The Dispatch: a Southpaw blog

The Budos Band is the quintessence of Staten Island Soul. Their exciting new afro-influenced take on instrumental music has been captivating listeners from turntables as well as bandstands across the nation. Eleven pieces in all, their group consists of drums, bass, guitar, electric organ, two trumpets, baritone saxophone, and a percussion section employing bongos, congas, tambourine, guiro, clave, shekere and cowbell. Their music has been described as “compelling”, “unbridled”, “psychedelic”, “innovative”, and above all “soulful.” However, like many majestic things, their sound had humble beginnings.

The core of the band met as youths while all participating in an after school jazz ensemble at the Richmond Ave. Community Center, in Staten Island, New York. It wasn’t long before their common hunger for the rougher stripped down sounds of Soul Music brought them together for late night ferry rides into Manhattan, where they would sneak in the back door of the No Moore Club downtown to hear bands like Antibalas, the Sugarman Three, and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. It was there, in that basement hothouse packed with only the hippest James Brown fanatics and Fela Kuti disciples, where the kernels of instrumental Afro-Soul were first sown into the fertile minds of these talented young men. Kernels which would later germinate and grow into the roots of their strong unique sound. After meeting resistance from the band director about the direction they were trying to take the music, they left the Community Center to form Los Barbudos, (spanish for “the bearded ones”) a name which was later trimmed to The Budos Band after one of the boys shaved. With the recruitment of a few horn players from the neighboring borough of Brooklyn, the band began to practice regularly, exploring the outer cosmic boundaries of afro-beat and soul music from the safety of their tiny concrete rehearsal space on Sand St. As they learned and grew together, their music matured, expanding and settling into a groove as deep and as broad as the Hudson Bay itself. By the time they had arranged a chance to play for a Daptone A&R man, their sound had hardened to a diamond. They were signed on the spot and scheduled to go into the studio immediately for a recording session where they would proceed to cut their first full length album in the better part of three nights.

With the release of their self-titled debut album in November of 2005, the Budos Band officially joined the ranks of the Daptone Family and began to perform more and more frequently as part of the Daptone Soul Revue, alongside many of the very acts that had inspired them only a few years before at the No Moore Club. In classic Daptone Family form, Budos guitarist Tommy ‘TNT’ Brenneck has since joined as a full-ranking member of the illustrious Dap-Kings band, and Dap-Kings’ trumpeter David Guy has reached across in turn to join the Budos Band for appearances both on the band stand and in the studio. Show after show, the Budos Band have proven their ability not only to deliver the unique, afro-psychedelic raw funk sound of their first record live, but to surpass it with dynamic soulful performances that have whipped crowds into dancing frenzies from coast to coast.

In sight of the quantity and quality of the repertoire that had continued to deepen the band’s on stage arsenal since their first release, it was not difficult for Brenneck and the boys to convince Daptone house producer Bosco Mann that they were ripe and ready for another studio outing. Thus, in early March of this year, the Budos Band returned to Daptone’s notorious “House of Soul” in Bushwick, Brooklyn to record live what would be ninety percent of their sophomore album. (One song, Mas O Menos, originally intended to be a 45’ only release, was recorded in a session last fall.) This second record, The Budos Band II, slated for release later this summer, highlights the subtleties of the bands abilities to navigate eerily beautiful and captivatingly melodic arrangements through the psychedelic soundscape of their distinct Afro-Soul universe. It is an interesting side note that on both the final night of their tracking session for their first record, and that of their second, there occurred strangely ominous, if coincidental, lunar eclipses.

The musicians claim the secret to their enormous sound is a selfless approach to rhythm: each man finding his own place and purpose in the greater landscape of the measure. However, any observant listener can hear that it is something far more simple and rare that elevates their sound beyond the sphere of cognitive reason and into that far greater realm of pure feeling: The Budos Band have Soul, on the inside. And it’s strong.

THE JAY VONS

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Jay-Vons/150639314826

Robert Christgau wrote:“Its electric Miles with soul, Maggot Brain with a PHD, the Hendrix Evans band of dreams, the underwater funk some hear in A.R. Kane.”

from left-to-right:
Bruce Mack – keyboards – Dave Smith – trombone – Chelsea Adewunmi -vocals – Paula Henderson – bari sax – Micah Gaugh – alto sax – Karma Mayet Johnson -vocals
Jared Michael Nickerson – electric bass – Chris Eddleton – drums – Mazz Swift – violin/vocals – Lewis “Flip” Barnes Jr. – trumpet – Avram Fefer – tenor sax – Will Martina – cello
Andre Lassalle – guitar – Mikel Banks – harmonica/flute/freak-a-phone – vocals – Greg S.Tate – guitar/conduction
kneeling in front: Derrin Maxwell – vocals – Jason DiMatteo – acoustic bass

First performance in Brooklyn since concluding two performances in Paris where Burnt Sugar was chosen by Mr. Melvin Van Peebles to be his 21st Century Earth Wind & Fire as the live-on-stage band in the theatrical debut of his historical movie, Sweet Sweetback’s Badasssss Song for the Sons D’Hiver Festival. A link to the second night’s performance, which will be converted into a 52 minute special shown on ARTE and MEZZO starting late April, can be found at our website: burntsugarindex.com.

APOLLO HEIGHTS

The sound of feed back never felt so good. The duo Danny and Daniel chavis of ApolloHeights bring sweet sweet love in a sound only those with the future in mind could conceive with Micah Gaugh,Jhon Epperly, Chris Juliani and new drummer Leon Lamont the group will play songs from their 2nd record, Shocking Fuzz of Your Electric Fur.

SMOOTA

Smoota – vocals & trombone – Kevin Blackler – keys – Mike MiWi Williams – electric bass – Evan Howard – electro drums

About 100 people crowded the back room of Union Pool last night for the debut of Smoota, but I imagine that years from now many more will claim to have attended. Smoota is the alter-ego of local semi-legend Dave Smith, a much in-demand trombonist known for his work with Burnt Sugar, the Red Baraat Festival, Chin Chin, the Reverend Vince Anderson, and others. Two years ago, alone in his bedroom, Smith (Smoota) recorded “Fetishes,” a suite of raunchy, unironic, unapologetic songs about sex and idiosyncratic desire. Last night, Smoota finally went public, backed by a trio; Kevin Blackler (keys), Mike MiWi Williams (bass) and Evan Howard (electro drums) successfully breathed new life into Smoota’s tuneful dirty psychedelic soul. (Imagine an updated Shuggie Otis but one with a willful, jagged, and endearing unprofessionalism.)

Ever been to a band’s first show where half the audience could already sing along with the lyrics? That happened at Smoota. It started with the incantatory, repetitive opening to “Pink Bra” and continued through the night’s finale, “These Are the Things (That Fuel My Desires)” – a musical litany that celebrates surgical scars and lovers who leave the bathroom door open while sitting on the can, among other fetishes. The crowd’s early familiarity with Smoota’s tunes serves as testament to the grip he already has on his audience. Other testament comes in the form of my friend’s parting words as Smoota closed out the set. “G’night” she said to me, jerking a thumb toward her husband, “We gotta go have sex.”

written by GigMaven guest-blogger Jonathan Goldman