Recorded entirely in analog in the Brooklyn apartment of Thomas Brennack (the guitarist for the Dap-Kings, the Budos Band, and Amy Winehouse) the debut album by the Menahan Street Band has some real soulful funkiness to it—sounding like the soundtrack to the next Elmore Leonard adaptation (Get Shorty, anyone?). It's a collaboration of musicians from Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, El Michels Affair, Antibalas, and the Budos Band—about a dozen musicians all coming together on horns, piano, organ, vibes, and percussion—to make some eclectic instrumental jazz. Not an A.M.-smooth, lite-jazz throwaway, but not quite the groovy 50s rockin' of Booker T. and the MGs or Curtis Mayfield, either. Still, some damn fine playin' by some damn fine musicians. And those riffs off the title track? They may sound familiar: Jay-Z sampled them last year for his hit "Roc Boys (And the Winner Is)."
And here's the real thing:
Their debut album, Make the Road By Walking is out now on Dunham Records.