player, , Indofunk is a jam band at its core, with Indian elements coming from the raga-based improvisation and compositions of its players and the Indian intruments (sitar and tabla) in the band.
Indofunk is a unique mix of Indian classical music, funk, jazz, and live drum 'n' bass. New York City slide trumpet player Satish started with formal aspects of Indian music, such as aalapanas and ragas, threw in a good dose of jazz soloing, and put it all in a heavy sauce of Western backbeats and club sounds. Then he let his bandmates do the rest. The result? A groovalicious band with broad cultural and popular appeal. Jazz and worldbeat lovers can lose themselves in the trancelike modes and impeccable musicality, and groove lovers can be possessed by the rhythm of the beat. Reminiscent of the sounds of Mahavishnu and late Miles Davis, Indofunk's grooves are a tantalizing mix of old-school funk (à la Sly Stone and James Brown), and modern drum 'n' bass.
With the release of its newest CD, The Basement Sessions, Indofunk is allowing itself to come out of the closet and establish itself as the highly competent jam band that it is. Comprised solely of improvised, unrehearsed jams, the three 20-odd minute tracks on the CD highlight each member's technical brilliance on their respective instruments, as well as their telepathic ability to communicate musically with the others, as if the band were one living, breathing organism.
Satish started in New York as a trumpet player with Indian music in his blood and bebop chops in his fingers. Over the years, he found musicians perfectly suited for the Indian funk-jazz-jam music that he was developing, and began playing slide trumpet to achieve typical Indian gamakas (bends, slides, and other ornaments). Band members Bryon Hankins (bass), Bill Buchen (tablas), Lee Boice (guitars, sitar), Hary Ganglberger (drums), and Walter Fishbacher (keyboards) have played and recorded with the likes of Zakir Hussein, Bill Laswell, James "Blood" Ulmer, Antonio Hart, George Garzone, Leni Stern, Ravi Coltrane, Chico Freeman, and Rasheid Ali, to name but a few.
The present lineup has been stable for over 2 years, and Indofunk has 3 CDs on the shelves. In addition to standard drums, bass, guitar, and keyboards, Indofunk's instrumentation includes tablas and electric sitar, and frequent collaborators lend their talents on sarod, mridhangam, violin, and Indian vocals.
Miles Davis, Shakti, Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder
