Funky P Album

Just to keep up with the news on Funky P. In one of my previous posts where I mentioned this Luxembourg group, I wondered if they had any albums out. Not at theis point: there’s only an EP available. And downloads from their site. (Which I can’t download at the moment as I’m using someone else’s computer.)

Anyway, Funky P will have an album out by next summer – that’s European summer, not NZ summer, so I’m assuming it will be the middle of 2008. I’m looking forward to that. A studio recording of this band (where I can hear all the different instrumentalists as well as the singers) will be great.

The photo is of the band in a sedate mood: something they ain't when they get playing.

And there's a very good overview of the life of the band by an objective reviewer on GarageBand.com

Songs, smiles, singers, and a snout

This is going to be one of those compendium posts, where I do a quick squiz over the HitTail results from the last week or so, or at least the ones that seem interesting to me. Douglas Lilburn’s Sing Harry turns up again. It’s good to know that this song cycle by Lilburn continues to arouse interest, especially since it’s one of the few things he wrote that I think does! (Oh, dear, the old anti-Lilburn bias coming out again.)
Another NZ composer is also on the list - at least so it seemed when I first saw the reference. But I couldn’t quite figure out what why anyone would be looking for Snout Gareth Farr. Turns out that there’s an actor in the Royal Shakespeare Company with the same name, and he was played Snout in a production back in 2002. So NZ’s Gareth Farr gets a look-in rather fraudulently.
The king of whistlers, Ronnie Rinalde, is still going strong. Except that his name is Ronnie Ronalde, and I’ve managed to misspell it in one of my posts - as the searcher did.
The Indian actor, Kavi Raz, whom I mentioned the other day in relation to the movie, The Golden Bracelet, is on the list, as is the Jazz/Funk group from Luxembourg, Funky P. More about them another time, as Roosevelt Isaac (their lead singer) has emailed me a few times recently to give me some further gen on their doings.
A couple of non-NZ composers make the list: John Adams, whom I’m going to check up on more when I get back home, and Michael Tippett, who’s been a regular visitor to the HitTail search results.
An interesting search for Jobs for Opera Singers didn’t seem to take the searcher very far, but it did turn up for me a site where most opera singers are listed, but not, rather to my surprise, Elizabeth Connell, who is certainly no minor artist. It’s an interesting site, nevertheless, with info about books, opera houses, and resources for singers.
And finally, my comments about the travelling exhibition of pictures of the smiling Christ comes up. But the results Google turns up (apart from the one on this blog) are from those places that turn Jesus into all manner of beings: smiling, sad, black, yellow, you name it. The one from picturesofJesus4you.com is very American, somewhat hippy and a jolly good chap. Okay, he’s a pleasant Christ, and certainly he’s smiling, but he lacks a bit of the awe I’d expect Christ to have along with his smiles. The artist is Frances Hook, by the way.

Footnote to Funky P

I didn't give the link to Funky P in my last post. The place to go is their news page, which is a bit more informative than their opening page (though you can hear a couple of fragments of their music there).
The site is okay; a bit fiddly, and not everything is linked well to everything else. Still, if you're looking for info on the band - and now that their name has appeared here, naturally you will be - this is the place to go.

Funky P

On our last night in Luxembourg we went and heard a band (well, it was actually impossible to avoid hearing them) called Funky P. Though listed as Funky Jazz, their lead singer actually claimed at one point that they are not a jazz band. I’m not sure what the definition of Funky is, but it seems to include Jazz amongst its components, or hangers-on.

Maybe you could call them a Faux Jazz Band. (In the same way faux wood blinds are not really wood blinds.) Faux, for those who haven’t been to Luxembourg recently, is a French work used to describe something made to resemble something else. The original French word means false, fake, imitation or artificial. (Always a mine of information.)

Anyway, Funky P, a group of some nine musicians and singers (bass, lead guitar, sax, trumpet, trombone, keyboard, drummer and two singers) were performing in the Abbey Courtyard in the Grund in Luxembourg to a not very large crowd of people. I don’t think this was because they’re no good – in fact, they are very good – but because it just wasn’t really the right place for them. I don’t really know why they hadn’t drawn a larger crowd.

The singers can sing – and dance – the keyboard player is superb (when he gets a chance to be heard), the sax player is a middle-aged feller with real power, and everyone else in the band performs wonderfully. And loudly. I don’t think the loudness was their issue, really: they were performing in a natural amphitheatre, which didn’t need as much reverb and boom and whathaveyou as they were given. They could almost play acoustically and get away with it. (I realise that ain’t the done thing no more.)

Anyway, apart from being temporarily deafened, I’d really like to hear more of their music (on CD, in the quietness of my own home). I’ve found their site, but I need to know now what’s available to buy. This is one of the things about this holiday: quirky things turn up at every corner, and arouse your interest!

What I almost forgot to say, is that Funky P - the most Phat & Funky Soul/Funk/Pop Band in the Universe is from Luxembourg...! Luxembourg, which likes to give the impression nothing funky could possibly happen there.

The photo of Roosevelt Isaac comes from the Funky P, and as far as I can make out from the legal guff, it's okay for me to publish it here. Hopefully Funky P won't regard my inclusion of it on this blog as a way to make some real money by suing me.
And I've found out that Funky P only have an EP out, with three tracks on it. There has to be more out there somewhere.