If you were to put together an all-star Funk supergroup culled from the history of the genre (dead or alive), there are a few “no-brainer” choices. Bootsy Collins would, of course, hold down the bass, George Clinton would be the bandleader, James Brown would sing and Bernie Worrell would command the keyboards.
Worrell, a crucial member of the original Parliament-Funkadelic, may be less of a household name than those other artists, but he is also the one who has continued to make consistently challenging and enthralling new music. The classically trained pianist continues to be an in-demand sideman (he’s played and/or recorded with everyone from the Talking Heads to Cincinnati’s own Blues guitarist Kelly Richey over the past 30 years) and he’s currently heading up The Bernie Worrell Orchestra, which plays, for lack of a better word, “Big Band Funk,” groovin’, progressive, jazzy and with a tinge of the Psych Funk he helped invent.
Worrell’s nine-piece ensemble plays at The Blue Wisp Jazz Club Tuesday. (For an earlier taste, Worrell will perform and sign autographs at a free in-store event at Shake It Records in Northside 7 p.m. Monday.)
8 p.m. $20. 700 Race St., Downtown, thebluewisp.com.
