Stanton Moore

How much funk is too much?

Sullivan Hall is a 345 capacity music and event venue located in Greenwich Village in downtown Manhattan near the New York University community. The new HGMN venue affiliate has been generating a lot of buzz since its grand opening earlier this year. I had a chance to chat with Jennifer Sellers of Creative Entertainment Group (CEG), an independent concert promotion company based in Manhattan. Jennifer has helped play a major role in making Sullivan Hall a must-stop to see live music in NYC.

Having seen The Stanton Moore Trio (including old friends Cranston Clements on guitar and organist/keyman David Tarkanowsky) this past May touring in promotion of this new release, it’s great to finally have III spinning in my CD player; this is Moore’s third solo recording. Don’t expect to hear exact replicas of Galactic or Garage A Trois (Skerik guests on Tenor Sax) material from this one, but you can anticipate the familiar invasion of fine bayou funk in every note. Robert Walter (Hammond B3 Organ) and Will Bernard (Guitar) are the other two lead musical personnel on Moore’s organ trio, and while it would have been great to have seen them along for the tour back in May, what’s more impressive is realizing the positions Clements and Tarkanowsky had to fill on stage without much practice time.

The fact that Garage a Trois consists of guitar innovator Charlie Hunter, drummer extraordinaire Stanton Moore, saxophone maniac Skerik, and mallet-slinger Mike Dillon seems like enough to make anything they might record immediately desirable. It’s a joy to experience the foursome’s latest effort, which is as good as you might expect, and then some.