Photos

These pictures where taken in December 2010 during the recording of a mighty horn section that I nicknamed 'Jericho Horns', an invented name from my late great friend Bernie 'Big B' Auer. The section is Sid Gauld and Tom Rees-Roberts on trumpet, Trevor Mires on trombone, Paul Booth on Tenor sax and Phil Todd on Baritone sax. We recorded one day at Assault and Battery 2 in Willesden (London) and the next day at 'The Blue Room' Studio' in North-West London, owned by Bluey from Incognito. The engineers were Sam Burden and Mo Hausler under the watchful ear of Rupert 'master ears' Christie. They all did a great job. Peter Tomasso helped me with the horn scores and popped in the studio (on the far left in the group picture) to have a listen.

This sequence of pictures was taken on the first day of recording the rhythm section for our fifth album 'The Cooker' in April 2010. Despite double checking before hand, we had to face a studio door too small to accommodate the hired Hammond B3 from Peter Webber Hire...nobody has ever had to do this to a vintage organ before to make a session happen, surely!!

This was a fantastic gig in front of a enthusiastic crowd and sold out venue. It was great to have Dave Limina from Boston on organ, our first ever live gig with him...although he played on all our five records so far! We were supported by The Nat Martin Band and they did a sterling job. www.thenatmartinband.com/ We invited vocalist Brendan Reilly to join the second half of our show and it provided a good contrast to our overall show. A big thanks to Sam Anderson who did a fantastic job on our merchandise stand, Ian Edwards for his customary tongue-in-cheek comparing and everyone who helped the smooth running of the show...

This was one of my favorite gigs ever! We extended our trusty five piece with four more horns and ended up with a 9 piece band. The horn section certainly could have brought the walls of Jericho down. My new nickname 'Jericho Horns' is truly justified. There was a massive buzz in the totally packed venue...so packed that people were waiting outside on the stairs to get into the venue...unbelievable! The sound was huge and I felt a little bad for the people that sat on the tables in the first row as the might of the horns nearly melted their plates and glasses, leave alone their food and drink:-) The first set was a good start to the show...our regular five piece strutting our stuff...in the second set Sid Gauld (trp), Tom Rees-Roberts (trp), Trevor Mires (trb), Tom Richards (baritone sax) joined up with Jim Hunt (tenor sax) and it really was quite something...the last set was all relaxed and some of the guys came back to jam with us on 'Boozing Wizards'. For me it was the proverbial 'night to remember'...one day I will organize it all again...

These pictures were taken by photographer and guitarist Chris Geden www.flickr.com/people/chrisgeden/ at your favorite Jazz venue in London...the 606 Jazz Club. A rare occasion these days but this gig was with Hannah Vasanth who now mostly inhabits the big stages of the world...normally with somebody glamorous as Rihanna, Anastacia or Jesse Jay. www.myspace.com/hannahvasanth She definitely has come a long way since she was our 'band chick' in the early Funkestra days, way back in 2005. The band on this occasion were: Mike Sturgis - drums, Eran Kendler - guitar, Sid Gauld - trumpet, Simon Allen - tenor sax, Hannah Vasanth - keys and Stefan Redtenbacher - bass and all other noise.

This was a hot one thanks to a very lively and excitable crowd, mostly new and current students of the ACM. They certainly were up for some heavy funk and jazz exploration...Judging by how sweaty we all look we tried our best to deliver...A really enjoyable night with a big and tight sound. Thank you Will Fenton for coming down and sorting our sound out! www.facebook.com/people/Will-Fenton/642229757

Organised by Marco Schoots this was a great event for the Funkestra. We just released 'Falling From Insanity' and Marco invited us over to play. It was such a ball and put us somewhat on 'the map'. I'm still in touch with many people I met that day. Thank you Marco for taking a chance on us but I think we did not let you down. The positive feedback was quite overwhelming and this was a very memorable gig indeed as it helped to define us for the next few years. Note that Hannah Vasanth definitely outshines us all with her fabulous stage attire and she played a mean piano too:-)