Make My Funk the Zappa P-Funk Herbie Hancock Funk!
I MAY BE OLD, BUT I GOT TO SEE ALL THE COOL BANDS.
Yes, I have that t-shirt, and, yes, I did get to see many of the cool bands. For instance, in the ’70s, the three greatest touring bands (for me) were Parliament-Funkadelic, the Grateful Dead, and Frank Zappa’s entourage of the moment. And I was fortunate enough to see many of the seminal fusion bands such as the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever, Weather Report, and Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters.
Which is why I am so over-the-top excited that Christian Ryan has put together an incredible lineup for a show at Skipper’s Smokehouse in Tampa on Saturday, August 27. He will reprise the outrageous review he put together for Little Econ Love Fest with Christian Ryan’s Garage: A Tribute to Frank Zappa. And Holey Miss Moley, of which he is an integral part, will also reprise their magnificent Little Econ P-Funk tribute.
In addition to those, Ryan has put together another band (he’s in, like, a dozen or more) called Joose; they played the first night at Great Outdoors Jam. I know for certain we missed that set because everybody was talking about it the next day. For this show, Joose will cover the second Hancock/Headhunters masterpiece, Thrust.
It is impossible to overstate how awesome this show will be. On first will be Joose, featuring: Christian Ryan (Leisure Chief, Holey Miss Moley, lots more), saxophones & flute; Taylor Gilchrist (Ajeva), bass guitar; Yral ‘datdudeondrums’ Morris (Come Back Alice, Holey Miss Moley), drums; and Mark Mayea (Ajeva), keyboards. Jimmy Rector will also sit in on percussion. Since this an instrumental album, vocalist Meg Shannon will not appear.
Holey Miss Moley doing the Parliafunkadelicment Thang again will be amazing. Holey Miss Moley are: Kenneth Harvey, bass; Jacob Cox, guitar, vocals; Antonio Morales, percussion; Christian Ryan, saxophones; Vernon Suber, percussion; Danny Clemmons, vocals, tambourine; Mikey Guzman, keyboards; and Miss Robyn Alleman, vocals. Yral ‘datdudeondrums’ Morris is playing drums with the band. Guzman is currently on tour with Evan Taylor Jones, so Mark Mayea will stay on stage to play keyboards. Also, for this special set, in order to deliver the Parlet/Brides of Funkenstein experience, Alleman has invited Loe Sanz, Angela Mongiovi and Bam Forz to join her! More? How about Dennis Stadelman on guitar!
At Little Econ, we wrote:
Next up was the much-anticipated Parliament-Funkadelic set courtesy of Holey Miss Moley. Such a project is a huge undertaking with lots of concern for detail and practice. They stuck the landing.
Christian Ryan was front and center in helping his bandmates put this together, and he used a voice modulator to mimic the George Clinton voices (cartoon-like and deep baritone) from albums such as Maggot Brain and Standing On the Verge of Getting It On. After the first intro, they went into “P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up),” followed by “Get Off Your Ass and Jam,” featuring guitarist Jacob Cox with Krasowski sitting in.
They had recruited David Oliver Willis, a fine singer, to be Garry Shider, the voice of many of P-Funk’s most memorable songs (no diaper, though). His outfit, and those of everybody on stage, were outrageously perfect, none more so than Cox’s full-length fur coat and those gold chains.
After “One Nation Under a Groove,” HMM began to mine some of the great early tracks, beginning with “Can You Get to That?” and “Hit It and Quit.” A glorious “Standing on the Verge…” led to “Me and My Folks.” Then the four vocalists left the stage as Leisure Chief guitarist Nick Bogdon came on stage to play the repetitive figure as a bed for Jacob Cox on “Maggot Brain.” They nailed “Red Hot Mama” and mashed up “We Want the Funk” and “Do That Thing.” SAF, once again (sick as…).
Which brings us to Christian Ryan’s Garage. The band for this show is the same as for the Little Econ set with one addition: James Dabone. Personnel include: Tim Turner (Shak Nasti), guitar, vocals; David Vanegas (The Groove Orient), bass, vocals; Joey Lanna, drums; Keegan Matthews (Leisure Chief), keyboards; Ian McLeod (Ism, Flat Land), mallets, percussion; James Dabone (Ari & the Alibis), trombone; and Ryan.
Our review of their Little Econ set read:
If there was one set that had galvanized attendees, it was the mere mention of Christian Ryan’s Garage: A Tribute to Frank Zappa. In addition to his massive talents as a musician, Ryan is also a superb promoter, as he teased us for months about the various musicians he had recruited for this amazing project.
This was insane: Tim Turner, guitar; David Vanegas, bass; Joe Lanna, drums; Keegan Matthews, keyboards; Ian McLeod, percussion; Grant Hudson, guitar; Dave Melançon, trumpet; Kevin McMann, tenor sax; Corey Paul, trombone; and Ryan, plus more guests.
They started out ambitiously with “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow > Nanook Rubs It > St. Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast,” with Turner and Vanegas handling the vocals. Danny Clemmons came up to groove on “Magic Fingers.” Matthews was featured on “Eat That Question,” and Ryan and Chris Sgammato locked horns on “Peaches En Regalia.” Turner crushed “My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama,” and he and Hudson traded off on “Montana.”
It got out of hand when Fae Nae (Flat Land) and violin blew up “Dupree’s Paradise” as she battled with Paul and with Turner. Krasowski came up to growl “Willie the Pimp” with Dani Jaye (Come Back Alice) on violin. A horn-driven version of “Sharleena” highlighted Tommy Shugart’s (The Groove Orient) guitar. After a huge “Cosmik Debris,” we screamed for an encore and got a truly monstrous “Zomby Woof.”
Every wrangler would say it was mighty grand. Not to mention SAF.
No need for a time-machine trip back to 1975, just a ticket for the August 27th show. And I’d suggest you get yours in advance, if you get my drift.
