Will Bernard

How much funk is too much?

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.

Who’s T.J. Kirk? Not a man but a band with a plan, the neo-legendary San Francisco instrumental four-piece existed to reinvent classic jazz and soul through their six-string talismans (and one with eight strings.) They reconvened for a few concerts at the end of 2003, but their new live cd Talking Only Makes it Worse is from a 1997 show in Santa Cruz, CA. Charlie Hunter’s 8-string guitar covers everything from the bass lines to the keyboard comps, all at the same time of course. Will Bernard and John Schott add their own guitars, and Scott Amendola rounds out the quartet on drums. They took their name from the initials of the only three musicians whose music they would play: jazz pianist & composer “T”helonious Monk, funky showman “J”ames Brown, and infamous jazz hornman Rahsaan Roland “Kirk.”