Dyke & the Blazers. Arlester 'Dyke' Christian was a kid from Buffalo who wound up in Phoenix and cut a record called Funky Broadway in 1966 -- two full years before James Brown made funk a household word. This was the blueprint. The guitar snapping like a rubber band, the horns stabbing, Dyke talking over the groove like he was testifying. He was shot dead on a Phoenix street corner in 1971 at age 27. The man who invented funk didn't live to see what he built.