Ghost Dance 2002
Some members of the new house band
Music Clips

Here are some tracks recorded at the cafe or at associated events.

All clips play with the free RealPlayer.

Funk
Straight Ahead
Blues
Classical/jazz/funk fusion
Ambient
Gospel/Spirituals

New York Funk Cafe

In October 1999 we held a special session, called the New York Funk Cafe.  The guest stars for the day were Pee Wee Ellis (tenor sax) and Clive Radford (guitar), and since Pee Wee was one of the founding figures of the New York funk scene in the 1970’s we expected a good session.  In the event, the band was joined by a host of other jazz musicians sitting in, and under Pee Wee’s skillful direction the music simply blew everyone away.

Stage scene at the New York Funk Cafe 

As it happens we were testing out a recording setup for the café sessions that day, so we were lucky enough to end up with a full record of the event.  We would like to release highlights of this material.  When we have enough funds in the kitty (or we get a sponsor for the venture) we plan to put it out on a limited-edition CD in aid of charity.

In the meantime, here are a couple of tracks.  Summertime (9:18) features sitters-in Joan Davis (from Washington DC) on vocals and Martin Young on bass, along with Pee Wee, Clive, Keith and SimonSoftly As A Morning Sunrise (14:38) is the last track played that day, and is a fast funk  version of this standard, featuring Pee Wee, Clive and the trio.

Straight Ahead

Although we play a lot of funk, latin, etc at the cafe, we return to straight ahead modern jazz on a regular basis. Here is a Sonny Rollins number, Pent-Up House (11:34), recorded in February 2000 and featuring Craig Crofton (from California) on tenor sax, Nick Sorensen on soprano sax, and the trio.  James Morton guested along with Craig at the cafe, but just plays on the head rather than taking a solo in this number.

Also check out the sample clips from our CD My Neighbourhood to hear some examples recorded for radio broadcast featuring Pee Wee with the trio.

Chicago Blues Cafe

In April 2000 we held another special session, this time featuring the Brazilian blues guitarist and singer Alamo Leal along with a horn section of Mike Peak (trumpet) and Simon Williams (tenor  sax).  Here is Black Cat Bone (10:36), on which Pee Wee is also sitting in with Alamo, Mike, Simon and the trio.

Nunney Sun Dance

Our biggest ever concert was on May 29th 2000, when we got over 20 musicians (classical, jazz, african, gospel, and rap) together to perform original music by Ann, Keith and Pee Wee.  See the Nunney Sun Dance page for a description of the event. The 3 movements of the music last over 2  hours in total, but here are the start of Sun Beat, a section from Sun Trance, and the start of Sun Dance.

Witchi-Tai-To

Check out sample tracks by the band Witchi-Tai-To to hear some music in a more ambient style.

Gospel/Spirituals

Check out sample numbers from the sell-out concert in Frome Festival 2004 by Spirit Jazz.