Circles of Sound

This week in theaters we got The Meters. Now, The Meters are a band that came onto the groovy scene in the mid-sixties, but had they're big hit in 1969 with Cissy strut. Now this song was an inspirational piece of music to me in my teenage years, as it was for so many others from the time this groove train took the top of the RnB charts. Now The Meters are a funk band that have there roots deeply entangled in the swamp and the the Jazz of New Orleans. They took in a then infant Funk and introduced it back to the world with a southern drawl. Their funkadelic styling took hints from the slow rhythms of Jazz and the relaxed Southern nature. 
Now Cissy Strut inspired me as a teenager to get into the Funk genre, and from it I have never look backed since. Now i was reminded of them recently when I heard a little Funk/Jazz band from across the pond by the name of New Mastersounds. Now I’m sure between Cissy Strut and This Ain’t Work you funky fans could hear a similarity in the groove and the notes they used. In fact, these notes and rhythms, alternating octaves flurished with 7th’s and 4th’s, have held true along funk bass and especially guitar lines. It is the playing around with the Pentatonic Scale, and the cutting of slack so as to leave room for moody notes and oppertunities, that was made popular many years before either The Meters or New Mastersound's fame by the Blues. And so the cycles go.