Greyboy Allstars Reunite For Tour, Album

So far, the biggest music music news of 2006 is the Greyboy Allstars reunion tour. It began last night with the first of three consecutive sold out shows at the Independent in San Francisco and continues through April. For me, it seems only fitting that the kick-off venue is right down the street from my place. Since the Greyboy Allstars gave birth to the U.S. acid jazz movement right up the street from my place in San Diego 13 years ago.

I was a sophmore in college and totally bought into the grunge movement, rocking to Soundgarden and Nirvana and the Chili Peppers. But chicks didn't frequent the mosh pits, so I was also chasing girls around roving San Diego clubs of the day like TicToc and Taxxi. That's where a DJ named Greyboy was replacing the standard trance/techno club tunes with a more funky style: minimalist hip hop style beats seasoned with sax, keyboards and guitar. For once, girls and guys were inspired to the dance floor -- and not by some cocktails and tab of E but by the infectious grooves.

Greyboy's ode to this San Diego/La Jolla era was his 1993 album Freestylin' (an absolutely esstential download), on which he recorded live musicians over his beats. The most notable musician was a sax player named Karl Denson who had most recently played on Lenny Kravitz's Let Love Rule and Mama Said albums. And many of the beats came from San Francisco record store The Groove Merchant which went onto become the formidable funk & groove label Ubiquity Records. One sample track called Unwind Your Mind (another essential download), recorded just before Freestylin', went to #1 on dance charts in Europe where there was already a burgeoning acid jazz scene. Freestylin' essentially launched the movement in the U.S.

Denson and Greyboy founded Greyboy Records and put out a couple albums, and then Denson formed the Greyboy Allstars so he could have a live outlet for the new style he and Greyboy created. They released two albums. First, the Greyboy-produced West Coast Boogaloo which featured James Brown sideman and trombonist Fred Wesley in 1994, and then they started branching out from Greyboy and did A Town Called Earth in 1997. They toured relentlessly until they broke up in 1998. But Denson kept the scene alive by forming Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, which he's been touring with since 1998.

Over the years, the Tiny Universe wrongly got lumped in with the whole jam band miasma. Their recorded material has been true to the funk & groove roots, but their long sets for live shows drew in the hippie crowd over the years, which drove many early fans away.

But here's why the Allstars reunion is such a big deal: part of the tour announcement included a note that, after the tour, they'll be recording a new album which will be produced by Greyboy. This is basically a guarantee that proof is coming ... proof that there's a giant chasm between jam bands and funk & groove (or acid jazz) bands. I'm sure the music mags will come up with some clever new name for the jazz/funk sub-genre. All I know is that the sub-genre definitely exists. And I hope the de-hippified subculture will return with the new Greyboy Allstars album.

Download Essential Funk/Acid Jazz [itunes]
>> album | Greyboy: Freestylin' (1993)
>> song | Greyboy & Karl Denson: Unwind Your Mind (1993)
>> album | Greyboy Allstars: West Coast Boogaloo (1994)
>> album | Greyboy Allstars: A Town Called Earth (1997)
>> album | Karl Denson: Dance Lesson #2 (2001)