The Difference: Experimental Fusion Collective from St. Petersburg
In the past three years, two bands from the Tampa Bay area (and a bit beyond) have skyrocketed to prominence with stunning musicianship and epic live performances. Justino and the Difference emerged as a brilliant fusion quartet, melding rock, jazz, and funk into a magnificent amalgam. Meanwhile, JOOSE appeared first as a fusion quintet with deep jazz influences, and they too could funk things up.
All of the members of both bands were involved in multiple other projects and bands as well. As happens regularly in musical communities as powerful as Florida’s, some cross-pollination began. Justino Lee Walker joined JOOSE, helping that group develop its cinematic fusion music. Yral ‘datdudeondrums’ Morris, drummer for JOOSE and Come Back Alice, began sitting in on drums with Justino and the Difference. And there was more.
The ultimate cross-pollination has finally occurred: the two bands have merged. What should they call it? JOOStino and the Difference? Actually, they settled on something simpler:
The Difference are: Justino Lee Walker, guitar, vocals; Juan Gustavo Santana, bass; Yral ‘datdudeondrums’ Morris; Mark Mayea, keyboards, guitar, vocals; Jimmy Rector, percussion; Jason Hobert, guitar, vocals; and Cody Moore, woodwinds, keyboards, vocals.
Justino offered this:
What really brought it together was wanting to go against the grain of what seems to be a too-common occurrence of having multiple bands being made of up the same people. Each band doesn’t get the attention it deserves. This gives us the chance to serve the art the right way and give it our full attention and passion. Goals are to just flow as much as we can. Write, record, and perform as much as we can. Always growing and evolving and experimenting.
This promises to be a perfect example of that age-old axiom: the whole is great than the sum of its parts. This should be stratospheric!
Watch this space!
