BERNIE WORRELL interview for fonkadelica exclusive

BERNIE WORRELL
Exclusive Interview !!

Report & pics by Fouzia Burfield for Fonkadelica

UK VERSION !!! © Fouzia Burfield 2004

Bernie Worrell doesn't need much introduction : although he's less covered by the media than his partner in crime George Clinton, he is regarded by his fellow musicians and by any enlightened funkateer as one of the founding fathers of the Funk Family.

Co-Creator of Flashlight," "(Not Just) Knee Deep," and "Cosmic Slop'' among countless other hits, he played a major role in building and establishing the Funk sound in the 70's.

Worrell started his incredible artist life as a classically trained prodigy: he wrote his first concerto at 8 years old!

His meeting with Clinton was be the beginning of the Funkadelic, then P-Funk golden age. His collaborations have been as diverse as his talent; his Talking Head experience in the 80's are a good example of his versatility.

His genius was rewarded in 1997, by his induction in the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame , along with his Funkadelic buddies.

"Worrell and the Woo Warriors" is his official Band. He also always enjoys a good jam with other high level fellow musicians, like George Porter (The Meters) or June Yamagushi(Papa grows Funk).

One of Bernie Worrell' s main characteristics is his great generosity: he gives everyone on stage the opportunity to shine.

His generosity is all over this interview where he answers my questions with grace and kindness.

1.Your band is called the Woo Warriors; what does that mean ?

Well, you know what “Warriors” is ; “Woo” means the ability to entice someone or something in order to get what you want. It's like " You woo me, I woo you" or how a grand child can woo his grand parents before he can his parents. Too Woo somebody: to entice him into or " I ain't want to give it to you!". (Laughs)

2.When is the first time that you used that term ?

With Georges Clinton. Well my first solo album was called: "All the Woo of the Universe " which is titled by Georges Clinton. And I didn't know what Woo meant at the time. This is over 25 years ago. And on the cover were money, food like ice cream, a sexual picture and one more, I can't remember. But these are all different types of Woo. You can be enticed by food, woo-ed by food, sex, money, or all instruments you can woo somebody with. Like a female a good cook to her male.

In his home studio

3.What kind of music do you play with this band ?

Well with this group of people we do P-Funk oldies, vintage P-Funk songs and then we mix it with songs from my solo albums. And then we do some Talking Heads. We do a little bit of jazz. A little bit of cartoon music. A little bit of classical. And I intersperse different genres of music. And thank God, they're able to play different types of music. So it's a little bit of everything. But the base being the funk. Gotta have the funk! (Laughs)

4.What is the importance of the vocals in that ensemble ?

Well we used to have a main female vocalist. But she had a baby. Now I sing, Gregg does, John , Donald, so we do the singing ourselves now . As far as front man, each one of us takes a solo, sings a particular song; whatever song it is, that's the front man at the time.

5. Is it something you wanted from the start or is it something which came naturally ?

Well I 'd rather have a front person, cause.. I am bad for singing! (Laughs)

6. No way !!!

People like my voice and say I can sing but I don't like microphones in front of my face: it distracts me.

7. You might hate this! (Referring to the mike I use for the interview)

(Laughs!) Not this type of mike. It distracts me on stage: I am not good at remembering the lyrics ‘cause I am thinking about too many other things. So to remember the lyrics is not my forte. So I need my sheets for the lyrics.

8. Well fortunately you remember the notes! That would be more embarrassing! (Laughs)

But you see, that's how I talk; I talk by playing, not by words.

9. You were telling to me earlier today how all the music of the world for you relate one to another. Can you explain how you feel about the music being a universal thing ?

Well to me… the gift. I was born with the perfect pitch: anything I hear, I can play. And I have also the gift of being able to mix music whatever genres they are. I can mix it, go from one thing to another, like jazz to country western, from country western to Irish, from Irish to Operatic, and so on and so on. And being able to hear that way and having the gift to relate. ‘Cause my thing is: everything is related anyway. But people don't. It depends on how you hear it. And I just happen to be able to hear it. All things are related so I keep that to show to my group or to who ever I play with. There are others who can do that beside me by the way.

10. Any name you wanna share with us ??

Will Calhoun, of course Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, …

11.You tell me !!

(Laughs)

12. What about Prince ?

Prince is... Prince can also do it.. Prince is arranger also. He can take from the 70's, rework it and take it to the 90's. He's what we call a reworker. He does Old School, but updated. Prince is great; he's a genius at reworking and updating old grooves. Like ….in better words: that's one of the gifts that he has.

13. Have you ever had the opportunity to work with him ??

(….)He knows who I am: he was growing up on P-Funk, so he took it, you know, and made it into his style. So that's so far the closest we've come to being together except he presented us at the Rock and Roll of Fame. He did the presentation.

14. Let's get back to Funk: did you go to Funk or did Funk come to you ?

Funk came to me and I came to Funk! When I heard it, we came to each other. We come together (he sings on Beatles melody) " right now, over me!" (Laughs)

15. Did you hear about funk before making funk? For a lot of people, you are one of the fathers of the Funk. So hey, what do you say? (Smile)

That's a compliment. I don't know…

16. I don't want to embarrass you!!

No, it's like…We used to hear RnB on the radio at my parents house, and with the perfect pitch I could pick up anything I heard and play it. And I didn't know about funk at the time. Just RnB.

17. Which period of time are we talking about ?

1960‘s! Oh yeah, I am old! (Laughs) So back then it was just RNB. Except for James Brown and one of his songs: (singing) " Make it funky!! Ta da da da". So I heard about James Brown at the time also. I used to sneak to get the radio station. And… (Singing)"I got the feelin, you know!" Laughs So then after meeting Georges Clinton, his Funkadelic, it went on and on, And the original Funkadelic, hanging out in the hood and at the street corners and then in the barber shop, I picked up on it.

18.What did make P-Funk so different from the other groups ?

I guess what made P-Funk different than the other funk groups is the classical training which I realize now that I didn't at the moment. Back in the 70's, that what was made P-Funk, because of what I brought to it, which was the classical training which when, you think about it, mix the music together. So I took Funk and classical music and intertwined it. That was what made it different from the other funk groups.

19.What is your general definition of the Funk?

Funk is a feel; it's a feeling like reggae. (Imitating Jamaican accent)"You year Bob Marley in the back, yah" (NB: In the bar where I am conducting the interview, we hear Woman No Cry) That's the feel .. Funk is nasty, funk is sexy, and it’s a feeling.

20. I am not going to dispute that ! (Laughs) Technically, what made Funk different from the RNB, Soul or jazz or whatever was available at the time ? We usually talk about the One : James Brown likes to qualify it as such. Can you explain to us what the one is ?

The one is the measure accent on the sheet of music, on the first accent of the bar. Let's say : on the 1, 2 3 4 (he’s counting the beats and emphasizing on the first one) POUM poum poum poum (imitating the sound of the drums, still emphasizing on the first poum), the one that’s the major… the prime… the major accent, the major hit!.. Hit it! Like hit it up! Hit it on the one baby! Bam! (He's imitating the drums again. It‘s like nobody‘s around anymore. He‘s in his music. He BECOMES his music. Thrilling! And then he comes back!)) Major pulse!

21. The major pulse: is that what characterizes a funk piece then, the one that you just described ??

Well that's James Brown type of funk and the P-Funk‘s. Rufus is also funky, Herbie Hancock is funky, Ohio Players are funky… But there's nothing like a P-Funk party! (Laughs!)

22. I think that everybody knows! (Laughs)

And now there's nothing like a Woo Warriors party! We don't stop neither! (Laughs)

23. Well we have to bring you over there! To France and show the band.

See the French people are funky! The Scottish also; more so than the English; I find.

24. You mean, the audience ? The artists ? The music ?

The people, the audience.

25. They like to party, don't they ?! Laughs

Yep! The party, baby ! (Laughs)

26. You know that the French and the European audience in general loves you and misses you. (He’s singing along with Bob Marley) When can they expect see you again ?

The sooner, the better! We are working on it.

27. What's in your view the place of Funk today and how do you see its future ?

Well I don't listen to a lot of radio today. Because it's not really music to me. So all the new entities, which are happening nowadays, I don't really…(Pause) There are probably a lot of funk groups out there per say, but you don't hear them because you got programmed radios. So thank god for the college stations. As far as where it's gonna go, everything is stagnant right now cause that's where we're at. I feel that's something is getting ready to be reborn because there's lot of frustration, a lot of heartache. (Thinking...) Where it's got to go??? Wherever God sends it, to the musicians that he had created and how he channels it to us. One thing I'm glad about is to see the hip hop generation coming back to live music because now they realize that the audience want to see it live, so you can mix live playing with... what do you call it...with the electronic and ...

Worrell and George Porter (The Meters)

28. The scratch ??

Yes, the scratching on the turntable, that's it, you mix it. And that's what makes it interesting; you create a new art form. The hip-hop is already a new art form but now if you mix it with the old (not that's it's that old!), but mix up with live music and create and come up with something else. Plus the music education would be better. You got hands on! And not just a machine controlling you.

Worrell and June Yamagushi (Papa Grows Funk)

29. The other day on the forum of Fonkadelica.com , there was a discussion about what funk really is; so you had those defending the Old School (you, Pfunk, JB…). Then there were those supporting more the 80's stuff, like Kool and The Gang. It was very confrontational. Finally you had those who saw it more like a natural evolution. So Mis-ter Worrell ??? ( Laughs) all these people have one thing in common: they would love to have your take on this.

Well everything is always evolving. Right now we are in a search mode. Everybody's searching. And who can say or decide what it's gonna be ? See, the problem is that the radios are going to dictate. That 's another fight. That's another story there. We're always evolving; I wish they just let it be... Words of wisdom (smile). So that's my take on that: more free radios. That's controlled programming. We are all programmed in a way or another anyway. (Smile)

Worrell and Fouzia Burfield (Fonkadelica.com), Thanks !

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