Event Search
DATE
12 MAR 2010, FRI
TIME
7.30pm, 10pm
(60mins, no intermission)
(60mins, no intermission)
VENUE
Theatre Studio
PRICE
$40*
$48* (for ticket purchased on day of performance)
(* With one complimentary drink. All patrons must be above 18 years old) Exclusive savings for Mosaic Friends and other packages available at www.mosaicmusicfestival.com.
$48* (for ticket purchased on day of performance)
(* With one complimentary drink. All patrons must be above 18 years old) Exclusive savings for Mosaic Friends and other packages available at www.mosaicmusicfestival.com.
SYNOPSIS
“Forget the whole grain, Whole Foods connotations, Breakestra is organic — a fluid and funky fusion between the city’s coffeehouse indie-rap scene of the mid-to-late-'90s and the breakbeat-heavy samples they stole from their parents’ crates.” – Los Angeles Times
Get a stack of the finest classic funk, jazz and soul vinyls and break down the songs. Get some old-skool hip-hop mixtapes and study the transitions. Merge them in original compositions, bringing on the classic funk breaks, not with a turntable and sampler hip-hop style, but with a live, large party ensemble… And you’ll get the orchestra of fun that is Funk Revivalism’s star band, Breakestra!
Get a stack of the finest classic funk, jazz and soul vinyls and break down the songs. Get some old-skool hip-hop mixtapes and study the transitions. Merge them in original compositions, bringing on the classic funk breaks, not with a turntable and sampler hip-hop style, but with a live, large party ensemble… And you’ll get the orchestra of fun that is Funk Revivalism’s star band, Breakestra!
Breakestra is L.A.’s finest practitioners of gritty soul/jazz, party funk and breaks, known for reworking classic breakbeat-driven funk (circa 60s and 70s James Brown, P-Funk and Sly and The Family Stone) with old-skool hip-hop as well as psychedelic soul, Afropop, jazz, skank and blues in fresh compositions with a live jam sound and fantastic party vibe.
The brainchild of producer, engineer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist “Music Man” Miles Tackett, Breakestra was formed from a love of golden era late-80s/early-90s hip-hop and a fascination for the dusty samples that peppered the era’s classic records. From watching revered West coast DJs like Cut Chemist and Mixmaster Wolf cut up hip-hop, funk and breaks, Tackett looked to form a live collective of musicians that could play the originals live with all of the same sounds, feel and musicianship. Through weekly jams at a local coffeehouse session called The Breaks, Breakestra was created.
The brainchild of producer, engineer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist “Music Man” Miles Tackett, Breakestra was formed from a love of golden era late-80s/early-90s hip-hop and a fascination for the dusty samples that peppered the era’s classic records. From watching revered West coast DJs like Cut Chemist and Mixmaster Wolf cut up hip-hop, funk and breaks, Tackett looked to form a live collective of musicians that could play the originals live with all of the same sounds, feel and musicianship. Through weekly jams at a local coffeehouse session called The Breaks, Breakestra was created.
From then on, with their base at fabled weekly hip-hop night, Rootdown, Breakestra became renowned as one of the great live funk bands of their era. Mixmaster Wolf became a key voice and hypeman out front. An amorphous line-up of L.A.’s finest players, led by Tackett on bass and vocals, ensured that the grooves were kept super-tight with local musicians like drummer Pete McNeal (Z Trip’s band), James “The Funky Penguin" King (The Lions) and Jeremy Ruzumna (Macy Gray's band) all a part of the Breakestra fold at different times.
In 2009, four years after debut studio album, Hit The Floor (2005), blew listeners away, Breakestra released Dusk Till Dawn. Built around the vision of Mixmaster Wolf and “Music Man” Miles (who produced, recorded and wrote the tracks, as well as played the bass, drums, guitars, cello, keys, percussion and vocals on the record) – and written as a tribute to the late DJ Dusk, Tackett’s late DJ partner at Rootdown – the album explores all colours of the funk spectrum, features amazing new female vocalist Afrodyete (who’s been described by American media as James Brown reincarnated as a woman), and journeys into psychedelic soul and stripped-back West African farfisa stylings.
This Mosaic, get down and dirty with Breakestra as they dish out the dirty groove, funk basslines, skank riffs, brassy horn blasts, killer bass, gravelly yowls, gospel-chord organ, syncopated drums and the occasional strings in an explosive set bound to make you sweat.
This Mosaic, get down and dirty with Breakestra as they dish out the dirty groove, funk basslines, skank riffs, brassy horn blasts, killer bass, gravelly yowls, gospel-chord organ, syncopated drums and the occasional strings in an explosive set bound to make you sweat.
