- George Clinton
George Clinton (born July 22, 1940) is an American musician and the principal architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and was a solo funk artist as of 1981. He has been hailed as "The Prime Minister of Funk" as the leader of Parliament, as well as "The King of Interplanetary Funksmanship". - James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3 1933 – December 25 2006), commonly referred to as "The Godfather of Soul" and "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business," was an American entertainer recognized as one of the most influential figures in 20th century popular music. He was renowned for his shouting vocals, feverish dancing and unique rhythmic style. As a prolific singer, songwriter, bandleader, and record producer, … - Bootsy Collins
William "Bootsy" Collins (born October 26, 1951 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is a funk bassist, singer, and songwriter. - Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (born August 29, 1958), commonly known as MJ as well as the "King of Pop", is an American musician, entertainer, and global icon whose successful career and controversial personal life have been a part of pop culture for almost 40 years. Michael Jackson is widely regarded as one of the greatest entertainers and most popular recording artists in history, displaying complicated physical techniques, … - Fred Wesley
Fred Wesley (born 1943) is an American jazz and funk trombonist, best known for his work with James Brown in the 1960s and 1970s. Wesley was born in Mobile, Alabama, the son of a high school teacher and big band leader. During the 1960s and 1970s he was a pivotal member of James Brown's bands, playing on many hit recordings including "Say it Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud", "Mother Popcorn" and co-writing tunes such as "Hot Pants". - Sly Stone
Sly Stone (born Sylvester Stewart, 15 March 1943, in Denton, Texas) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer, most famous for his role as frontman for Sly & the Family Stone, a band which played a critical role in the development of soul, funk and psychedelia in the 1960s and 1970s. Sly & the Family Stone was started in Vallejo, California and eventually had artists from around the San Francisco Bay Area. - Roger Troutman
Roger Troutman (November 29 1951 - April 25 1999) was the lead singer of the band Zapp. Born in Hamilton, Ohio, Roger was the fourth of nine children. He was a late-arriving member of Funkadelic and played on the album "The Electric Spanking of War Babies". He is known for popularizing the talk box within the rap community, and was very popular with Bay Area rappers such as Tupac Shakur and Spice 1, as well as Kansas City sensation Tech N9ne. - Eddie Hazel
Eddie Hazel was a pioneering and influential guitarist in early funk music in the United States, most famous for his lead guitar work with George Clinton and Funkadelic. - Bobby Byrd
Bobby Byrd (born August 15 1934) is an African American funk/soul/R&;B/gospel musician, best known as James Brown's longtime sideman and co-vocalist on songs such as "Licking Stick - Licking Stick", "Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine" and "Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved". Byrd also recorded many solo funk tracks, most famously "I Know You Got Soul" (1971), which have been sampled by musicians including Public Enemy, Eric B. & Rakim, Ice Cube, … - Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Mayfield (June 3, 1942 - December 26, 1999) was an American soul, funk and R&B singer, songwriter and guitarist best known for his anthemic music with The Impressions and composing the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film "Superfly." From these works and others, he was highly regarded as a pioneer of funk and of politically conscious African-American music. He was also a bassist, pianist, saxophonist and drummer. - Larry Graham
Larry Graham, Jr. (born August 14, 1946 in Beaumont, Texas) is an American baritone singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as both the bass player in the popular and influential psychedelic soul/funk band Sly & the Family Stone, and as the founder and frontman of Graham Central Station. He is credited with the invention of the slapping technique, which radically expanded the tonal palette of the bass, … - Betty Davis
Betty Davis is an American funk and soul singer. She was also Miles Davis's second wife - Jimmy Nolen
Jimmy Nolen was an American guitarist known for his distinctive "chicken scratch" lead guitar playing in James Brown's bands. - Louis Johnson
The Brothers Johnson's bassist, Louis Johnson (born 13 April 1955, in Los Angeles) is regarded as one of the best bassists of the 20th century. His signature sound is from the musicman bass which Leo Fender especially made for him to first use and promote. His work appears on The Brothers Johnson albums and many well-known records by prominent artists. Johnson played on Michael Jackson's albums "Off the Wall" and "Thriller" and George Benson's album "Give Me the Night". - Les McCann
Les McCann (born September 23, 1935, Lexington, Kentucky) is a soul jazz piano player and vocalist whose biggest successes came as a crossover artist into R&B and soul. In 1969, Atlantic Records released "Swiss Movement", a recording of McCann with regular collaborator and saxophonist Eddie Harris and guest trumpeter Benny Bailey at that year's Montreux Jazz Festival. - Ray Davis
Raymond "Ray" Davis (born March 29, 1940 in Sumter, South Carolina - died July 5, 2005 New Brunswick, New Jersey) was the original bass singer and one of the founding members of The Parliaments, Parliament and Funkadelic. He has more recently performed in The Original P which consisted of four founding members of Parliament and was briefly in The Temptations. - Morris Day
Morris Day (born December 13, 1957, in Springfield, Illinois) is an American musician and composer. Although a gifted drummer, he is best known as the charismatic lead singer of The Time, a band that also launched the careers of famous producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. - Donald Byrd
Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II (born December 9, 1932) is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter, born in Detroit, Michigan. He attended Cass Technical High School. He performed with Lionel Hampton before finishing high school. After playing in a military band during a term in the United States Air Force, he obtained a bachelor's degree in music from Wayne State University and a master's degree from Manhattan School of Music. - Dennis Chambers
Dennis Chambers is an American drummer who has recorded and performed with John Scofield, Carl filipiak, Steely Dan, Santana, Parliament/Funkadelic, John McLaughlin, Niacin, Mike Stern, and many others. Despite a complete lack of formal training, Chambers has become well-known among drummers for his impressive technique and speed. - Frankie Smith
Frankie Smith is a funk musician and R&B/soul songwriter. He was a writer for funk and soul artists such as the O'Jays and The Spinners. He has also been influential in the careers of the rappers Tone Lōc and Ice Cube. With his 1981 single "Double Dutch Bus" released by WMOT Records, Smith popularized a nonsensical form of slang, … - Jason Kay
Jason Kay, also known as Jay Kay (born on December 30, 1969 in Stretford, Manchester) is a British funk musician, based in Britain. Kay is the principal member, songwriter, and lead singer of Jamiroquai. - Joe Tex
Joe Tex (born Joseph Arrington Jr., Baytown, Texas, 8 August, 1933 - died 13 August 1982, Navasota, Texas) was an American soul singer most popular during the 1960s and 1970s. His style of speaking over music, which he called "rap," made him a predecessor of the modern style of music. - Catfish Collins
Phelps "Catfish" Collins (born in 1944) is a rhythm guitarist mostly known for his work in the P-Funk collective. Although frequently overshadowed by his brother, Bootsy Collins, Catfish played on many important and influential records by Parliament, Funkadelic, and Bootsy's Rubber Band. In 1968, the Collins brothers, along with Kash Waddy and Philippe Wynne, formed a group called The Pacesetters. Later the Pacesetters where hired by James Brown to accompany his vocals, … - Ronnie Laws
Ronald "Ronnie" Laws (born October 3, 1950 in Houston, Texas) is an American jazz, blues and funk saxophonist. He is the younger brother of jazz flautist Hubert Laws. Laws attended Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas for two years. In 1972, Laws joined the fledgling group Earth, Wind & Fire, playing saxophone and flute on their album "Last Days And Time". He left the band soon afterwards, long before they achieved their huge commercial success. - Art Neville
Art Neville (born December 17, 1937) is an American singer and keyboardist from New Orleans. Neville is a part of one of the most famous musical families of New Orleans, the Neville Brothers. He was also a founding member of The Meters, and also continues to play with the spinoff group the Funky Meters along with his son Ian on guitar. As a session musician, he has played on recordings by many notable artists from New Orleans and elsewhere, … - Paul Jackson
Paul Jackson is a jazz musician. He has played with an impressive list of the field's greatest talent, including playing bass for Herbie Hancock's the Headhunters. Some of his finest work came on Hancock's albums "Headhunters" and "Thrust," and his playing on the Headhunters live album "Flood" from the same period stands as one of the most impressive jazz-funk bass performances of all time. - Jermaine Jackson
Jermaine LaJaune Jackson (born December 11, 1954), is an American Grammy Award-winning singer, bass guitarist, former member of The Jackson 5 and brother of American pop stars Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson. - Michael Brecker
Michael Brecker (March 29, 1949 - January 13th, 2007) was a popular US jazz saxophonist and composer. Acknowledged as "a quiet, gentle musician widely regarded as the most influential tenor saxophonist since John Coltrane," he won 13 Grammys as both performer and composer. - Jimmy Castor
Jimmy Castor (born 2 June 1943, New York) is an American pop and funk musician. In the late 1950s, he worked with the doo-wop group Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. As leader of The Jimmy Castor Bunch in the 1970s, and also as a solo artist, he has released several successful albums and singles, some of which have been heavily sampled in films and in hip-hop. - Mike Clark
Mike Clark (October 3, 1946) is a jazz and funk drummer who is most noted for playing in the Headhunters band headed up by Herbie Hancock. Clark's performance on Hancock's album "Thrust", and particularly the song "Actual Proof," is often cited as one of the finest examples of the linear funk style of drumming. Clark has performed with many top musicians from the worlds of jazz and funk, including Chet Baker, Vince Guaraldi, Fred Wesley, Les Claypool, … - Ziggy Modeliste
Joseph "Ziggy" Modeliste is a drummer from New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, one of the most highly acclaimed drummers ever to hail from the Crescent City. He remains a strong influence for drummers and a great many hip-hop samplers. He is best known as a founding member of the Meters and The Wild Tchopitoulas as well as his side work with artists like Keith Richards, Robert Palmer, and Dr. John. - Jeffrey Osborne
Jeffrey Osborne (born March 9, 1948 in Providence, Rhode Island) is an American funk and R&B musician, and former lead singer of the band L.T.D. Osborne is the youngest of 12 children and is part of a musical family. He has five brothers and six sisters, some of whom went on to have music careers (his brother Billy was an L.T.D. bandmate). Osborne's father, Clarence "Legs" Osborne, was a popular trumpeter who played with Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington. - Maurice White
Maurice White (born December 19 1941 in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American soul, funk, and R&B singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, and bandleader. - Jerome Brailey
Jerome "Bigfoot" Brailey is an American drummer, best known for his work with P-Funk, which includes the bands Parliament, Funkadelic, and numerous related projects. Brailey performed in the early 1970s with R&B groups including The Five Stairsteps and the Chambers Brothers. He joined George Clinton's P-Funk collective in 1975 and appeared on many of their most popular recordings. - Bernard Purdie
Bernard "Pretty" Purdie (born June 11, 1939) is an American drummer and session musician from Elkton, Maryland. He moved to New York in 1960 and began to record with various well-known soul, rock, pop, and jazz musicians. He has toured with saxophonist King Curtis, seminal bop trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, and saxophonist Hank Crawford and was Aretha Franklin's musical director for five years in the 1970's. He has also performed in concert with seminal bop drummer Max Roach. - Melvin Parker
Melvin Parker (born June 7, 1944, Kinston, North Carolina) is a drummer, brother of saxophonist Maceo Parker and was an important member of James Brown's band. Parker's drumming style was a major ingredient in James Brown's funk music innovations in the late 1960s. In 1964 and 1965 Parker was the drummer on three of Brown's most successful and influential recordings, … - Walter Morrison
Walter "Junie" Morrison or simply Junie Morrison is a musician and producer born in Dayton, Ohio. Morrison was a producer, writer, keyboardist and vocalist for the funk band the Ohio Players in the early 70s, where he wrote and produced their first major hit, "Funky Worm" (1971). He left the band in 1974 to release three solo albums on Westbound Records ("When We Do", "Freeze", and "Suzie Supergroupie"). - Shuggie Otis
Shuggie Otis (born in 1953) is an American rock, blues, and funk guitarist and songwriter who also plays piano, organ, drums and bass. He is the son of rhythm and blues musician, bandleader, and impresario Johnny Otis. One source gives his birth name as Johnny Otis Jr., but since his father used his own birth name of John Veliotes when he ran for the California Assembly in the 1960s, Shuggie's family name at birth was probably Veliotes. - Clyde Stubblefield
Clyde Stubblefield (born 1943 in Chattanooga, Tennessee) is a drummer best known for his work with James Brown. Stubblefield's recordings with James Brown are considered to be some of the standard-bearers for funk drumming, including the singles "Cold Sweat", "There Was A Time", "I Got The Feelin'", "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud", "Ain't It Funky Now", "Mother Popcorn", and the album "Sex Machine". - Vet Stone
Vet Stone (born Vaetta Stewart in 1950 in Vallejo, California) is an African-American soul singer, the lead singer in Sly & the Family Stone's background group Little Sister (the group name derives from the fact that she is the "little sister" of frontman Sly Stone. Little Sister had a #8 R&B hit of its own in 1970 entitled "You're the One".
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