Incognito is a British

acid jazz Acid jazz (also known as club jazz, psychedelic jazz, or groove jazz) is a music genre that combines elements of funk, soul music, soul, and hip hop music, hip hop, as well as jazz and disco. Acid jazz originated in clubs in London during the 1 ...

band. Their debut album, ''Jazz Funk'', was released in 1981.

Jean-Paul 'Bluey' Maunick Jean-Paul Maunick (born 19 February 1957, Mauritius), known by his stage name Bluey is a British guitarist, bandleader, composer and record producer. He has led the British acid jazz band Incognito since its formation in 1979. With Incognito, ...

is the band's leader, singer, guitarist, composer, and record producer. The band has included Linda Muriel,

Jocelyn Brown Jocelyn Lorette Brown (born November 25, 1950), sometimes credited as Jocelyn Shaw, is an American Rhythm and blues, R&B and dance music, dance singer. She has a Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart entry solely in her name. Brown sang ...

, Maysa Leak, Tony Momrelle, Imaani, Vanessa Haynes, Mo Brandis, Natalie Williams,

Carleen Anderson Carleen Cassandra Anderson (born May 10, 1957) is an American musician. She was the vocalist, composer, and musician for the Young Disciples and is known for her numerous, varied collaborations. Her solo career began in 1992. She is credited w ...

, Pamela (PY) Anderson, Kelli Sae, and Joy Malcolm.

History

Incognito was founded by Paul "Tubbs" Williams & Jean-Paul "Bluey" Maunick in 1979, as an offshoot from

Light of the World "Light of the World" ( ''Phṓs tou kósmou'') is a phrase used by Jesus to describe himself and his disciples in the New Testament.''Names and Titles of the Lord Jesus Christ'' by Charles Spear 2003 page 226 The phrase is recorded in the Gosp ...

. Light of the World was a substantially sized group and following various changes to the lineup, the founding members Breeze Mckrieth, Kenny Wellington & David Baptiste – inspired by American

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

bands such as

Funkadelic Funkadelic was an American funk rock band formed in Plainfield, New Jersey in 1968 and active until 1982. As one of the two flagship groups of George Clinton's P-Funk collective, they helped pioneer the funk music culture of the 1970s.John, ...

forming offshoot bands like

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

– formed Beggar & Co. Bluey & Tubbs went on to form Incognito. However, there has seen a re-connection over the years in Light of the World with various former members, alongside their other commitments. Incognito has had intermittent success in the UK Singles Chart, with their breakthrough 1991 hit a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of the

Ronnie Laws Ronald Wayne Laws (born October 3, 1950) is an American jazz and smooth jazz saxophonist, and singer. He is the younger brother of jazz flutist Hubert Laws, jazz vocalist Eloise Laws and the older brother of Debra Laws. Biography Born and rai ...

tune " Always There", featuring

, which made No. 6 in the UK. The group's 1992 single, "

Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing "Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing" is a song by American singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder, released as the third single from his sixteenth studio album, ''Innervisions'' (1973). It spent fifteen weeks on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, debuting at n ...

" saw similar success, reaching No. 19 in the UK. They have also been a favourite of various re-mixers, including

Masters at Work Masters at Work is the American garage house production and remix team of "Little" Louie Vega and Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez. The duo has produced music together under the names MAW, KenLou, Sole Fusion, Hardrive, and Nuyorican Soul. They have bee ...

David Morales David Morales (; born August 21, 1961) is an American disc jockey (DJ) and record producer. In addition to his production and DJ work, Morales is also a remixer. David Morales has remixed and produced over 500 releases for artists including Mar ...

Roger Sanchez Roger Sanchez (born June 1, 1967) is an American house DJ, remixer and producer. He won a Grammy Award for his remix of "Hella Good" by No Doubt in 2003, and is best known for his song " Another Chance", which was an international hit in 2001. ...

and

Jazzanova Jazzanova is a German Berlin-based DJ/producer collective consisting of Alexander Barck, Claas Brieler, Jürgen von Knoblauch, Roskow Kretschmann, Stefan Leisering, and Axel Reinemer. Formed in 1995, the group's music is characterized by nu j ...

, and have released several albums consisting almost entirely of

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

es. In 1994, Incognito appeared on the

Red Hot Organization ''Red Hot Organization'' (RHO) is a non-profit, 501(c) 3, international organization with goals to promote diversity through equal access to healthcare through pop culture. Since its inception in 1989, over 400 artists, producers and directors ...

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...

, '' Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool''. The album, meant to raise awareness and funds in support of the

AIDS epidemic The global pandemic of HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) began in 1981, and is an ongoing worldwide public health issue. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), by 2023, HIV/AIDS ...

in relation to the African American community, was heralded as 'Album of the Year' by ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine. In 1996, the band contributed " Water to Drink" to the AIDS-benefit album ''

Red Hot + Rio Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

'', also produced by the Red Hot Organization. Their song "Need to Know" is the theme song for progressive radio and television news program ''

Democracy Now! ''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long TV, radio, and Internet news program based in Manhattan and hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live ...

'' In 2021, the band reissued a celebratory, 40th anniversary, 106 track retrospective of their debut album, ''Jazz Funk''. The Brit funk pioneers have released a music video for the track "You Are in My System." The deluxe reissue features a 52 page booklet with liner notes written by Charles Waring and a selection of the band's archive photos. In October 2022, the band was the first group to be honored as part of Universal Music Recording's "Black Story" series which honours black British artists as part of the UK's

Black History Month Black History Month is an annually observed commemorative month originating in the United States, where it is also known as African-American History Month. It began as a way of remembering important people and events in the history of the Af ...

Discography

Gallery

File:WiKi_Incognito(Band)20101104a.jpg, At Jazz Jamboree 2010 in Warsaw, Poland. File:WiKi_Incognito(Band)20101104b.jpg, At Jazz Jamboree 2010 in Warsaw, Poland. File:WiKi_Incognito(Band)20101104c.jpg, At Jazz Jamboree 2010 in Warsaw, Poland. File:WiKi_Incognito(Band)20101104d.jpg, At Jazz Jamboree 2010 in Warsaw, Poland. File:Incognito - Leverkusener Jazztage 2016-AL3944.jpg, Incognito live at Leverkusener Jazztage (Germany) in November 2016

References

External links

* – official site * *
Incognito
interview by Pete Lewis in ''

Blues & Soul ''Blues & Soul'' is a British music magazine, established in 1967 by John Abbey. ''The Independent'' has noted ''Blues & Soul'' as being the equal of magazines such as ''NME'' and '' Q''. ''Billboard'' magazine has called ''Blues & Soul'' "a r ...

'' magazine, July 2010 ()
Incognito
interview by Chris Mann at Smooth-Jazz.de, September 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Incognito Musical groups established in 1979 Acid jazz ensembles English jazz ensembles Smooth jazz ensembles Heads Up International artists Verve Records artists Blue Thumb Records artists Mercury Records artists Talkin' Loud artists Chrysalis Records artists Narada Productions artists English funk musical groups British soul musical groups Musical groups from London

History

Discography

Gallery

References

Further reading

External links