Club Red: New Mastersounds, 2/16

09 Feb Club Red: New Mastersounds, 2/16

With major support from the Telluride Ski Resort, Denise Mongan’s Beyond the Groove is pleased to announce an encore show, welcoming back the New Mastersounds, Tuesday, February 16, 2016, Club Red at the Telluride Conference Center in Mountain Village. Doors, 7:30 p.m.; show, 8 p.m. Tickets, $22 (GA) – $35 (Preferred Seating) here.

Please scroll down to the bottom of this blog to listen to my podcast with Mastersounds’ drummer Simon Allen.

The New Mastersounds

The reviews from the floor are in.

“First time seeing the New Mastersounds after hearing about their 2 a.m. gigs in New Orleans. The band delivered a funkified 4 piece of non stop grooves, clever phrasing, satisfying syncopation and a self-acknowledged lack of singing. For lovers of the funk, New Mastersounds bring it all. Special shoutout to the new Teragram Ballroom. First show there for me, and a really good, smaller, standing room venue,” raved RBdrumbeat.

“Fresh twist on a classic sound. All well-orchestrated jams, fluid chord progressions, never missed a beat. I hated knowing that the show had to end,” said Nigelplans.

“Nobody is bringing the sound these guys are right now, and nobody is getting a crowd moving like they do. The best thing going on in music right now, hands down!,” exclaimed Goodfootin.

They are all talking about the New Mastersounds and singing in harmony with the group’s legions of fans.

Sounds like if you like getting your groove on, you show up at Club Red in Mountain Village on Tuesday, February 16, 8 p.m., when Beyond the Groove Productions, with major support from the Telluride Ski Resort, hosts the group at a high-energy party guaranteed to bring the soul out of funk.

One of the cornerstone acts of the U.K. retro-soul scene, the New Mastersounds play taut, old-school instrumental funk with a contemporary energy and an enthusiasm that has garnered raves and led them to collaborations with a number of major acts in Britain and the United States.

The New Mastersounds were formed in 1999 by guitarist Eddie Robert,s who was DJ’ing at the time at a weekly club night in Leeds devoted to classic soul and funk. When the event moved to a new venue that covered two floors, Roberts saw the chance to add a live band into the mix. He recruited drummer Simon Allen, who had played with Roberts in 1997 in a band called the Mastersounds. Through friends in the Leeds music scene, Pete Shad on bass and Bob Birch on piano and organ, the new act was complete. As a tribute to their old group, Eddie and Simon dubbed the combo the New Mastersounds, whose early incarnation was a raw boogaloo.

(In 2007, Joe Tatton, another veteran of the Leeds scene, replaced Bob Birch on organ and piano, so the New Mastersounds is now Roberts, Allen, Shand, and Tatton.)

A rough 8-track recording of an early rehearsal got into the hands of some London DJs, and was released soon after on two limited-edition 7” singles. Invitations to play club gigs in London followed. Before long, the New Mastersounds established a reputation around UK and Europe as forerunners of the deep funk revival scene.

Fast-forward to 2004. Having experimented with various line-ups and recorded two albums, the original four-piece band was invited to Chicago to open for the Greyboy All Stars at the House of Blues. That gig kicked off a prolific live career in the U.S., which continues to this day, backed up by more studio records, live albums, a remix album, and two compilations.

The New Mastersounds’ quirky, catchy instrumental ditties have been used on TV and film soundtracks and the band is the subject of an award-winning feature-length documentary: “Coals to Newcastle: The New Mastersounds – from Leeds to New Orleans.”

Over the years, the New Mastersounds collaborated or jammed with an impressive array of musicians, DJs, and producers, including: Lou Donaldson (Blue Note), Corinne Bailey Rae (EMI), Quantic (Tru Thoughts), Carleen Anderson (Young Disciples / Brand New Heavies), Keb Darge & Kenny Dope (Kay Dee Records), John Arnold (Ubiquity), Mr Scruff (Ninja Tune), Snowboy (Ubiquity), Fred Everything (2020vision), Andy Smith (Portishead), James Taylor (JTQ), LSK (Faithless), Lack of Afro (Freestyle), Page McConnell (Phish), Karl Denson (Lenny Kravitz / Greyboy AllStars), Melvin Sparks (Blue Note Records), George Porter Jr (The Meters), Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker (JB’s), and Art Neville (Neville Brothers, The Meters).

The New Mastersounds’ latest release was Made for Pleasure (out in October 2015), recorded at The Living Room, a converted wood-frame church directly across the Mississippi River from downtown New Orleans. The British foursome’s latest collection of infectious grooves is steeped in those storied waters and the rich musical history they have carried.

Simon Allen

For preview of the show, listen to my podcast with Mastersounds’s drummer Simon Allen.