Tower of Power

• Genre: Funk
• Hometown: Oakland
• Tower of Power Website

About

Bay Area funksters who, after several well-received performances at San Francisco's Fillmore in the late 1960s, tore through the '70s with their intricate first-rate Funk. Their complex arrangements drew traces of Jazz, but the music was all Funk. Bottomed out by a baritone sax, horn soaked hits like "What is Hip" and "You're Still a Young Man" had many a rump shaking. So tight and talented was this collection of longhairs called a horn section, that they basically sustained their career by loaning it out to other artists from Public Image Ltd. to Sammy (the Red Rocker) Hagar. Now content to run the Country Fair and Resort circuit and hobnob with Paul Schaffer.

- Jon Pruett