Cory Henry & The Funk Apostles at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival

Grammy Award-winning Cory Henry brought his groovy band The Funk Apostles to Melbourne for a must-see Melbourne International Jazz Festival exclusive, as the first stop of their world tour. An absolute all-rounder, the multi-instrumentalist and producer Cory Henry worked with everyone from Aretha Franklin, P.Diddy and Lalah Hathaway to Derrick Hodge, Robert Glasper and Nas. Winking at gospel, jazz and soul roots, Cory Henry & The Funk Apostles delivered a combination of retro and future funk, from Marvin Gaye and Prince via their own originals.

If funk is a religion then Cory Henry is surely our savior. For one night, we were treated to Cory and his Funk Apostles’ gospel, in what must have been one of the best shows from this year’s edition on the Melbourne International Jazz Festival. Our sacred place for the night was 170 Russell, which provided the perfect venue.

The crowd started out agnostic, with Cory walking on stage rather casually, donning a backpack, drinking a cup a tea and seemingly preoccupied with his phone. Within minutes, a mass conversion seemed to occur, as he fired up funk classic one after another, with a heavy dose of his original tunes. Nearly three hours later, Cory was still playing tunes and had the crowd praying for more.

A personal favorite for this writer was Cory’s seemingly sinful, drawn out ultra-grooved version of Princes’ ‘Controversy’. as his salute to another saint of soul music. Ultimately, this was a night not to be missed. Dare I say it, we reached the funk heaven.

– Mr. Simple
Mr. Simple enjoys the simple pleasures of life.

Melbourne International Jazz Festival will be back with yet another phenomenal lineup in 2018.  

Disclosure: The Plus Ones were invited guests of Starling Communications.
Image credit: Busra Copuroglu.