It never feels like anything good can come out of the closing of a music club. Patrons form attachments to these places and don't want to let them go. Heck, I never set foot in CBGB and was still saddened by its demise.
And so it was with Tonic, a jazz/experimental music venue that closed in the spring of 2007. Toward the end of its run, some shows were put together featuring musicians having their own attachments to the club. Enter Vernon Reid, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, and G. Calvin Weston. One quite amazing fact here is that these three long-time friends had never played together before. Word is that the performance was 'remarkable,' so much so that Weston set up another show in Philadelphia at Tritone. Again... magic.
Reid booked some time at a studio near his home in Staten Island and the results, being the Frēqs third performance ever, are astounding.
At this point, it's very tempting to employ words such as 'chemistry' and the dreaded 'supergroup.' The music goes far beyond those overused descriptions. This really shouldn't be surprising if you take a quick look into the history of these men. Tacuma was a force in Ornette Coleman's Prime Time. Weston played with James Blood Ulmer and John Lurie's Lounge Lizards and was also Prime Time colleague. Reid's past includes Living Colour, Bill Frisell, Masque, and Yohimbe Brothers.
I have mathematically intersected these various musics (hey, gotta use that math minor once in a while) and here is the result:
Funk.
That's right. Urban Mythology Vol. One deals not with 'out' jazz of any sort, but with undiluted, heavy-duty funk. Take those early Funkadelic records and let them marinate in some Prime Time/Jimi Hendrix/Are You Glad To Be In America? sauce. This is no cosmic slop, this is deep funk.
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Article comments
1 - Funky
they've got a myspace page @ http://www.myspace.com/freeformfunkyfreqs