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In: Aisle 5, BLOG POSTS, City Winery, GroundUP Music Festival, Lettuce, Smith's Olde Bar, Suwannee Hulaween, Terminal West, The New Mastersounds, Variety Playhouse, Whippersnap Music and Arts Festival

This year was epic for my live music journey having seen well over 200 sets of music and recorded over 80 live performances. The first half of the year had an incredible run of live shows starting with the recording sessions for Snarky Puppy’s album with the Metropole Orkest, “Somni” in Utrecht, Netherlands. That one was recorded professionally by a dozen or so cameras and the videos are being released one by one. After that, I had an mammoth string of music starting with the GroundUP Music Festival in Miami Beach, rolling right into my first Jam Cruise and thenContinue Reading

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In: Aisle 5, BLOG POSTS, City Winery, GroundUP Music Festival, Lettuce, Smith's Olde Bar, Suwannee Hulaween, Terminal West, The New Mastersounds, Variety Playhouse, Whippersnap Music and Arts Festival

Here’s my 1st ever annual video recap of 29 live sets that I recorded this year. This is a sampling of the more than 80 videos I posted on YouTube this year, which is a subset of the videos that I recorded (some are not public), which is yet a further subset of the sets that I’ve actually seen or heard this year (since I don’t record every set). The videos are notable in one way or another, perhaps based on the quality of the recording, the circumstances of the recording or the uniqueness of the set. I’ll give aContinue Reading

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In: BLOG POSTS, City Winery

Tower of Power, one of FunkCity.net’s all time favorite bands, is widely recognized as the best horn band of all time.  They celebrated their 50th anniversary in June this year with a two show blowout in Oakland.  We’re so looking forward to Monday and Tuesday when we’ll be front row at City Winery Atlanta to experience the fantastic all around, polished musicianship of this band. Of course the group is well known for all their “hits” including such gems as “What is Hip?”, “You’re Still A Young Man“, and “So Very Hard To Go” which were all performed during lastContinue Reading

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In: ALBUMS, BLOG POSTS, City Winery

Soul Side of Town is a retro funk, instant classic.  Tower of Power‘s newest album is a beautiful addition to the group’s legacy.  While it doesn’t break new sonic ground,  ToP have always been ahead of their time and have had a great influence on many young funk bands of today such as Lettuce and Snarky Puppy.  Soul Side of Town hits all the right notes and covers a broad space.  In fact, it’s the group’s first #1 Billboard album in 50 years! The album is quite polished and has elements that draw upon the full group discography, for exampleContinue Reading

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In: BLOG POSTS, City Winery

Nice interview with Jeff Watkins of The New Orleans Suspects. Definitely an under the radar supergroup that you need to check out if you haven’t already got the word. We set out to New Orleans to talk to saxophone player Jeff Watkins, who after years of touring with greats like James Brown and Joss Stone, have pulled together a supergroup of musicians called … Source: JAMES BROWN CALLED THIS MAN “THE NINTH WONDER OF THE WORLD” — AM FM Studios MagazineContinue Reading

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In: BLOG POSTS, City Winery

The New Orleans Suspects are a an unsung, multi-talented, all-star band playing fantastic NOLA-style funk.  This was definitely my favorite City Winery show to-date as they brought the raucus, ruckus that they’re known for from the opening licks of Swampthang to the rousing finale of Big Chief. The City Winery venue is a great venue to see a show and get up front and personal with the artists.  It’s a kind of dinner theater atmosphere where you can get some nice grub coupled with wine made on premises, but it’s a traditional seated venue which is not the usual SuspectsContinue Reading