Collaborations Galore At Catskill Chill Farewell To Minglewood

The final installment of Catskill Chill to be held at its long-time home of Camp Minglewood in Hancock, New York took place this past weekend. As usual, the “chillfam” was treated to three days of collaboration-heavy performances from nearly every corner of the jam scene at “A Farewell To Minglewood.”

The action started on Friday afternoon with sets from the likes of Natalie Cressman, Nth Power and Aqueous. The latter worked a cover of Steely Dan’s “Josie” within their own “20/20” and opened the set with a piece of music from Sonic The Hedgehog. Nth Power focused on originals such as “Walk On Water,” “Only Love” and “Spirits” with covers of Chaka Khan’s “We Got Each Other” and The Beatles’ “She’s So Heavy” thrown in for good measure. Lettuce filled the prime time slot on the Main Stage for a funky set that climaxed with a three-song Nigel Hall appearance including a “Do It Like You Do” set closer. Members of Lettuce later collaborated with drummer Adam Deitch’s other project – Break Science. Late evening performances were a plenty including a Lotus set on the Main Stage as well as the much anticipated Dopakuaz Plays Studio 54 performance that featured a bevy of fun covers such as “A Fifth Of Beethoven,” “I Feel Love,” “Heart Of Glass” and “Good Times.” Twiddle also reprised last year’s acclaimed “Dead Set,” this time with help from a bevy of guests including Kung Fu guitarist Tim Palmieri, Cats Under The Stars keyboardist Josh Dobbs, Dead Set drummer Ryan Clausen, The Werks guitarist Chris Houser and Todd Stoops of RAQ on keys.

Saturday’s performances started just after noon with sets from Caravan Of Thieves, Relative Souls and an Open Mic session. Caravan Of Thieves had a few intriguing medleys in store including a “Devil Medley” that mixed “Sympathy For The Devil,” “The Devil Went Down To Georgia,” “Devil Inside” and “Devil’s Haircut.” Fikus and Shwizz held down Club Chill and swapped guest spots before the two bands collaborated on a set of ’80s classics. Kung Fu packed the Main Stage for an energetic performance and were followed by a Zappa Plays Zappa set that featured choice cuts from One Size Fits All. The Werks brought out most of Twiddle for “G-Twerk,” while Twiddle welcomed Wiley Griffin for “BeeHop” and Todd Stoops for “Brown Chicken Brown Cow.” moe. got in on the collaboration action by welcoming the Moon Hooch horns for “Happy Hour Hero” and “Dr. Graffenberg.”

Sunday began with two heavy doses of funk courtesy of Brooklyn’s Turkuaz and Colorado’s The Motet. Jans Ingber and Co. delivered such inspired classics from their repertoire as “Funny Bone,” “Like We Own It” and “Just Around The Corner.” Brock Butler’s acoustic set was nearly an acoustic PGroove performance as he was joined by Matt McDonald and Adam Perry for a set that included a handful of Perpetual Groove originals and a pair of choice covers in Jason Isbell’s “Different Days” and “Naive Melody” by Talking Heads. Electron brought out American Babies’ Justin Mazer for Pink Floyd’s “Have A Cigar,” while Pink Talking Fish brought out saxophonist Greg Sanderson for “Money” and later Rob Chafin and Michelango Carrubba on “Crosseyed & Painless.” Particle & Fam closed out Catskill Chill ’15 with a set that featured many guests and climaxed with a singalong “We Are Family” aided by Hayley Jane and the Turkuaz horns.