Rock Candy Funk Party - We Want Grooove

Styles: Jazz Funk
Year: 2013
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 67:06
Size: 153,9 MB
Art: Front

( 4:39)  1. Octopus-E
( 5:50)  2. Spaztastic
( 8:05)  3. Ode To Gee
( 6:10)  4. We Want Groove
(10:36)  5. The Best Ten Minutes Of Your Life
( 7:15)  6. Animal/Work
( 3:47)  7. Dope On A Rope
( 5:00)  8. Root Down (And Get It)
(15:40)  9. New York Song

This quartet repurposes the jazz-funk sounds of yesteryear into a tasteful, eclectic mix, packed with memorable compositions and aided by the crystalline recording process, enabling the music to breathe amid great detail and depth. Featuring blues-rock guitar hero Joe Bonamassa trading licks with guitarist Ron DeJesus, Rock Candy Funk Party was recorded at drummer Tal Bergman's studio, denoting the band's debut. Rock Candy Funk Party is a production that sports a festive aura, We Want Groove are prophets of good cheer. The album emanated from Bergman and DeJesus' Groove Vol. 1 (2007, Independent) followed by live performances, ultimately leading to the We Want Groove aggregation. The musicians' collective resumes comprise gigs and performances with top rock, jazz and pop acts, spanning multiple genres, and their sensibilities and approaches to various musical platforms are impeccably transposed to disc.

The jazz-funk, soul brew is often given a bluesy touch by Bonamassa who is situated on the left channel while DeJesus is heard on the right channel, tendering a well-defined soundstage. In a loose sense the guitarists are role players, alternating between the jazz, funk and blues-rock idioms. One of the more prominent examples of the retro vibe is "The Best Ten Minutes of Your Life," which could parallel a soundtrack from one of the old Blaxploitation flicks with inferences to the late, blues and funk guitarist Johnny "Guitar" Watson's oozing notes and trickling phraseology, tinted with echo and reverb. Otherwise, keyboardist Renato Neto kicks the proceedings off with spacey and dream-laden Fender Rhodes treatments, followed by bassist Mike Merritt distinct groove-building and Bergman's simple metronomic hi-hat pulse. With breezy and drifting synth overlays, the guitarists eventually spawn a counter-melody to inject a tuneful theme built on effective use of space via a multi-hued outline, piloting a blissful primary melody. 

They inject multi-colored sound-shaping mechanisms into this piece that also benefits from an insightful production, designed with a Midas touch. One of the enthralling aspects of the album, other than the solid material and stellar audio engineering, pertains to the bands manifold rhythmic flows and perceptive use of dynamics. Of course the dance-ability factors are prevalent throughout, but it's a hybrid concoction that yields significant rewards where the old synchronizes with the new, as the group artfully contemporizes and uplifts the tried and true. ~ Glenn Astarita  http://www.allaboutjazz.com/rock-candy-funk-party-joe-bonamassa-j-and-r-adventures-review-by-glenn-astarita.php
 

Personnel: Joe Bonamassa: guitars; Ron DeJesus: guitars; Mike Merritt: bass; Renato Neto: keyboards; Tal Bergman: drums, percussion.

We Want Grooove

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Rock Candy Funk Party - Groove Is King

Size: 165,5 MB
Time: 71:17
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2015
Styles: Jazz/Funk/Rock Fusion
Art: Front

01. Introducing The Master Of Ceremonies Mr. Funkadamus (0:30)
02. Groove Is King (3:24)
03. Low Tide (2:47)
04. Uber Station (5:01)
05. East Village (6:51)
06. If Six Was Eight (4:44)
07. Cube's Brick (7:33)
08. And Now A Word From Our Fine Sponsors With Mr. Funkadamus (0:17)
09. Don't Be Stingy With The SMPTE (5:14)
10. C You On The Flip Side (5:04)
11. Digging In The Dirt (6:18)
12. Don't Funk With Me (5:53)
13. The 6 Train To The Bronx (6:06)
14. Rock Candy (5:25)
15. Mr. Funkadamus Thanks All The Senors But Especially The Senoritas (0:27)
16. The Fabulous Tales Of Two Bands (5:36)

Coming out on July via J&R Adventures, Groove Is King is the second batch of songs coming from the instrumental funk collective Rock Candy Funk Party. The first RCFP disc We Want Groove was pretty damned good — no, make that really damned good — making me salivate over the second helping.

Groove Is King doesn’t change the mission of delivering hand-made, jam-inspired funk, but does tweak it some to distinguish it from the debut, avoiding letting this groove to become just a rut. Joe Bonamassa, one of the two guitarists in the group (Ron DeJesus is the other) offers up his explanation for what’s different this time: “It’s definitely way more modern and it’s definitely based less on jamming.” Tal Bergman, the drummer, leader and producer allows that “he took the liberty of producing it a little more and put more layers in it.” DeJesus would also tell you that it rocks a little harder.

The continuity comes, of course, from carrying over the same core players: joining Bergman, Bonamassa and DeJesus are bassist Mike Merritt and keyboardist Renato Neto. Having two guitarists doesn’t make things heavier, it makes it funkier because DeJesus and Bonamassa come up with some creative counter-rhythms that only accentuate what the Merritt/Bergman rhythm section is doing. But now, Bergman beefed up that rhythm section with a percussionist (Daniel Sadownick) and also going the James Brown Way of making it funky: with a small, nimble horn section.

Though they aren’t on every track, the horns add a whole ‘nother dimension, and it’s led by a trumpet player who has been on many crucial funky recordings going back to the late 60s: Randy Brecker. Joined by his wife Ada Rovatti (saxes) and James Campagnola (baritone sax), they’re a highly seasoned, slick addition who Bergman wisely left space for, and also handed off the horn arrangement duties to Brecker and Rovatti.

As we already witnessed on the advance single “Don’t Be Stingy With the SMPTE”, the trio amped up the soul factor quite a bit. But also consider how the Brecker/Rovatti/Campagnola team deftly works around the hard rockin’ DeJesus/Bonamassa duo on “Don’t Funk With Me” (which also boasts one of Brecker signature wah-wah trumpet solos) And also how they swap the de-facto vocal role with a acoustic and electric guitars on top of a massive bass groove for Peter Gabriel’s “Digging In The Dirt.” “Low Tide” might have the nastiest funk riff out of this batch of songs, and a Neto’s succulent synth solo steals the show.

A closer connection to We Want Groove can be found on the non-horn tracks, of course, and they aren’t any less thump on those tunes. “Groove Is King” and “East Village” rides on Jeff Beck Wired-era grooves, with Bonamassa’s tasty licks lifting up the latter tune and Neto’s organ brining the Memphis soul. “If Six Was Eight” is a nearly free improv feature for Bergman trading licks with Sadownick, the centrally placed cut where the participants stretch out and jam. That glides into “Cube’s Brick,” which suggest EDM but doesn’t quite cross over, and Bonamassa’s smoldering lead effectively prevents it from doing so. “The Fabulous Tales of Two Bands” on the other hand, does cross right into EDM and just as you’re scratching your head about this musical about-face, the band instantly pivots into a Led Zeppelin figure. They vacillate between these two contrasting moods for the rest of the song, and before long, you understand that the title was tipping you off to this tongue-in-cheek baiting and switching.

Pretty much everyone here has a jazz background, and “Rock Candy” was conjured up expressly to capitalize on that. A blues-based jaunt with a greasy groove and a big band swing, nearly everyone gets to put in a solo in between go arounds with the chorus.

Oh, and there’s one more marquee guest artist on here: ZZ Top frontman and guitarist Billy Gibbons, but not in the way you’re thinking. He’s the “Mr. Funkadamus” DJ emcee character who shows up every five or six songs to give listeners the feel of listening to this really hip radio station. No doubt he could have made a nice six-string contribution, but Bonamassa and DeJesus more than get the job done.

Everyone, in fact gets the job done, because of the cooperative spirit that went into Groove Is King. That’s probably the most critical “old school” component that makes this record work. Bergman tells us so quite plainly when he says, “the integrity is in us and it’s real, real people playing, real people listening, real people coming up with stuff, which doesn’t happen as much today.”

King Groove rules supreme because Rock Candy Funk Party knows how to treat the groove like royalty. In spite of more modern touches, no one will call Groove Is King outdated in twenty years because of the time-honored ways it was conceived and put together. ~S. Victor Aaron

Groove Is King

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