the hum / By Bob Doran

Acid Jazz at the Fox

Plus: a night with Strix Vega, and music from Zimbabwe

(May 15, 2008)  They call it the “Red Fox Acid Jazz Experiment” with B. Swizlo and his Funky Friends, promising a “new line-up every week,” on Monday nights at the Red Fox Tavern. This coming Monday they’re up to Vol. 3, and the plan, says keyboard whiz Brian “B” Swizlo (aka just plain Swiz), is to keep it going through the summer and into the fall.

“The idea is to provide a structured jam scene, but not really an open mic,” said Swizlo, calling on his cell on the way home from a Nucleus gig in L.A. “Every Monday there’ll be at least one put-together band, maybe two, always different players from the local scene. We’re assembling these groups to play upbeat funk and acid jazz.”

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What is acid jazz? Some music journalist coined the term back in the late ‘80s to describe a revival of ‘70s soul-jazz with some disco elements. But speaking from experience, I’d have to say the term was applied very loosely. If you bought a CD that said it was acid jazz, there was no telling what it might be — anything from throbbing house music to smooth organ-based jazz.

“For me, it comes from that era where guys like Idris Muhammed, Melvin Sparks, Johnny Hammond and Jimmy McGriff were doing jazz funk music for dancers, four-on-the-floor, kind of like the boogaloo style,” said Swizlo. “In the ‘80s, when the hip hop thing got going, they were dancing to some of that music, and DJs were putting it in the mix. Greyboy and the Greyboy Allstars brought it back in the ‘90s, and jam bands like Galactic and Vinyl picked up on it. It was all about getting down.”

The A.J. Experiment concept is similar to Swizlo’s old project the Hip Hop Lounge, except for the fact that that band evolved into a regular gigging group with set membership.

“The Red Fox guys, Rick and Brad came up with the idea,” he continued. “We want to bring back that fast dancefloor funk, improv style, and get things going. But more than just having a gig, we’re recording the sessions. The ultimate plan is to record every set, to document everything and then put out a series of CDs: Acid Jazz Experiment Vol. 1, Vol. 2 and so on. We want to create a forum for improv in that funky fashion.”

So far the musicians have come from an inter-related group of Arcata funk combos — Bump Foundation, Moo-Got-2, Afromassive and the like — plus guys like Tofu Mike from Absynth Q and Derrol Nys. This week they had DJ Rickshaw scratching with the band. Swiz is recruiting players from the many bands he plays in, and he plays in a lot of bands. He’s in Nucleus, which means he’s also in Subliminal Sabotage; he’s with Bump Foundation; he recently joined Moo-Got-2 fulltime, and he started playing reggae with Massagana.

So, see what it’s all about some Monday night at the Red Fox; they’ll be jamming every week starting at around 10. And wear your dancing shoes.

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