North Beach Music Festival Precap 2022
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
Suwannee Hulaween 2023 Recap
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
Gem & Jam Festival 2023 Lineup
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
‘Coast’ is a Trip from BTTRFLY Quintet
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
Zach Brock’s Excellent Album — ‘Dirty Mindz’
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
More! Funky Suwannee Hulaween Preview 2022
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
EMPIRE CENTRAL From Snarky Puppy
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
The Deplar Effect from The New Mastersounds
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
Funky Suwannee Hulaween Preview 2022
Suwannee Hulaween is one of the best and largest festivals that I’ve attended every year since 2015 and it’s always ‘jam’-packed, led by its main headliner The String Cheese Incident who typically perform six sets over the festival duration. Here’s how the the organizers describe it – 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 me, theContinue Reading
Lotus’ Bloom and Recede Album Review
Lotus is one of my all time favorite bands, and consistently put out terrific albums. They’re in the group of bands that are great to listen to and also live. Last year, the departure of long-time lead guitarist, Mike Rempel, gave fans pause for concern. However, the quick pick up and assimilation of Tim Palmieri of Kung Fu has put that all to rest. I’ve seen Lotus live three times now with Tim and he is a powerful shredder and is authentic to the lifeblood of Lotus. Bloom and Recede is the first album released with Tim and it’s aContinue Reading