Rufus

Rufus sounds like Chicago in the seventies: a groove that winds around your bones and a voice that commands everything. It's not just funk they play, but that blend of Tell Me Something Good and Ain't Nobody where the bass throbs like a heartbeat and the drums push relentlessly. The band's sound lives in those sticky riffs that repeat like a spell, but what really defines them is how their lead singer —Chaka Khan— takes them to another level. It's not just a voice over the music: it's as if the voice and rhythm become one, with those high notes that cut through and those lows that sink into your chest.

The story of Rufus has a key turning point in 1974, when they released Rags to Rufus. That album didn't just put them on the map, it gave them their first major hit: Tell Me Something Good. The song wasn't an accident: Stevie Wonder gifted them the track after hearing how Chaka Khan had performed it live. Wonder, who was already following them, wrote something tailor-made for them, with that slow, gritty air that fit their style perfectly. The single reached the Top Five and suddenly they were stars, not by following formulas, but by that sound that seemed made for them.