Tag: Sly & The Family Stone

Members of Dumpstaphunk & The Neville Brothers pay tribute to The Meters at private jazz fest party at the Maple Leaf

Nearly a year ago, during the 2nd weekend of the 2011 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the 4th Annual SF Management Crawfish Boil kicked off at the Maple Leaf Bar. The music started at 7pm, so you’d have to forego your after-jazz fest nap if you wanted to see this show. All proceeds from the event were donated to the New Orleans Musicians Assistance Foundation.

Shari Frank, the event coordinator, always makes it a point to put together a unique combination of musicians. For 2011, it was Ivan Neville, Ian Neville, and Tony Hall (from Dumpstaphunk) with David Russell Batiste (from The Funky Meters). Mark Rechler’s Circus Mind opened the show with choice covers such as Bill Wither‘s Use Me and Joe Cocker‘s version of Traffic‘s Feelin Alright. Midway, Gaynielle Neville, Cyril Neville‘s lovely wife, and her entourage stormed the stage for a few originals and a romp through the Sly & The Family Stone classic, Everyday People.

Video 1 of 4: Ain’t No Use (To Cut You Loose) [w/ Mark Rechler & Steve Finkelstein],
Doodle Oop (The World Is A Little Bit Under The Weather) [w/ Steve Finkelstein]

Slowly, the musicians filtered in and out, before we were left with 3/4th of Dumpstaphunk (Ivan Neville, Ian Neville & Tony Hall) + 1/4 of The Funky Meters (Russell Batiste). This is when things got interesting with some very deep cuts from The Meters‘ time-honored back catalog. What’cha Say. Gettin’ Funkier All The Time. These are Meters tunes that rarely if ever have been played live by either the original lineup or the Funky Meters lineup. Ivan and his friends put forth faithful interpretations that also expanded into heavy funk improvisations. Mojo Hannah, a Tami Lynn tune that was a staple of The Neville Brothers‘ repertoire was particularly soulful.

Just when I thought it couldn’t get much funkier, Cyril Neville busted onto the stage with an exhilarating performance of The Meters’ Chug A Lug, which then turned into a percussion jam between Cyril and Russell Batiste. Then Ivan teased in the chords of Zigaboo Modeliste‘s crescent city anthem, Welcome To New Orleans. That’s when my crew and I knew that we’d arrived.

Video 2 of 4: Chug A Lug [w/ Cyril Neville] > Welcome To New Orleans [w/ Cyril Neville]

Video 3 of 4:Gettin’ Funkier All The Time, Just Kissed My Baby

Video 4 of 4:What’Cha Say, Mojo Hannah,
The Same Thing (Makes You Laugh, Makes You Cry) [w/ Steve Finkelstein]

The full audio recording of this performance is available to stream or download over at Live Music Archive.

And if you’re interested in the 2012 SF Management Crawfish Boil, to take place on Saturday, May 5th, go to the SF Management website.

Dr. Klaw’s epic funk throwdown with Ivan Neville & guests at Bear Creek Music Fest 2011

Dr. Klaw is a funk super unit: 2 parts Lettuce, 2 parts Dumpstaphunk. The other part is usually the soulful keys man extraordinaire Nigel Hall, but on this occasion Nigel was replaced by Sir Ivan Neville since Nigel was out on the road making that big money with the Warren Haynes Band. (Although Nigel did get Warren to drop him off the next day so he could briefly rage Bear Creek with Eric Krasno’s Chapter 2 and Lettuce).

Anyway, Dr. Klaw mixed it up with several guests. They welcomed sit-ins by the Shady Horns (Sam Kininger and Ryan Zoidis) augmented by artist at large Jonathan Lloyd on trombone. Robert Walter snuck in on the organ a few times, and up-and-comer Jamie McLean added some very tasteful shredding guitar parts on several tunes. (Check Jamie out on these videos of the secret Tree House After Party Jam Session). It was also nice to hear Ivan Neville get down on a synthesizer, an instrument he doesn’t take on the road and you don’t hear him play very often.

By the time this performance ended at 3:30am Saturday morning our ears were exhausted by over 12 hours of literally non-stop funk, yet we had 2 more days of blissful aural delights forthcoming….

Dr. Klaw
November 11, 2011
Live Oak, FL @ Bear Creek Music Festival
(1) I Believe It
(2) The Same Thing [Sly Stone cover]
(2) The Lost Rager (w/ Jonathan Lloyd, Ryan Zoidis & Sam Kininger)

Dr. Klaw
November 11, 2011
Live Oak, FL @ Bear Creek Music Festival
(1) God Made Me Funky [Headhunters cover] (w/ Robert Walter, Jamie McLean, Jonathan Lloyd, Ryan Zoidis & Sam Kininger)
(2) Hercules [Aaron Neville cover] (w/ Nikki Glaspie, Robert Walter, Jamie McLean, Jonathan Lloyd, & Ryan Zoidis)
(3) Higher Ground [Stevie Wonder cover] (w/ Andrew Block, Jamie McLean & Sam Kininger)
(4) Beef (w/ Jamie McLean)

Dr. Klaw:
Nick “Dr. Klaw” Daniels III: bass, vocals
Ian Neville: guitar
Adam Deitch: drums
Eric Krasno: guitar
Ivan Neville: keys, vocals (replacing Nigel Hall)

VIDEO 1: Canon Vixia HF21 by RLBayers
VIDEO 2: Zoom Q3 by Adam Firtel of CHeeSeHeaDPRoDuCTioNS
AUDIO: Sony ECM-MS908C (front row on video camera) + LiveMusicNola‘s mix (32 channel multi-track using all channels from the stage + 2 rooms mics)

P.S. If these videos aren’t enough, check out more videos of Dr. Klaw on the Creole Queen Riverboat during Jazz Fest 2011.

More Bear Creek Music Festival VIDEOS: Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio / Spam Allstars with Pee Wee Ellis / Breakestra

When we left Atlanta on Friday morning, our goal was to arrive at Bear Creek Music Festival, set up camp, and get our asses down to the Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio set at 3pm. After some fast driving and an even faster tent set up, we set out to explore the magical Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park with time to spare.

As we exited the campground area, I encountered the Big IV Ampitheater for the first time. I had seen pictures and heard stories, but now I was able to truly appreciate the wonder of this small piece of earth they call Suwannee. At that point in time, the Spam Allstars were on-stage with Pee Wee Ellis guesting.

As I pulled out my video camera to shoot my first video of the weekend, they began the James Brown classic, Cold Sweat! I started shooting immediately, then decided to try out my new press pass to enter the pit area. You can see at the end of the video as I try to enter and security informs me that my press pass only allows access to the pit during the first 3 songs of each set. Turned away, I stopped filming in order to better absorb this magical place with my own senses, rather than the camera. Accordingly, this particular video is less than 3 minutes long, but it shows some of the vibe on this Friday afternoon.

Spam Allstars w/ Pee Wee Ellis – Cold Sweat 11/11/11 Bear Creek:

Bear Creek is like late night at New Orleans Jazz Fest on steroids. You have to walk away from someone like Pee Wee Ellis in order to catch another legend like Dr. Lonnie Smith. I was excited for his trio in large part because of the drummer, Jamire Williams, who has played with Christian Scott, Robert Glasper, Gretchen Parlato, Bilal, and others from the NYC jazz/hip-hop scene. Although, I was equally impressed with guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg, whom I wasn’t familiar with. Anyway, When the good organ doctor and his trio came out the silky smooth B-3 organ sounds wafted through the warm afternoon air and all was good…

Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio – Mellow Mood 11/11/11 Bear Creek:

Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio – Beehive 11/11/11 Bear Creek:

Finally, I’ll include another early afternoon video, this one from Sunday morning. Breakestra took a rare trip out of the LA area to bring their non-stop medley of hip-hop samples to Florida, and I was able to capture a few bars…

Breakestra – Medley (Ring Of Fire > Greedy G > Shifting Gears > Champ > Because I Got It Like That > Funky Soul > Getcho Soul Togetha) 11/12/11 Bear Creek:

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