Funky Friday – Episode 45: Snow Grooves

🎧 Quick Links:

🎧 Listen live on KDOG 9 AM Pacific Time→ Here

🎧 Listen live on KCSM HD2 9 PM Pacific Time→ Here (On mobile, scroll down to the KCSM HD2 player)

📆 Add to Calendar — Funky Friday (Weekly):

• 9 AM KDOG

Add to Google Calendar

• 9 PM KCSM HD2

Add to Google Calendar

🎶 Catch the Replay → Here

📖 Full Episode Recaps + Setlists → Here

📂 Renegade Radio Site → Here

Episode Teaser

Airdate: 12.12.25 - 9 AM Pacific Time on KDOG & 9 PM Pacific Time on KCSM HD2

Happy Funky Friday, Renegades of Funk!

For Episode 45, we’re stepping out of the deep freeze and into the quiet snowfall of mid-December — a world where the volume drops, the air softens, and the groove floats instead of strikes.

This is Snow Grooves: a winter set carved in fresh powder — smooth basslines, soft snares, frosted synths, and the kind of shimmering, falling-snow funk that turns a cold night into a warm ritual.

No sleigh bells. No sweaters. Just snowfall soul, drifting funk, and the hush of a snowy turntable leaving perfect grooves across the season.

❄️ SETLIST + RENEGADE NOTES

Act I — The First Snowfall

Kool & The Gang – “Summer Madness” (1974)

Personnel: Ronald Bell – ARP synth | George Brown – drums

Renegade Note: The quietest storm in funk history. A cold breath on a frozen window. This track doesn’t enter — it appears, like snowfall under a streetlamp.

The Isley Brothers – “Footsteps in the Dark” (1977)

Personnel: Ernie Isley – guitar | Marvin & Chris Jasper – keys

Renegade Note: Snowfall on asphalt. A glide. A whisper. The perfect winter-night mood piece wrapped in silky funk melancholy.

Act II — Smooth, Soft & Snow-Covered

The Gap Band – “Yearning for Your Love” (1981)

Personnel: Charlie Wilson – vocals | Robert Wilson – bass

Renegade Note: Warm breath in cold air. A slow-motion glide across fresh powder. Few tracks melt December quite like this one.

Zapp – “Computer Love” (1985)

Personnel: Roger Troutman – talkbox | Lester Troutman – drums

Renegade Note: Frosted vocoder funk. Metallic snowflakes falling in 4/4 time. Roger turns winter into circuitry — and it’s beautiful.

Act III — The Ice Synth & Frostbite Groove

Herbie Hancock – “Rockit” (1983)

Personnel: Herbie Hancock – synths | Bill Laswell – production

Renegade Note: Cold fusion. Robotic winter wind. This track slices through the air like December metallics — sharp, futuristic, and snowstorm clean.

Ronnie Foster – “Mystic Brew” (1972)

Personnel: Ronnie Foster – organ | Gene Ramey – bass

Renegade Note: A snowfall trance. Hypnotic and atmospheric. A perfect “walking through winter” groove long before hip-hop made it immortal.

Act IV — Deep Freeze Atmosphere

Bob James – “Nautilus” (1974)

Personnel: Bob James – Fender Rhodes | Gary King – bass

Renegade Note: Cold, underwater December energy. Dark, echoing, mysterious — a deep-winter groove that has inspired generations.

George Benson – “Breezin’” (1976)

Personnel: George Benson – guitar | Phil Upchurch – rhythm guitar

Renegade Note: Crisp winter morning. Sunlight on snow. Benson turns the cold into pure glide — effortless, elegant, and uplifting.

Grover Washington Jr. – “East River Drive” (1979)

Personnel: Grover Washington Jr. (sax), Tyrone Brown (bass)

Renegade Note: The smoothest winter-evening glide in the entire Kudu catalog. Snow falling across the Hudson in sound form.

Act V — Snowlight Finale

Miles Davis – “Tutu” (1986)

Personnel: Miles Davis (trumpet), Marcus Miller (production, synths, bass)Renegade Note: Frosted modernism. Muted trumpet drifting over icy synth beds.The coolest tone in Miles’s electro-era catalog — and the perfect late-winter descent.

Grover Washington Jr. – “Just the Two of Us” (1980)

Personnel: Grover Washington Jr. – sax | Bill Withers – vocals | Ralph MacDonald – percussion

Renegade Note: A warm front rolling in at the end of a cold night. Smooth, soft, and glowing — the perfect snowfall-soul finale. Withers melts the frost, Grover drifts like warm air through winter streets, and together they wrap the season in a gentle December embrace.

❄️ WHY SNOW GROOVES?

Because winter isn’t always sharp — sometimes it’s soft. Snow Grooves honors:

snowfall softness

(Kool & The Gang, Isley Brothers)

smooth winter warmth

(Gap Band, Grover Washington Jr.)

icy synth architecture

(Zapp, Herbie Hancock)

snowstorm atmosphere

(Ronnie Foster, Bob James)

the glow beneath the cold

(George Benson)

Where Cold Funk was about winter’s bite,

Snow Grooves is about winter’s hush.

The quiet.

The glow.

The way a bassline sounds when the world is covered in a blanket of white.

This is the softer side of the Winter Semester of the School of Funk. Bundle up — gently. The snow is falling, and so is the groove.

🔗 Quick Links:

🎧 Listen live on KDOG 9 AM Pacific Time→ Here

🎧 Listen live on KCSM HD2 9 PM Pacific Time→ Here (On mobile, scroll down to the KCSM HD2 player)

📆 Add to Calendar — Funky Friday (Weekly):

• 9 AM KDOG

Add to Google Calendar

• 9 PM KCSM HD2

Add to Google Calendar

🎶 Catch the Replay → Here

📖 Full Episode Recaps + Setlists → Here

📂 Renegade Radio Site → Here

❄️Funk Facts❄️

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🎧 “Summer Madness” – Kool & The Gang

One of the most sampled atmospheric tracks ever. Its glassy ARP synth tone defined an entirely new dimension of cool-weather soul.

🎹 Ronnie Foster’s “Mystic Brew”

A hypnotic loop that became iconic in hip-hop. Its drifting, snow-like mood makes it a natural fit for a winter funk set.

🎷 Bob James — Architect of Cold Atmosphere

“Nautilus” is one of the most dissected jazz-funk tracks ever recorded. Its deep, echoing ambience feels like descending into a frozen ocean.

🎺 Grover Washington Jr. & Bill Withers

“Just the Two of Us” was recorded in New York during a brutally cold winter — and you can hear that warmth-against-the-frost dynamic in every note.