Incredible Bongo Band
| Incredible Bongo Band | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Funk , instrumental |
| founding | 1972 |
| resolution | 1974 |
| Founding members | |
| Michael Viner | |
| Perry Botkin, Jr. | |
The Incredible Bongo Band (also: Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band) was an American instrumental radio - band in the early 1970s.
Band history
The Incredible Bongo Band was a project started in 1972 by Metro Goldwyn Mayer producer and musician Michael Viner and his friend and composer Perry Botkin Jr. as suitable music for a chase scene in The Thing With Two Heads was needed. For the film, the songs Bongo Rock and Bongolia were recorded and released on the soundtrack. Due to its popularity, it was released as a 7-inch single , which in turn sold so well that an album entitled Bongo Rock followed in 1973. The album was recorded in a few days in Vancouver with a permanent line-up of musicians, whose composition is no longer known. Drummer Jim Gordon and conga player King Errisson were sure to be there . The LP sold worse than expected due to the good sales of the single.
Nevertheless, Michael Viner used free studio time to record another album, which was released in 1974 under the name Return of the Incredible Bongo Band . When recording this album, Michael Viner and other musicians always played who were in the studio and had the time and inclination to take part in the project. Here, too, not all of the contributors have survived. It is still known that Jim Gordon and King Errisson as well as Ringo Starr , John Lennon , Bobbye Hall , Hal Blaine , Glen Campbell , Don Coster and Harry Nilsson were involved. Sometimes up to two hours, as Michael Viner calls them, “drum wars” were recorded, the best parts of which were cut to the usual lengths. After this album the project was not pursued any further.
style
The style of the Incredible Bongo Band can be described as funky, strongly percussive instrumental music with African and Latin American influences.
reception
The musical historical relevance of the Incredible Bongo Band only manifested itself after their active time, when the New York DJ and hip-hop pioneer Kool Herc began to expand percussive parts of the song in 1975 by putting on two identical records in parallel and thus through the so-called breaks Extended repetitions with seamless transitions to breakbeats . The first song he used was Bongo Rock , which was followed by more. In particular, the Incredible Bongo Band's version of the song Apache became a favorite. These songs became known as "original breakbeats" and were also used by other hip-hop pioneers such as Grandmaster Flash . Apache , in particular , gained such prominence in the early hip hop scene that Kool Herc later referred to it as the national anthem of hip hop. As a result, pieces by the Incredible Bongo Band were often used as the basis for breakbeats and samples in the Hip Hop , Jungle and Drum and Bass genre. An early example is Apache the Sugarhill Gang .
In 2011, the Indian-inspired cover album Tabla Rock was released under the band name Shawn Lee's Incredible Tabla Band . It only contains cover versions of the Incredible Bongo Band : the complete first album as well as two tracks from the second album. Tablas were used instead of bongos, sitars instead of guitars .
Discography
- 1973: Bongo Rock
- 1974: Return of the Incredible Bongo Band
- 2006: Bongo Rock (compilation)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Booklet for the CD release of the compilation "Bongo Rock" on Mr. Bongo Records
- ↑ Incredible Bongo Band at www.allmusic.com
- ↑ Will Hermes: All Rise for the National Anthem of Hip-Hop. In: The New York Times. October 29, 2006, accessed March 14, 2011 .
- ↑ Shawn Lee's Incredible Tabla Band. In: worldbeatinternational.com. March 30, 2012, accessed December 7, 2018 .