Cruising to ‘Point of No Return’ from Malcolm Strachan
Malcolm Strachan, the trumpeter for The Haggis Horns, released his second “solo” album this year, Point of No Return. Although it’s a solo album, the core band on “Point Of No Return” are musicians that Malcolm has known and worked with for over two decades, often in The Haggis Horns, and most appeared on the debut album. Newcomers this time are longtime Haggis Horns guest percussionist Sam Bell plus special guest vocalist UK jazz singer Jo Harrop, who adds non-verbal Flora Purim style vocals on tracks one and three. I covered hisdebut album About Time back in 2020 so IContinue Reading
GroundUP Music Festival 2023 Recap
Finally getting to putting my thoughts together on the fantastic GroundUP Music Festival 2023 experience. This ‘Snarky Puppy’ festival is like no other, an intimate 14-hour per day, 3 day intimate event put on at the North Beach Bandshell for a max crowd of 1,500, comprised heavily of musicians and of course avid music fans. Michael League, Snarky Puppy founder and leader, is a musical genius and he compiles a lineup like no other in the world- a mix of well-known or up-and-coming or under-the-radar artists all with unique voices and sounds. Each day schedule features a Snarky Puppy set,Continue Reading
Listen (to) “All Day” (from) The Motet
When I think of Denver funk, The Motet is the first band I think of. They’ve been putting out great albums for more than 20 years, with All Day, being their 10th and I’ve been with them most of that time. This album takes them back to their funk roots of hard hitting, retro-echoing, mood-enhancing instrumental music. In a way, the band has come full circle, from its afro-cuban stylings through it’s two eras with lead vocals and back. All throughout, The Motet‘s live sets always featured two or three tunes featuring instrumentals. One new twist for this release isContinue Reading
EMPIRE CENTRAL From Snarky Puppy – Album of the Year
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
Joe Marcinek’s JMB5 Evolution
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
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