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We’re just seven weeks away from the inaugural edition of GroundUP Music Festival Alberobello (GUMF-A), which is sure to be an incredibly memorable musical and cultural event. GUMF-A follows in the mode of the well-established, perennially exciting GroundUP Music Festival Miami Beach that has taken place nine times since the inaugural 2017 edition. “Each night, it will see a set from 5-time Grammy Award-winning Snarky Puppy with special guest appearances by some of Italy’s most innovative and expressive instrumentalists,” according to the festival website. This is a recasting of the preview article to now include the daily lineups! There willContinue Reading

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The Psycodelics are one of my favorite new bands of the last several years and they just released their fantastic debut album, “Please Keep Off the Grass.” They bill themselves as modern Black American music and they’re all of that — funk, soul, R&B and jazz all rolled into one beautiful package. They have a sound all their own while also echoing the greats from the past like Sly and the Family Stone, Al Green, and Earth Wind and Fire. I first caught The Psycodelics live last year at a local venue and was immediately a fan. On Jam CruiseContinue Reading

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Apple Cores from James Brandon Lewis is one of my favorite jazz saxophone albums of the last few years. It hits with a natural, primal feeling – at times fully relaxing and others full-throttle stimulation. The first and only time I’ve seen JBL live was at Newport Jazz Festival 2024 with The Messthetics and I found that set totally electrifying. So, when Apple Cores was released, I was keen to give a listen. The album definitely should be heard start-to-finish as it’s well organized and runs a course through a range of feelings. It’s a trio album with James onContinue Reading

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We’re just two months away from the inaugural edition of GroundUP Music Festival Alberobello (GUMF-A), which is sure to be an incredibly memorable musical and cultural event. GUMF-A follows in the mode of the well-established, perennially exciting GroundUP Music Festival Miami Beach that has taken place nine times since the inaugural 2017 edition. “Each night, it will see a set from 5-time Grammy Award-winning Snarky Puppy with special guest appearances by some of Italy’s most innovative and expressive instrumentalists,” according to the festival website. I’ll plan to elaborate a bit more once the daily schedule is released. https://videos.files.wordpress.com/zwmrwFK4/bass_culture_groundup_eng_feed.mp4 On topContinue Reading

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Resonate Suwannee is coming up May 15th-17th on the hallowed festival grounds of Spirit of Suwannee Music Park.  Once again, it’s a STS9 headlining event combining jamtronica, EDM, funk, reggae and aftro-cuban vibes into one amazing lineup. It’s a great vibe with minimal, if any, music overlap on the stages so you get to see as many of the acts as you want with plenty of time to chill as well. As usual, FunkCity.net, will be there soaking it in, predominantly at the live band stages. Here’s the rundown of where I expect to be at any given moment ofContinue Reading

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The recording sessions for “Somni” the new album from Snarky Puppy with the Metropole Orkest was the time of a lifetime. I was fortunate to be able to attend all 6 recording sessions, 2 per night for 3 nights, and it was an experience beyond my wildest dreams. And yes, ‘Somni’  from Catalan translates to ‘Dream’  in English so totally appropriate. First, some background before jumping into the actual recording session experience. So Snarky Puppy is 20 years old in 2025 (first album recorded in 2005 and published in 2006). Starting with their fourth album, “Tell Your Friends” in 2010,Continue Reading

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I became enamored of Artemis in August of 2024 when I first caught them live at the Newport Jazz Festival. Interestingly, Arboresque was recorded in New York City just two weeks after that event, so it’s fitting that I dive in with this review. The group’s bio is shown in the display box on the right and comments from the band are shown with each track. Arboresque is a great jazz album, full stop. The instrumentation configuration of drums, bass, keys, trumpet, and sax enables the sound to be both plush and full and at the same time highlight theContinue Reading

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All The Quiet (Part I) from Joe Armon-Jones is an excellent jazz album with dub and hip-hop influences. Armon-Jones is also the keys player in one of my favorite Euro jazz bands, Ezra Collective, who put out one of my top albums of 2024 (Album Review: Dance, No One’s Watching from Ezra Collective).  The Part II album will be released in approximately 3 months. All The Quiet is mostly groove-oriented with some marching band influences. The album mixes an array of stylings. There are some propulsive funky tunes with the stunning horn section, notably Lifetones, Foregiveness, Nothing Noble and TheContinue Reading

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Naughty Professor have been one of my favorite horn-driven, funk bands for over 10 years. The six-piece band puts the two-sax + trumpet horn section front and center for their shows and pumps out massive funk jams. “Voices” is their fifth full-length album and as indicated from the title, each track features a guest vocalist. Back on their fourth album, “Identity,” in 2017 (they also had the EP, “Everyday Shredder,” in 2019), NP had a mix of guest vocalists and instrumentalists on each track. Further, I know the band and Snarky Puppy have mutual respect — and Snarky Puppy hasContinue Reading