Turkuaz Is Gone - Dang It!!

 

The pandemic has truly sucked, but one of the bright spots for me over the past two years has been digging into music and artists that I somehow missed. Back in 2008, a group of students from the Berklee School of Music in Boston formed a band that they named Turkuaz. It was a large, ambitious group with singers & horns. The genre was red hot funk.

Funk music feeds my soul. In the words of the great bassist, Bootsy Collins "We're all funky; just not all of us know it." Turkuaz is a group highly-skilled artists look like a bunch of wannabe hipsters, but they are stone-cold killers. Funky as hell.

As is often the case, I was late to this musical party. I started listening to these folks last summer.  The interplay between the members astonished me. It is also amazing to see musical superpowers in action - one of the members of the band, Chris Brouwers, can play trumpet and keyboards at the same time!!! Here's a link to a full Turkuaz concert, done on the internet with no audience about 1 year ago. I encourage you to listen to it in full - it is 71 minutes of awesomeness.

After digging into some of their on-line offerings, I did a little Googling about these folks. I found out that the band blew up in the middle of their fall tour in 2021 - seven of the nine members quit, leaving just the two co-founders.  The tour was cancelled, fans are shocked, and everyone is wondering what happened. 

Here's the announcement that the departing band members released:

We have made the difficult decision to step away from Turkuaz.

We have spent the last several years traveling the world together with the intention of spreading love and joy through our music. During that time, we have grown together as a family, and we’ve learned how to love and support each other through both the best and worst of times.

We stand unified and in full support of one another as we make this decision to end our involvement with Turkuaz. We are eternally grateful to have had the opportunity to perform for all of you, and even more grateful to have become close friends with so many of you along the way.

We thank you for respecting our privacy in this matter, and for your continued support. We are very excited to share the many projects that we’ve all been working on – there are some truly amazing things to come.

The co-founders, guitarist/vocalist David Brandwein and Taylor Shell, said they were surprised by the decision made by their colleagues. Brandwein released a lengthy statement about it - here it is:

I’d like a chance to address the events of the other day, which caught me, Taylor, our fans and many others by surprise. This includes our amazing opening act, Thumpasaurus, and all of the wonderful venues and promoters who were invested in this tour. I’d also like to be extremely clear that I am not here to express any ill will towards anybody. I merely wish to state my feelings on the matter and speak for myself.

I am devastated to be forced to cancel the dates on our calendar, especially in the middle of a tour. The first thing on my mind above all else is the fans. Our only goal in persevering through the nearly-impossible climate of post-pandemic touring was to give to the fans. I could go on about the difficulties of trying to hold together an enormous operation like this under these circumstances, but I would hope that it’s self-evident and that anybody could imagine that the logistics, math and context does not present us with an easy road.

I have also had a very turbulent year personally. I have struggled. Through the pandemic, I’ve confronted obstacles that have changed my life forever. Alcohol abuse, rehab, divorce, sobriety and re-entering the live music world in a scary time. I am not a perfect person by any means, and I am always on a continuous and difficult journey to look inside, improve myself and try to be the best version of myself that I can be.

I am incredibly fortunate to have so many loving friends and family stick by my side through these difficulties, but I also completely understand that after years of complicated relationships, some people just do not feel they can be a part of my life anymore. While this hurts me a lot, I understand they are doing what is best for them and this understanding is a part of the transformation process. In the 6 months I’ve been sober, I’ve tried my best to continue doing my job and navigating things and I wish it had gone differently.

So while I do not understand why this happened this way and at this time, mid-tour, I respect the overall decision that has been made and I wish my former bandmates nothing but good health, success and happiness in all their future endeavors. These people were like family to me, and regardless of what has happened, I know that Taylor and I both cherish and value the experiences we had together with every single one of them. I look forward to playing and releasing more music, whether it be Turkuaz or the many other new, exciting projects I have in the works.

Again, I ask for privacy and respect at this difficult time. I have already received some nasty messages from people I’ve never met before, and I can’t express how much pain this brings me. I think we all could use a lesson in being more gentle, kind and loving — myself included. I hope this finds everybody safe and sound, and that you’re surrounded by positive people who support you and love you. That is the best we can all hope for. 

It sounds like that the stress of the pandemic and David's struggles in his personal life caused this terrific musical group to explode. I hope that these folks put something else together - their music is so incredible. I feel very grateful for the music these folks produced for all of us, and wish them nothing but good things.

Tim Maia - How the Hell Did I Miss This Guy????

 

I am a parochial American who has never traveled south of Mexico and haven't paid much attention the popular music in South America.  This is a shame, because this is the first day I have become fully aware of Tim Maia, the giant of Brazilian funk/soul/psychedelia.

Tim Maia has an epic "rock star" life story.  He was born in Tijuca, a neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro's Northern Zone.  This neighborhood includes the 3rd largest urban forest in the world. Tim was a WWII baby, born in September 1942. He started writing songs when he was 8 years old and picked up the guitar soon thereafter.  He came to the United States in 1959 to try to break through as a rock star, but got busted for smoking weed in a stolen car (total dumb wannabe rockstar move).  He was deported back to Brazil and started making fantastic music that merged American funk, soul & rock with traditional Brazilian forms.

Tim did some weird stuff.  He joined a religous cult for a couple of years in the 1970's - their core belief was that humans are aliens from another planet and we have to reconnect with our extra-terrestrial bretheren.  I guess Tim got bored with that - he left in 1976 and started releasing records.  He sang in Portugese and English.  Here is one of his more awesome English language tunes, "Nobody Can Live Forever."

Tim Maia wasn't very tall - maybe 5'7".  He was pretty round, too. His live shows were allegedly amazing.  I really like this video - it is a tune called "Descobridores Dos Sete Mares" - Discoverers of the Seven Seas.  Very funky and it also has that Brazilian vibe.  

Tim lived hard - alcohol, drugs, gluttony the usual '70's/80's stew of debachery.  This led him to miss gigs - just not show up - which caused his career to crater.  He ended up with diabetes, hypertension, obesity and a pulmonary embolism.  He died in 1998. His cultural legacy in Brazil is huge.

I am going to dig into this guy's catalog - he had something special.

Dumpstaphunk - Second Generation Stankiness

Alright now let's tick it off:

1.  Dumpstaphunk is from New Orleans, where funk was born in that stanky debauched atmosphere. Yezz...
2.  The personnel includes second generation funkmasters, from the Neville family no less.
3.   TWO BASS PLAYERS!! Now that is a helluva funky idea! The bottom is punched up in this band fer sure! And both of the bassmen sing!!
4.   Sly & the Family Stone - type vocals; extra greasy and sweet. The vocalists toss lines around amongst themselves, just like the Family Stone did.
5.   Wah-Wah pedals!  This band works those puppies to death.

This New Orleans syncopated funk is damned hard to execute.  All the casual offbeats, intricate hesitations and locked-in grooves take mad skills to pull off.  Listen to these folks show us how its done!

When I was an impressionable young punk in the 1970's, this music infected me.  In New Orleans, funk never faded.  This is what young people listen to and play down there.  When I listen to Dumpstaphunk, I feel transported to a different world - a world in which  mastering an instrument is considered a noble calling; a world where music is performed, not programmed.  I am very thankful for Dumpstaphunk and their fellow travelers in the old school world of real funk musicianship.