Parliament Funkadelic

 I fixed waffles for supper.  Alton Brown is a bad man, and if you want to learn how to cook watch "Good Eats."  I have a manila folder full of my recipes of which most are scribbled on different sizes of paper.  There is the "Post It Note" size of paper.  There is the scratch pad size of paper which vary but usually is tall and thin.  Then there is the full 8 1/2 x 11 sized paper.  I had to go through them tonight and sort them.  Most of these recipes I can cook from scratch with no recipe.  Lately I have been feeling insecure about my cooking technique, so I decided to have a look.  My waffles came out well, and while I follow Mr. Brown's recipes I add or subtract things.  I don't use two ounces of melted butter in waffle batter.  I also use brown sugar instead of refined white sugar.  We happened to have buttermilk in the fridge, so I took advantage.  It was a satisfying meal.  Once I made "Tika" sauce, a tomato-based Indian sauce which uses Garam Masala powder.  I make this by toasting whole herbs in the skillet and grinding them into a powder.  It is heavenly and gives food that distinct Indian wang.  Parliament's album "Osmium" is a Potpourri of influences.  There is the STAX Records sound, Otis Redding, Donald "Duck" Dunn, Steve Cropper and Booker T.  What is missing is keyboard action, funky clavinet, synth, and electronica.  It is a more traditional instrumentation than later configurations of Parliament-Funkadelic.  Evidently there were a lot of permutations in the evolution of the George Clinton phenomenon.  I hear some folk in this music as well.  Not sure I like it yet, but that will come.  There is some Motown as well and R&B.  Eventually they will quash that in favor of a more psychedelic sound.  This is what I am learning in real time, since my attention has drifted from jazz for the time being.  The jazz vibe is not working in Fayettenam at the moment.  No surprise there.  Those Apache attack helicopters don't favor jazz music.  You need something stronger to compete with them.  I will had downstairs later to records some funky Rhodes.  What is striking about this genre of music I am addressing is bass and drums.  It was written by a critic that with the P-Funk funk style bass and drums came to the forefront of the band.  Word, and the drums sounds excellent as does bass.  I have been hearing and playing these sounds since I learned to play bass in graduate school.  The funny thing is I haven't really heard any of this music first hand, but I know it.  How far do I have to look back to find the African-American in our bloodline?  There are all kinds of influences in this album, but it has not yet gelled.  It sounds like a bunch of different people looking for a unique original sound.  They did find it.