“So, we’re just going to take you to New Orleans for a second,” said Tyler Reese, emcee and one of the trumpet players in The Funky Dawgz Brass Band.
A second in early September New Orleans feels about like a full set of brass band music, so far north. But the Dawgz bring the New Orleans brass band sound all the way up to New Haven. Josh Murphy’s amplified sousaphone shook BAR’s brick walls behind the Dawgz, even as he spent entire songs on his phone, presumably recording his peers without missing a note. This was basically how they sound-checked at BAR on Wednesday night:
New Orleans brass bands play street corners, but somebody up here would surely call the police if Funky Dawgz set up shop, even on Crown Street. In the brass band tradition, a mid-sized band covers popular hits with the same musicianship with which jazzmen tackle their standards. So the Dawgz’s train passed through the ubiquitous “Uptown Funk,” made a subsequent stop in Chris Brown Town, and took a detour to Michael Jacksonville.
I first caught the Funky Dawgz second-lining through the grounds of the Gathering of the Vibes in Bridgeport last month. They also sat in with Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe on that festival’s first night. The name rang a bell, if only because New Orleans brass bands seem to have a limited number of words to adequately describe their sound, and fewer spelling variations still.
The deja-vu of their name bugged me because I lived in New Orleans for four years and could not place the group. I assumed they were one of those bands that tours too often to play many live shows in their hometown. I learned on Wednesday that the Funky Dawgz met up at UCONN and are based out of Meriden. When its members take a break from playing for the money, they teach master classes to invigorate and inspire inner-city elementary school music programs. The group is even featured on Live For Live Music’s Brass Bands You Need to Know. Apparently, Meriden is closer to the bayou than most maps would lead us to believe.
Funky Dawgz split BAR’s Wednesday night bill with Hartford’s hip hop/soul band Broca’s Area. “I’m gonna introduce y’all to Jill Scott,” said singer Mary Corso from the stage, though it’s hard to say whether their covers — of the Roots and J‑Dilla as well as Scott — are more enjoyable than their original numbers. With a debut album under its belt, the band’s sound is already somewhat more experimental than its inspirations. Drummer Stephen Cusano’s semi-synthetic drum set exemplifies the group’s strange range. It’s a minimalist set with all the possibilities inherent in programmed drums tucked behind his high-hat.
And just as the Dawgz took us to South Louisiana, Broca’s Area brought us into the stratosphere and beyond with the help of BAR’s decadent light show. Few bands have gotten so much mileage out of BAR’s dual disco ball setup as Broca’s Area did on Wednesday, as rapper Ghazi Omar took his lyrics to the next level about halfway through this recording of a little number I’ll refer to as “Space (Is The Place).”