PLAY Magazine
August 15 2007
Budos Band
Joshua Valocchi
Contributing Writer
An 11-piece explosion of deep soul and dusty groove, Budos Band erupted from Staten Island’s surprisingly fertile jazz hotbed of the ‘90s. Today the band shares members with Sharon Jones’s Dap-Kings as well as Amy Winehouse’s crackerjack back-up players. This week, Budos Band celebrates the release of their second full-length on Brooklyn’s Daptone Records, bringing their traveling afro-funk circus to the main stage at World Café Live Friday night.
The core members of Budos Band met while participating in an after-school jazz ensemble at Staten Island’s Richmond Avenue Community Center. Sharing an affinity for the vintage soul and jazz-funk fusion featured on so many soundtracks of the classic Blaxploitation flicks of the early-‘70s, a handful of the ensemble players began executing late-night ferry trips to Manhattan, sneaking into downtown’s No Moore Club to get down to the sounds of the likes of Antibalas, Sugarman 3 and the aforementioned Dap-Kings.
These late-night ventures into the big city sowed the seeds that would eventually blossom into today’s mighty Budos Band. Inspired by the afro-soul leanings of the downtown players of the time, the musicians who would become the core of Budos Band first tried to alter the musical direction of their Richmond Avenue ensemble. After their attempts to mirror the afrocentric tendencies displayed by their downtown heroes was met with resistance from the ensemble’s musical director, several members left the community center to form Los Barbudos (Spanish for “the bearded ones”), a mostly funk-oriented affair that still managed to weave soul and afro-beat threads into its increasingly complex and rich tapestry.
When one member of Los Barbudos decided it was time to shave his beard, the band trimmed their name to Budos Band and fattened their overall sound, recruiting a few horn maestros from neighboring Brooklyn. The addition of the horn section allowed Budos Band the flexibility and muscle to explore more outer fringes of cosmic funk while solidifying their dedication to achieving an authentic afro-beat sound.
It was around this time that the band had finally managed to arrange an audience with one of Daptone Records’ A&R crew. The band’s performance was tight and impressive enough to prompt the agent to sign Budos Band on the spot. Soon thereafter, the band found themselves in the studio where they proceeded to cut their first full-length for Daptone in just under three days.
Having now joined forces with the same musicians they were emulating in their formative early years, the members of Budos Band are now free to reap the rewards of their hard work and ballsy determination. Daptone Records is a label that seems almost custom-tailored to fit Budos Band’s sound and direction. Somewhat like the Elephant 6 of soul and funk, Daptone often appears to be more of a collective than a label, with members of several bands intermingling in an almost incestuous fashion. The Dap-Kings, for instance, are regarded as the label’s house band, contributing to several releases by a number of the label’s artists every year.
Budos Band is no exception to that rule and nowhere is that air of free artistic collaboration more evident than the increasingly frequent occasions that find the band playing local festivals and free concerts in and around the borough of Brooklyn. From the Park Slope Festival to CitySol 2007, there’s no telling who might show up to throw the fans a little curveball and add to the groovy soul stew that is the Budos Band.
Creative collaborations aside, Daptone is also unique for the specific type of soul music it promotes. From Lee Fields and the Sugarman 3 to Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, bands featured on the Daptone label produce a very distinct flavor of vintage soul that’s so authentic even the most seasoned experts might mistake the label’s latest releases with reissues from the Stax collection, circa 1971. Once again, Budos Band is no exception here. Outside of the clean and crisp production value showcased on Budos Band II, there is very little on the record that distinguishes these young whippersnappers from the revered greats of the genre. The band’s stabs at afro-beat are certainly Kuti-worthy – well, at least Femi- and Seun-worthy – and some of the deeper funk that peppers the disc would have felt right at home on the original Shaft soundtrack.
Rest assured, folks – soul and funk are not dead by any means. Hell, if Budos Band continues traveling this road with such aplomb and authority, they may manage to reverse the effects of aging on both genres. Additionally, while Femi Kuti is doing more than a fine job of keeping his late father’s afro-beat legacy alive and well, Budos Band’s efforts certainly contribute to the cause and represent another huge step forward in resurrecting what was once feared to be an extremely endangered form of music. Kudos, Budos.
If You Go:
Budos Band
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