Events

[FUNK] Back in the early-mid 1970s, jazz visionaries like Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis got caught up in the swirl of funk as an off-shoot of soul with more progressive possibilities. Hancock’s Headhunters (both the album and the band of the same name) might be the most stunning example of this, while Davis’ On the Corner is less accessible (but built from similar ideas). On the fringes of jazz, bands like Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra took some of the groove sensibility that funk projected and straddled the lines between jazz and prog-rock with fusion, which broke all the rules. Kung Fu brings the fusion ideal current (nu-sion?) with just the right amount of electronic detailing, creating a sound that’s altogether sassy but serious, modern but classic, and complex but fun. And yes, there’s definitely a jam-band element to what the ensemble does, but this is jazzier than most anything you’d catch at Further Festival. Kung Fu comes to Buffalo Iron Works this Wednesday with likeminded musical compatriots Consider the Source, supporting last year’s Tsar Bomba disc.