Like their left coast cousins The Greyboy Allstars, Lettuce is something of a modern urban musical myth. Formed in the 90's out of common experience and taste, members of the band went out on individual projects—Soulive, Scofield and solo—before coalescing once again into a powerful funk collective.
The Greyboy Allstars tend to exist where the musical culmination of funk, soul, jazz, groove and rock converge. This eclectic musical mish-mosh is in the midst of a national tour that brought them through Portland Oregon’s Roseland Theater on Friday March 28th. As always they were greeted with much of the famed Pacific Northwest hospitality, and as the night progressed it once again became clear that we love the Allstars here in Oregon.
For their second Sullivan performance, Lettuce wasted no time getting the crowd grooving with tunes from their new release, RAGE!. Paying homage to all stripes of funksters including Parliament / Funkadelic, James Brown, Sly Stone, Herbie Hancock, and Earth Wind & Fire, Lettuce proved- to the delight of the crowd- that funk is alive and well.
P.B.S. (Porter, Batiste, Stoltz) is finally getting the opportunity to cool their heels a bit after an extended West coast tour that took them to cities large and small. Along the way in Portland Oregon, Glide had the opportunity to sit down with George Porter Jr., Russell Batiste Jr., and Brian Stoltz to talk about the rigors and realities of life on the road, the inspirational process of creating music together, and George Porter Jr.’s obsession with the internet.
If there's a word for the Dumpstaphunk experience-and articulating what gives great funk bands their mojo is a futile exercise-it's "full." Politics, passion, punch, and professionalism-and you're dancing your face off all the while.
Sharon Jones has officially arrived. With her sold-out show at the Beacon Theatre, the 51-year-old soul singer reached a significant point in a long, fractured career.
Having just released a brand new album, the children’s themed “Let’s Go Everywhere”, it would be easy to think Medeski, Martin and Wood would be playing the Chuck E. Cheese circuit. Instead, this ever-evolving three- piece is focusing its energy on the ambitious goal of rewriting the “traditional” rules of touring.
Photos by David Oppenheimer of Maceo Parker at the Orange Peel in Asheville, NC on 2/10/08.
The recently announced late 2007 New York appearances of Sly and the Family Stone will no doubt focus attention on the re-mastered limited-edition catalog titles released earlier in the year.
The Afromotive get freaky on their debut album Scare Tactics with nine tracks of funky polyrhythms that could summon James Brown's ghost.
