Funk Monkey – Funk Monkey EP

A ferocious-yet-groovy brand of funk is the expected sum result in the musical equation for a NOLA-scale supergroup that counts members of Bonerama, Papa Grows Funk, Billy Iuso & the Restless Natives and Cowboy Mouth among its talents.

Admittedly a side project squeezed in when the players’ busy schedules allow, Funk Monkey over the past year has honed its aforementioned style of funk in gigs at venues such as Tipitina’s, the Maple Leaf, and Blue Nile, delivering delightfully open-ended jams that ultimately meshed the sound of its diverse, high-caliber musicians: Greg Hicks (trombone), Bert Cotton (guitar), Jason Mingledorff (tenor sax), Eddie Christmas (drums), Rik Fletcher (keys), Dave Pomerleau (bass), Michael Skinkus (percussion), Cassandra Faulconer (bass).

Following up on its early live-show success, the band in November released its self-titled studio debut, expertly produced by Tracey Freeman along with Hicks and Cotton, who wrote the bulk of the material on the album’s five instrumental tracks.

What you might not expect from Funk Monkey, however, is the silky smooth jazz that greets the listener on the opening track “Higga Boom” or the horn-heavy sophistication that follows in “Soul Brownies.”

That ferocious-yet-groovy funk surfaces with a might roar in the intro to “Chief’n,” with Christmas’ punishing drum rolls eventually tempered by the soothing (and at touches wizardly psychedelic) organ flourishes from Fletcher.

The timeless traditional “Tootie Ma” serves as the band’s concluding statement, allowing Funk Monkey opportunity to honor the heritage of New Orleans, the only city capable of creating and (hopefully) sustaining this band.