After exposure to American funk from the late 1960s and early 1970s, friends Boris Geiger and Jan Weissenfeldt launched the German funk band Poets of Rhythm in Munich. They assembled a lineup featuring Geiger handling percussion and vocals alongside Weissenfeldt on guitar, Weissenfeldt’s brother Max handling drums, and Jan Krause on bass to create original compositions. Their debut single, “Funky Train,” appeared in 1992; by that point the group had expanded to include Till Sahm on organ, Michael Voß on trumpet, and Malte Müller-Egloff on alto sax. The full-length Practice What You Preach followed, later reissued in 2006 on Daptone. Subsequent 7-inch releases often appeared under alternate names such as the Pan-Atlantics, Organized Raw Funk, Bus People Express, the Woo Woo’s, and the Soul-Saints Orchestra.
Although the musicians built a European following with their hard funk style strongly shaped by the Meters and Parliament, Stateside recognition remained limited. That situation shifted when Quannum’s Lyrics Born discovered one of their singles in a New Orleans record store and was struck by the sound despite knowing nothing about the band. Coincidentally, after Latyrx’s debut appeared in 1997, LB connected with Jan Weissenfeldt, who was then distributing The Album in Germany. The following year the MC sought the Poets of Rhythm as backing musicians for his solo work, resulting in the 1999 release of “I Changed My Mind,” a minor hit in the Bay Area. The band’s genuine second album, Discern/Define—earlier label “compilations” had mostly recycled material from their various pseudonyms—featured nearly the same personnel, with Wolfgang Schlick replacing the previous saxophonist and adding flute; Quannum issued the record in 2001. What Goes ’Round arrived the next year on Shadow, and the group contributed to the track “The Bay” on Lyrics Born’s 2005 album Same !@#$ Different Day.
