Brooklyn Funk Essentials
Since 1994, Brooklyn Funk Essentials have been presenting their unique brand of eclectic funk to ecstatic audiences, the world over. Made up of musicians, singers and poets from around the globe, the group famously mixes styles like jazz, latin, r&b, house, drum & bass, reggae, afrobeat and Anatolian melodies all rolled into one ferocious funk fest. If it grooves, they will funk it!
The Band
It’s the million dollar question – Can you name every musician that ever played with BFE on a stage or in a studio? Exactly. Did you know that Dizzy Gillespie plays on the Cool & Steady & Easy album? Yep, he did. And that Thierry Henry did a cameo as a rapper with BFE in Barcelona in 2009? That’s not true.
Actually, there have been members touring with BFE, who nobody can remember the name of. Like, who was that percussionist with the blonde fro, who fell of the stage in Paris in '95 and broke his foot?
Are you keeping track that Shä-key, on the first three BFE records, became Hanifah Walidah on 2008’s Watcha Playin’ album, and is now making tracks with her new St. Lo outfit under the name Mezz Walidah? Uhu.
It is only here, on this – the official Brooklyn Funk Essentials web home, that you will find out such fascinating info.
Crowd Funded Album
As you are reading this, members of BFE are most likely sweating it out in a hot room full of amplifiers, cables, boxes with knobs on them, guitars, horns, more cables, coffee cups and keyboards.
They may even be in more than one room at the same time. Yes, such is the global aspect of the band, that they are recording their new joint in different studios, in different countries around the world, at the same time.
In order to make it all come together though, You – dear friend of funk, will soon have the chance to place pre-orders on the new album on the band’s MusicPledge site, where you will also, for a limited time, be able to lay your hands on some very rare and glorious BFE paraphernalia. Do not miss this opportunity for nothing.
Ah, that's so cute! Look how young and unspoilt they were! Such innocence. Such childish trust in the big ugly world called (mooha-ha-ha!) the music business (dark scary voice). This is the original BFE EPK (electronic press kit) from 1995 for the album Cool & Steady & Easy. Interesting trivia: as the band walked down Houston Street followed by the film crew, a group of young girls stopped and checked them out. But after a two second inspection, one of the girls declared: "Nah, they're not famous. We're outa here!".