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It is certainly a good time to be a fan of funk music. There are so many
good options to choose from these days! What's even better, many of the
new bands are focused on the improvisational approach to groove.
Following in the footsteps of funky/jazz pioneers Greyboy Allstars and
Galactic, the new generation of funk seeks to stimulate your brain as
much as your hip bones.
This past weekend in San Francisco, I caught a new, mostly instrumental
funk/jam act calling themselves the Global Funk Council. They played to a
packed house at the Elbo Room, not bad considering it was their first
gig in the big-time music scene of the Bay Area. Judging from the
enthusiastic crowd response, they'll be making a name for themselves quickly. But don't be mistaken, these guys are no babes in the woods. Many west-coast music
aficionados will recognize all 4 musicians as seasoned veterans to the
scene.
Most notable is skins master Eric Bolivar, who spent the last year-and-
a-half laying down the groove for Karl Denson's Tiny Universe. Bolivar
recently graduated from the Tiny Universe when Karl's long-time favorite
drummer and former Greyboy Allstars cohort, Zak Najor, finished school
and re-united with Karl in his Tiny Universe. Those who have experienced
the Tiny Universe in the past year should be familiar with Bolivar's silky
smooth, rock hard approach to the funk. Nothing too flashy or heady,
just highly danceable, relentless funkiness with some seriously tight
breakdowns and liftoffs.
Dan Lebowitz has long been a local guitar hero on the Bay Area scene
with the sublime soul/funk/jazz band Animal Liberation Orchestra, a
great local San Francisco band. Lebowitz's velvety tone and classy, inventive
phrasings make you just want to close your eyes, lift your head up and
grin as the ear candy washes over you. On counterpoint, keyboardist
Anthony Smith shakes your senses back to earth with his straight-up,
rocking style. Smith has been blazing funk trails across the country
over the past year with Carlos Washington's Giant People, and has also
been a very active songwriter.
The new kid on the block with Global Funk Council is bassist Sam Bevan.
He has only been with the band for a few gigs so far, as they have been
experimenting with that slot to find the perfect fit to go
with the core trio of Bolivar, Lebowitz and Smith. With Bevan, I sure
hope they have found the right fit. He is amazing! I first saw Bevan
last June as the stand-in bassist for the David Grisman Quintet (regular
bassist Jim Kerwin is on a short hiatus from the band to tend to family
matters). Now let me tell you, while there is very little that is funky
about the David Grisman Quintet, you have to be an extremely good player to
hang in that band, with their flighty jazz-like improv and turn-on-a-dime
changes. Sam Bevan was (and is) out-of-sight. His bass-playing in the
context of Global Funk Council was steady, yet extremely snappy, upbeat
and somehow exciting as hell, even while playing pretty basic funk lines
over and over. His distinct style is a combination of his unconventional
phrasing and his tendency to play the bottom end in a higher register
than most funk players.
Over the course of the 2-set show, I only recognized one song, an extremely
funky interpretation of the Duke Ellington classic "Caravan." I believe most
of the songs were original material, showing that Global Funk Council is
not a one-off super-jam type of collaboration. The song-writing so far is
mostly simple, classic funk/groove composition, with plenty of room for
improvisation within. It seems their primary focus as such a new band
(they have been together less than three months at this point) is ~jamming~
and getting comfortable playing off of each other.
Each set got off to a loose, improvisational start, as local San Francisco
funk jockey, DJ Motion Potion's pre-show and intermission grooves melded seamlessly
into abstract funky jams, with the band members joining in one by one.
As all of the band members locked into a groove they were comfortable with,
they worked it hard for a few minutes, with Bolivar and Bevan subtly
pushing the envelope further and further until, before you knew it, the
energy level was through the roof and everyone was dancing their asses off.
This tightly controlled mayhem would typically peak out with one of
Bolivar's signature crescendos, and then lead right into a whole new and
just as interesting groove, with Bevan pulling some new intriguing bass
line out of the air. Finally these set-opening explorations would give
way to structure, as the band worked into their compositions only after
they were fully warmed up.
The Global Funk Council is touring all over the West Coast right now, and
they will return to San Francisco on December 27th, before closing out
the year in Utah. Yeah, the collaboration is brand new, but they've got
serious talent and prospects look good. Be sure to catch these guys while
they are still playing small places!
Rob Winkler
JamBase | City By The Bay
Go See Live Music
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