Menahan Street Band Hits The Road, Lands At Double Door Thursday
By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 13, 2012 4:40PM
Brooklyn has cemented itself as an epicenter for the current funk/soul renaissance, thanks to the efforts of Daptone Records and its sublabel, Dunham Records. Where Daptone traffics in hard funk and Afrobeat thanks to the Dap Kings and The Budos Band, Dunham’s house band, the Menahan Street Band, takes leisurely grooves and brass harmonies, and instrumentals on long trips where the journey is more important than the destination. Think of endless variations of “Café Regio’s” from the Shaft soundtrack and you’ll have an idea of what Menahan Street Band sounds like.
With a lineup comprising of members of Antibalas, El Michels Affair, the Dap Kings and the Budos Band, the Menahan Street Band is also something of a supergroup within the funk/soul revival. Their new album The Crossing serves as a quantum leap forward from both their 2008 debut Make the Road by Walking and the backup work they did for soul shouter Charles Bradley’s 2011 No Time for Dreaming, co-written and produced by MSB’s Thomas Brenneck. The grooves are tighter, the melodies smoother, and the horn charts are a study in harmony. That The Crossing is a consistently pleasant listening experience is an even greater feat considering the album was recorded over the course of two years, to account for the band members other commitments
Menahen Street Band brings their act to Double Door Nov. 15, as part of the Wicker Park club’s monthly Soul Summit Chicago dance party. They’ll take the stage at 10 p.m.; Soul Summit’s DJs will spin before and after. Admission is $10.