The Solsonics, based here in Los Angeles, CA broke out in the international
acid jazz scene in
'94 and were supposed to come out with a follow-up to "Jazz in the Present
Tense" sometime in '95, but it never happened...
In the interim, the band played on a few "interludes" on Guru's "Jazzmatazz
II" album.
The band, for some reason or another, lost their label deal with
Chrysalis/ERG and their management with Empire (who manages others such as
Guru and Jeru the Damaja) essentially broke up in mid '95, and drummer
Willie MacNeil and keyboardist Mike Boito left to devote time to their other
project, a ska-swing band called Jump With Joey. Singer Kevin Williams went
on to form another band called Butterflow (which also includes MacNeil on
percussion and Solsonics sax/flute player Derrick Davis). If you're in L.A.,
or the west coast for that matter, go see Butterflow, they're INCREDIBLE.
In late '95, The Solsonics, with bassist Jez Colin at the helm, basically
started up again, this time with a slightly different lineup. The only
original members were Colin, Derrick Davis and singer Mark Tunkara. Their
percussionist (forgot his name) and guitarist (Nick Demopolous), though
never performed on the album, had been with the band since early '94. They
were gigging around Los Angeles earlier this year, playing such places as 14
Below in Santa Monica and LunaPark in West Hollywood fairly regularly, until
Davis left to go on tour with Guru. Davis also had to juggle his
responsibilities - he plays sax/flute for *both* The Solsonics and
Butterflow, even when they had gigs scheduled on the same night!
As for the moment, I talked to Derrick Davis after a recent Butterflow show
and asked him the same question, "What's up with the Solsonics?" He told me
that Jez Colin was trying to write new tunes, audition new people and try to
get a new label deal, all in a "Yeah, yeah, we've been through this before,
he'll never get anywhere" kind of tone.
So if you're into the Solsonics, make sure you make a trip to L.A. sometime
(and check out Butterflow, too! They're more on the funkier side, but still
display that smoooooth kinda Solsonics style) chances are they'll be gigging
again, but don't look for another album (hope I'm wrong though). Which is
sad, since they had fans from such places like Boston, France and Japan, who
probably will never get to hear them again.
When I last saw the Solsonics live, they lacked the tightness and the
elements that made them such a great band back then (94) - Jez's deep
Musicman Stingray bass grooves, Wilie's thundering drums and ability to ham
it up, Mike Boito's ice cold posture, but red-hot keyboard work, Derrick
Davis' and Jim Akimoto's sax interplay and the harmonies of singers Kevin
Williams and Mark Tunkara. They were hailed as the next WAR - another Los
Angeles-based band that dealt in mixing jazz, funk, latin, reggar, soul &
blues elements and displayed a great multi-racial vibe. Now, the songs are
familliar, but the band is no longer the same.
Elson
-30-
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Elson Trinidad
Los Angeles, CA, USA
elson@westworld.com * http://www.westworld.com/~elson
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