Acid Jazz
London DJs returned 1970s jazz-funk to the dance floor, and live bands rebuilt that old-record sound
Related
Acid jazz is a name that grew out of London clubs around 1987. It first described the old records DJs played, then the new band music made in that image, bringing 1970s jazz-funk back to the dance floor.
Origins and era
In 1987 the DJs Gilles Peterson and Chris Bangs played old funk and jazz-funk records at Dingwalls in Camden, London, nicknaming the night "acid jazz" after the acid house then in fashion. Acid Jazz Records followed in 1988 and the Talkin' Loud label in 1990. Incognito reformed in 1990, the Brand New Heavies and Jamiroquai took the band format into the charts in the early 1990s, and Galliano, Corduroy and Mother Earth held the club floor. In the United States, Groove Collective and Branford Marsalis's Buckshot LeFonque joined the line in 1994.
What you hear
The band is live, with straight-four funk drums, short repeating electric bass figures, and Hammond organ, clavinet and brass handling harmony and riffs. Vocals often carry soul phrasing, sometimes with rap. Recordings deliberately keep a warm 1970s grain, and vinyl singles run alongside DJ versions. Tempos mostly fall between 90 and 120 BPM, made for dancing rather than seated solo listening.
Key figures
Gilles Peterson and Eddie Piller drove the name and the labels, Incognito's Bluey Maunick wrote band arrangements and harmony back into the records, the Brand New Heavies made club anthems from drums and brass, and Jamiroquai took the sound to a wider pop audience. Galliano and Corduroy represent a more psychedelic, instrumental side.
Lineage
Jazz-funk, rare groove and 1970s soul feed in, hip-hop and house club culture run alongside, and nu-jazz, broken beat and neo-soul come out. It is a scene and a label movement more than a grammar of improvisation.
Common misunderstandings
Acid jazz is not acid house with a saxophone, since its rhythm comes from funk rather than electronic dance music. Nor is it an improvisational jazz style, as many bands worked through arrangement and groove with solos at the edge. The name began as a DJ's joke and a label tag, and plenty of musicians disliked the category.
Listen in the library
All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).
Sources
- Lloyd Bradley, Sounds Like London, 100 Years of Black Music in the Capital（Serpent's Tail, 2013），用于核对伦敦俱乐部场景
- The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry Acid jazz，用于交叉核对术语与厂牌
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.