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Back when EMPIRE CENTRAL was released, I wrote a full review and declared that “this album will be nominated for and win Grammy (or two).” In fact, it has now made it to the second round as “Best Contemporary Instrumental Album” nomination and has also been released in Dolby Atmos format on all streaming platforms. The full review covers track-by-track and each tells its own story. Here, I took on the impossible task of highlighting some of the highlight moments and solos from some of the songs. It’s absolutely an album that should be in your rotation. I’d love toContinue Reading

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Joe Marcinek is a conjurer, always evolving and he does it again with JMB5 the unassuming name for his fifth studio album. As with his live shows his lineup of musicians change enabling him to capture a wide range of sounds and styles, always keeping it fresh and interesting. He’ll point out that he has is equal parts Chicago Blues, New Orleans Funk, Grateful Dead Psychedelia, and Jazz Fusion! That’s no lie — it’s true even within one album like JMB5. For this one, he recruited the B3 heavyweight Robert Walter who has been a featured player of The GreyboyContinue Reading

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North Beach Music Festival (NBMF) is just one week away! The second iteration looks to be funk filled and jam packed, right up my alley and can’t wait. It’s hard to top last year’s inaugural but the brothers Plotnicki have outdone themselves with several of of my favorite bands and musiciancs on the planet! It features Lotus and Lettuce, two perennial favorites as the Saturday and Sunday headliners and opens with the jammiest of jam bands Moe. on Friday night. Skerik, the mystical saxophonist and keyboardist, will add spice to several acts as the Artist-at- Large. On top of allContinue Reading

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Hulaween has become one of the best, most popular multi-genre festivals in the East since it’s inception in 2013. I’ve now attended seven in a row since 2015 (no event in 2020) and somehow it keeps getting bigger and better.  It’s a split of live bands and electronic music, five stages from very large to intimate-sized, spread out among a tree-canopied campground for four days, Thursday to Sunday. String Cheese Incident is the headliner always — it’s their festival — and they typically perform six sets, two each day, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Back in 2015, I didn’t know muchContinue Reading

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Gem & Jam Festival has announced the full lineup for its 15th annual edition set to take place February 3 – 5, 2023. The three-day music, art, performance, and gem & mineral festival will return to the scenic desert landscapes of Pima County Fairgrounds in Tucson, Arizona.  Headliners include legendary jam band The String Cheese Incident and psychedelic bass purveyor LSDream, both of whom will be making their Gem & Jam Festival debuts. Gem & Jam veteran headliners include electro-funk duo The Floozies and genre-melding producer Emancipator.  Gem & Jam Festival will also welcome back acts like the genre-blending funk band The Motet, electro-twang outfit Dirtwire, psychedelic dub producer Ott, saxophone-wielding bass producer SoDown, Canadian glitch-hop duo The FunkContinue Reading

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BTTRLY Quintet is a great band arising out of the pandemic and Coast is an epic debut. The band played a few shows live at Cervantes and has compiled some great stuff here from the combination of members of Lettuce (Eric “Benny” Bloom, Adam Deitch), Break Science (Borahm Lee, Hunter Roberts and Deicth) and Big Gigantic (Dominic Lalli). Its got some thick jazz roots with some funk jams and electronic cruises. This is not a melding of the industry veterans sounds but the forging of a new sound in the vein of great funk fusion bands like The Crusaders. NowContinue Reading

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Zach Brock is the greatest jazz fusion violinist since Jean-Luc Ponty, hands down. Zach is a long-time member of the world-jazz-funk-fusion band Snarky Puppy and its only violinist. One of his long-time heroes and influences is Jean-Luc and he really has become the standard bearer for this generation! Dirtz Mindz is a vista of violin virtuosity, a pastiche to Ponty. It stretches from neo-classical soli to fusion fireworks and roaring rock jams. Zach summons an absolute all-star ensemble for the album including Eric Harland (drums), Jonathan Maron (bass) and Chris Bullock (sax), Justin Stanton (keys, trumpet) and Mark Lettieri (guitar)Continue Reading

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Suwannee Hulaween always has one of the deepest lineups of any major jam festival. I’ve attended every year since 2015 always enjoy its main headliner The String Cheese Incident who typically perform six sets over the festival duration. Here’s the organizers description – Since its inception in 2013, the Halloween-themed music, arts and camping festival has evolved into one of the country’s most coveted cross-genre affairs. Curating dynamic lineups that range from electronic, jam, and indie to bluegrass, funk, soul and hip-hop, Suwannee Hulaween’s ability to abolish genre confines is evident year after year. For four days, across five stages, it’sContinue Reading

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Snarky Puppy’s EMPIRE CENTRAL is one of the most anticipated, absolutely amazing album to be produced in my lifetime!  I was fortunate to be at the recording sessions (see link) and that was a life-changing experience! Now, just six months later, the ensemble’s latest masterstroke is released. The two discs are total earcrack – you can’t get enough of it and listening leads to more listening. It’s a gumbo of styles with songs written by a dozen or so different people. The theme of the album was to be centered around Dallas, the area where group first formed. The titlesContinue Reading

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The New Mastersounds have long been one of my favorite bands recorded and live. The pandemic put both of those on hold for nearly three years – the last time I saw them was exactly three years ago at Terminal West in Atlanta. NMS from Leeds, England, have been around for more than 20 years and are a leader in retro funk. Over the years, they’ve evolved from being largely an instrumental group with the four core players melding perfectly together to inclusive of more vocals, especially on The Deplar Effect and the previous album Shake It. Both feature LamarContinue Reading