Funk music lost one of its unsung greats this week as Parliament-Funkadelic singer-guitarist and songwriter Garry Shider passed away on June 16, aged 56, from complications due to cancer. Anyone playing behind George Clinton, P-Funk’s mad genius ringleader, was destined to spend most of his or her time in the shadows, but Shider distinguished himself with his wormily insinuating vocals and writing ability–he helped compose funk classics such as “Bop Gun” and “One Nation Under a Groove.” (His tendency to wear a loincloth onstage also helped him stand out.) Shider was, and will continue to be, a beacon of funky freedom.

Though funk isn’t the commercial force it was back in Shider’s and P-Funk’s late ’70s heyday, there are still young musicians dedicated to the band’s motto: free your mind and your ass will follow. Here are three of the best, all of whom approach the music from different, though equally booty-moving, directions:

1. Jimmy Edgar: This Motowner draws more from the synthetically lascivious grooves of early ’80s bumpers like Zapp than the organically rubbery style of P-Funk, but his slippery “Function of Your Love” and jheri curl slick “Hot, Raw, Sex” could loosen a robot’s hips.

2. Glam Sam and His Combo: Sweden isn’t exactly a hotbed of funk, but listening to Stockholm’s Glam Sam is like entering a sonic bachelor pad where the only light comes from a disco ball, the carpets are shag, and the vibe is loose, baby, loose. Full of warm wah-wah guitar, cooing background singers, and loping bass, this is music made for the soft comedown rather than the run-up, but it’s brimming with cool, carefree spirit.

3.The Budos Band: Signed to Brooklyn’s Daptone label, which has done more than just about anybody to keep funk flowing into the 21st century, Staten Island tentet the Budos Band brew up conga-and-horn driven instrumentals that, in their tense forward momentum and slightly sinister keyboard lines, sound like a soundtrack to the coolest ’70s cop movie never made.

(yahoo! music)