Bonerama

Bonerama - Live From New York - 2004 - Bonerama

Recorded live at the Tribeca Rock Club, NYC, Mar. 26 & 27, 2004, where the band has developed a following over the last two years. Arming themselves with special guests Stanton Moore of Galactic and living legend Fred Wesley on trombone. The shows featured new originals, some new covers and jamming with the two drum kits of Stanton Moore and Chad Gilmore. A great album, with a real New Orleans brassy, and funky street flavour. Try and find their albums, " Bringing It Home ", & " Live At The Old Point ".


TRACKS

1. Baronne (5:19)
2. It Don't Mean Nothin' (6:05)
3. Chilcock (7:39)
4. Shake Your Rugalator (6:55)
5. Whipping Post (8:01)
6. The Wizard (3:30)
7. Less Is More (5:18)
8. It's Electric (4:36)
9. Crosstown Traffic (5:17)
10. Bone Up (5:07)
11. Blackout In New York City (5:35)
12. Chemical Assisstance (4:12)
13. War Pigs (8:42)

PERSONNEL

Produced by Mark Mullins & Craig Klein
Associate Producers: Gregg Rubin & Tracey Freeman
Mark Mullins - trombone, electric trombone, vocals
Craig Klein - trombone, vocals, Rugalator
Steve Suter - trombone
Brian O'Neil - bass trombone
Bert Cotton - guitar
Matt Perrine - sousaphone
Chad Gilmore - drums

SPECIAL GUESTS:

Fred Wesley - trombone (7, 11)
Stanton Moore - Drums (2,3,4,5,6,7

REVIEWS

This is seventy-seven minutes of truly heavy air: the gritty slur and ram's-horn-choir blast of four trombones (five if you count Fred Wesley of P-Funk and James Brown renown, who guests on two tracks), with the iron oompah of a sousaphone way down below. Bonerama, a New Orleans septet caught here at a New York club date last year, are also pinpoint blowers, articulate in their solos and full-force choruses while armed with the rhythmic swagger you only learn in Crescent City second-line parades. The band's originals stress the funk; the covers show how far that funk can go. The guitar riff in the Allman Brothers' "Whipping Post" is a 'bone-harmony tornado, while Jimi Hendrix's "Crosstown Traffic" -- starring the dirty wah-wah of Mark Mullins' electric horn -- is rush hour, Mardi Gras-style. DAVID FRICKE (Posted: Mar 17, 2005) © Copyright 2007 Rolling Stone
New Orleans is an incubator for unusual musical ideas based on traditional concepts that move in unexpected directions. Such is the case with Bonerama, a brass band conglomeration with a front line of four trombones and a funky rhythm section of sousaphone, wah-wah guitar and rump-shaking drum beats.
The band's new release, "Live From New York", in stores Nov. 9, shatters any preconceived notions listeners may have about the role of the trombone in a musical ensemble. There are passages psychedelically mind melting, hauntingly beautiful, furiousluy syncopated and filled with scorching virtuosity.
Jimmy Hendrix was once quoted during a recording session requesting the engineer make his guitar sound as if it was underwater, and Bonerama's take on "Crosstown Traffic" ups the ante, creating a sonic swimming pool with swirling distortion-laden trombone riffs and a rhythmic undertow that threatens to drown the ears in a churning wake.
Then there is Fred Wesley, a master of funk trombone, who met the band two years ago at Jazz Fest and has been a fan and supporter ever since. He sat in with Bonerama during this recording and particularly shines on the Mark Mullins tune "Less is Moore" The title's play on words is a nod to drummer Stanton Moore of Galactic, another special guest livening up the record.
One of the infectious Bonerama originals is the Craig Klein-penned "Shake Your Rugalator." A rugalator is a percussion instrument invented by Ray Lambert of the Storyville Stompers, a New Orleans brass band. It's a hollowed out coconut filled with ball bearings and then whimsically painted; Klein likes to refer to the instruments as "Chalmettian folk art" This ode to the rugalator captures the sound and intensity of a raw, raucous New Orleans evening in a sweaty club and serves as Bonerama's public service to those who may not have had the privilege of experiencing such a thing first hand.
Bonerama certainly is pushing the limits of what a New Orleans brass band can be, moving farther from traditionalism and fusing funk and rock music into one. On their previous release, "Live at the Old Point," it was the cover of "Frankenstein" that set tongues wagging. This go-round, the hard-rocking cover of "War Pigs" will fill that role-a dark, densely layered atomic meltdown of snarling ferocity that is frankly scary. If ever there was a jam compilation that signaled the apocolypse with rhythmic integrity, this cut would have to be on it. © Billy Thinnes : City Life Magazine Nov. 2004
The brass-fueled blast that opens Bonerama's Live from New York is a testament to the power of a horn section, the four trombones and a sousaphone laying down a juicy Cajun theme that is fat enough to keep the interwoven soloists glued tight in the pocket. And it is immediately clear that, as the sextet claims in its press bio, "Subtlety was not the foundation upon which Bonerama was to be built. Instead, the band's sound was to deliver pure horn muscle." But on that same opening track, entitled "Baronne," I quickly found myself wishing that that muscle was backed up by girth; the fighting power fueled by a keen game plan; the intrinsic shock value infused with instinctive complexity.
Bonerama is, of course, a band of veteran players from the sweltering musical hub called New Orleans. Trombonists Mark Mullins and Craig Klein, veterans of Crescent City crooner Harry Connick Jr.'s big band, invited the Big Easy roster into the fold -¬ including trombone-blowing brethren Steve Suter, Brian O'Neil and Rick Trolsen, sousaphone player Matt Perrine, guitarist Bert Cotton, and drummer Chad Gilmore - and essentially revealed a royal flush in both skill and risk. Their first album, Live at the Old Point, offered a bottled-up burst of the group's live set, garnering regional acclaim, and with Live from New York, recorded over two nights at the Tribeca Rock Club in the Big Apple, another dose of funk has been dished to the masses.
Without a doubt, their brassy assault is impressive, with simmering song structures anchoring rollercoaster horn runs that, while often intertwined and dizzying, manage to maintain a crisp, greased separation. Whether authoritatively bounding through original numbers like the burley, thumping "The Wizard," or through choice covers like the Allman Brothers Band's "Whipping Post" (where a sliding trombone takes on the blues slide of the original) and Black Sabbath's "War Pigs," there is ferocity in the delivery, yet in the interim, and during those themes make these selections songs rather than fleet-fingered horn duels, there is too much space, and the songs often seem to ramble, or more appropriately, strut just a little to long.
Bonerama is a fitting tribute to the band's homeland, offering homage to the risk that helped New Orleans change trombone playing in the early 1920s, taking it from a more classical context into funky dance music played in the streets, into parades and funerals, and onto the back of trucks so the player had enough room to fully utilize the spectrum of sound pulled with the glide of the slide. The band does the instrument and New Orleans justice. However, despite a mixed bag of covers and originals, as well as a little help from guests Fred Wesley of the JB horns and Galactic's Stanton Moore, the force of five blaring horns is often uneven without the support of more intriguing core song structures. Ultimately, Live from New York is a little short, like a homemade dish of ettoufe, full of flavor but short on sauce. © Jamie Lee 4/2/05 /www.jambands.com/

BIO

New Orleans is well known for its excess and it should be no surprise that their musicians are prone to overindulge a bit. Still, when Mark Mullins and Craig Klein formed the trombone blitzkreig of Bonerama, skeptics and traditionalists raised their voices in puritanical protest. A funk-rock troupe of trombone players had never been done, even in the ‘anything goes’ environs of New Orleans. Who did these guys think they were? Isn’t one trombone loud enough? Mark Mullins and Craig Klein didn’t think so.

The initial stirrings of the trombone cavalcade known as Bonerama began in 1998, when Mullins and Klein found themselves with some rare time off from their steady gig in Harry Connick Jr’s big band. Though both have exposed their fine jazz abilities, Mullins and Klein didn’t envision a jazz trombone assemblage. Instead, the Bonerama sound was to deliver pure horn muscle - Rock ‘n’ roll along with the second-line funk of their New Orleans roots.

Gathering up a dizzying display of trombone talent, Mullins and Klein quickly brought fellow honking peers Steve Suter, Brian O’Neill and Rick Trolsen into the fold. Augmenting their horn attack came the imaginative and dynamic sousaphone player, Matt Perrine, the edgy experimental guitar of Bert Cotton, and the entrenched rhythmic pocket of drummer Chad Gilmore (though New Orleans drumming heroes Russell Batiste, Doug Belote and Kevin O’Day have been known to step behind the kit on occasion). After several well-received local gigs, a noticeable buzz began to form around the Bonerama sound as one that defied typical labels. A thunderous funk attack might suddenly turn into an acid rock meltdown. Their unpredictability was infectious…

In 2001, Bonerama released their debut album, Live at the Old Point. Rave reviews from OffBeat magazine, Gambit Weekly, and The Times Picayune cemented a belief that many music lovers in the area had already known. Bonerama became one of the hottest, most creative bands in New Orleans. Soon the ensemble hit the road, selling out venues like Manhattan’s Tobacco Road. San Francisco’s Boom Boom Room has welcomed Bonerama with open arms and packed houses each time they’ve come around.

As much as these successful tours have helped spread the trombone gospel to music fans around the country, it has been the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival that truly launched the band. Their performances at Jazz Fest have caused quite a stir, even garnering the attention of David Fricke, Rolling Stone editor, and quite possibly the most influential rock critic in the country. In his widely admired "On the Edge" column, Fricke lauded the band’s powerful musical presence calling them "the ultimate in brass balls...five trombones blowing power chords and punchy riffs like true air guitars." Not surprisingly, their Live at the Old Point CD has been a top-seller at the festival for three straight years.

In March of 2004, Bonerama returned to New York for back-to-back nights at Tribeca Rock. Musical guests included Galactic’s Stanton Moore on drums, and the legendary trombonist Fred Wesley of the JB Horns. Fortunately for all, the gigs were recorded, and the fruits of these musical labors were released on “Live From New York.” The band has gained a remarkable reputation for incendiary live performances, as well as a devout and ever-expanding fan base.

In September 2006, the band will record several live shows at New Orleans’s beloved Tipitina’s. The plan is to release these recordings in the spring of ’07. In the meantime, come out and see a live show for yourself – you’re sure to be utterly amazed! © www.bonerama.net