Legendary R&B Band Con Funk Shun Releases New Single “Your Night”

CLASSIC FUNK /R&B GROUP CON FUNK SHUN
RETURNS WITH FIRST NEW STUDIO ALBUM IN MORE THAN TWO DECADES (EARLY 2015)

New Single “Your Night” Now at Radio – Check Out New Video!

Once upon a time there were many great self-contained R&B and funk groups, innovative, immensely popular artists such as Earth, Wind & Fire, War, The Meters, The Commodores, Kool & The Gang, Lakeside, Slave and many others who created a body of work in the 70’s and 80’s that still thrills audiences today. But with the advent of first disco and then hip-hop, the ranks of these groups thinned; the only notable self-contained R&B group to emerge and survive during the past 30 years has been Mint Condition. Con Funk Shun was one of the successful bands in this wave, scoring 25 chart hits between 1976 and their break-up in 1987, including such smash hits as “Ffun,” “Chase Me,” “Electric Lady,” “Baby I’m Hooked” and others—many of which have been liberally sampled by the hip-hop generation. When the band re-united with lead vocalists/songwriters Michael Cooper and Felton Pilate, after more than two decades apart, they were welcomed back by their fans as they toured nationally to adoring crowds. Not content to ride on their past hits, they began writing and recording new material which they found got great response in concert. Con Funk Shun’s brand new single “Your Night,” is currently making waves at radio. Their highly anticipated new CD and Shanachie debut MORE THAN LOVE (due out early 2015), is the band’s first new studio album more than two decades. Their new music finds Con Funk Shun as irresistible as ever this time with an intoxicating blend of classic R&B and contemporary sonics.

“This album was clearly a must do for me,” Michael Cooper relates.” The main reason is simply because we can, we are able and we should. Too often people are falling much too early. We have been blessed to still be playing and loving the music, and to still have fans who are still buying and following our music. We simply had to do it.”

“We’re very excited to be bringing out new music from one of R&B’s greatest bands,” says Randall Grass, General Manager of Shanachie Entertainment. “They are equally strong on ballads and up-tempo material and their new music delivers the Con Funk Shun sound but without sounding retro. A lot of people are going to be surprised.”

The challenge for any band with past success is to create new music that will please their already devoted fans but at the same time generate a fresh take on their music that connect with a contemporary audience. In this quest, Con Funk Shun has been collaborating with their Executive Producer Marlon McClain (once a member of the group Pleasure), who was instrumental in orchestrating the resurrection of Charlie Wilson. Wilson has become one of the few veteran artists to enjoy a hit-making second career as a vital part of the contemporary urban music scene. Con Funk Shun has all the right ingredients to follow the same course.

“My job in the seventies and eighties was to write to get on the radio and to be competitive to work with what I had at the time,” confesses Cooper. “All the while telling a story as close to the truth as possible in the lyrics. Back in the late 70’s and 80’s Con Funk Shun used horns, synth keys, live players and big drums to make a point. Only today we have a marvelous tool call the Internet. Not only were we blessed to be in the studio together but we could email parts through cyberspace at 3am. Even have a song mixed by a person you’ve never met. A new and different kind of ‘Ffun’ Owww!”

In short, Con Funk Shun is back in the game and playing for keeps!

Shanachie Records