—more commonly associated with the grand sounds of arias and sonatas.
Ray Chew, the arranger and conductor for “Symphonic PFunk: Celebrating the Music of Parliament Funkadelic,” anticipates that Saturday’s show will mark the first instance of an orchestra performing the pioneering funk band’s music.
Chew, a seasoned musician with a history of collaborating with industry giants, is a devoted fan of funk himself.
“The arrangements I’m creating are crucial for bringing everything together,” Chew stated about the upcoming performance. “George’s and P-Funk’s music is ready to burst forth through the orchestra.”
“The arrangements that I’m making are going to really be key to how we bring it all together,” he said of Saturday’s performance. “George’s and P-Funk’s music is just waiting to explode through that orchestra.”
For Clinton, it was inevitable.
“I’ve been waiting on it to happen over the years,” the 84-year-old founder and frontman told The Associated Press. “We knew we were going to be doing this one day. We expected to gravitate into classical or something.”
Creating the ‘Parliafunkadelicamentthang’
Clinton formed The Parliaments in Plainfield, New Jersey, in 1955. The doo wop group’s “(I Wanna) Testify” became a hit in 1967 for Detroit-based Revilot Records.
Funkadelic was founded the following year after a naming rights issue with Revilot, though Clinton later regained rights to The Parliaments name.
Virtually the same stable of singers and musicians would record albums and perform live under both monikers throughout the 1970s.
Where Parliament was the engine for funk — highlighted by stacked harmonies and overlapping vocals — Funkadelic played the rawest of rock, emphasizing electric and bass guitars, heavy drum beats and (often) NSFW lyrics.
“It started out as a singing group, then a band and a group, and then it became a ‘thang,’” Clinton said. “We call it Parliafunkadelicamentthang.”
Some of the era’s top musicians, vocalists and songwriters carved out roles in the “thang,” including keyboardist Bernie Worrell, guitarist and lead singer Garry Shider and Walter “Junie” Morrison. All wrote and arranged some of P-Funk’s greatest jams.
While setting the group’s catalog to classical might seem unusual, Chew says it’s “just a different discipline,” adding that he believes some P-Funk members would have excelled in the genre if they’d chosen that route.
But can an orchestra play funk?
Rickey Vincent, professor of African American Studies and lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, says yes.
“Musicians are stumped by how seriously complex this funky music is,” said Vincent, who authored “Funk: The Music, the People, and the Rhythm of The One.” “You can take an orchestra and do all kinds of funky things with it.”
“Audacity of sophistication, that’s what funk plays with,” he added. “Junie Morrison … one of those people like Bernie (Worrell) who could manipulate a string ensemble for fun. They were top-shelf musicians who basically snuck that into their arrangements.”
Legendary Motown musician and arranger Paul Riser says it’s about integrating all the parts.
“You take what they’ve done,” Riser said of Parliament-Funkadelic. “You don’t try to make it different. You just try to add to it. You don’t try to make it your thing.”
Vincent pointed out that bagpipes and banjo were used on Parliament’s 1970 debut album, “Osmium.”
“And they work with that stuff. It’s not just a gimmick,” Vincent said. “Funk has always been about toying with institutions, manipulating canon.”
Chew declined to say which P-Funk songs would be performed, but said 47 players have been assembled in the orchestra. They will play standard orchestral instruments, including a full string section and a harp, and saxophones. About a half-dozen musicians, including a keyboardist and guitarists, will join them on stage.
“The colors that are already in the music are going to be spoken through violins and French horns and everything. We don’t even have to invent new notes. All the notes are there,” he said.
Setting funk operas to dance music
Outside of the music, part of P-Funk’s appeal occurred during packed live concerts as singers and musicians — some taking on far-out alter egos, like Star Child and Dr. Funkenstein — crowded the stage.
Clinton acknowledged that P-Funk’s “Mothership Connection,” “Funkentelechy Vs. The Placebo Syndrome” and other albums were part of a “funk opera” where the mission was simply getting Sir Nose D’Voidoffunk to dance. Sir Nose was the antagonist and embodiment of everything “unfunky.” He vowed never to dance, but eventually succumbed to the power of the funk.
The highlight of those sold-out shows was the “Mothership” — a glittering prop space capsule — descending with lights flashing and smoke billowing onto the stage as Clinton’s P-Funk mob whipped the crowd up with “swing down sweet chariot stop and let me ride.”
The original “Mothership” first was used during a 1976 concert in New Orleans. A new version is under construction.
“We were trying to be the Beatles with the big extravagant arrangements,” said Clinton, a big fan of the Fab Four’s “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” concept album.
Looking ahead, Clinton said he’s working on a couple of new albums. The group has been on the road for the past three years and last performed in Detroit about a year ago.
“To go back there now feels really good,” he said of the Motor City. “I feel a future coming in the place where we have a helluva past. That’s where all the music was born.”
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