POP MUSIC REVIEW : Jamiroquai Revives Funk

A concert by the young English band Jamiroquai at the Roxy on Monday might have provided the answer to the mystery about what happened to British rock: While America’s future Pearl Jammers and Stone Temple Pilots were learning riffs off their older siblings’ Sabbath and Zep albums a few years ago, their English counterparts were apparently studying the Average White Band and Rufus.

We’ve gotten used to hearing samples of early-’70s jazz-funk in various acid-jazz and hip-hop experiments, but it was still odd to see these young musicians expertly and tightly reviving the style wholesale. Singer Jason Kay--topped with a furry hat that looked like a mushroom lid--was a particularly odd sight-and-sound combination. He looked about 16, but he sounded like a seasoned ‘70s soul veteran as he scatted around fairly intricate melodies while his nine-piece band re-created the Fender Rhodes piano, popping bass and smooth horns blend that was ubiquitous 20 years ago.

They’ve added a turntable scratcher, occasional hip-hop rhythms and, on a few songs, the rumble of an Australian didjeridoo, but it was still an average (mostly) white funk band.

Then again, that’s hardly average in grungy 1993, and even if Jamiroquai doesn’t offer any revelations or elevations of the form, the group radiated a strange aura of revisionary hip.