Black Market Brass

Can the stage take it: A so-hot-right-now Minneapolis group that mixes afrobeat/funk music will join up with a local funk-soul band for a mega-show at The Rex.

Black Market Brass is a 10-player band that also digs into classic West African sounds from the 1970s and released the album “Cheat and Start a Fight” earlier this year. City Pages said of its live show “precise execution meets raw and freaky free-experimentation, locked tight into an uptempo groove …” Big Wave Dave & The Ripples are a longtime local favorite funk band fronted by Dave Adams and backed by a bunch of sax-trumpet-trombone players. - Duluth News Tribune

We asked, you voted! All December long, you — the local music lover — voted for your favorite Minnesota songs released in 2016, and the results are in!

Host Andrea Swensson counted down the top 25 local songs of 2015 on The Local Show on Jan. 1 from 6 to 8 p.m. CT, with the results posting here as they were revealed on air.

Be sure to stream The Current's all-Minnesota music stream, Local Current on Monday, Jan. 2 from noon to 6 p.m. CT to hear a rebroadcast of the countdown, or use the the audio player above to listen on-demand. - 89.3 The Current

Our Album of the Week is the afrobeat on "Cheat And Start A Fight" by Black Market Brass.We'll add some more afrobeat but also a tropical vibe thanks to a couple of tracks that are working really well together: a new Nicola Cruz next to Maajo, a forthcoming track on Mawimbi, Quixosis and new David Nesselhauf...Bring your Balophone and Steeldrum, you'll need them! - Bounty Radio

Black Market Brass: After sparking sweaty dance-offs over the past two years at too many block parties and club gigs to remember, Minneapolis’s 10- to 12-member Afrobeat/funk band hit the road last month with a good buzz in support of its debut album for Secret Stash Records, “Cheat and Start a Fight.” The LP’s 10 original, all-instrumental tunes are kept tight and compact by Afrobeat standards, with grooves changing from manic-paced fire-starters to slower-steaming psychedelica. Boasting members of Sonny Knight’s Lakers, Black Diet and Nooky Jones, the band is coming home to the newly rechristened historic space that used to house Patrick’s Cabaret. (9 p.m. Sat., Hook & Ladder Theater, 3010 Minnehaha Av. S., Mpls., $8-$10, TheHookMpls.com.) - Star Tribune

Today's Morning Edition is from "Half a Cig" by Black Market Brass. It's from their debut album "Cheat and Start a Fight," which will be released Friday.

The songs were recorded live in the studios of Minneapolis-based Secret Stash Records.

Black Market Brass started out as a funk band playing obscure cover songs. Now they're performing their own compositions that build on the sounds of Nigerian Afrobeat music.

They'll be playing a CD release party on Saturday night at the Turf Club in St. Paul. - MPR News

"If you see us live, we're going to be playing tunes right off the bat, just right after each other, nonstop," says Black Market Brass guitarist Mitch Sigurdson. The band didn't sway from that approach for long when they visited The Current's studio for a session hosted by Mark Wheat.

Black Market Brass — comprising Sigurdson; Hans Kruger, guitar; Cameron Kinghorn, trumpet; Sam William Harvey-Carlson, keyboards; Ryan Splinter, trombone; Murphy Janssen, drums; Cole Pulice, baritone sax; Charlie Bruber, bass; Jared Jarvis, tenor sax; and David Tullis, percussion — are getting ready to celebrate the release of their album, Cheat and Start a Fight, with an album-release party set for Saturday, Sept. 17, at the Turf Club in St. Paul.

"Cheat and Start a Fight comes from a drum phrase," explains percussionist Tullis. "In that context of that, it means someone who kind of polices the boundaries of what's right and what's wrong. So for us, we play like we do in this room. Our album is just us playing in a room. We're not cheating."

The album was recorded at Secret Stash Records' new studio near Loring Park in Minneapolis. Black Market Brass approached the recording sessions as they do their live shows, but they were careful to respect the recording medium for what it is. "At the end of the day, we had to come to terms with the fact that the record is its own thing," Pulice says, "and [we] kind of need to approach it that way to make sure that it can be as good of a product as the live show is a good product, instead of diminishing one in the interest of the other."

Following the album release, Black Market Brass have a number of tour dates planned, including shows in Madison, Wis.; Duluth, Minn., and Chicago. In November, they'll go further afield, playing dates in San Antonio, Texas, and in New Orleans.

Although Sigurdson says the music of Black Market Brass incorporates elements of psychedelia and funk, all the band members agree Afrobeat rests at the heart of their sound. Tullis even describes how one of their tune's titles, "Half a Cig," comes from what linguists dub the law of hobson-jobson. "The song I took it from is a Nigerian Yoruba Bata drum song, and so the melody kind of follows the drum lines, and that drum song is called 'Afasegbojo,' and if you say 'Afasegbojo' [repeatedly], it becomes 'Half a Cig'."

Afrobeat bands are, by nature, large groups, but experience has helped Black Market Brass figure out what works best at gigs. "While we're onstage, different people in the band have different roles in terms of making sure that everything goes off without a hitch," Pulice says. "Everyone has a place as a cog in this big machine." - The Current

Black Market Brass
Turf Club, Saturday 9.17
Afrobeat, created by Nigerian icon Fela Kuti beginning in the late ’60s, was essentially revolutionary music, the soundtrack for his extensive political activism. Decades later, it still sounds that way — furious, incendiary polyrhythms conspiring with raucous horns and blazing guitars. Keeping that spirit alive are contemporary bands like Antibalas, the Budos Band, and the Twin Cities’ own Black Market Brass. Crowding local bandstands with a dozen-odd members since 2012, Black Market has been steaming things up with Fela’s potent Afrobeat recipe of funk, highlife, jazz, and African roots. This show will celebrate the long-awaited release of BMB’s debut album, Cheat and Start a Fight, on the local Secret Stash label. Cut live to capture the raw intensity of BMB shows, the album presents a band brimming with confidence, power, and increasingly eclectic original material. On Cheat, the bristling bari saxophone sparks horn escapades that approach free jazz while the hypnotic rhythm section thrives. It’s gutty, exuberant music that’ll raise a sweat in any climate. Pho and Worldwide Discotheque open. 21+. $10-$12. 8 p.m. 1601 University Ave., St. Paul; 651-647-0486. —Rick Mason - City Pages

Black Market Brass Turn It Out On WCCO's Rooftop
The local band will be performing at Summit Brewing's Backyard Bash this Saturday (2:54). WCCO Mid-Morning - September 11, 2015 - WCCO TV

Last weekend’s packed First Avenue main-room set and the hipster-thronged Red Stag Block Party in northeast Minneapolis were among their favorite shows so far. However, the most telling performance for the 10 members of Black Market Brass in their unusually busy summer actually might have been last month’s more milquetoast gig at Log Jam in Stillwater.

“Seeing a bunch of teenagers and other Stillwater people getting down to our kind of music was kind of mind-blowing,” guitarist Hans Kruger said, admitting it took the band a few songs to win the crowd over.

Continued baritone sax player Cole Pulice, “Some shows, the people don’t really know what to make of us at first. But they see us having a blast on stage, and I think that tells them we’re all in this together to have a good time.”

The Stillwater story hints at how an instrumental Afrobeat band somehow became a go-to favorite for the summer party scene in Minnesota — a group whose music is based around the psychedelic-sounding, rhythmically complex, relatively obscure jazz/funk/fusion sounds of late Nigerian revolutionary Fela Kuti and the rest of his Afrobeat music movement.



Among the other outdoor fests that Black Market Brass has played this year were the Roots, Rock & Deep Blues Festival, the Twin Cities Jazz Festival, Art-a-Whirl at Bauhaus and the Coup d’état Block Party. The band has one more next weekend, the Borough Block Party outside Borough restaurant in Minneapolis’ North Loop on Sunday (scheduled set time: 1 p.m.).

Quipped the group’s other guitarist, Mitch Sigurdson, “We just show up to every block party and ask if we’re playing.”

Also the guitarist in the popular soul-rock sextet Black Diet, Sigurdson posted a Craigslist ad three years ago that became the big bang for BMB, asking if any other Twin Cities musicians were interested in forming an Afrobeat-flavored band. “There were DJ nights and radios shows, but you couldn’t really go hear this stuff played live anywhere in town,” he recalled.

How a bunch of white, twenty- and thirty-something rock, jazz and soul musicians in Minnesota got into Afrobeat music in the first place is another surprise worth explaining.

Some of them discovered it through modern Afrobeat acts such as the Antibalas Orchestra and Budos Band. Some were simply vinyl collectors who fell in love with the ’70s-era worldbeat records reissued by Minneapolis label Secret Stash Records, which will also release Black Market Brass’ debut album next spring.


The most well-versed among them was probably percussionist David Tullis, an African studies major at Carleton College who traveled to Nigeria on a fellowship-type excursion to study drumming. He can go on long tangents about the music’s complex polyrhythms and other challenging elements.

“It’s hard for a lot of musicians to find their place in this music because there’s so much going on; everything is right there,” said Tullis, who is also the drummer in Black Diet.


Some of the first rehearsals for the bands were spent simply trying to work out musical charts from Kuti’s music for guideposts. “And then we still had to go through the long process of learning our own style and way of playing it,” Sigurdson remembered.

A true group effort


As scholarly as the band members can get about this music — “We really nerd out a lot in rehearsals,” Kruger admitted — they also make it clear they’re in BMB primarily because it’s fun music to play. Many of the songs in the band’s growing bin of original tunes, including “Snake Oil Man” and “Half a Cig,” follow the same repetitive groove for six minutes or more but pick up steam via the feisty, fiery horn parts.

Pulice, who also performs with vintage soul greats Sonny Knight & the Lakers, said Afrobeat “doesn’t follow a normal western music narrative. It’s not broken up into sections, or into solos, like jazz is.

“Good Afrobeat music is not about individual players. It’s about what we can do together, and finding that sort of magical, hypnotic zone as one unit.”

“Hypnotic” could perhaps be taken as code for the heavy marijuana use associated with Afrobeat and reggae music. The band doesn’t deny that there’s an herbal undercurrent to the music, but Tullis pointed out, “There are several people in the band who don’t touch the stuff, and they do just fine.

“Really, it’s about doing whatever you have to do to get in that uninhibited state where you freely dance to the music and just absorb it fully. Plenty of people can do that stone-cold sober.”


Let’s hope that was true of those teens in Stillwater. - Minneapolis Star Tribune

On a snowy day in late 1978, just a week before Thanksgiving, jazz saxophonist Morris Wilson staged a rally for working musicians on Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis. Fed up with the dwindling opportunities for funk bands with horn sections in the Twin Cities and the rising popularity of dance music, he led a small crowd in a call to arms: “Disco is jive, bring back live!”

Up until that point, the ’70s had been a time of prosperity for saxophone, trumpet, and trombone players in the area—not to mention rhythm sections, guitarists, and any vocalist who could carry a soulful tune, especially if it was written in four-part harmony. Bands like Prophets of Peace, Band of Thieves, and Willie and the Bumblebees would take the stage with upwards of nine or 10 musicians to play sweltering funk and R&B jams with complex horn arrangements and deep grooves. It was a heady time, filled with matching leisure suits and hot summer dance parties—a period that’s been revisited recently by Secret Stash’s reissue compilation, Twin Cities Funk and Soul, and Numero Group’s Purple Snow—and by 1978, thanks to the disco dance craze and the push for venues to book DJs instead of full bands, it was all coming to an end. Disco was jive, but it was succeeding in the war against live.

Almost four decades have passed since Morris Wilson led his rally cry in the name of live music, and the Twin Cities scene has since reinvented itself, split open, spawned countless movements, and propagated dozens of micro-communities. But what is so striking about this anecdote from the late ’70s is that you can practically trace a line from that afternoon in November 1978 to right now, in this moment. Because, after years spent observing a scene dominated by synthesizers, crystalline vocal effects, and electronic wizardry, a new crop of local artists are bringing wind instruments back on stage and crafting a new style of organic, jazz-influenced funk music for the masses. And the masses are digging it.



“People are noticing,” says Cameron Kinghorn, who fronts the six-piece neo-soul band Nooky Jones and performs in several other like-minded groups around town. “You can tell that there’s a lot of people that really get down to this style of music. It makes you want to dance, and I think people want to dance.”

Nooky Jones is just one of more than a dozen jazz-influenced live bands that have popped up in the past two years in the Twin Cities. Unlike other more traditional jazz groups in town, however, these acts aren’t relegated to strictly playing jazz clubs and they aren’t drawing traditional jazz audiences. When the bands Hustle Rose, New Sound Underground, Crunchy Kids, and #MPLS play their popular “Funk on First” showcase at First Avenue on July 11, it will be the third time they’ve drawn enough young fans to fill the floor of the Mainroom.

While each band certainly puts their own spin on the genre (or genres), combining elements of hip-hop, modern R&B, and pop with Afrobeat, soul, funk, and free jazz, one common thread unites all of these groups: They’re pushing horns to the front, cranking the energy up to 11, and putting on animated, enthusiastic shows that have been sorely lacking in recent years.

“Just like fashion, popular music often changes in a cycle. Right now people are looking for something with an older, vintage, soulful sound when they go to a live show because that gives them a feeling you cannot recreate on a recording,” says David Glen. Glen is the lead singer of the party-funk band Hustle Rose, whose latest singles rival the energy and bombast of Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson’s Minneapolis Sound-inspired hit “Uptown Funk.” He also plays in the hip-hop-inspired live band #MPLS.

“In the past five years, EDM, DJs, laptops, and synths have been ruling the radio and festivals,” he says. “But that feeling of ‘when is the bass going to drop’ from EDM and DJ-driven shows is different than a full band with nine players performing each part. And now that recorded music has seen a huge decline in value because of accessibility and pirating, the live show means more to fans than it has in years.”



Glen says musicians from his generation were heavily influenced by artists like Amy Winehouse, Mark Ronson, and D’Angelo, who in turn took their cues from ’60s soul groups with big horn sections and organs. He also credits George Clinton’s enduring impact on jazz-inspired music, which can be traced through generations of hip-hop and electronic samples.

“On the bus ride to school we heard Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg’s ‘What’s My Name’ and Kanye West’s ‘Gold Digger,’ but we were actually listening to music from George Clinton’s ‘Atomic Dog’ and Ray Charles’ ‘I Got A Woman,’” Glen notes.

Preserving this old-school aesthetic has been paramount to the success of Minneapolis soul artists like Sonny Knight and the Lakers and PaviElle, who each perform backed by eight or nine musicians. This throw-back tone is also at the heart of the most forward-thinking and inventive acts on the scene, such as the Adam Meckler Orchestra, which brings 18 musicians on a wild ride through the history of the big band era, New Orleans jazz, ’70s funk, free jazz, and hip-hop.

“Throughout the history of jazz, that’s what we’ve done: taken music that’s external to jazz and made it internal,” Meckler reflects. “John Coltrane was super into the music of India, and Miles Davis was jamming with Jimi Hendrix and with hip-hop artists in the ’80s. Jazz music is like an amalgamation. It lets everything in.”

In that sense, it’s the perfect live reaction to a wave of electronic music that’s relied heavily on smashing disparate rhythms and genres together to create new patchworks of sound. And unlike dance nights that hinge on a single person or two with a laptop to transmit energy from the stage, these bands are intent on packing as many people as possible into the spotlight to create their songs in real time.

For David Tullis, who plays congas in the Afrobeat-influenced horn band Black Market Brass, getting that many people on stage is essential to creating a live, exciting feel. “When’s the last time you saw a horn section never mess up, ever? It’s that riskiness that it could all fall apart at any given moment—but it doesn’t,” he says. “That’s what I think people are starting to latch onto again, or discover again.”

Visit thecurrent.org for episodes of Andrea Swensson’s new series, After Hours, which invites jazz and jazz-influenced musicians into the studio for a live session and interview. This month’s guest is the Adam Meckler Orchestra. - The Growler

The Twin Cities’ version of the P-Funk family is Black Market Brass. Like the ’70s progenitors of funk, the ensemble’s defining characteristics include their horn-heavy hits and ever-changing cast of characters who make appearances at live shows.

“There’s been like 40 different people who have played in our group at one point,” guitarist Mitch Sigurdson said. “It’s a whole little mini-tribe.”

Black Market Brass brings the funk to a metropolis otherwise devoid of Afrobeat. The funky brothers formed in 2012 through a Craigslist ad created by Sigurdson. He wanted to form a unit based on the sounds of Fela Kuti and the Meters, and guitarist Hans Kruger replied. Kruger played with another group at the time and ended up merging with Sigurdson’s band. Thus, Black Market Brass began.

“That’s how I found Mitch — I was looking for a keyboard player, and so was he,” Kruger said. “[Percussionist David Tullis] actually responded to our ‘looking for a keyboard player’ ad; he was a percussionist.”

Other musicians replied to the ad as well, most of who weren’t keyboardists. The group netted a killer conga player through the process, however.

“I said, ‘I’m not a keyboard player, but I’m sure you could use a percussion player,’” Tullis said.

Gathering a large ensemble for practices and shows is a daunting task. With 10-15 members in the band at a time, conflicts occur with scheduling. But by having a wide net of musician friends who can act as subs, the band’s sound is always sure to be sharp and on-point.

“We’ve thought about having a reunion show,” Kruger said.

Case in point: Baritone saxophonist Cole Pulice said the screaming sax man, who wailed at the group’s Bauhaus Brew Labs Art-A-Whirl show, was not him.
“That wasn’t me; it was a sub,” Pulice said.

The laid-back kind of cool Pulice embodies permeates throughout the whole ensemble, even in terms of musical accuracy. Though Black Market Brass tightens things up with its horn hits and in-the-pocket backbeats, the musicians leave room for minor mistakes within the structures of their songs.

When these music foibles appear, Black Market Brass approaches them with clear heads: “Is this error awesome and actually preferable, or is this error distracting and takes away from the music?” Kruger said.

This modus operandi carries over to their unnamed upcoming album recorded for Secret Stash Records. The band recorded the album in one swath and without overdubbing.

“There were a few songs that we recorded that were like, ‘This is cool — it’s like a seven,’” Kruger said, rating album cuts on the one to 10 scale. “What if we totally mess with it, and make it something completely different, and make it into a nine or a 10?”

To hit that mark, Black Market Brass sometimes tweaks its melodic recipe to make a more soulful-sonic stew by cooking the music lower and slower.

“We slow it way down usually, add some grittiness and do a totally different beat,” Kruger said. “We have both versions [of songs] recorded — the straight-ahead version and the psychedelic version. Every single time the weird psychedelic version [wins].”

While the band occasionally features vocalists, the group has shied away from adding a consistent singer because it’d have to rearrange songs around words instead of harmonies.

“I like the instrumentals because we don’t have words,” Sigurdson said. “No one can misconstrue our words.”

The lack of words also allows Black Market Brass to play up the group’s aesthetic. The band wears thrifted, paint-splattered jumpsuits on stage.

“We played some show, and our keyboard player at the time showed up wearing [a jumpsuit],” Sigurdson said. “We [were] like, ‘That’s awesome. We should all do that.’”

Most of the band sports green, blue or tan jumpsuits, though Kruger wore a bright blue snowmobile suit for a while. But he said he gave it away and is now embracing the neutral hue of uniformity.

“Our keyboard player has it now, but he’s gone,” Kruger said, “so is his onesie.” - Minnesota Daily

When we profiled him back in January, Sonny Knight said he was “ready to be doing not much of anything.” Instead, the once “lost” soul singer spent the year putting on 60-some high-energy, low-bottomed gigs with his young, funk-blasting band the Lakers, ending the year with four full-house shows at the Dakota last week that were recorded for a live album. Smart move.

Twin Cities critics also liked electro-sleaze musician Elliott Kozel’s hedonistic Tickle Torture shows and Grrrl Prty’s similarly rowdy if slightly less bawdy performances, plus the more wholesome and pure joy of seeing teenage bands in action (the Stand4rd, Hippo Campus, Stereo Confession).



1 Sonny Knight & the Lakers  (62 voter points)

2 Tickle Torture (35)


3 Grrrl Prty (19)

4 The Replacements (17)

5 Prince and 3rdEyeGirl (16)

6 (tie) Black Market Brass

 The Stand4rd (15)


7 Hippo Campus (14)

8 Stereo Confession (11)

9 (tie) Shiro Dame

 White Boyfriend (10) - Minneapolis Star Tribune

BLACK MARKET BRASS DELIVERS HIP-SHAKING FUNK RHYTHMS

BY ZACH MCCORMICKWEDNESDAY, JULY 16, 2014 | 1 YEAR AGO
Black Market Brass delivers hip-shaking funk rhythms

Even with the soothing gurgle of a surprisingly ornate fountain built into a faux-natural cliff face, the smoking patio of northeast Minneapolis's Palace Bar is a long way from the jungles of Nigeria. The homey dive is just a few houses down from the practice space inhabited by Black Market Brass, however, and as members filter in and sidle up to the bar, there's an air of comfortable familiarity.


With all the mosquitoes buzzing around our heads, we might as well be in that jungle after all.

"I studied traditional drumming in Nigeria for six weeks," percussionist David Tullis explains, with a note of pride. "That's like Shanga worship, some serious ritual music. I had read that the Afrobeat styles kind of came out of that rhythmic tradition. I wanted to try and see what was at the beginning of that road, or at least what I could access."

Tullis may be only member of the group to have visited the ancestral motherland of the deep funk sounds that so inspired them, but all of the band's players share an enduring love for the pioneering output of Fela Kuti. What truly unites them, however, is their interest in contemporary practitioners of those glorious '70s tones, groups like Daptone's Budos Band who put an ever-so-slight modern twist on the genre. The guys in Black Market aren't traditionalists; in fact, they'd prefer if you called them a band that plays afrobeat, instead of an afrobeat band.

"We don't have a singer and we don't talk about political issues," elaborates Tullis. "That was the whole point of that music. I mean, [Fela Kuti] was basically taking on the president of the most corrupt country with music. He got thrown in jail, and not because of his horn section."

"We don't wear dashikis," adds baritone sax man Cole Pulice. "We don't try to chant or sing in a dialect either."

So if Black Market Brass aren't revivalists, what are they? Pretty simply, they're a dance band, with hip-shaking funk rhythms inspired, not limited, by their forbearers.

"The more that we can get people to pay attention to this old shit that we're paying attention to, the better — but that's not our endgame," says Tullis.

"Our endgame is getting people to dance!" adds Pulice, to a rumble of agreement from the rest of the gang.

As a huge, entirely instrumental band, Black Market faces challenges that would never occur to the average indie-rock four-piece. Just imagine how much their wall of horns pisses off the average underpaid sound man. Forget about playing most clubs with stages smaller than six by six feet, and try not to think about how thin that meager entry fee is when it's split 10 ways.

"I think hard work is much more important," says Tullis. "You're the first person that's interviewed us. We have a lot of people that like us, we play cool shows, but when you're an instrumental band you have to know that you're just not gonna get that sort of attention, so you have to work for your fans."


"Back in the days of our beginning we played some pretty tight sets to 10 or 12 people," guitarist Hans Kruger jokes. "We've played those shows where we've had more people onstage than in the audience. We've played some slammin' sets like that, man."

But playing those sets is exactly how Black Market Brass earned their strong local following, and their recording relationship with Secret Stash Records. (Plus, both Tullis and guitarist Mitch Sigurdson play in Black Diet, and Pulice also is a member of Sonny Knight's backing band, the Lakers.) Their live show is the stuff you rave about to your friends the next day. It's precise execution meets raw and freaky free-experimentation, locked tight to an uptempo groove that just won't quit.

"Even people who are skeptical of instrumental music, once they see us play, everyone across the board is a believer," Pulice explains. "It becomes very much a word-of-mouth thing. Like, 'You gotta go see this band.' Our live show is our best weapon."

So how do you know when all that hard work pays off? It's when fans are screaming out horn lines and singing along, Splinter says.

The band got a great payoff one night at Club Jager on the eve of the release of their debut 45 with Secret Stash. Worldwide Discotheque dance night hosts Bryan Engel and Steely Dan McAllister had requested the test pressing of the new single, and dropped the needle just before bar close to a wildly enthusiastic reception from the dance floor.

"It goes for two minutes, and it's going over really well, and then the power crashes," Tullis says. "It cut out halfway through our song. So now it's bar close, but the guy who owns the place was like, 'No, play it again, people were loving it. I am authorizing this.'" - City Pages

Black Market Brass bring the funk, soul, and rock 'n' roll in this studio clip for their hot jam, "The Powers." It's remarkable in and of itself that the sprawling group can even find a studio space big enough to fit all of the various musicians who add to their own distinctive musical flavor, and this video does a great job capturing the band laying down a demo version of their new track. The group is in the process of recording their debut record which should be out sometime this summer, and are set to bring their smoking live show to the Turf Club on February 17, as they will be taking part in Communion Twin Cites February club night, along with Marian Hill, Kristin Diable, and other yet to be announced guests. - City Pages

This is the year Afro Beat rose up and got noticed. With regional releases in NYC, Seattle, Austin, and San Diego, it seems like the genre is experiencing a revolution of sorts. We’ve covered this explosion of Afro Funk and Soul here at Flea Market Funk, and are pleased to hear more of it still coming out here in the States. It’s not surprising that a whole new generation of players are mesmerized by the driving beat of African music, if you haven’t experienced a 12 minute Fela song, you’re missing out. The elder statesmen of the genre, Budos Band, and Antibalas among others, have a whole new crop of brethren to break their bread with these days. Hailing from the Twin Cities, MPLS, or just plain Minneapolis, Black Market Brass are taking the Afro Beat scene by storm. Their latest output on Secret Stash Records, “Big Muffler” is getting major props since it’s been out. Already featured in Wax Poetics as a download of the day, this 45 is filling dance floors and taking names, because this is just the beginning. Minneapolis is again on the map for music, and this time it’s not just Prince or The Replacements, it’s Funk, Soul, and now Afro Beat heating up this otherwise cold climate city.

Heavy horned, BMB gets right into the groove with some mighty freaky organ and a little bit, ok who are we kidding, a whole lot of Africa comes through your speakers. Pretend you dug this record up and the label didn’t say 2013, Secret Stash, or Minneapolis. You wouldn’t know the difference. This is some authentic music right here people, recorded in the United States. Inspired by the likes of The Funkees, The Black President, and Moussa Doumbia as much as James Brown and The Meters, this Twin Cities dozen (and sometimes more) is shoveling out their musical path with their unique sounds. What I like so much is the tone of the horns, as they break from the section to individual, and the way the drums link up with the guitar and bass that really give “Big Muffler” its gas. Spirits of Fela and Tony Allen are there. The birthplace of Funk is there. The sound of a revolution is there. This time the revolution is musical, and no one is getting killed except the dance floor. - Fleamarket Funk

While Secret Stash has been in the business for several years releasing a number of gems ranging from the soul of America to reggae takes on Miles Davis and acoustic Peruvian folk music, they are now focusing some effort on new music as well. Longtime Secret Stash fans rest easy, though. They are still going to continue to mine the vaults the world over to find long-forgotten but essential music.

One of their first new music releases is coming out this September courtesy of Black Market Brass. The band and label both hail from Minneapolis. Secret Stash, which has a very DIY approach to their label, often hosts record-release assembly parties where the local community is invited to come to their offices and assemble the records and album sleeves in return for pizza and beer. It was through several of these that Eric Foss, VP of Marketing and Sales for Secret Stash, met Mitch Sigurdson, one of the founding members of the band.

Sigurdson assembled some friends and local talent to play a variety of styles, often Ghanian highlife and funk. Per Foss, “I think it took a little while for them to realize that they play Afrobeat as well or better than most of the bands out there doing it today. I watched as they transitioned from playing spot-on covers of Fela and Tony Allen to writing their own material.”

This past April, the band headed to the studio to record some original material. Coincidentally, the band picked up a new baritone sax player, Cole Pulice, who was already working with Sonny Knight & the Lakers and Dérobé Dance Band, bands whose original material also will be seeing releases from the label. In a single afternoon, they cut the two tracks heard on the upcoming 45.

“Snake Oil Man” is heavy Nigerian madness. You can bet that it’s no beginners luck; check out the flip side, “Big Muffler.” If this is their first swing at the genre, you can expect some exciting material in the future from Black Market Brass who has enough original material already for a full LP.

We reached out to Pierre Chrétien from Souljazz Orchestra, who knows his way around an Afrobeat tune, to hear his thoughts on the band’s sound. Says Chrétien, “It sounds amazing. Definitely no lack of sweat and stink here!” No disagreements here. - Wax Poetics

Black Market Brass
Turf Club, Saturday 9.17
Afrobeat, created by Nigerian icon Fela Kuti beginning in the late ’60s, was essentially revolutionary music, the soundtrack for his extensive political activism. Decades later, it still sounds that way — furious, incendiary polyrhythms conspiring with raucous horns and blazing guitars. Keeping that spirit alive are contemporary bands like Antibalas, the Budos Band, and the Twin Cities’ own Black Market Brass. Crowding local bandstands with a dozen-odd members since 2012, Black Market has been steaming things up with Fela’s potent Afrobeat recipe of funk, highlife, jazz, and African roots. This show will celebrate the long-awaited release of BMB’s debut album, Cheat and Start a Fight, on the local Secret Stash label. Cut live to capture the raw intensity of BMB shows, the album presents a band brimming with confidence, power, and increasingly eclectic original material. On Cheat, the bristling bari saxophone sparks horn escapades that approach free jazz while the hypnotic rhythm section thrives. It’s gutty, exuberant music that’ll raise a sweat in any climate. Pho and Worldwide Discotheque open. 21+. $10-$12. 8 p.m. 1601 University Ave., St. Paul; 651-647-0486. —Rick Mason - City Pages

"If you see us live, we're going to be playing tunes right off the bat, just right after each other, nonstop," says Black Market Brass guitarist Mitch Sigurdson. The band didn't sway from that approach for long when they visited The Current's studio for a session hosted by Mark Wheat.

Black Market Brass — comprising Sigurdson; Hans Kruger, guitar; Cameron Kinghorn, trumpet; Sam William Harvey-Carlson, keyboards; Ryan Splinter, trombone; Murphy Janssen, drums; Cole Pulice, baritone sax; Charlie Bruber, bass; Jared Jarvis, tenor sax; and David Tullis, percussion — are getting ready to celebrate the release of their album, Cheat and Start a Fight, with an album-release party set for Saturday, Sept. 17, at the Turf Club in St. Paul.

"Cheat and Start a Fight comes from a drum phrase," explains percussionist Tullis. "In that context of that, it means someone who kind of polices the boundaries of what's right and what's wrong. So for us, we play like we do in this room. Our album is just us playing in a room. We're not cheating."

The album was recorded at Secret Stash Records' new studio near Loring Park in Minneapolis. Black Market Brass approached the recording sessions as they do their live shows, but they were careful to respect the recording medium for what it is. "At the end of the day, we had to come to terms with the fact that the record is its own thing," Pulice says, "and [we] kind of need to approach it that way to make sure that it can be as good of a product as the live show is a good product, instead of diminishing one in the interest of the other."

Following the album release, Black Market Brass have a number of tour dates planned, including shows in Madison, Wis.; Duluth, Minn., and Chicago. In November, they'll go further afield, playing dates in San Antonio, Texas, and in New Orleans.

Although Sigurdson says the music of Black Market Brass incorporates elements of psychedelia and funk, all the band members agree Afrobeat rests at the heart of their sound. Tullis even describes how one of their tune's titles, "Half a Cig," comes from what linguists dub the law of hobson-jobson. "The song I took it from is a Nigerian Yoruba Bata drum song, and so the melody kind of follows the drum lines, and that drum song is called 'Afasegbojo,' and if you say 'Afasegbojo' [repeatedly], it becomes 'Half a Cig'."

Afrobeat bands are, by nature, large groups, but experience has helped Black Market Brass figure out what works best at gigs. "While we're onstage, different people in the band have different roles in terms of making sure that everything goes off without a hitch," Pulice says. "Everyone has a place as a cog in this big machine."

Listen to the complete session using the audio player above.

Songs Performed

"Gloom"
"Half a Cig"
"Mob Rules"
All songs are from Black Market Brass's album, Cheat and Start a Fight, released Sept. 16, 2016, on Secret Stash Records.
Hosted by Mark Wheat
Produced by Derrick Stevens
Engineered by Michael DeMark and Lisa Urman
Visuals by Nate Ryan
Web feature by Luke Taylor

Resources
Black Market Brass - official site

Secret Stash Records - 89.3 The Current

Today's Morning Edition is from "Half a Cig" by Black Market Brass. It's from their debut album "Cheat and Start a Fight," which will be released Friday.

The songs were recorded live in the studios of Minneapolis-based Secret Stash Records.

Black Market Brass started out as a funk band playing obscure cover songs. Now they're performing their own compositions that build on the sounds of Nigerian Afrobeat music.

They'll be playing a CD release party on Saturday night at the Turf Club in St. Paul. - MPR News