Three Funky R&B Gems by Ike & Tina Turner

“Brain Game” is taken from His Woman, Her Man, a collection of previously unreleased music by Ike Turner and his rhythm and blues band The Kings of Rhythm. Dubbed The Ike Turner Diaries: Unreleased Funk/Rock 1970-1973, the compilation was instigated by Tuff City Records. In the 60s, The Kings of Rhythm became the backing band of Ike & Tina Turner, and also paid their dues in the years before as session musicians for the iconic rock and roll/country label Sun Records. Lead singer for The Kings of Rhythm during those times in the 50s and 60s: Little Ann a.k.a. Tina Turner! Ike and Tina met in 1956 after a performance by the band, and Tina quickly became part of the group.

The early 70s were a defining era for Ike Turner, who more and more started to incorporate funky rhythms and new forward-thinking progression to his rock and roll styled breed of R&B/soul. The state-of-the-art Bolic Sound studio recording complex he built and owned together with Tina in Inglewood, California even had its own Minimoog and ARP synthesizers. Their studio’s hardware explains the early use of drum machines and experimentation with ARP synth arrangement on records such as 1972’s The Gospel According to Ike & Tina.

“Black’s Alley” by Ike Turner also dates back from that fruitful period. Taken from 1969’s A Black Man’s Soul LP to be exact, which also shows influences from jazz-funk, early P-funk, and even musicians like The Kings of Rhythm collaborator Jimi Hendrix.

“Feel Good” is the title track to one of Ike & Tina Turner’s albums released in 1972. Also recorded at their own Bolic Sound studios, the album continued to integrate influences from funk in their energetic, dynamic work as a musical duo. “Feel Good, not Superfly, is the sound of early-'70s pimping,” writes music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine in a review. “This results in a supremely sleazy, utterly addictive record, one that's relentless in its rhythms and fearless in its funk as Ike lays down nasty rock-and-roll guitar—check his solos on ‘Feel Good,’ where he's as elastic as rubber.”