The Greyboy Allstars | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Also known as | GBA |
Origin | San Diego, California, U.S. |
Genres | Soul Jazz, Acid Jazz |
Years active | 1993–present |
Labels | Knowledge Room Recordings |
Members | Karl Denson Robert Walter Chris Stillwell Elgin Park Aaron Redfield |
Past members | Zak Najor Alan Evans DJ Greyboy Eric Kalb |
Website | www |
The Greyboy Allstars are an American soul-jazz band from San Diego, California, United States, whose current members include Karl Denson on Saxophone, Robert Walter on Keys, Mike Andrews (under the pseudonym Elgin Park) on guitar, Chris Stillwell on bass and Aaron Redfield on drums. They have released eight albums to date.
Initially formed in 1993 as the backing band for rare groove luminary DJ Greyboy. DJ Greyboy and saxophonist Karl Denson (who was touring with Lenny Kravitz at the time) collaborated on two tracks for Ubiquity Records' Home Cookin' compilation, and then worked on Greyboy's 1994 solo album for Ubiquity, Freestylin'. [1] After forming their own label, Greyboy Records, the duo gradually amassed members for a house band".
The founding members included Denson, guitarist Mike Andrews (under the pseudonym Elgin Park), [2] keyboardist Robert Walter, bassist Chris Stillwell, and drummer Zak Najor. [2] The Greyboy Allstars started playing weekly at San Diego's now defunct Green Circle, weekends at San Francisco's Elbo Room and various clubs throughout Europe.
Their debut album, West Coast Boogaloo, was self-released in 1994, and featured Fred Wesley on Trombone of James Brown fame. [2] Several years later, Live was released, followed by Town Called Earth in 1997. In 1998, the band scored Jake Kasdan's movie Zero Effect, under the direction of Mike Andrews. After dominating the jam-jazz scene of the ’90s, "the band parted ways in late 1999 to allow its members to take the creative steps necessary to stay musically fresh." and drummer Zak Najor officially departed the touring group. [3]
In 2007, the original band (including Najor) reunited in the studio and released their third album, What Happened to Television?;. [4] Robert Walter revealed that “Zak is not touring with us anymore, he is on the album and he is a big part of the album, but he just doesn’t want to go on the road at all.” [3] The band played several live shows with new drummers including Eric Kalb and Alan Evans (from Soulive) before current GBA drummer and San Diego native Aaron Redfield officially joined the band.
Inland Emperor, the band's next studio album, was released in 2013. [2] [5]
In June 2017, the band published several photos from recording sessions for their latest record and announced that a new album was coming. On December 17, the band released a track called "Rudolph’s Lament", described as "one of our favorite tunes from the outtakes bin... a spacey Waltz that found itself as an outlier on our upcoming release." [6] 2018 saw the band return to soundtrack work with Mike Andrews for the Jennifer Lopez film Second Act.
In June 2020, the band officially announced that their next studio album, Como De Allstars, and first in seven years, would be released July 3, 2020. They released the first single "Como De Allstars". Elgin Park shared: “I think it’s more important to remember the power we all have to make change in our own lives and society in general. We made the point at the time because we felt it was relevant then, but in extreme times like these, we’re reminded that the power of our collective voice is needed more than ever.” [7]
Their classic and long out of print album West Coast Boogaloo was reissued and released on vinyl by Light in the Attic on August 7, 2020. [7] August 2021 saw the announcement of ‘Soul Dream’, and four-part livestream concert specials. The first installment aired Friday, August 20 with the subsequent shows premiering each Friday in the following weeks. The series was filmed and recorded at Elgin Park Recordings in Glendale, CA. [8] In August 2022, the band's classic 1997 album A Town Called Earth was reissued/remastered and available on vinyl for the first time. [9]
Zak Richard Starkey is an English rock drummer who has performed and recorded with the Who since 1996. He is also the third drummer to have appeared with Oasis. Other musicians and bands he has worked with include Johnny Marr, the Icicle Works, the Lightning Seeds, and the Semantics. He is the son of the Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr and Maureen Starkey.
Acid jazz is a music genre that combines elements of funk, soul, and hip hop, as well as jazz and disco. Acid jazz originated in clubs in London during the 1980s with the rare groove movement and spread to the United States, Western Europe, Latin America and Japan. Acts included The Brand New Heavies, Incognito, James Taylor Quartet, Us3, and Jamiroquai from the UK, and Guru, Buckshot LeFonque and Digable Planets from the U.S. The rise of electronic club music in the middle to late 1990s led to a decline in interest, and in the twenty-first century, acid jazz became indistinct as a genre. Many acts that might have been defined as acid jazz are seen as jazz-funk, or nu jazz.
Henry Mobley was an American tenor saxophonist and composer. Mobley was described by Leonard Feather as the "middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone", a metaphor used to describe his tone, that was neither as aggressive as John Coltrane nor as mellow as Lester Young, and his style that was laid-back, subtle and melodic, especially in contrast with players such as Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. The critic Stacia Proefrock claimed him "one of the most underrated musicians of the bop era." Mobley's compositions include "Double Exposure", "Soul Station", and "Dig Dis".
Michael Andrews, also known as Elgin Park, is an American multi-instrumental musician, producer, and film score composer. He is best known for a cover version of the Tears for Fears song "Mad World", which he recorded with Gary Jules for the Donnie Darko soundtrack, and which became the 2003 UK Christmas number one. He is a founding member of the San Diego soul-jazz band The Greyboy Allstars, where he goes by the moniker Elgin Park.
Roy Ayers is an American vibraphonist, record producer and composer. Ayers began his career as a post-bop jazz artist, releasing several albums with Atlantic Records, before his tenure at Polydor Records beginning in the 1970s, during which he helped pioneer jazz-funk. He is a key figure in the acid jazz movement, and has been described as "The Godfather of Neo Soul". He is best known for his compositions "Everybody Loves the Sunshine", "Lifeline", and "No Stranger To Love" and other that charted in the 1970s. At one time, he was said to have more sampled hits by rappers than any other artist.
Fred Wesley is an American trombonist who worked with James Brown in the 1960s and 1970s, and Parliament-Funkadelic in the second half of the 1970s.
The New Mastersounds are a British four-piece jazz fusion and blues/funk band from Leeds, England. Over the last 16 years, they have issued ten studio albums, two live dates, two remix collections, and a compilation album.
Bernard Lee "Pretty" Purdie is an American drummer, and an influential R&B, soul and funk musician. He is known for his precise musical time-keeping and his signature use of triplets against a half-time backbeat: the "Purdie Shuffle." He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2013.
Crazyhorse Mongoose is the second studio album by American jam band Galactic. It was released on September 1, 1998 through Capricorn Records. Recording sessions took place at Brilliant Studios in San Francisco on August 18—22, 1997 and at Greyboy Studios in San Diego. Production was handled by Dan Prothero and Galactic themselves.
William Holland is an English musician, DJ, and record producer. Holland records under various pseudonyms, including Quantic, the Quantic Soul Orchestra, The Limp Twins, Flowering Inferno, and Ondatrópica. His music features elements of tropical, cumbia, salsa, bossa nova, soul, funk and jazz. Holland plays guitars, bass, double bass, piano, organ, saxophone, accordion and percussion. Much of his sound is original composition, rather than sampling of other artists' material. In addition to his original compositions, he has also produced remixes of over 30 songs.
Robert Walter is an American keyboard player specializing in soul jazz on the Hammond B3 organ and Fender Rhodes. He is best known as a founding member of The Greyboy Allstars. Walter, splits his time between The Greyboy Allstars, his own 20th Congress, and a robust film soundtrack session career in Los Angeles.
DJ Greyboy is an acid jazz DJ from San Diego, California now residing in Long Beach, California. Early in his career he was the partner of Rob Dyrdek in Crime on the Turn Tables. His style of music includes hip hop, soul, funk, experimental, and acid jazz rare grooves. Greyboy has tracks on numerous compilations. He is co-founder and namesake of The Greyboy Allstars. In 2009 Greyboy founded his own record label "Soundlock Recordings" as well as a turntable band called "Warchurch" members include Delmos Wade, DJ Truly Odd, Erick Coomes, Tycoon, Mike Long and Opie Ortiz. In 2010 he released a co-produced album with Delmos Wade titled From the Ground Up. Greyboy collaborated with rock band Incubus on a track called "Familiar", which appeared on the soundtrack of the film Spawn.
Chris Stillwell is the American bassist for the band The Greyboy Allstars.
Karl Denson is an American funk and jazz saxophonist, flutist and vocalist from Santa Ana, California. He plays with the Rolling Stones and was a member of Lenny Kravitz's band and has co-founded and led The Greyboy Allstars. Denson has recorded with artists including Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland, Slightly Stoopid, Blind Boys of Alabama, Blackalicious, Stanton Moore, and Jon Foreman of the rock band Switchfoot. He continues to lead his own Karl Denson's Tiny Universe (KDTU) and Karl Denson Trio (KD3), while touring with the Rolling Stones since 2014 to date. Denson appears in the 1988 movie Coming To America and in the 2021 sequel Coming 2 America as the saxophonist in the fictional band Sexual Chocolate.
Slightly Stoopid is an American rock band based in the Ocean Beach neighborhood of San Diego, California, who describe their music as "a fusion of folk, rock, reggae and blues with hip-hop, funk, metal and punk." As a band, they have released 13 albums. The band was originally signed by Bradley Nowell from the band Sublime to his label Skunk Records while still in high school.
The Sugarman 3, sometimes titled The Sugarman Three, is a retro-funk band from New York City formed in 1996 by saxophonist Neal Sugarman, Hammond organ player Adam Scone, and drummer Rudy Albin. The band has released four studio albums—Sugar's Boogaloo (1999), Soul Donkey (2000), Pure Cane Sugar (2002) and What the World Needs Now (2012)—and one compilation album, Sweet Spot (2001).
The Origin was an American alternative/indie rock/power pop band formed in San Diego, California in 1985. The classic line-up of the band consisted of Michael Andrews, Topper Rimel, Rony Abada, and Daniel Silverman. During the band's active years in the early nineties, they released two full-length albums and five singles, with two singles charting in the top 20 of the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. They broke up in 1993.
Doug Munro is an American musician, arranger, producer, composer, author, and educator specializing in jazz, bebop, Brazilian jazz, jazz fusion, and gypsy swing. Since 1986 he has released over fifteen albums as a band leader and has appeared on over 75 recordings as a guitarist, sideman, producer, and arranger. He has been nominated for two Grammy Awards and was the recipient of two NAIRD Awards by the American Association of Independent Music.
Ray Joseph Lugo is an American musician. Singing in English and Spanish, Lugo is internationally known for his prolific output and diverse solo work, as well as for leading the groups Kokolo Afrobeat Orchestra, Ray Lugo & The Boogaloo Destroyers and other projects.
Jake Najor is a drummer who has played on a Grammy Award winning album and has recorded and/or performed with Big Daddy Kane, Empire of the Sun, TV On the Radio, Kelis, Redman, Jason Mraz, the Beatnuts, Mindi Abair, Karl Denson, Weapon of Choice, Bad Credit, Raphael Saadiq, Robert Walter, Incredible Moses Leroy, Breakestra, Connie Price and the Keystones, Joss Stone, Soul of John Black, De La Soul, AJ Croce, Aloe Blacc and more.