1 post tagged “greyboy”
Car-chase music isn't the only good vehicular music genre; simple car driving music can be plenty fulfilling. "Fried Grease" by the Greyboy Allstars with Fred Wesley (1995) has become my official cruising-down-the-freeway-with-the-top-down song. Never mind that the top of our minivan doesn't actually go down; this groovy track makes it feel like it's down. I'm not usually a fan of the "everybody gets a solo" format, but it works in this case because all the players "bring it" (I think that's the correct term today). After two ensemble runs through the central motif, the soloing begins: first up is legendary JB Horns trombonist Fred Wesley, followed by Karl Denson on alto sax, Harold Todd on flute, Robert Walter on electric piano, and finally Elgin Park on guitar before the ensemble kicks back in to play a completely different riff for the outro. It's pure gold. There's no bass solo, but Chris Stilwell's hyperkinetic basslines keep the tune bouncing, and at this point I may as well give a tip of the hat to drummer Zak Najor and percussionist Craig Levitz for pinning the whole thing down so flawlessly.
The Greyboy Allstars formed in 1993 to play the kind of retro funk and acid jazz on the records that DJ Greyboy (Andreas Stevens) was playing at the Green Circle Bar in San Diego. I first encountered them on the soundtrack to Get Shorty, a pretty good movie with inexplicably great music, most of it by former Lounge Lizard John Lurie. After some years apart the Allstars reunited this year (all the original members plus Greyboy himself) for a new album, What Happened to Television? It's fine, funky stuff; there's no "Fried Grease" on it, but "Left Coast Boogaloo" comes close.
