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We’re just one week away from GroundUP Music Festival, February 2-4 at the beautiful North Beach Bandshell, in Miami Beach, Florida. Each year the festival brings internationally acclaimed artist together for a one-of-a-kind event. Michael League, the leader of Snarky Puppy, and the artistic director of the festival took time out from his schedule to chat with Jake Funkmayor of FunkCity.net about the festival planning, the unique artist lineup including historic appearances and first time U.S. appearances, and the multi-artist collaboration in a Family Dinner-style set taking place on opening night. Check out the full interview here – https://youtu.be/vfXkmGCVXIoContinue Reading

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Last week, I covered the annual GroundUP Music Festival in Miami Beach coming up February 2-4. It’s the greatest adventure for musical exploration in the U.S.  Since its inception in 2017, in addition to the main festival performances, there have been artist workshops during the day, pre-festival brunches with artist performances and late night parties after the festival closes. This year’s brunches and late nights are as spectacular as ever with extra-special performances including individual artists and late-night performances. Here’s the rundown of each – I plan to attend as many sets as my body will allow. BRUNCHES Bill LauranceContinue Reading

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The annual GroundUP Music Festival in Miami Beach coming up February 2-4 is the preeminent event in the realm of world-class funk, jazz, fusion and world music. This year’s event is shaping up to be the most spectacular of all. I can say that having attended all prior events going back to 2017, considering the totality of the regular festival programming, the late night sets and the brunches just announced this past week. Each year, Michael League, Snarky Puppy’s leader, bassist and festival artistic director and Paul Lehr, head of GroundUP Music put together a lineup that has many unfamiliarContinue Reading

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Stings, the third studio album from Kamaal Williams is a masterpiece and FunkCity.net’s 2023 Album of the Year. This large compendium stretches across 13 tunes and almost as many genres, from hip-hop to acid jazz to neo-classical. The diversity of the vibes keeps it interesting from start to finish.  In a year when there were many stellar releases, Stings stands out for its depth and breadth of scenic imagery. Each song is part of a colorful tapestry, conjuring up calming feelings at one turn (The Last Symphony, Little River) to adrenaline pumping energy at another (Stings, Dogtown).  Kamaal, born HenryContinue Reading

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It’s time to close the book on 2023 with my annual Best Albums coverage of a whopping 27 recordings. The list includes many from my Track-by-Track reviews and several on top of that from which the FunkCity.net album of the year will be selected. The selections are not in any special order so dig in anywhere you’d like. Links to  each album on YouTube are included in the writeup and links to my full album reviews are included where available (and will be updated as time permits). These albums were my most listened to and include selections in jazz, funk,Continue Reading

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Chris Bullock is perhaps best known as the sax player for Snarky Puppy, the 5-time Grammy-winning funk-world-jazz fusion band. Chris leans most heavily on tenor sax with the band but also hits flute regularly and occasionally on soprano sax and bass clarinet. His solos are always adventurous and powerful. On the recent Empire Central album, he penned one of the funkiest tunes called East Bay. On Chris’ prior solo release, Boomtown, he relied heavily on keys and electronic jams for a very modern musical journey. Now, with the release of his latest album, he takes it back to some straightContinue Reading

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Adam Deitch Quartet’s second album is a heater, with some of the grooviest, soul-jazz around. Adam is known as the drummer, composer and founding member of today’s leading funk band, Lettuce. For the quartet, he is joined by fellow Lettuce bandmates, Eric “Benny” Bloom on trumpet and Ryan Zoidis on saxophones as well as Wil Blades, a master of the B3 organ. Like it’s predecessor, Egyptian Secrets, this album is brilliant with the full 4 playing syncrhonously and then dividing in pairs drum-organ / trumpet-sax and then again with each taking rich solos throughout. I really dig the jazzier sideContinue Reading

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North Beach Music Festival (NBMF) has quickly established itself as an automatic ‘yes, I will attend’ festival based on its December timing, Miami Beach location and absolutely stellar lineup each year.  Since its inception in 2021, the brothers Plotnicki, have curated incredible jam, funk, soul, electronica , and jazz artists onto the fest’s 3-day schedule. In just two short weeks, we’ll be back on the beach and here’s a quick rundown of the daily schedules. Friday, December 1 This year the Disco Biscuits dominate NBMF with two sets on opening night + an encore on Saturday. The Philly jam bandContinue Reading

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Hulaween is a much-hyped festival for good reason – it’s almost impossible to chronicle the experience for anyone uninitiated to the event. This year’s 10th anniversary edition was no exception and I was thrilled to be there as a fan and music video journalist.  There are multiple reasons why the festival is so special – the music is spread across five stages and spans genres from massive EDM light shows and String Cheese Incident extravaganzas to medium and smaller rock, jam, funk, pop, and world musiuc stars.  I’ve come to learn and appreciate that every attendee is going to haveContinue Reading

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Corinne Bailey Rae (CBR) is one of my all-time favorite vocalists and I’ve been a fan for just about 20 years, ever since I first heard her sing ‘Your Love Is Mine” with The New Mastersounds (NMS) back in 2003 on their ‘Be Yourself’ album.  They’re all from Leeds, UK so it’s a close connection. At about that time I also became a fan of The Haggis Horns of whom, CBR’s deceased husband Jason Rae was a founding member. So, when Corinne’s eponymous debut album came out in 2006, I was already hooked. Then she hit the airwaves with ‘LikeContinue Reading