Papa Grows Funk

Sunday, August 24th
2:30 pm 2nd Stage
listen to music

Influenced by The Meters, Dr. John and The Neville Brothers, Papa Grows Funk parcels it out New Orleans-style, paying homage to the tradition through Band Leader John Gros' sparse but rhythmic style offset by June Yamagishi's blazing guitar. One is treated to a booty shaking set of Mardi Gras funk, original material, improvised jams and fresh interpretations of New Orleans classics. These five musicians seamlessly shift gears while never losing the essential groove.

Papa Grows Funk deflty mixes funk, jazz, and rhythm and blues with a deep New Orleans sense to create highly danceable, very funkifying, jam-based grooves that will start you off just right.

The band's tight grooves re-define the funk-jam band. Tethered by the slinky Hammond B3 and gravel pit vocals of bandleader John "Papa" Gros," the band is a "who's-who" of New Orleans' best musicians. Morphing guitarist June Yamagishi is an original member of Japan's first blues combo, The West Road Blues Band and has inspired two documentaries entitled "June Yamagishi in New Orleans" from his native Japan. Saxophonist Jason "Big Wind" Mingledorff cleanly articulates the knee-dropping funk sustained by bassist Marc Pero and Jeffrey "Jellybean" Alexander who replaced Russell Batiste Jr. on the drums in 2005.

In true jam-band fashion, Gros expressed the nature of their live perfomances. “We prefer to play a two-hour show, no set list, no thought process involved. We just get up and start working out a tune, and one tune leads to another and to another. There’s little pockets and grooves, and by the end of the night everybody’s sweating and exhausted… if we get it right," said Gros in an interview with Brian Clarey of Yes Weekly in 2005.

Get ready to dance, groove, jam, and party. Papa Grows Funk is live at the Park City Jazz Festival.