Whitehorse's Adrian Burrill shares 5 songs that influenced his music
Trumpet player and vocalist with the band Major Funk on music that made him
Major Funk and the Employment are one of the most popular bands in the Yukon. Whenever they hit the stage, people hit the dance floor and don't leave until the last note has faded.
Everyone in the band is passionate about the music they play, including vocalist and trumpet player Adrian Burrill.
When we asked him to submit a few songs for our Music That Matters feature, he decided to pick some of the music that influenced him as a musician.
As a trumpet player, it was no surprise he chose something from Miles Davis, though he did go a little outside the norm by selecting the title track from the album Tutu.
"I chose some late career Miles," he said. "It features very sparse playing, which he became known for late in his career ... it also features a young Marcus Miller on the bass."
"I started playing the trumpet in grade four and pretty quickly heard about this band from a music teacher, Tower of Power ... they really were a defining band in terms of having an amazing horn section."
Burrill says the song What Is Hip? is probably one of the band's biggest hits, and with very good reason.
"Pay attention to the horn section, because it's all about that."
Burrill took more of a pop direction with his third pick, Shining Star by Earth, Wind and Fire.
"They kind of bridged that gap between classic soul and funk and made it a bit more acceptable for all people. I mean, who doesn't like Earth, Wind and Fire. It's just something everyone can enjoy."
Snarky Puppy provided Burrill with his fourth pick, and the band's insistence on playing it's complicated music live ins one thing that drew him to the band.
"It's incredible, you get to the end of the song and you think oh, man, that must have taken so many takes and so much layering, so much production, and then there's applause because it's in front a live audience."
Burrill chose Frank Ocean's Nights as his final pick.
"[He's] one of my favourite artists.....this one's called Nights. It's just a masterpiece as far as I'm concerned. I just love Frank Ocean's music. This one is just so mesmerizing, it's so lush, the production is just amazing."
Problem is, there's also a lot of industrial language on the track, and this being the CBC well, that just won't do.
Instead, we chose a version of Nights from Blonde Piano, a beautiful solo piano version of the same track.