Dazz Band - Let It Whip

The Dazz Band were part of the vibrant early 80s funk scene, along with The Gap Band, The SOS Band, Kool & the Gang and (of course) Rick James.  The band formed in Cleveland in the late 1970s, and was the result of a merger between two local funk bands -- Bell Telefunk and Mother Braintree.  The name came from "Danceable Jazz" which was the musical concept for the group.

Although the Dazz Band are an official one hit wonder on the pop charts, they were R&B stars, and had 18 charting songs between 1980-88 (plus two more in 1998).  However, only "Let It Whip," from their 1982 LP Keep It Live broke the pop top 40.  It peaked at #5.

The video is a performance clip of the band (at the LA Roxy, we believe).  As an aside, few funk bands made videos, and those that did tended to simply record their performances.  This is similar to hard rock bands of the era, and opened the door to the new wave artists who embraced the video music format.  We do not recall seeing this video back in the day (MTV was also not great about showing black artists until Michael Jackson broke through with Thriller).

The Dazz Band stopped recording in the late 1980s, but then re-formed in the mid-1990s as part of the funk revival trend.