Pass the Peas, like we used to say

Last night, our Budapest travel buddy Monet accompanied us to the Alte Mälzerei for the Fred Wesley and the New JBs show there. This was our first time in the Alte Mälzerei, but I daresay it won’t be our last. Nice little venue; we chose some standing room space across the room from the stage for the night and it felt pretty intimate.

The band came in one member at time, starting with the bassist, pretty much on time at just before or after nine o’clock, to the bass line of Herbie Hancock’s Chameleon and built up from there. They played most of the stuff I’d hoped for, plus some I hadn’t. A couple times they got a little too experimentally jazzy for our tastes, but I think they had a sense that the audience was there for the funk, so they brought it back around to groovy stuff right after that each time. It was a good show.

Here’s about six minutes of awesome music in crappy quality:
[audio:http://www.regensblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/fred_concert.mp3]

Attention local Friends of the Funk

funky_good_time_anthology.jpgThis just in (though I think Sarah told me about it some time ago and today I was reminded of it again): Funk legend Fred Wesley and the New JB’s are playing at Alte Mälzerei in Regensburg on Friday, April 16th. Do you know who this guy is? He was James Brown’s band leader, composer, arranger, etc., and later went on to collaborate with Parliament / Funkadelic and Bootsy Collins. He is working on some neat Klezmer-Funk fusion stuff under the moniker Abraham Inc.

This show promises to be one not to miss. Who’s with me on this one?

Here’s a sampler:
[audio:http://www.regensblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/fred.mp3]