Lafayette Afro Rock Band

Though scarcely recognized back home in the United States, the Lafayette Afro Rock Band—operating from a base in Paris—ranked among the leading funk ensembles of the 1970s and later supplied an apparently inexhaustible stream of samples and breaks to acts ranging from Public Enemy to Janet Jackson. Originally assembled on Long Island, New York, under the name the Bobby Boyd Congress, the musicians concluded that the American market was already saturated with funk groups and therefore moved to France in 1971. When frontman Boyd headed back to the States, the remaining lineup—guitarist Larry Jones, bassist Lafayette Hudson, keyboardist Frank Abel, horn players Ronnie James Buttacavoli and Arthur Young, drummer Ernest "Donny" Donable, and percussionists Keno Speller and Arthur Young—adopted the name Ice and served as the resident session unit at producer Pierre Jaubert’s Parisound studio. Through frequent live appearances in Paris’s Barbesse district, a neighborhood populated chiefly by African immigrants, Ice’s sharp-edged funk absorbed growing doses of African rhythms and sonorities. Following the release of their self-titled 1972 debut and the 1973 album Each Man Makes His Own Destiny, Jaubert rechristened the ensemble the Lafayette Afro Rock Band. Guitarist Michael McEwan came aboard in time to record 1974’s Soul Makossa, issued in the U.S. as Movin’ & Groovin’ without the cover of Manu Dibango’s signature piece; the set was distinguished by the frequently interpreted and heavily sampled “Hihache.” Its successor, Malik, included the track “Darkest Light,” whose stark saxophone introduction was later appropriated by Public Enemy for “Show ’Em Whatcha Got” on It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and also underpinned Wreckx ’N’ Effect’s “Rump Shaker” as well as Tuff Crew’s “Nut.” In 1975 the Lafayette Afro Rock Band accompanied jazz pianist Mal Waldron on the unreleased album Candy Girl, and the following year they worked with expatriate bluesman Sunnyland Slim on Depression Blues. With Frisco Disco in 1976 the group resumed the Ice name; simultaneously, recording under the pseudonym Captain Dax, they achieved a novelty success in Japan with the single “Dr. Beezar, Soul Frankenstein.” They cut Seven Americans in Paris for RCA in 1977. Later that same year the label issued the double-length Thumpin’, whose first disc gathered material from the 1972 debut and Each Man Makes His Own Destiny while the second disc presented new recordings. The musicians re-emerged in 1978 as Crispy & Co. to release Funky Flavored, after which they returned to America and disbanded.