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"I Yam What I Yam..." is not only Popeye's tagline, but also the best way of understanding the latest offering from the Rebirth Brass Band. What Rebirth IS, is an unparalelled brass band, full of power, funk, jazzy solos, and surprisingly complex harmony. What they ALSO are is a bunch of uninhibited, raunchy, and downhome nasty dudes. On Hot Venom, Rebirth's second recording for Mardi Gras Records, they display both aspects of their personality. On music alone, this album is Rebirth's best release since 1994's Rollin and perhaps their best ever. On lyrics and presentation alone, you would think this album came from 2Live Crew, or at least No Limit, who loaned two rappers, Soulja Slim and Cheeky Blakk to the production. Perhaps this dichotomy is what we should expect from New Orleans funk, since New Orleans gave us "dirty rice" and George Clinton contends that "all that is good is nasty."
Rebirth's formula has always been to take New Orleans brass band instrumentation (two drums, 5-7 horns) and apply it to non-traditional music like funk and R&B. Throughout all of their changes in their 17 years recording, the two constants have been the Frazier Brothers, "Tuba" Phil, and "Drum Shorty" Keith. As always, the brothers keep the bottom solid and funky, allowing the horn players to throw explosive harmonies and solos into the higher registers. What's new is the ability of James Durant (sax) and Tyrus Chapman (trombone) to infuse this music with the kind of complex vocal harmonies Rebirth hasn't had since Kermit Ruffins left the band. They take raw lyrics, and turn them into something beautiful, producing a contrast that is often humorous. Examples run rampant, including the four part a-capella "Macarena-like" breakdown at the end of the "Pop That Pussy" (yes, that IS the song's title) or the transformation of the lyrics from R&B tune "Casanova." On "Casanova," "can't you see how much I love ya, oh Casanova" becomes "can't you see I wanna fuck ya... oh just bend over." Sounds sick, but they make it sound so damn good that it's almost an improvement on the original.
What also stands out on this album is how well it is recorded and performed. That may sound like a simple trick to most, since most albums are laid down one track at a time over the course of months. Rebirth has always correctly understood that to bottle their live energy and turn it into studio-engineered perfection would suck the life out of their sound. Thus, they have always recorded live in the studio, cutting every song all the way straight through. The trick, especially with music this complex, is that the band must be absolutley at the top of their game, with all harmonies, melodies, raps, vocals, shouts, grunts etc... hitting in perfect time. Those of us in San Francisco can attest that Rebirth was on top of their game when they recorded this, because they did so only three days after playing here. Talk about a hard-working band: they burn down the Justice League on Thursday and Friday, fly to New Orleans to open for Galactic on Saturday, then cut the record on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday before scorching the Maple Leaf on Tuesday night.
This is one of the rare albums that gets better every time one hears it, exposing new nuances, jokes, and complexities. Highlights include a positively joyous cover of Curtis Mayfield's "Let's Do It Again," with an amazing a-capella "Ladi dadi we like to party" breakdown that flows into Marley's "one love..." In fact, the album's last four tracks, "Thinking About Ya," "Let's Do It Again," "Doing Bad," and "Let Me Do My Thing," are as good a run of music as Rebirth has ever recorded. Which is saying a lot when you consider that the Rebirth Brass Band has been the best thing to happen to funk in the past 20 years. In the 1980's they proved they could revitalize brass band music, and in the 90's they proved they paint that sound onto any canvass (recording and touring with Perry Ferrell, MAceo Parker, Ani DiFranco, and Quincy Jones.) Perhaps the 00's are the decade when the Rebirth Brass Band themselves will get the national attention they deserve for 17 years of kicking out such positively jubilant, original, and challenging jams.
Robert Kowal
AKA DJ Motion Potion
Editor: WhatDaFunk Newsletter (Bay Area weekly funk email)
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