Lettuce at Jam Cruise & Brooklyn Bowl 2011

Lettuce – Move On Up (Curtis Mayfield cover) 1/18/11 Brooklyn Bowl

Lettuce is a funk band that features Eric Krasno (of Soulive) and Adam Deitch (of Break Science). They are funky and have a killer horn section. They’ve been tearing up the live shows lately from Bear Creek (with the JB Horns) to the Caribbean Ocean to NYC.

Full pro-shot video of their Jam Cruise set can be viewed over at Iclips.net: http://www.iclips.net/watch/lettuce-1-6-201
I recommend clicking on the next to last song, Hang Up Your Hangs Ups [a Herbie Hancock & The Headhunters cover] as well as Break Out > Relax.

Barely a week later, on January 18, 2011, Lettuce played a Haiti benefit at the Brooklyn Bowl with Dr. John & Maceo Parker. It was rumored that Prince might show up after his Madison Square Garden gig, but that unfortunately didn’t happen. However, Questlove & Nikki Glaspie (Beyonce’s live drummer) both showed up and luckily there was a second drum kit set up for some extended break beat jams around some James Brown covers.

My friend Scott Bernstein recorded audio of the Brooklyn Bowl show and its one of the best recordings to come out of that room since it opened as a venue just over a year ago. It’s available to stream and/or download at the Live Music Archive in both 16-bit and 24-bit.

The track i’ve shared above is a cover of Curtis Mayfield’s “Move On Up” with a scorching guitar solo from Eric Krasno. See if you catch the three line quote from Bilal’s All That I Am (it’s at 3min6sec).

Herbie Hancock & The Headhunters 1974 Musikladen


Herbie Hancock & The Headhunters – Palm Grease
November 1974 – Bremen, Germany @ Musikladen


Herbie Hancock & The Headhunters – Sly
November 1974 – Bremen, Germany @ Musikladen

I think these videos speak for themselves. This is from a recent rebroadcast on Japanese TV and appears to be virtually uncirculated (until I got my hands on it!). IMO, the best back up for a rare recording is wide circulation and copies everywhere. As such, the entire 66 minute DVD is available for download: http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=341866

I mean, just look at drummer Mike Clark’s shirt. That’s funky!

Dumpstaphunk 11/13/10 Bear Creek Music Festival

Credit to Greg Aiello for the photo

Dumpstaphunk – Stinky into Do That Stuff (11-13-10 Bear Creek)

Let’s begin with a band that you’ve probably heard me praising recently, Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk. These guys are the next generation of New Orleans funk, carrying on the torch from the (Funky) Meters. They’ve been constantly touring for the past 4+ years and have merged into a forceful funk unit to be reckoned with. The band includes Ivan Neville on B3 organ, clavinet and vocals, Ian Neville on rhythm guitar, Tony Hall on guitar, bass and vocals, Nick Daniels III on bass and vocals, and Raymond Weber on drums and vocals.

Every November for the past three years, Dumpstaphunk has descended upon the Bear Creek Music Festival in Live Oak, FL with the “DumpstaJam,” which has included many guests from Bernie Worrell to Eric Krasno (from Soulive) to Derek Trucks to Skerik and the Shady Horns. This year they were joined by George Porter Jr, Freekbass, Roosevelt Collier (from The Lee Boys), Joel Johnson (from Fred Wesley’s band), and a plethora of horn players.

The track I present to you includes Skerik and other horns players. It begins with Dumpstaphunk busting out an older original that they haven’t played much in the past year, Stinky, with only Skerik on sax. This segues into [@7min45sec] the deepest, brownest bass solo I’ve ever heard from Tony Hall, which then segues [around 10min52sec] into a full on rendition of Do That Stuff (a Parliament-Funkadelic cover) with a full horn section that is obviously well prepared for Fred Wesley’s triumphant horn arrangement. It’s unfortunate, however, that Fred Wesley himself didn’t join in on this performance, as he was an artist-at-large at the Festival this year.

Here is a link to the mp3 audio: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9JBEC2WQ

In addition, here is a video of highlights from this DumpstaJam set: (this footage includes excerpts from Stinky > Do That Stuff, including the beginning of Tony’s monstrously low-toned bass solo, from 1min12sec to 2min49sec.

FYI, Dumpstaphunk is on the Live Music Archive and you can stream and/or download many live recordings: http://www.archive.org/details/Dumpstaphunk
Recordings of note:
http://www.archive.org/details/dumpstaphunk2008-11-15.AKG482.FLAC16
http://www.archive.org/details/dumpstajam2009-11-14.matrix.flac16
http://www.archive.org/details/dumpstaphunk2009-04-01.6channelmtx.flac16
http://www.archive.org/details/dumpstaphunk2008-01-25.flac16
http://www.archive.org/details/dphunk2010-10-27.matrix

This is the type of post you can expect from me in the future. So check back often for more goodies.

1 … 89 90 91 92