Friday 17th of February

When I told friends, punters and other musos that the Funkestra will be playing in Farncombe most of them raised an eyebrow…”in Farncombe?…where are you going to play Jazz Funk in Farncombe?” Well, to my delight I could tell them that we will play at the Farncombe Cavern, the music room above the Freeholders Public House, a few minutes walk from the train station, run by drums enthusiast Andy Moore.

And what a fun night it was…first of all Dusty Pocket a young and upcoming Jazz Funk Band from the Guildford area played their stew of Jazz, Funk and Soul and they sounded really good. It is going to be very enjoyable to see them grow and go from strength to strength.

The Funkestra was delighted to have Jim Hunt, the original tenor player back in their fold after his extensive touring stint with Primal Scream. Keys man Rob Taggert is still out and about with Rumer so Jez Davis had his virgin funk flight with the Funkestra and sounded great. The regular funk brothers Sid, Mike and Eran were all on good form and we performed to a nicely filled room with a very excitable and attentive audience.

A potent ’cause and effect’ story unfolded when the audience wanted a second encore…the Funkestra has a huge repertoire and could easily fill 4 hours of music but on this occasion I came across a stumbling block stemming back from the events that unfolded during the Mini Big Band gig on Friday, 11th of November, the evening of the opening of the London Jazz Festival.

Whilst we had an absolute ball inside a fully filled 606 Jazz Club in Chelsea, some individual(s) decided they wanted to smash in the passenger side window of my car and take off with the black bag inside…the black bag which was home to all of  the small group Funkestra pads. Normally, after a great gig I drive home buzzing from the gig being proud of having such a great band. However, that evening I was driving around Chelsea roads stopping at every bin in the hope of retrieving my pads with the sheet music. No luck though, and it means that I now have to rebuild the small band (6 piece) pads..this will be hundreds of pages of music. To make this task manageable I decided to only print out
the parts needed for each set for future gigs….this brings me back to the Farncombe Cavern gig.

When the audience requested the second encore, where I would normally draw from a good number of tunes, this night I couldn’t….I only had the parts for a show with one encore… So, we let the audience decide what they wanted to hear again and we played ‘The Chit-Chat’ one more time to tumultuous response. What a night!

We are pleased to announce that it looks like the Funkestra will host a monthly night from next year at the Farncombe Cavern. As soon as I have more details I will share them but the idea is to always feature new and upcoming talent in these shows.

In the meanwhile, thanks everyone who came out having made this a great night!

Friday, 25th of November 2011 from 8:00 pm

• Stefan Redtenbacher – Bass & General Noise
• Mike Sturgis – Drums
• Eran Kendler – Guitar
• Jez Davies – Keys
• Jim Hunt – Tenor Sax
• Sid Gauld – Trumpet

Plus special guests Dusty Pocket (8:30 to 9:15pm)

Door Price: £5
or purchase a £5 CD or Download from my store and receive one FREE entry!

The time has come to take our Funkestra ‘mini’ big band out again. No better opportunity than the opening evening of the London jazz festival.

We will play at the 606 jazz club in Chelsea/London on

Friday, 11th of November at 9:00 pm

For more info on the club http://www.606club.co.uk
Please book early to avoid disappointment.

Our funkified personnel will be:

• Stefan Redtenbacher – bass and general nonsense
• Mike Sturgis – drums
• Eran Kendler – guitar
• Simon Colam – keys

plus the ‘Jericho horns’

• Sid Gauld, Simon Finch – trumpets
• Paul Booth – tenor sax
• Trevor Mires – trombone
• Simon Allen – baritone sax

And special guest appearance Katie Hector – vocals

Hope to see you there and expect a thunderous performance (not for the faint hearted;)