While the nearly-packed crowd on the floor was decked out in 100 types of slutty-somethingorrathers, the
Hammerstein Ballroom itself wore a costume of its own. I think it was called "The Fifty Faces of FUNKY" and, courtesy of Sharon Jones,
The Dap Kings,
Medeski, Martin and Wood and guests Halloween night was one filthy, butt-shaking affair. In fact, my hips are downright sore from what turned out to be a 3+ hour marathon of tricks and treats.
The Dap Kings came on just after 7:30 decked out in what I believe were Mexican wrestler outfits, masks completely covering their faces. The grooves commenced immediately as the audience started to fill up the floor. We had a nice vantage point from the front of the first mezz, but the sound was a bit to be desired at the start. There is nothing secret about what these guys do; the only important thing is that they do it well and that they do. They've got the R&B revue thing down to a tee and by the time Sharon Jones hit the stage they had the joint well-lubricated. Sharon's fireplug of a frame was decked in a Wonder Woman get-up that accentuated what little legs she's got and she was on it from the get-go. Heck, the formula is a tried and true one and with SJ in the role of JB, the ensemble of guitars, horns and rhythm took an hour warm up set and turned it into a calisthenic work out. There was a nice mix of their standard material mixed with what was formally announced as "new" songs. Sharon started with "How Can I Let A Good Man Down" and then invited a guy on stage to boogie with and serenade. She kept remarking how young the kid looked and was just a master of stage presence as she quickly flipped the band off that song to "Go Easy." It just built and built from there and the set seemed perfectly timed with the growth of the crowd, playing the energy just right, each song upping the intensity just a bit.
The Dap Kings are fascinating to watch. They are one of the only bands that has three distinct leaders to it -- not in the sense of a trio like MMW each being a leader, but each person has a distinct role. Before Jones comes out, Binky Griptite, the lead guitar player acts as the emcee, working the crowd and the band, introducing band members and setting up the grand entrance of the grand dame of groove. Obviously when Sharon is on stage, she is the central focus, telling the band when to hit it and when to quit it, working mid-song soliloquies like no other and bounding from one end of the stage to another with microphone in hand like she could go on for hours and hours without pause. But the real leader is probably Bosco Mann on the bass who, sometimes overtly, sometimes more subtly directs all the action. Of course, he also plays one mean-ass bass guitar, some truly primitive funk; basslines and songs that he largely concocted himself. All this underlying interplay purely for some unavoidable dance music. If these guys don't get you up and dancing, I question your humanity.
Around 9:15-9:20, Medeski, Martin and Wood took the stage with some guests in tow:
David Tronzo (someone I was previously unfamiliar with, but was described by Billy Martin as an old friend) on guitar, the legendary
Airto Moreira on percussion and Flora Purim on vocals. The opening segment was as loose as the stage would get -- a good 10 minutes of pure improvisation between everyone on stage. Meandering, obtuse interplay between the sextet, unrealized potential grooves, occasionally annoying caterwauling from Purim and a whole lot of fun. The previous set still in my muscle memory, there appeared to be grooves and danceable beats where there probably were none, but it was enjoyable in a spectacle kind of way. We weren't quite close enough to discern costumes, but Medeski seemed to be some sort of red-caped ghoul of some sort, Chris Wood had on a red wig and Billy Martin was like a mad scientist with a big curly white wig and white coat... well he's always a bit of a mad scientist, but he also served as a human projection screen, with a projector shooting straight at his coat with shapes and numerals and other random digitized bits.
After this foray into the unknown, Purim left the stage and it was time to get down to the business at hand. That business being a complete exploration of what funky is. This show was so damn funk-filled, I'm going to make sure this review is equally "funk"-filled. The first tune out of the gate is the now-standard MMW cover of "What'd I Say." I've somehow managed to see these guys twice previously already this calendar year and this would be my third version of this song. This was the straight grand piano boogie woogie funk that took off with Medeski's left and right hands midway through and just went. From there we got all sorts of flavor of the funk: the undeniable funk of the organ groove trio; faux-electronica funky dancehall; deep, dark Davis-era funk fusion; the funk of the slow, sexy, slinky "Anyone Love My Jesus;" the Chris Wood + four-string Fender = as funky as you can imagine funk; the porno psycheldelic space funk of Medeski's otherworldly toys; the utterly funky kinetics of the multiple percussive breakdowns of Billy & Airto cluttered through the set; the ethereal funk of the slide guitar layered on a pulsing groove machine; the pure MMW-brand funky flavor of the adrenaline rush "Think" and just about every other possible way of being funky that you can think of. I mean, they played over two hours and there wasn't one pause, one "sit down and rest" moment... save for the opening "number" there wasn't any experiment or noise it was 100% dance-til-you-drop and the crowd just ate it up.
The guests filled in admirably. The band seemed to entrust them completely to know when to step up, when to fill in and when to lay back and they were totally up for the task. Tronzo's playing wasn't the type of guitar sit-in that has you agog with the guy's shredding. Rather he just blended himself into the mix, sure a heady solo here or there, but mostly he just added guitar where he felt it needed to be added and he was usually right. Ditto on Moreira who seemed totally locked into the grooves from the start, plying his wares from the bongos to the timbales to the random knick-knacks that always seemed to be just the right sound for the occasion. Near the end of the set, when you thought maybe things were winding to an end, Sharon Jones, staying strong still in her Wonder Woman get-up bounded back on stage and lead the band just as smoothly as she had lead her own. The first number with her was some standard-sounding rhythm and blues of course with plenty of MMW-level embellishment. The second tune, though, was a cover of "Sunshine of Your Love" which was, pardon the cliche, quite sick! Sharon hit the vocals quite perfectly, somehow funking this up while maintaining the bad-ass power trio rock and roll spirit of the tune. The band flexed its muscles here, and like they do with so many Hendrix covers, they totally contextualized the rock and roll and, quite frankly, nailed it.
Amazingly, there was still something left in the tank for an encore and it was a steady continuation of the set that took us nearly up to that midnight hour... in the end they played a good 2.5 hours straight (save a short break for the encore) and nearly the entire time had the funkmeter pinned at 10. Hard to believe that this was the same band who awed the suburban music heads with a pitch-perfect hour of sit-down acoustic jazz at the
IMAC in Huntington in April and then wowed the wine-and-cheese set at the
Planting Fields Arboretum on a gorgeous summer night. I last saw an
MMW Halloween show back in 2000 at the Beacon and had such a great time that night, I'm not sure why it took so long to get back. Now, I'm already looking forward to next Halloween.
Program note: Billy Martin announced two Thanksgiving weekend shows at the
Bowery with
John Scofield in the mix.
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