Author: zachary.hoskins@gmail.com

  • Jheri Curl June: The S.O.S. Band’s “Tell Me If You Still Care”

    Friday was the 55th birthday of James Samuel “Jimmy Jam” Harris III: former keyboardist for The Time and, with partner Terry Lewis, one of the main architects of the “Minneapolis Sound”–or, as we call it in these parts, good old-fashioned jheri curl. As usual, though, Mr. Jam was overshadowed by his almost-birthmate and former boss Prince,…

  • Jheri Curl June Special: Prince

    I think we’ve already established that we are huge fans of Prince here at the ol’ DDP, so we have to do something to celebrate his 56th birthday tomorrow, June 7–especially when that birthday falls right at the end of the first week of Jheri Curl June. And besides, if we’re really going to celebrate…

  • Jheri Curl June: Dazz Band’s “Joystick”

    In my introduction to Jheri Curl June, I noted that jheri curl music is an inherently hybrid, polyglot genre, blending funk and soul with rock, disco, and pop. Another prominent influence–one that spawned its own subset of JCM, better  known to the less folically-obsessed as electro-funk–is the robotic, heavily synthesized form of dance music known…

  • Jheri Curl June: Midnight Star’s “No Parking on the Dance Floor”

    Today’s Jheri Curl June entry is the title track from Midnight Star’s 1983 album No Parking on the Dance Floor. It has all the necessary ingredients of a classic jheri-curl track: a squealing synth line, bass that pops like crazy, and a camp-as-hell introduction that threatens, “if you don’t get a move on that body,…

  • Jheri Curl June: Jesse Johnson’s “Be Your Man”

    Jesse Johnson’s birthday was Sunday, so this is a little bit of a belated birthday tribute. “Be Your Man,” from Jesse Johnson’s 1985 debut solo album Jesse Johnson’s Revue, is quintessential Minneapolis jheri curl funk: the pounding drum machine beat, heavy bassline, glossy synth “horns” (which he calls out in a James Brown-esque band leader style),…

  • Introduction to Jheri Curl June

    In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a new form of predominantly African American popular music began to take shape. Rooted in soul and funk music, but largely stripped of those genres’ grit; with elements of rock and disco, and at least one eye forever resting on potential radio play; the loosely-defined style has gone…