After several sold-out gigs, Brooklyn Funk Essentials now returns to the Fasching scene!
This year marks exactly thirty years since Brooklyn Funk Essentials played their first gigs in New York. It started as a jam project in producer Arthur Baker’s Shakedown Studio where he and Swedish bassist/producer Lars ‘Latte’ Kronlund invited musicians, singers, poets and DJs to play grooves that mixed hip-hop, jazz, soul, Latin , spoken word and dub into a boiling funk party. Since then, there have been seven albums and countless tours around the world.
The debut album Cool & Steady & Easy (Dorado Records) from 1995 was awarded Album of the Year by Billboard (USA) in the Alternative R&B category and the follow-up In The BuzzBag from 1998, recorded in Istanbul, was nominated for a Grammy.
BFE sought out early on outside of New York’s club scene and toured alongside greats such as James Brown, Parliament-Funkadelic, Kool & The Gang, The Roots, The Meters, Erykah Badu and the New Power Generation. At the same time, their music was featured in film and TV productions such as The Sopranos, Starsky & Hutch, The Blacklist, Manifest and numerous commercials.
Brooklyn Funk Essentials has continued to evolve and find a new audience. The band’s two albums from the 2010s ‘Funk Ain’t Ova’ and ‘Stay Good’ have generated over 10 million streams. In 2022, BFE released the singles ‘Scream!’ and ‘AA Side Single’, which were named one of Soul Track’s best soul songs of the year. Both songs are on the band’s new album ‘Intuition’, which will be released in May this year.
Since 2016, British house queen Alison Limerick is the singer of BFE – a role she shares with Stockholm-based Desmond Foster, who also plays guitar. Hux Nettermalm plays drums with Kronlund on bass and Rickard Valdés on congas. In the brass we find the young Swedish stars Ebba Åsman on trombone and Erik Tengholm on trumpet. The scissors are handled by Loic Gayot and behind the keyboard is Kristoffer Wallman.
Alison Limerick – Lead vocals
Desmond Foster – Guitar and lead vocals
Lati Kronlund – Bass
Hux Nettermalm – Drums
Ebba Åsman – Trombone and vocals
Kristoffer Wallman – Keyboards
Loic Gayot – Saxophone
Erik Tengholm – Trumpet
Rickard Valdés – Percussion
