Funk It’s Bear Creek Music Fest 2013 Videos

Here it is. A massive slap of funk upside your head. This highlight video will give you a glimpse into this “funky festival in the fall”. Featuring clips from 39 different performances over 3 days and 4 nights, this 27 minute collage represents the work of one man armed with 3 video cameras and 1 mic. With any event bringing together this many talented musicians and acts you can never experience all of it, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t try.

Funk It’s Bear Creek Music & Art Festival 2013 Highlight Video:

Funk It’s Bear Creek Music & Art Festival 2013 Highlight Video:
01. Bernie Worrell Orchestra – Red Hot Momma [Funkadelic cover] (with Freekbass)
02. Jennifer Hartswick Band – Naive Melody (This Must Be The Place) [Talking Heads cover]
03. Lee Fields & The Expressions – Ladies
04. Profit – Yes We Can [Allen Toussaint cover] (with Rachel Murray & Nigel Hall)
05. Robert Walter’s 20th Congress – Corry’s Snail and Slug Death
06. Galactic – Sunday Araq (with Bernie Worrell)
07. Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe – The Hen
08. Bootsy Collins & The Funk Unity Band – Bootsy? (What’s the Name of this Town)
09. Chali 2na & The House of Vibe – Comin’ Thru
10. The Roots – Fantastic [Slum Village / J Dilla cover]
11. Bear Creek Allstars – Them Changes [Buddy Miles cover] (Dumpstaphunk with George Porter Jr, Eric Krasno & Neal Evans)
12. Bear Creek Allstars – For My Friend [Bill Withers cover] (Lettuce with Nigel Hall & Alecia Chakour)
13. Bear Creek Allstars – Shake Everything You Got [Maceo Parker cover] (Ian Neville, Andrew Block, Matt Grondin, Eric Vogel, Joey Porter, Joe Tatten, and ?? on drums)
14. The Nth Power – Jazz Fest 420
15. Toubab Krewe – Keme
16. Ron Haynes’ Game Changers – A Few Good Men [Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band cover]
17. The Revivalists – Chase’s House
18. Monophonics – Sure Is Funky
19. The New Mastersounds – On The Border
20. Space Capone – A-Rod

Galactic with Bernie Worrell

21. The Motet – Gettin’ To Know You [Parliament cover] (with Nigel Hall)
22. Jennifer Hartswick Band – You Got The Love [Rufus & Chaka Khan cover]
23. Galactic – Dollar Diva (with Maggie Koerner & David Shaw)
24. Zach Deputy – Cellular Phone (with Roosevelt Collier)
25. Robert Walter’s 20th Congress – Honky Tonk [Miles Davis cover]
26. The Pimps of Joytime – Dank Janky
27. Antibalas – Beaten Metal (with Skerik)
28. Brownout – Into The Void [Black Sabbath cover] (with Skerik)
29. Kung Fu – Scrab
30. Bonobo Live Band – Sapphire

The Roots at Bear Creek Music Festival

31. George Porter Jr’s Runnin’ Pardners – Ride Your Pony [The Meters cover]
32. Mike Dillon Band – Monk Meets Fela (with Weedie Braimah)
33. Skerik’s Orchestra At Large – Improvisation (with Mike Dillon, George Porter Jr, Brian J, Ryan Zoidis, Igmar Thomas, Natalie Cressman, Cheme Gastelum, Khris Royal, Lucas Ellman, Weedie Braimah & ?? on keys)
34. The Legendary JC’s – Lifted Me (with George Porter Jr & Mike Dillon)
35. Roosevelt Collier & Nigel Hall’s Gospel Surprise – How I Got Over (Nikki Glaspie, Nick Cassarino, Nate Edgar, Weedie Braimah, James Casey, Natalie Cressman, Alecia Chakour, Jennifer Hartswick & ???)
36. Zach Deputy – Home
37. Dumpstaphunk – I Wish You Would (with Natalie Cressman, Igmar Thoms, James Casey, Skerik & ???)
38. Lettuce – Last Suppit
39. Zach Deputy, Jesus Coomes & Simon Allen – After Party Jam Session Improv

Several other videos from the festival have already been posted at http://www.youtube.com/user/thefunkitblog and many more will follow, so stay tuned.

Also, check out Bee Getz’ masterful written review over at JamBase.

Bootsy Collins at Bear Creek Music Festival

Roy Hargrove & The RH Factor – April 2, 2004 Cully Jazz Festival, Switerzland

Roy Hargrove & The RH Factor – Hardgroove 4/2/04 Cully Jazz Fest, Switzerland

Shortly after D’Angelo disbanded The Soultronics in late 2000 to begin working on his (still) long awaited follow up to Voodoo, Roy Hargrove, a former member of The Soultronics and an established jazz musician in his own right, decided to take his music in a more funk and soul oriented direction.

In late 2002, Hargrove debuted his new band, The RH Factor, at the Monterey Jazz Festival. This new group included two other Soultronics alumnus, Chalmers “Spanky” Alford and “Brother Jacques Schwarz-Bart. Your interest should be piqued. If not, just press play and listen to the interplay of the dual drum kits held down by Willie Jones III and Jason Thomas. Add the keyboard stylings and soulful vocals of Miss Renée Neufville and it is clear that Mr. Hargrove had hit upon quite a combo.

The band went on to put out an EP and 2 albums featuring many guests, including D’Angelo, Q-Tip, Meshell Ndegeocello, Erykah Badu and Common. All 3 discs are highly recommended. In the following years, Hargrove continued to tour sporadically with The RH Factor in Europe, although with various members changes. To my knowledge their most recent tour was in 2009. Let’s hope that Hargrove again decides to divert his attention from his straight ahead jazz in favor of the deep jazz funk that this group produces.

Roy Hargrove & The RH Factor
April 2nd, 2004
Cully Jazz Festival, Switzerland @ Chapiteau de Cully
FM/SBD > ? > CDR > EAC > WAV > MP3

MP3 DOWNLOAD LINK: http://funkit.minus.com/mWKHgawh9

1. In A Silent Way 7:18
2. It’s About That Time 6:14
3. It’s About That Time (cont.) 4:51
4. Hardgroove > Pastor T 24:06
5. Forget Regret 10:40
6. “Truth Be Told” 3:50 (fade out, end)

Roy Hargrove (tp, voc)
The RH Factor:
Renée Neufville (voc, keyb)
Keith Anderson (ts, as)
Jacques Schwarz-Bart (ts, f, g)
Bobby Sparks (keyb, org)
Chalmers “Spanky” Alford (g)
Reggie Washington (b)
Jason Thomas (dr)
Willie Jones III (dr)

John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme”, covered and funkifized


John Medeski, Skerik & Adam Deitch – A Love Supreme (John Coltrane cover)
August 13, 2011 Stratton, VT @ Royal Family Affair

To celebrate John Coltrane’s 85th birthday, I bring you two funkifized covers of Coltrane’s seminal recording with his “Classic Quartet”: “A Love Supreme.”

The first cover is a recent performance of a once-only band: John Medeski (of Medeski, Martin & Wood), Skerik (of Garage A Trois & The Dead Kenny Gs) and Adam Deitch (of Lettuce, Break Science & Eric Krasno’s Chapter 2). This one starts out very spacey until Deitch drops his hip-hop inflected beats, creating a wicked groove. The full recording of the show can downloaded at etree.

The second cover is from a 2002 performance by “Mike Clark & Friends.” Mike Clark is, of course, the legendary jazz-funk drummer that started out with Herbie Hancock & The Headhunters. Mike Clark’s “friends” on this occassion were Jessica Lurie (of Living Daylights) on sax and flute, as well as the core of Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey: Brian Haas on fender rhodes and Reed Matthis on bass.

This one is quite a journey. Of special note is the middle section (about 7.5 minutes in) in which Haas takes over the bass lines on the rhodes and Matthis begins to play the lead with his bass running through an octave pedal. They definitely take this piece to a place it’s never been before (or since).


Mike Clark & Friends – A Love Supreme (John Coltrane cover)
July 20, 2002 Oxford, OH @ Camp Buzz 9

Special thanks to Mike Wren for the use of his photos and Rob Clarke for the audio!

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