65. "You still didn't watch the Nile Rodgers vid I linked, huh?" In response to In response to 61
Because I think he did a pretty good job of demonstrating how a lot of funk was based on re-situating jazz harmony in a more urgent and danceable context. Of course it's different in form... nobody's claiming that it's the exact same thing or that if you pitch-correct "Night in Tunisia" it turns into "Mother Popcorn."
It's just that you had guys who were jazz players (or players who wanted to be jazz players) taking jazz harmony into R&B (which came from jazz to begin with a la Louis Jordan, Dave Bartholomew, etc). If you've ever played funk-style rhythm guitar (particularly of the James Brown/Jimmy Nolen variety), the first chord you learned was probably an Em9. Then you got into 11ths and dominant 7th, altered 9ths other fancy shit like that... those were not chords you typically employed in pop music back then. That kind of harmony was more associated with jazz.
Of course the rhythmic aspect is transmuted... that's what makes it more danceable. James Brown in particular really pioneered the notion of emphasizing the first beat, to the point where almost everything else is dropped.
I mean, whether or not you think they sound alike, Pee Wee says that was his inspiration. I don't think he's lying; I don't see what points he gains by engaging in that kind of revisionism in this instance.