Funky hub for all things Redtenbacher and his Funkestra
Come down next Friday evening, 7th of October to see and hear us play at the 606 Jazz Club in Chelsea/London.
Our line up will be:
and
the fabulous Katie Leone on vocals.
Katie Leone with RB Funkestra
We are looking forward to seeing you there.
Funky Metronome AppI’m very proud to announce that the Redtenbacher’s Funkestra logo is one of the standard backgrounds for a funky iPhone metronome called MyBeat by KnowledgeRocks, a new thing I’m involved in.
Shake the iPhone in time to your favourite tune to determine the tempo without even having to touch the screen, whether on or off. Imagine your iphone is a hammer hitting a nail to a pulse. You can also adjust the shake sensitivity; lowering the sensitivity and shaking the iPhone harder increases accuracy. This feature is much easier to use than tap tempo (although we have also included it) and much more fun.
We have designed a metronome that is super simple to use. We hate clutter, hence you will find a minimum amount of buttons.
Using low level APIs, we have managed to get the most accurate metronome for the iPhone. As Knowledge Rocks was created by professional musicians, we nearly drove our programmers crazy by demanding super-accurate timing that also feels good.
Sid Gauld - horn player and arranger
RB Funkestra horn section regular, Sid Gauld has recorded on over 300 Album Projects in almost every genre of music, as well as playing live for a very wide range of artists all over the world. It’s a long list, but some of the people he’s worked with include Incognito, Blur, Ray Charles, Buddy Guy,The Cure, Snowboy, Johnny Dankworth, Sting… well you get the idea!
Visit Sid’s site to find out more about this terrifically talented musician, arranger and educator.
A double bill at the Boileroom in Guildford on Monday 26th of September with the Pete Roth Band.
It’s only £5 admission and doors open at 7:00. Pete’s band will play from 8:00 to 9:00 and we will play from 9:30 to 10:30.
Our line up will be:
Click the image on the right to see the full poster
Katie Leone with RB Funkestra
It also marked our first gig with wonderful vocalist Katie Leone who put in a very powerful and at the same time soulful performance. The weather was great and people came out with their picnics to enjoy the music.
In the first set the expectation was that we are going to be a nice jazz funky background addition to the ambience, however, after a few Pimms and Bubbles the crowd got involved and…danced their socks off…Entire families were introduced to the funk and danced away….We had to finish at 10pm but it was tough to go as one encore was not enough for the now party hungry crowd:-)
It was a good turn of events and thank you to my trusty funk brothers Mike Sturgis on drums and Eran Kendler who, as ever, provided the (funk) machine for the flights of Mike Gorman on keys, Sid Gauld on trumpet, Paul Booth on tenor saxophone and of course, vocalist Katie Hector.
A great place to play and we would like to do it very much again next year, if not only for the fun load in with a type of Golf cart. Everyone in the band was fighting to get to drive the gear from the car park to the stage and back:-)
Brendan Reilly and Annabel Williams
It came together on all accounts – the weather, the people and fans and the band. Just fantastic. I want to thank everyone in the band again – Mike Sturgis on drums, Eran Kendler on guitar, Mike Gorman on keys, Simon Finch on trumpet and Simon Allen on tenor sax as well as Annabel Williams and Brendan Reilly on vocals. The band was truly kicking, tight and hit the pocket deeply and Annabel and Brendan really sung their hearts out.
This gig also marked the unofficial release of the ‘Brendan Reilly & RB Funkestra’ limited edition EP. We did not expect sales at the launch going quite so well – the EP pretty much needs reprinting after this gig! Once we’ve got more they’ll be available in the Funkstore 
A big thank you to the lovely audience from Abbey Mills and Peter Walder, the fearless leader and organiser of the Festival, who, although recession is hitting hard everywhere, has managed to put the whole thing on again! We are looking forward to next year already.
Picture courtesy of Chris Geden
Putting the final touches to the upcoming album “The Cooker” which will be launched on 7th of October at the 606 Jazz Club in London.
A sneak peak at the label for the soon to be released collaboration with Basement Jaxx vocalist Brendan Reilly. This strictly limited edition recording will of course be available in the Funkstore.
Redtenbacher’s Funkestra keyboardist Hannah Vasanth is now more likely to be found on somewhat larger stages alongside the likes of Rihanna, she’s also a mean writer and producer, check out her MySpace page to learn more and hear her in action.
Follow the Funk!