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2015 In Funk: Going Out on the High Notes

2015 - 12.14

Tags: 100% Juice, art, Bear Creek, concert review, funk, home studio, live music, Music, nooo, PedalGenie, Site Update, Texas life, The Acropolis Of Soul, trumpet, videos, vinyl reviews
Posted in Album Reviews, long reads, Music, musings, My Recordings | Comments Off on 2015 In Funk: Going Out on the High Notes

In the words of Frank Sinatra, “It Was A Very Good Year” for funky music, 2015. The following is a long-form discussion and dissection of the many pieces of musical news in my world; it’s big but hang with me there’s lots of substance to talk about. We got new albums from Lettuce and The New Mastersounds, and a new festival right in my backyard brought some mean groove to the Texas countryside. And. I made some pretty fresh music myself, if I don’t say so. The Funk is alive and thriving although I’m pretty sad to chronicle it: Bear Creek was cancelled this year.

2015 In Funk Pt 1: The October Bear Creek that wasn’t

This year the Legendary Bear Creek Music Festival which I’ve written about time and time and time again was initially rescheduled about a month earlier than its traditional mid-November timeframe, which was a tantalizing proposition for literally hotter dancing and brand-new-good-old times, however due to undisclosed complexities, the organizers cancelled the fest this year which was… devastating news. According to at least one trusted source the odds are not favorable that it will return (although never say never). This is pretty sad news for the feet and the spirit….

Screenshot_2015-12-07-15-13-55 About one year and some weeks ago my friend Bill and I were taking a breather after a long day of soaking in the incredible vibes at Bear Creek 2014. We were sitting by the edge of a pond to let our feet rest and I said to him, ‘you know some day they’re going to stop putting this fest on, for one reason or another, and we’re going to look back at this time period like it was some kind of utopia or a golden age for music like this.’ Little did I know at the time how prescient of a thought it was. I wish it hadn’t been.

Me, I hate to wear bracelets so as soon as I got home from the fest I clipped mine off and kept it to put inside the frame with the festival poster I had picked up. But Bill loves to keep his on as a daily reminder of the fest. When I heard the news I texted him right away and you can see his reply in the screenshot here. When I talked to him on the phone about it later he said “Man, I wore that thing to work every single day… every business meeting.”

It’s a testament to the power of what happens when everything goes right at a fest and some incredible magic is created which can only happen there, away from the business meetings and the grind of existence. Something ‘big’ enough that it becomes part of who you are. Bear Creek inspired me to push off in certain direction with my own music for sure. With the concentrated dose of pure funk, jazz, and soul I think that fest tipped my scales toward a certain sensibility much more than an eclectic fest could have done, and drastically more than a series of small concerts peppered througout the year in a drip-feed. If you love this kind of music, if it speaks to a certain thing inside your being, Bear Creek was a lightning strike to the soul.

These days there are tons of great fests out there, and plenty of them offer what feels like an escape to some alternate reality, or at least a vacation from your typical reality. But Bear Creek was that and something more. It was a meeting of the minds. A congress of groove-seekers unmatched. It was a place where the headlining acts were Lettuce and The New Mastersounds, a place where heroes of the genre got to really get up there and rip it at 200%, boosted beyond the normally possible range by the energy of this crowd. Everyone could feel that vibe.

It was a place where, when the final act had finished, the crowd chanted for an encore by singing a looping rendition of the chorus from the Parliment anthem “We Want The Funk”. Replete with the falsetto “ooohhh weeeeeee” it went on until the musicians came back out and fired up the jams once more. We Want The Funk.

Word, Bear Creek. Word.

2015 In Funk Pt 2: Top Tier Inspiration on the Stereo

Within the last month, two superb albums have dropped and I feel it’s worth discussing them together. 1. Made For Pleasure by The New Mastersounds and 2. Crush by Lettuce. These two bands are sort of like two sides of the same coin. They both are well-established and highly-talented groups of musicians making original funk music although they’ve each got a different philosophy on how. Lettuce is pushing further into their own direction with a huge number of members in the band, lots of effects, a clean/modern mastering sound, and complex song structures. Their identity is still evolving. The New Mastersounds are rooted in their quartet playing tunes of simple structure, mastered with a vintage/analog sensibility; all of which have been refined to such a beautiful richness that there’s really no need to start flipping knobs around. NMS are pretty well “dialed-in” as far as their identity and what you might expect from them, but they do manage to toss in plenty of treats for their returning listeners.

A common theme between these two albums is the studio-implementation of things they’ve been doing live for quite some time now. In the case of the New Mastersounds, I’ve seen them perform reggae grooves as far back as 2008 but until “Made For Pleasure” there’s never been a proper reggae tune on one of their albums. Adding to the novelty is the fact that it’s a cover of the Iggy Azalea tune “Fancy” transplated into a reggae groove with the lyrics “I’m so Irie”. That’s perfect.

A very welcome additional treat for this listener is the presence of the peppy and crisp West Coast Horns on four of the album’s eleven tracks. In particular their trumpeter adds a hot sizzle to the action which I really love. In the words of my friend Vince “try as I might, I just can’t get into Mastersounds with vocals” and I will echo that sentiment. The tunes with Charly Lowry, on their own, are a great soul tribute that would feel good on an album of their own. But sandwich them between the high-level instrumentals at which the Mastersounds are so adept and cranking out, the the vocal-driven tunes feel like a sideshow, a distraction.

“Pho Baby” centers around a chord progression style which feels abnormal for the Mastersounds, but in a pleasing way. I imagine that tune would feel great toward the end of a festival set. “Let’s Do Another” gives you a dose of vibraphone, tabla, and horn section on top of the mastersounds which was a wholly unexpected combo that continues to please on repeated listens. But my favorite track is definitely “Cigar Time” which is a no-frills tune that simply delivers what the mastersounds do best: a steady groove with that magic ratio of funk and jazz behind some superb-sounding guitar and organ solos that compel you to nod your head. How these guys keep producing such quality material album after album is a marvel to me, one I plan to continue studying indefinitely.

Lettuce Crush Album Cover And then there’s Crush, the 4th album from Lettuce. This record’s got a lot of meat and a lot of attitude, as you’d expect from the boys. I gotta admit, I’m not sure I’m totally a fan of how they mastered this album. Compared to other offerings in the genre (as described above!) this album sounds thin and digital to my ears. In particular the obvious noise gate on the beginning of “Phyllis” is a confounding production fail, if you ask me. One thing I AM totally (read: predictably) loving about this new Lettuce album though, is the amount of effects on the horns! In track 2 “Get Greasy” Ryan Zoidis has a killer solo using what sounds like envelope and a synth pedal. it’s making me want to dig into my own synth pedal capabilties…

This is also the first studio album with trumpeter Eric Benny Bloom and he fills the large shoes of Rashawn Ross nicely I think. Rashawn’s high range is… formidible. Bloom takes the “screamer” dial to about 80% of where Rashawn had it, but he makes up for the rest with his much more thoughtful solo capability. The sheer firepower of his successor was always a thrill but given a choice I’d take Eric. Plus, this guy is into effects and I have… let’s say “more than just a casual penchant” for that. In 2014 he was present for Bear Creek and I got a taste of his approach.

That year’s fest was also the moment in which the stylistic shift on this record was first displayed. There were a lot more spaceout/dubout moments than ever before, which I think is a fantastic counterpoint to the “Rage” funk. In so many different ways, musicians of all genres try to take their listeners up to a high place then give them some breathing room to cool off. That’s the essence of dynamics since staying planted at 100% all the time turns into a grind.

I’m glad to see Lettuce taking this new direction. My friend Bill had a more tepid reception to the change and prefers the tone set on their previous record Fly. I’d argue there are still plenty of in-yo-face numbers here, in particular “The Lobbyist” stands tall for me, and “The Force” is a spectacularly dramatic opening theme. I’d love to see them open a show with that, and maybe reprise it once before the end.

2015 In Funk Pt 3: Art Outside

As chronicled previously, the incredible Bear Creek music fest was cancelled this year, leaving an opening for some other musical experience to fill. Fortunately for our heroes, right here in our Texan backyard there was a gathering called Art Outside which had a very enticing lineup of both funk and electronic music. I had been badgering my wife to come along with me to a music festival for a long time and the variables had lined up to persuade her to join in. Only problem was the weather. Hurricane Patricia was just making landfall in Mexico and the effects would soon be sweeping across the state, leaving just enough of a window for two glorious days before the drought-cracked soil of Rockdale TX would get all the moisture it could handle and more…

I opted for the 4-day pass since my favorite band, The New Mastersounds were playing that day, along with soul virtuosos The Nth Power and TAUK whom I heard for the first time at Bear Creek 2013.

The New Mastersounds had the closing slot on Thursday night where the elite crew of 4-day warriors kicked off the festivities. Having seen them over a dozen times now, I’d say it was a lovely festival set with a great song list. Summercamp with it’s delicate and sparse breakdown flowing into a 4-on-the-floor dance groove was a favorite for me, as well as their rendition of “Hey Fela” with West African master percussionist Weedie Braimah from the Nth Power imbuing the tune with an afrobeat feel. Eddie Roberts seemed a bit reserved that night, opting for cerebral jazzy phrases and never really rocking out full-tilt the way I know he can. I’m not certain but I’m pretty sure they played a dubbed-out cover of Justin Timberlake’s “Well Dressed Man” in which Roberts actually used a delay pedal; a common piece of guitar equipment he purposely eschews.

Having seen these fellows at their finest there was a feedback loop which never connected that night–Eddie seemed visibly annoyed at times with the lack of crowd reaction to push the band higher and likewise the crowd never really went wild because the band never really took-it-there. “Are you all still awake out there?” he asked at one point. That aside, the set delivered the goods in a mellower way for sure. I did a lot more standing and listening than dancing, but my ears were thoroughly engaged for the entirety of their set.

The Friday itinerary was a sandwich stacked high with lots of wonderful ingredients. The Easy-Star Allstars performed their reggae cover of “Dark Side of The Moon” in its entirety along with a smattering of Micheal Jackson, Radiohead, and The Beatles. As a last-minute surprise to close the set they broke into Led Zepplin (could it be foreshadowing for their next album??) and out of nowhere 4 or 5 people in the crowd started throwing long streamer ribbons which zigzagged the audience in a web of colors. That was a very cool festival moment.

Coming off the Easy-Star streamer surprise we caught Nightmares on Wax, who opened up with “Les Nuits” one of my all-time favorite downtempo tracks. In a live setting it felt totally different than it does on the stereo at home though! His set was surprisingly packed with soul-tunes: “Sir Duke” from Stevie Wonder, “Give The People What They Want” from the O’Jays, and a very memorable Marvin Gaye “Inner City Blues” remix. The sound was bone-jarringly loud and we kept telling ourselves we were going to move back ‘after this track ended’ but his DJ set kept it locked and there was no good time to come up for air! It feels weird to say it but even among all the other great artists, this set was my favorite moment in the fest. The buzz of the crowd, the tune selection, and the DJ mixing from NOW was on-point. The dome stage which wrapped around the audience definitely added something as well.

Dome Stage Art Outside 2015

Third heavy hitters on the Friday night agenda were Lettuce, touring the country to promote their aforementioned new album. The show was a fun time, I’d even say it was great, but after talking to 4 different people about it at length, the jury agrees unanimously that something was… off. First off, Eric Krasno wasn’t there. Lettuce has about all the musical firepower that you can wish for but Krasno really is a soloist of unusual caliber. His sound, soaring above the raging rhythm section and searing hornlines, is what has sent many a Lettuce jam over the top. Without him, something just feels missing. Chatting about this at a party, I later learned that Krasno is only playing certain Lettuce shows these days. That’s a pretty unfortunate changeup. But all that aside, they did play a crazy-fast version of Lettsanity, many of their older classics including Squadlive, and the new tune “Sounds Like A Party To Me” which I was feelin. Nigel Hall hooked it up there.

Finally the last show that we stuck around for was a Bonobo DJ set. Gotta say, I liked what I heard. I’ve seen Bonobo play a live set before, with drumset, horn soloists and the whole nine yards and it had just felt… low energy. So my expectations weren’t very high. His set sort of started out with a simmering energy and gradually built up, with a lot of rich-sounding atmospheric tracks that had a steady 4-on-th-floor beneath it all. I honestly didn’t think Bonobo had what it took to keep the dancing masses moving from 2-4am, especially after a Lettuce set, but he proved otherwise.

After Bonobo handed the turntables over to the next act we adjourned for the night, pausing to grab a slice of late night pizza on the way back to our tent, and that’s when it hit: An incredibly loud thunderclap signaled the flipping of a switch in the atmosphere above us. About five minutes after that sound a steady, strong downpour began which did not relent until perhaps two days later. By sunrise the grounds had been utterly drenched and the soil turned from cracked and hardened into a mud-pocalypse the likes of which I had never been involved with until that weekend.

2015 In Funk Pt 4: Onward and Upward in the Living Room

This year has been an incredibly great period in my own musical development and productivity. It saw the creation of a new project, The Acropolis Of Soul and the conclusion–on a high note–of my long-running group 100% Juice. I’ve refined my recording and mastering techniques along the way and finally started to produce a few YouTube videos as well, something I’ve long wanted to do. I also became a member of PedalGenie.com which is an effects pedal rental service, allowing me to try out lots of new sounds. And of course, we had lots of great jams which allowed me to grow as a player. Listening back to these moments has been enjoyable on a visceral level but also deeply enriching on a cerebral level as well.

I was sad to hear the news that Bob Saviano, the drummer for 100% Juice had decided to move to Colorado, but the silver lining was that it gave us a push to polish up our songs and have that two-day recording session we’d been talking about for a long time. 6/27 and 6/28 produced several top-tier improvised jams and a few “best-ever” takes on songs we’ve been playing for a long time. The fact that these would be our last sessions also gave me a blank check to spend as much time as I wanted on post-production to clean everything to a spotless finish and add all the overdubs I might want. Adding overdubs–that is also another thing I had always wanted to do but didn’t begin until 2015!

In retrospect, 100% Juice has been one of the best musical projects I’ve ever had in terms of personal development into the kind of music I want to make. I’m feel very proud of the sounds that came out of it, even though I can still nitpick my own playing to death. We did some video recording on 6/28 and there are still several tracks remaining to publish from that day. As of this writing, two tracks are completed and published to YouTube. The video below is our take on the Lettuce tune “Blast Off”. For this video I took our multitrack recording and bounced it to quarter inch tape on reel to reel to get that analog warmth. Again, another thing I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Hear it for yourself:

My musical partner in crime, Vince Chihak has joined up with our new group The Acropolis of Soul, which first met in February of this year. Over the year we’ve had 11 sessions and there’s been some killer stuff to come out of those. Our soundcloud page is accessible by clicking on the cassette below:

Schedules have been a challenge with this group since everyone has busy lives. The Acropolis will probably never become as prolific as 100% Juice was, but the flip side to that coin is that it gives me more time to work on the production for each session and add overdubs more often. To reflect all these nice things that have been happening I made a few updates on the music section of Microcosmologist which now has links to my soundcloud and YouTube pages as well as links to download some of my favorite recordings under the Trumpet section.

One never knows what the future may hold but right now at the end of the year, looking back, I’m feeling fantastic about everything that’s transpired musically, thankful for my excellent counterparts, and couldn’t be more jazzed to see where the adventures take us next… on to 2016.

Surprises and New (to me) Delights at the Creek

2011 - 12.04

Tags: Bear Creek, concert review, funk, Music, photography
Posted in Music | Comments Off on Surprises and New (to me) Delights at the Creek

First thing we checked out when we arrived at Bear Creek was Dr. Lonnie Smith, the venerable B3 organist known for sporting a turban. His sidemen were very heavy hitters themselves, with Johnathan Kreisburg on guitar and Jamire Williams on drums. I had heard Kreisburg’s jazz albums before, but I had never heard him play in a loud, rockin setting like this. The man is anything but a one trick pony, it turns out. He had winding odd-scale riffs a la Scofield, reached into some hard-edged territory that sounded like prog-rock, and dialed it all the way back into some space-out territory with this cool sounding short-time reverse effect. I would like to know how he did that exactly, and I would also like to know what else this dude is capable of. For all the heaping amounts of praise that people lavish upon John Scofield (and rightfully so), I have to say, seeing Kreisburg here in this role… he provides similar kinds of heady, weaving lines with a greater stylistic breadth than I’ve heard from Scofield (whom I saw twice at BC). Next time I get the chance to see Kreisburg do his thing again I will definitely not be missing it. Superlative musicianship.

Will Bernard played a nice role as artist at large, sitting in with too many groups to even recall here. Each time he got on stage and started playing I leaned over and said to Bill, who is this guy? “Will Bernard.” That happened at least three times. I’ve kind of glossed over his music in the past. After this fest, I need to go back and give him another listen. Apparently his set was off the hook too, which is too bad because I missed it while watching this next thing:

This year I made it a point to catch a fascinating group whom I missed last year but heard excellent things about: Snarky Puppy. It’s an amusing name, for a group with some very, very tight horns. Being a trumpeter myself, I was delighted to see two trumpets on stage with flugelhorns on stands below them which they swapped back and forth on. I wish there were more groups with horn sections as tight as this. The typical instrumentation was two trumpets and tenor sax, although they brought in a trombone player for a few tunes and Jen Hartswick (trumpet) also sat in with them. For a trumpet player, this was the group not to miss. I set up my Zoom H4 recorder in the back and taped the show as well, which is totally available for your listening RIGHT HERE! If you want to dive right into it, I’d advise hitting the “forward” button to advance the track twice. That’s where the real hotness begins, I think.

Snarky Puppy 11.13.11 Full Show Audio Recording (available on Archive.org w/ JB special sauce mastering).

It figures that a group like this would hail from Brooklyn, a place where the extreme density and competitiveness of musicians yields an overabundance of monstrously gifted players in a small area. Their arrangements of fast-moving harmonized lines where the horn section provided the leading melody of the ensemble were really inspiring to me personally. It’s been a while since I’ve heard a group that places the horn section front and center, both on the stage and musically. I would really love to get a project like this started for myself. Although these guys were all top-level horn talent, I think you could achieve a reasonable facsimile of this sound with maybe two good soloists and talented section players who were maybe classical guys with chops. (daydreaming out loud here)

I also saw the Jennifer Hartswick Band for the first time at this Bear Creek. Jen plays trumpet in the Trey Anastasio Band so I was interested to see her solo thing. The woman can definitely belt. A lot of her show centered around the vocals, which I found entertaining although I was consistently wishing she’d just pick up the horn and blow. (Of course I’m very biased toward instrumental music and I play trumpet, so I’m hardly an impartial opinion here.) When she did, her sound was bright and powerful, and her lines were well-composed and confident. I was maybe hoping she’d break out some trickier manoeuvres but never did I feel dissatisfied with her style. A solid player and a good show.

Masterful Grooves from the Mastersounds at Bear Creek 2011

2011 - 12.01

Tags: Bear Creek, concert review, funk, Music, photography, videography, videos, yesss
Posted in Music, photography, videography | Comments Off on Masterful Grooves from the Mastersounds at Bear Creek 2011

And now, onto my favorite guys!

When the New Mastersounds took the stage on Saturday night, Simon announced he was “rather cross” that they had just arrived that afternoon, missing out on the previous 2 or 3 days of the fest. He almost seemed worried like the action had been going on without them, going on to say, “well, there’s really only 24 hours left, we’d better make the most of it!” Maybe this contributed to the sense of urgency, as the fellows from Leeds proceeded to deliver an excellent performance that night.

But, as I’m terrifically excited to tell you, you don’t have to take my word for it!

As a public service reminder, remember to hit 1080p to see all the nose hairs and sweaty follicles in their unbridled-tears-of-joy-inducing-funky-ass glory. Yessir, I filmed all that, edited it, and synced it up with the audio captured by a sweet taper who goes by the handle “kluyfrtliu”, as available for your own listening pleasure here. The audio in here also has my own little secret sauce on it, because compressors. QED. There may be more on the technical side of compiling all of this in the future… But for now, onto the music.

One thing that took me off guard about the Mastersounds–even despite the fact that I’ve seen them, I don’t know how many times now, more than ten–was that Pete Shand’s bass playing seemed positively fast and ferocious. Maybe it was the soundsystem at Uncle Charlie’s Porch Stage? As a side comment, I have to note, this stage is one of the best-sounding stages I have ever listened to, indoors or outdoors, anywhere. I remember in 2010 being completely blown away by the sound quality there. This year it seemed absolutely top notch, but maybe not quite as good as last year? Perhaps high expectations took something off the top?

On Sunday evening’s show Simon Allen was wearing silver shirt covered in sequins and skintight shiny gold pants. Pete Shand was wearing jeans and a navy blue sequin-covered tube top. Perhaps he had lost a bet or something?? (Or maybe Simon just gave him that and said here, wear this. Those guys are silly guys.) Joe Tatton had on a sparkly silver cape with a little red top hat and Eddie Roberts was dressed curiously normal.

Marco Benevento came up for a rawkus guest appearance on the organ, in which he pounded on the keys with hands raised high, doing some neat rhythmic comping and trading solos back and forth with both Eddie and Joe who came back on stage towards the end of Marco’s stint. I’d give that my vote for best guest appearance of the fest, just for the fact that he came on stage and just *took over* for a good 5 minutes or so with that wildly energetic outburst. When the tune had finished Eddie leaned over to the mic and opined, “That was fairly ridiculous.”

The tunes from their new album “Breaks from the Border” incorporate a lot of group vocals, and work well at the live show; better than they do at home on the stereo I’d say. They played an extended and enjoyable version of “Can You Get It?” which felt great when the refrain came back in at the end. I was hoping for the afrobeat-flavored “Walk in These Shoes” but no such luck. It would have been cool to see Eddie take that afrobeat-style solo in which he uses this crazed, thin-sounding guitar tone, typical of afrobeat but out of character for Roberts. Maybe they used special equipment to achieve that sound, and avoided it in concert for lack of the right gear.

I admit, sometimes I wish they would throw me for a loop more often: by putting in a key change at the peak of a solo, or slipping in more choreographed, seamless transitions between their songs, or by changing up the form and adding new sections to their old compositions, or just by crafting compositions that are slightly more complicated. I do have to be careful what I wish for here though: The Mastersounds sit on an excellent piece of real estate between the extremes of “soulful” and “cerebral”. They’ve got plenty of little syncronized rhythmic toss-ins and unison hits to keep the structure comfortably away from a bland 12-bar groove formula (maybe I take these for granted, simply because I know when they’re all coming?) but they keep things playful and simple enough to just relax and enjoy, rather than overly-complicated phrases of through-composed musical pedant-ery that practically require drastic musicianship on behalf of the listener to really even grasp–that’s the cerebral extreme, as embodied by any number of advanced jazz cats. There’s absolutely a place for that in my music collection. But I GET the Mastersounds. I can explain what they do and my ear can follow right along as they go. That’s part of the appeal. There’s no musical snobbery here , but neither is it pedestrian. Thinking myself through it out loud here (and guilty of indulging in exactly the kind of pedant-ery I was just disparaging!), that’s pretty much right where I prefer my tunes.

In any event, I’d say the Mastersounds still retain their crown as my favorite band, and this two-night performance was another reaffirmation of their excellence. Their silly stage banter remains endearing, Eddie’s vintage-sounding guitar tones range from smooth enough to groove mellow on “Fuji Rock” yet boisterous enough to get crazy at the apex of “Thermal Bad” while his wah pedal wizardry, improvisational dexterity, and unique picking style provide plenty to study; Joe’s Rhodes and DL4 spaceouts put me in a blissed out mood, while bursts of quick finger work on the B3 can perk up my ears to dig inside those dense phrases; Pete’s bass playing is speedy and right on time, providing some infectiously danceable breakdowns when guitar and organ drop out; and Simon has an impeccable sense of swing, coupled with a deep bag of catchy fills and relentless reserves of energy to keep driving the jams ever onward.

* * *

Thank you for perusing! If you enjoyed this review, there is a high probability you will also enjoy this mix of semi/obscure 70’s funk I made from old records I found at the local store. Alternately, check out all posts tagged “funk” for more Bear Creek and music coverage.

The Highlight of Bear Creek 2011: Lettuce 11/13/11

2011 - 11.24

Tags: Bear Creek, concert review, funk, Music, photography, videography, videos
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Lettuce is like funk made with unlimited resources. Take the hardest-hitting drummer who plays the most bombastic fills, the top guitarist who solos with soulful yet jazz-infused quick fingers, a bassist who plays exceedingly fast and clean, an organ player who’s always holding down those high notes and banging on the clav with hands raised above his head, and a horn section of two shredding saxes with a trumpeter who could shatter glass with his high notes–that’s Lettuce. If Lettuce were a recipe, it would just say “EVERYTHING. And double of it.”

Walking out of their show on Sunday night I said to my buddy Bill, “Honestly, if god himself made a funk album, I don’t think it could be any harder-hitting, or bigger, or nastier than Lettuce.” He erupted into laugher, thought about it for a few seconds and said, “Yeah, I think you might be right.”

The performance itself on Sunday night was top notch. Their Saturday set saw them coming out guns blazing, but after the first maybe 4 songs, I felt like the setlist delved into their B-catalog to fill the time. Not the case on Sunday though. They dropped a bevy of new tunes which were monumentally brazen in attitude and cleverly composed orchestrations for the large ensemble. One particular highlight for me was their relentless version of Squadlive; a favorite tune of mine as I used to play in a band that covered it.

If the band does miss one thing, it would be dynamics. True they do play some tunes that bring the energy way down low, but it’s almost like those sections are there purely to enhance the all-out full-tilt onslaught of sound when it hits again. They could use a couple numbers like “Happy Friends” by Greyboy Allstars or “Road to Fuji Rock” by the New Mastersounds. Or maybe they’re not even capable of a mid-level grooving-yet-relaxed type of jam? Nothing about Lettuce is really relaxed. For that reason I don’t think I’d ever call them my “favorite” band.

And yet, their Sunday set was probably the highlight of the fest, simply because it was an extreme; they came out raging so hard it was not really possible to sit and passively take it in. You HAD to get up and dance, you HAD to be knocked over by their deluge of everything. Bassist Erick Coomes wore a tall wizard hat with stars and moons on it, along with a pair of those gigantic joke sunglasses. His clothes were both an both an artifact of the absurd carnival-esque ambiance of a music festival like this, and maybe a winking self-parody of the musical sworcery occurring onstage. There were a few sections where he and Eric Krasno doubled each other on some stupidly fast phrases that raised my eyebrows and dropped my jaw. It’s undeniably impressive to watch a finger-style bass (as opposed to slapping or picking) player like Coomes who can move with such speed and dexterity.

It was a pleasure to watch Deitch in action on the drums as well. That guy is like some kind of prodigy. I really don’t understand how he kept up the schedule he did at Bear Creek either. Especially on Saturday where he performed at 2pm with Chapter 2, 8pm with Lettuce and then again at 3:45AM with Break Science (plus whatever sit-ins inbetween). Power naps, perhaps? You can tell he’s just one of those guys who has it naturally. A lot of musicians have to work hard and ‘woodshed’ to get to an impressive place. Seems like Deitch is the gifted type who just hears it and plays it. It’s entertaining to watch him when he gets the chance to take a drum solo–at first he seems relaxed and casual, but as he goes on you see this look of determination come over him, as he turns off the autopilot and starts figuring out what he wants to do with his own personal space.

Listening to the Lettuce horns is also a treat, particularly the bombastic Rashawn Ross on trumpet. Dude’s got some serious skills when it comes to power in the upper register. I saw him years ago in Chicago and since then he’s lost a very significant amount of weight, like at least 50 pounds. Although he’s a much smaller guy now (I even wondered, is that HIM!) he has retained his powerful and cutting sound. When he solos, it’s essentially a slow build toward a climax of high notes, which does leave something to be desired in terms of clever phrases, although it certainly succeeds in getting the crowd fired up. When the horn section comes together on some tight phrases, Rashawn’s searing brass on top of the whole ensemble definitely makes the hairs on my arm stand up. In all the right ways!

I do have one more video of these guys to share, which I captured on Sunday night. As a reminder, hit the 1080p option if your internet is fast, it makes a big difference. Enjoy!

Tough Calls in Funk City

2011 - 11.16

Tags: Bear Creek, concert review, funk, live music, Music
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As I mentioned in my first post about Bear Creek, the Purple Hat stage was outdoors instead of inside the giant tent like it was last year. This resulted in the nice side effect that we were able to hear that stage loud and clear from our campsite, as it was pointed almost straight at us. Being able to sit down and chill out at the camp for a bit, while still being able to enjoy the music was definitely a nice thing. The schedule for Bear Creek being as relentless as it is, sitting down and resting for a while isn’t something that can happen all that much! From the campsite we listened in as Ivan’ Neville’s Dumpstajam threw down a tasty version of the Sly and the Family Stone classic “Take You Higher” as well as Tower of Power’s “What is Hip?” featuring the horns from Lettuce. Those were both great picks for covers.

Continuing on the topic of relentless schedules: in order to catch Snarky Puppy, we had to skip out on the Lee Boys, which was one tough decision to have to make. Likewise Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe was performing at the same time as Medeski, Martin, and Wood! We started out listening to Medeski and the band was heating up the place with a groovin set (Medeski can get overly avant/abstract when they want to). When the time came for KDTU we had to tear ourselves away from some awfully sick jams, with Bill commenting, “man, I really didn’t want to walk away from that!”

I’ve seen Karl Denson in many formats, including his trio, the Greyboy Allstars, with a version of the Headhunters, and sitting in with many other groups, but I’d never seen KDTU before, so I was anxious to check them out. Maybe we missed the badass opening number, or maybe they had worn themselves out performing on Thursday evening, but we stayed for about three songs before tossing up our hands and giving a collective “…eeeeeehhhh” So far the set was all slower numbers with no real moving solos or hot horn section passages. I was colored shockingly ambivalent, especially considering what a complete badass Karl Denson is. At any point he could explode the scene into masterful sax utopia if he wanted to, but he just… wasn’t doing it. At that point we marched back over to Medeski–who was still raging it!

That’s just the thing at Bear Creek: you gotta bring your A game at this fest. There’s no time for muckin around with slow folk tunes. Someone else next door is bringing the noise on another level at any given moment. It’s kind of almost silly that as a fan you start getting hypercritical, thinking that hey, I don’t have to sit here and listen to something that I think is only okay; I can shoot over to the next stage and they might be melting people’s faces off. It’s almost like you get musical ADD after a while. That’s both a blessing and a curse! There’s a blatant overabundance of sweet jams going down, but at the same time it almost makes it tough to be present where you are because you’re worried about all the other stuff you’re missing. Such are the internal conflicts of a groove junkie in funktopia.

Orgone: The Grand Finale That’s Actually an Intro

2011 - 11.15

Tags: analog life, Bear Creek, concert review, funk, Microcosmologist Official Recommendations, Music, photography
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Out of the many excellent bands on the contemporary funk circuit, I personally think that L.A.’s Orgone is one of the greasiest and most underappreciated groups doing it today. Each one of their albums is heavy-laden with meaty cuts that you might swear came from 1977 if you didn’t know better. I’ve been evangelizing about this band for a while now to anyone who will listen, and was anxious to see their deliberately crafted retro sounds in motion again.

Orgone played twice last year at Bear Creek, although the first show seemed under-attended and the second was early in the afternoon. That being my first time seeing them, and knowing full well the extensive size of their catalog of gems, I was quite cross to find that they actually repeated maybe three to five songs between their two sets at BC’10–a big no-no for back to back festival performances! Don’t get me wrong, their performance was excellent, but it just wasn’t…. what I knew it could be!

This year, on the other hand, was exactly the Orgone show I’d been waiting for. They dropped a great mix of new tunes and old, with a ferocious amount of energy on stage. Unlike last year this set was outdoors after sunset, and a giant, enthusiastic crowd had gathered to move to those west-coast grooves!

Their keyboard player, whose solos really did a number on me at their previous shows, never really quite stepped up to the intensity level of which he is capable. But as seen in the photo collage above, artist at large Robert Walter stepped in to provide that B3 hotness. The horn section certainly was as powerful and brazen as ever–a central component to the signature punch Orgone delivers. Being partial to brass horns, these guys with their tight articulations and well-crafted harmonies are an inspiration to behold. Seeing their trumpeter and trombonist work together is a treat.

There’s been some personell changes since I caught them last, although from the looks of their website I think the band may just have several players who swap out depending on availabilty. That makes sense since these guys have a positively brutal touring schedule. If you get a chance–and you will–go check them out. Seriously. Top shelf grooves, this stuff.

It was certainly great to get in the crowd and feel the energy their music was stirring up amongst the people. When the performance ended in a climactic frenzy, Bill commented “That felt like some kind of grand finale.” to which I roared with excitement, “And this is literally just the very beginning of the must-see shows at this fest!”

Sweet, Sweet Funky HD Video

2011 - 09.12

Tags: concert review, funk, Microcosmologist Official Recommendations, Music, my heroes, videography, videos, yesss
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Oh man. So in case you didn’t pick up on it, I like funky music a lot. On my recent trip to Wisconsin, I extended my stay so that I could catch a concert that, when I first heard about it, made me exclaim, “Wahaaaaaaaaat?!”

It’s the jazzy funk organ trio WRD aka Walter, Roberts, & Deitch. For anyone keeping score, that’s Eddie Roberts of The New Mastersounds on guitar, Robert Walter of the Greyboy Allstars on B3 organ with basslines, and Adam Deitch of Lettuce and Pretty Lights on the drums. Holy. Crap. Let’s get right into the videos, taken from the Jazz in the Park concert series in Milwaukee Wisconsin on 8/18/11:

While most people will just appreciate it at face value for what it is, I gotta say for those of us who follow the modern funk music scene, this trio is 1. a total dream-team and 2. a pretty fascinating confluence of different vibes from within the same overall scene. Adding to the interest is the fact that they embarked on a 5 date tour, with no future dates yet announced. So get it while it’s hot, and you best believe; it’s HOT!

Let’s break down who’s who, and what they each add to the mix:

On drums, Adam Deitch has put in a lot of time with Lettuce, bringing his really tight, on-tempo, in-your-face school of beats from New York City. He’s also played with jazz great John Scofield and acted as producer for some legit hip-hop albums from Talib Kweli and 50 Cent. His sound is hard, flashy, bombastic. The overpowering, explosive records from Lettuce owe a lot to Deitch’s style. He’s also a young guy! It’s pretty cool that the relatively older Roberts and Walter decided together that this would be the right guy for forming an organ trio.

On the flip side of the spectrum we’ve got Robert Walter, a keys player who’s helped redefine the meaning of boogaloo for the modern generation. This cat hails from San Diego and now lives in New Orleans–sorry, Nawlins. He’s loose, and I mean that in all right ways. For many years he’s been a cornerstone of the Greyboy Allstars. He’s also played in a jillion other settings it seems like, from his own groups–the 20th Congress and the Super Heavy Organ trio–to the Stanton Moore Trio and gobs of other one-off delightful combinations of hip musicians. I saw him with Stanton Moore in New York about five years ago and it was a treat to hear him play basslines. Same deal here. In fact I sort of feel like he’s gotten better with them… or maybe he was just getting into it in Milwaukee and performed exceptionally well. In any event, this guy is a giant on the B3 organ, generally with a laid back feel, ahead of the beat, behind the beat, around the beat–and pours it on masterfully.

Lastly, there’s Eddie Roberts from Leeds in the UK, who’s known for his main gig with The New Mastersounds. As with the others, he also has a mile-long list of side collaborations and projects. Eddie is the top chef when it comes to Deep Funk, serving up a signature stew of meaty rhythm guitar wah-comping, rippin’ solos seasoned with Wes Montgomery style harmonized licks, and an increasingly tasteful sense of when to escalate the energy level with his trademark bursts of quick-pickin’ or let the feeling simmer while he marinates with some soulful strummin’. Roberts typically eases into a performance, taking at least a few tunes to really get situated before he hits you with the secret sauce that makes you smile, but here with the WRD Trio, he came out swinging hard. I’ve seen him play at least ten different times now, and I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen him come out immediately so strong. A pleasure to watch! Out of all the guys playing funk guitar out there today, Roberts is the top of the heap, in my eyes.

In their own ways, you can make a solid arguement that each of these three guys are at the forefront of their respective veins of today’s funk scene. It’s pretty exciting to see them teaming up like this, and you can tell both from the playing, and the facial interactions between them, that they’re having a good time!

– – –

To switch gears for a minute here, this was sort of the first major outing with my new T3i video DSLR, and it was a learning experience. Probably the most major thing I immediately took away from these videos was the importance of holding the camera steady. What seems like minor fumbling on the 3″ camera LCD I watch while filming, turns into jarring and distracting earthquakes on the 24″ LCD at home! Lesson learned!! I got a little wild with my quick zooms at times, which sometimes worked awesome (like right at the beginning of a solo), sometimes seem a bit kitschy but still cool (zooming in along with the beat), and sometimes overdone (too much ranch will ruin any salad).

Note that anytime you can see the keys on Robert’s B3, I’m holding the camera up as high as I can over my head, with the T3i articulating screen pointed 90 degrees down so I can keep things in frame. Boom. There you go–paying extra for the T3i was justified afterall.

Walking sideways and/or *slowly* moving the camera around on an otherwise steady shot turned out to be cool techniques that somewhat capture the excitement of “being there”, instead of the clinical feel of a documentary. I want to experiment more with those in the future. Rotating the camera to odd angles in order to fit as much interesting stuff into the frame as possible was also a good idea. Those shots that tightly frame Eddie’s head at the left and Adam’s drums on the right were cool. I want to try doing more of these so-called “Dutch Angles” in the future.

I also learned that with 1080p at 24fps, it’s a waste of video footage to do any really fast pans, like the ones that sweep over the audience rapidly. With this framerate and quick camera movement, the subject just turns into mush. Finally, another big takeaway is that I need to improve my skills on quickly refocusing with the manual focus ring, specifically by always rotating it in the correct direction. If I want to be able to master moving between subjects and not having moments of blurriness (which can admittedly be sort of cool in limited amounts) I’ll need to develop some better ability for wrangling those rings more responsively! Maybe even DURING a pan between subjects…

There’s room for improvement!

Concert Review: Soulive at Bear Creek

2011 - 06.19

Tags: Bear Creek, concert review, funk, Music
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When I first heard from my friend Cei Cei that Soulive was making a Beatles cover album, I was overwhelmingly excited, but maybe just a bit apprehensive too. Soulive and the Beatles! Jeez, combining two things THAT awesome, could it work? Would it be like a space station and a particle physics experiment; two incredible things that utterly blow your mind when put together? Or would it be like chocolate and pizza; two of the tastiest things out there, which are just… a desecration when combined.

The album came out, I got it, and to my surprise it was somewhere inbetween these extremes. I was fascinated by it, but I just didn’t find myself delighting in it. Hmmm. I gave it a few listens and came to the conclusion which should have been immediately obvious: I need to see this happen in person.

Explaining the appeal of the Beatles/Soulive mashup is a bit like trying to explain the excitement of a formula one race to someone who’s only seen photographs–you need to see it in motion to understand what’s so cool about it. This was a fact in my brain, a piece of knowledge that I had, but did not understand, did not GROK, until I saw Krazno light up those solos on the stage right in front of me.

There’s something about Soulive which seems to be impossible to capture in a recording studio, the same way that a brilliant sunset from an airplane window looks ho-hum in the photo you took. Both musical performance-wise and listener perception-wise, there is a wide gulf between sitting on the couch and thumbing through the liner notes while a funked-out “Come Together” bounces your speaker cones around, versus watching Krazno give you his oh-face in the midst of bending notes in a solo while the keyboard bass is so loud you feel it in your chest and the crowd of funk-addicts around you throws up their hands in exaltation when the top of “She’s So Heavy” comes down on you all like a sledgehammer. That kind of revelrie, that kind of music-gasm just can’t be captured on tape, the same way you can’t catch the smell of a crisp autumn afternoon in a jar.

I’ll cut straight to the chase and say that the Soulive performance was the highlight of Bear Creek 2010 for me. I later recovered the tapes online and listened back to confirm; was it really as mind-blowing as I remember it being?! Answer: Yes. (and maybe no for a few lesser tunes). I’ve seen Soulive five or six times, with various supplimental musicians and they never cease to please, but this show was a treat. Maybe the boys felt they needed to step up the game for the festival crowd, or maybe they were just having fun that night. Either way, they played with a ferocity that put a smile on my face and a fire under my feet.

During the daytime at the Spirit of Suanee park in Florida, it was perfectly warm and pleasant during the day, but dropped down to positively frigid at night. When the guys came out to play, they were all wearing gloves! Alan Evans kicked off the show by launching straight into a loud and energetic drumbeat. All three of them took off the gloves, literally and figuratively, and proceeded to change the way I looked at their latest album. You could see their breath in the cold, and the way Neil Evans was backlit by the red stage lighting, it looked like the man was breathing fire!

I can’t say it’s *the best* show I’ve ever seen them play–that honor goes to 2005 at the House of Blues in Chicago back when they had their horn section with them. THAT show was one of the all-time best-ever shows I will see in my lifetime though, so it’s a bit unfair to compare these. But I will say that Krazno in particular, completely burned that stage to the ground at Bear Creek. I’ve always thought highly of his technical prowess as a soloist, but that night he busted out more chops than a karate tournament. Face=melted.

What draws me to him so much is the way he couples up the frenetic, cerebral phrases of a heady jazz guitarist with the slow-and-deliberate language of a blues guitarist. These come at you in a continuous train of alternating content that picks you up and whirls you around violently, then gently coos in your ear. Listening to him solo is the auditory equivalent of that carnival ride called “The Zipper”–sometimes you’re moving straight forward with no butterflies in your stomach at all. Then all of a sudden your face is slammed into the mat in front of you and you cartwheel five times in rapid succession with the force of several G’s. And you never know when it’s about to hit you.

It’s this that really made the performance, combined with these familiar Beatles anthems that you’ve known your whole life. See this clip of “Something”, a small section of which I captured on video, as seen below:

We got to see the man ply his craft several times at Bear Creek, in a wide variety of settings: Soulive, Lettuce, Lettuce again, Chapter 7 (his solo act), and even late night in a lo-fi jam session underneath the Bear Creek guesthouse. Most of the time he spent onstage was as a backup man, only steppin up occasionally for the quick solo burst. The Chapter 7 show was a joy, although I often wished he would stretch a bit longer. Seeing as it’s his band, I guess Eric prefers it short and sweet. And those two things he was. Having seen him many times in the past, it’s a pleasure to state I think he’s at the top of his game.

Seeing Soulive tear through those Beatles tunes with vigor and visible emotion breathed a whole new life into the Rubber Soulive record for me. I now regret not buying it on LP when I saw it at the merch booth. Maybe it is simply the recollection of how much fun it was to watch the performers up close and to get that energy off the crowd around you, but I unquestionably have a whole new appreciation for the Beatles covers. This album has transcended the league of chocolate pizza to carve itself a niche in the higher eschlons of funk albums, both 1.as a novelty tribute album, and also 2. as work of its own merit, which I now appreciate more having seen it unfold with my own eyes.

Microcosmologist