Menahan Street Band: “The Crossing”
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The folks over at soul/funk-revivalist Daptone Records always have something cooking. The latest is a new record called The Crossing from the Menahan Street Band, a group that brings together players from all your Daptone favorites.
Menahan Street Band is another collaboration in a long string of collaborative bands from the label. It includes members of The Budos Band, Antibalas, El Michels Affair and The Dap-Kings (a group that all the Menahan members have spent time in at one time or another). The group is the house band for Brooklyn-based, Daptone subsidiary label Dunham Records (founded by Menahan maestro Thomas Brenneck), and they currently back up soul man Charles Bradley. Tunes from their debut album Make the Road by Walking have been heavily sampled by hip-hop artists like Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Kid Cudi and more.
Today’s song of the day is the title track from Menahan Street Band’s new record. The instrumental track is downtown soul noir meets spaghetti western. A delicately plucked Spanish guitar mingles with long, jazzy horn lines over a heavy, languid beat. It’s a heady mix of styles and grooves from a group of players that know a thing or two about funk and soul.
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