JAZZ REVIEW : Incognito Identity : Ensemble Finds Its Niche With Soul-Infused, ‘70s-Style Pop-Funk

“Born a generation too late.” It’s a common complaint for those who find that modern times just don’t measure up to the good old days. And the sentiment could certainly apply to Jean Paul (Bluey) Maunick, the leader of pop-funk band Incognito.

Maunick makes no bones about his admiration for the funk music of the mid-’70s, specifically that of Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack and Earth, Wind & Fire. So it was no surprise that Incognito’s concert at the Galaxy Concert Theatre on Wednesday, which pulled heavily from the band’s just-released fifth album, “100 and Rising,” was something of a blast from the past.

Incognito has been looking for an identity since its first recording in 1981. The London-based band has paused, at different times, at jazz-fusion, pop-rock and Latin jazz, only to continue the search for its true self. Now that search seems to have ended.

Falling somewhere between the outrageous funk of George Clinton’s Parliment/Funkadelic bands and the brassy Tower of Power sound, Incognito’s present style most resembles Maurice White’s Earth, Wind & Fire around 1975, the time of its “That’s the Way of the World” album.

The 13-piece ensemble relies on a quartet of vocalists (a quintet if you count Maunick’s infrequent contributions), three brass players, two keyboardists, a bassist, drummer and percussionist to get its overtly positive message across. Maunick himself seems a minor player in the proceedings, adding rhythm guitar and occasional percussion decoration while letting the singers take center stage.

The group opened with the first three songs from the new album, setting up bedrock beats and a wall of sound that sometimes lacked balance. Singers Pamela Anderson and Joy Malcolm took the majority of the lead vocals, with Malcolm taking first turn on “Where Did We Go Wrong.”

It didn’t seem to matter which singer was featured. Both have strong chops and an ability to deliver a lyric without the overly dramatic stylizing so popular with today’s pop divas.

Maunick’s lyrics often border on the insipid, either disgustingly pleasant or badly cliched (“A love like ours can surely last/Until the end of time”). But the way they were presented overshadowed their inanity.

That Incognito is a musically tight funk band was demonstrated in “Sunburned,” an instrumental number from 1981. Though there was nothing particularly ambitious in any of the brief horn or keyboard solos it contained, the tune was tough and assertive, recalling the kind of aggressive instrumental funk aired by the Brecker Brothers some 20 years back.

The revivalism was mostly held to the soul sounds of the mid-’70s. Maunick and company covered Stevie Wonder’s 1974 single “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing” in strong style.

A song from the new album that should probably become the group’s anthem, “Roots (Back to a Way of Life),” begins in a way that strongly resembles Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Shining Star” before moving into a slower, though no less durable, groove.

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Make no mistake. Incognito does what it does in strong fashion and without pretense. Fans of mid-’70s funk will love the group’s take on the kind of music that has basically disappeared with the advent of hip-hop and the commercially oriented soul ballad.

“It’s not about style; it’s not about trends,” Maunick announced at one point during the show. “It’s about music.”

Opening act Turnaround also looks back to a somewhat lost art among pop bands: the rock instrumental. Keyboardist Chuck Turner’s five-piece band developed firm rhythms from which guitar and electric keyboard solos were spun, pushed by competent drumming from Carter Aristei. A single vocal number seemed an incursion in the set, while an original, “New Life,” made pleasing reference to the Santana sound.