James Brown - Live at the Olympia, Paris, 1971

In 1969 Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker disbanded from James Brown to peruse other interests, leaving James to find replacements. He recruited The Pacemakers, a Cincinnati based band featuring a young Bootsy Collins on Bass.

What Bootsy brought was a vitality and energy that seemed to go hand in hand with Browns raw brand of infectious music. This new band was based entirely on rhythm and brought Brown's energy to a new level.

Unfortunately this collaboration only lasted one year as Bootsy wanted to push the funk farther than James would allow.

Below is a rare performance of these two soul giants captured on stage together. Forgive the audio quality. I have attached a much cleaner audio version of this track. The selection is taken from James Brown - Live at the Olympia in Paris released in 1971. This release was originally intended for a 1972 release as a vinyl triple album, but was canceled after the key members left Brown to join Parliament-Funkadelic.

James Brown - Ain't It Funky Now