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Boxes by Greyboy Allstars

From the album

Album Title: Grab Bag: 2007-2023
Label: Knowledge Room Recordings
Released: 2024

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About the Album

The Greyboy Allstars have released, Grab Bag: 2007-2023, a nine-track collection culled from a 16-year period in the legendary West Coast boogaloo band's archives, presenting never-before-released tracks and rarities. Among the album's highlights is "Boxes," a composition written by keyboardist Robert Walter.

This is my attempt at writing a Wayne Shorter type tune," explains Walter. "It has a long form with chord changes and is a great way to collectively improvise using the shape of the song as a road map. It’s a modern take on jazz techniques from the 1960s."

Born in San Diego as the “Allstars” of DJ Greyboy’s underground label Greyboy Records, the five musicians offered living, breathing interpretations of his rare groove, crate-digger discoveries. Flash forward thirty years later and GBA have grown into legitimate "Allstars" in modern music. Away from GBA, Michael Andrews is a notable composer of scores for film and television, ranging from Donnie Darko to Freaks & Geeks to his most recent work on the upcoming animated documentary Piece by Piece that tells the life story of singer and producer Pharrell Williams through LEGO pieces. Robert Walter has been jumping between tours with Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, and Phish’s Mike Gordon, among others, while leading his own 20th Congress. Karl Denson divides time between his touring juggernaut Tiny Universe, as well as the jazz-based KD3 trio, while handling saxophone duties on tour with no less than The Rolling Stones. And then there’s the liquid cool of GBA’s rhythm section: bassist Chris Stillwell and drummer Aaron Redfield, a formidable, first call rhythm section on pop and hip-hop sessions, including credits on recordings by Sia, Elton John, CeeLo, and Charli XCX.

With the release of Grab Bag: 2007-2023, The Greyboy Allstars, once again, redraw the boundaries and redefine the terms of their iconic brand of West Coast boogaloo. The title of this eighth LP from GBA could suggest a random assortment of miscellaneous tracks, yet rest assured there is nothing random, nothing miscellaneous about these nine stellar cuts, previously unreleased over the past decade and a half of the quintet’s illustrious 30-year history. Perhaps stylistic and sonic outcasts resulting in their exclusion from previous albums, here they seamlessly come together to highlight the more experimental side of the quintet’s ever-evolving sound and vision.

Tracks

Slip The Grip; Watch Out Gail; Speed Freak; Boxes; San Diegogo; LLL; Suadela; The Way You Make Me Feel; Pixie Stick.

Personnel

Date featured

December 5, 2024

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It is for personal use only; no other rights are granted or implied.