With Easter the next morning and the Jazz & Heritage Festival in their hometown on the horizon, Dumpstaphunk was in celebration mode as they pulled into Brooklyn Bowl on Saturday night 4/20, which itself was another reason to party.
Before the headliners, The Jonathan Scales Fourchestra took the stage to open the night. Their tunes are adventurous jazz-tinged excursions, heavy on percussion as the trio bang out unique sounds. Scales is a steel pannist who writes the tracks but drummer Mason Guidry and bassist E’Lon JD are just as vital to the sound as the music flies all over the place. The wild unique jazz, with the steel pinging leading the way, may not be for everyone but the band (especially the nonstop Guidry) certainly gave it their all.
The New Orleans based Dumpstaphunk confidently eased onto the stage one by one. Nick Daniels III and Tony Hall lead the way allowing for a bass duet to open the night which dripped with a loose booty groove into one of the outfit’s signature tunes “Dancin To The Truth”. Following that up Ivan Neville took the lead for a spotlight on the keyboards and while it didn’t affect the sound, he seemed to be having issues with his setup throughout the night.
Technical issues aside, this is arguably the best funk outfit in the world playing live today, from their gorgeous cover of Curtis Mayfield’s “Superfly” to their rolling soul filled original “I’m Gonna Make It” (with dynamite lead vocals from Daniels) the whole band is top notch. Perhaps the highlight of the whole set was their “Dumpstamental” which started via Deven Trusclair’s drum solo, then mixed in outer space keyboard excursions and pumping horns to cosmic levels of funk all based around the almighty groove.
The hits just kept coming after that including a brilliant cover of Tower of Power’s “Soul Vaccination” complete with a ripping guitar solo from Ian Neville before the groups call for “Justice”. With the 50th Jazz Fest kicking off in under a week, Ivan took some time to talk about it being the best party in the world and invited the audience down south before diving into Earl King’s “Street Parade”. The party was transported into the crowd as the horns (Ryan Nyther – trumpet Alex Wasily – trombone) marched from the stage throughout the venue blasting their brass in the center of the gorgeous venue.
The group’s main set wrapped up with the chunky peanut butter groove of their take on Buddy Miles “United Nations Stomp”, dipping into heavy metal inspired rock before rising to a full group climax. The encore was just gravy as The Isley Brothers “Climbing Up The Ladder” found the trio of the bands’ vocalists (Hall, Neville and Daniels) trading lines as they wrapped up a killer night of fresh and funky tunes.
