THE question today is one that Bootsy Collins and George Clinton would approve of. Do you have the funk? And for once in my life I can say undeniably, categorically say that today, yes, yes I do. I do have the funk.

In fact, it’s possible that I have access to most, if not all, of the funk in Scotland right now, all gathered in a back room of the National Museum of Scotland. It comes in the shape of seven men sitting around a table. They range from their late twenties to late sixties and most of them go by the collective name of James Brown is Annie. Edinburgh’s premier funk band are in the building and they’re not alone.

But, first, let’s make some introductions, shall we? Going counter-clockwise around the table we have Barry Gordon, 41, rhythm guitarist, originally from Thurso. (“And when you’re old enough to afford a bus ticket out you go.”) Scott Jamieson, drummer, just turned 28 (and a man who can dislocate his thumb at will), Eddie Miller, keyboard player, 38, a man who has broken every bone in his body, he tells me. Three times.

Then there’s Brett Allan, bass player, 39, originally from Fife, Jonny White, 27-year-old sax player and the youngest member of the band who in his teens played rugby for Edinburgh Under 16s and Under 18s. And finally there’s Aki Remally, lead guitar, lead vocal, 35 years old who manages the Jazz Bar in Chambers Street when he’s not playing.

Is that everyone? Ah, not quite. To my left there is the non-band member. Some guy, “age unknown,” he says, who one or two of you might have heard of before. His name is Hamish Stuart. A man who in his time has played with Paul McCartney and Chaka Khan and once played in a Scottish outfit called the Average White Band. In short, he is the father of Scottish funk.

He is also the man who produced – or “reduced,” as he says – James Brown is Annie’s new album, JBiA II. Their second, as the title might suggest, and as crisp a thing as a conveyor belt in the Golden Wonder factory; 11 tracks that now and again play with pastiche (Five Up High with its shout-outs to CB radio and accompanying retro seventies TV Cop show video that also stars Grant Stott and BBC weather woman Judith Ralston), but are also defiantly contemporary.

It’s a confident, self-assured record that takes the band up a level, inspired by Stuart who they call their “funky umpire.” The Average White Band link has long been established. AWB member Molly Duncan produced the band’s first album. And now Stuart has pitched in for the second.

What did Hamish bring to the party? “I guess a sensibility, a bit of discipline to make the focus more about the songs,” suggests Remally.

“Crack that whip,” Stuart jokes.

“I still have the scars,” says Remally.

“I think he made us a more rounded group,” says Gordon, the band’s natural mouthpiece. “When we played with Molly he helped us find the groove. Eddy and Aki share lead vocals on a lot of songs. Hamish is, in my opinion one of the greatest soul singers of all time, so to have him come in and be able to harness both voices made a big difference to us vocally.”

More than that, he adds, “there’s more space in the group, everybody knows their jobs better and vocally and instrumentally we are so much tighter and together.”

Stuart even pitches in with a vocal on Sandcastles, proving the point that you don’t have to be born in Detroit or Memphis to sound soulful.

Why did Stuart want to produce the record in the first place? “I was immediately excited because we’d done a couple of gigs together. It was the kind of music I know, and I don’t get asked to produce a lot of records so I was flattered.

“I love making records and making music is what I’ve done one way or another for the last 50 years. The music the guys were playing I recognised as something I could get my teeth into. And then, when they started demoing songs early last year, hearing the raw material took me back to the way the Average White Band did things.”

“He just fitted into the rest of the band,” suggests Brett Allen. “Hamish was first in and last out of the studio,” adds Gordon. “That tells you everything.”

That dedication can be seen in the group too. JBiA II, after all, represents their dogged determination and stick-at-itness. Even now half the band are full-time musicians, the other half combine their musical activities with jobs.

James Brown is Annie (the name is derived from a Saturday Night Live sketch starring Eddie Murphy but we don’t have time to go into details) have been around in one form or another since 2006.

“The first incarnation was just an instrumental trio,” recalls Gordon, who was one of the founding members. “That had a shelf life. The second incarnation was military service for musicians. Every week somebody would come in and somebody would go out. Then I was living back in my home country for a year and when I came back I realised we didn’t have a vision before. I wanted it to be more professional, more driven.

“So, I picked everyone up almost one by one. Like the Blues Brothers movie. And since then we’ve had a consistent line-up. Things seemed to happen more quickly and the things we’ve done since then are far beyond what I thought we’d ever be able to do.”

The question that needs asking, perhaps, is do they all wish they were living back in 1974? “Yeah, the mid-seventies for funk music was when it was all happening,” agrees Gordon. “I suppose you look back and think it would have been nice to have lived through those times, but it’s like anything. When you live through an iconic period you don’t really appreciate it at the time.”

“For the music, yes,” adds Remally. “For almost everything else, no.”

And, in the end, 1974 in Hamilton probably wasn’t the same as 1974 in Harlem. Which takes us back to where we began. All the people in this room (excepting me, of course) are proof that Scotland has the funk. But, really, as a country how funky is it? Present company excepted, are we not just too pasty white to qualify?

“We have a club in Edinburgh that has funk music on every single night of the week, seven nights a week,” Gordon points out. “Folk is the big thing in Scotland, but I don’t know one folk club that has music on every night of the week. So, there’s no doubt we have funky music in Scotland and we have an audience for it.”

In short, Scotland is funkier than it looks. One nation under a groove? Well, why the funk not?

JBiA II is out on September 15. The band play Clark’s on Lindsay Street in Dundee on Thursday, the Blue Arrow in Glasgow on Friday and the album launch party is on Saturday in Edinburgh with Hamish Stuart appearing alongside the band in Clark’s On Lindsay Street, Dundee on Thursday Street, The Blue Arrow, Glasgow on Friday. The album launch party will be in the basement of the Rose Theatre, Edinburgh next Saturday. The Rip It Up exhibition continues at the National Museum of Scotland until November 25.