17 NOV: BREAKESTRA live at Dingwalls, London
November 12, 2009 by M. Gosho Oakes
Filed under Events
AGMP PROUDLY PRESENTS
BREAKESTRA featuring Miles Tackett, Mixmaster Wolf, Afrodyete and more
+ special guests HOMECUT featuring Testament ( First Word Records )
DATE: TUESDAY 17 NOVEMBER 2009
VENUE: DINGWALLS, Camden Lock, London NW1
TIME: Doors open at 7.30pm
COST: £17.50 + booking fee from Ticketweb
After a four-year break from the studio, L.A.’s finest practitioners of gritty soul/jazz, party funk & breaks, BREAKESTRA, return to the fray with a brand new studio album on Strut this September, ‘DUSK TILL DAWN’.
The brainchild of producer, engineer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist “Music Man” Miles Tackett, Breakestra was formed from a love of golden era late ‘80s / early ‘90s hip hop and a fascination for the dusty samples that peppered the era’s classic records. From watching revered West coast DJs like Cut Chemist and Mixmaster Wolf cut up hip hop, funk and breaks, Tackett looked to form a live collective of musicians that could play the originals live with all of the same sounds, feel and musicianship. Through weekly jams at a local coffeehouse session called The Breaks, Breakestra was created.
From then on, with their base at fabled Thursday L.A. club night Rootdown, Breakestra became renowned as one of the great live funk bands of their era. Mixmaster Wolf, first persuaded off the decks at The Breaks to voice Bobby Byrd’s ‘I Know You Got Soul’, became a key voice and hypeman out front. An amorphous line-up of L.A.’s finest players, led by Tackett on bass and vocals, ensured that the grooves were kept super-tight with local musicians like drummer Pete McNeal (Z Trip’s band), James “The Funky Penguin” King (The Lions) and Jeremy Ruzumna (Macy Gray’s band) all a part of the Breakestra fold at different times.
The band’s recordings have been rare to savour, numbering an early live cassette-only mixtape, a handful of singles and second mixtape release on Stones Throw and a debut studio album, ‘Hit The Floor’, on Ubiquity in late 2005.
For 2009, Breakestra return with their long-awaited sophomore set exploring all colours of the funk spectrum.
British born writer and dreamer of Zimbabwean and Irish descent with hands and ink indelibly marked in music and culture, Marsha Gosho Oakes is Editor and Founder of SoulCulture. Has also written for likes of Blues & Soul, MySpace UK, HipHopDX, Dazed&Confused, Shook, Undercover and MOBO. Website: MGoshoOakes.com
