{"id":6844,"date":"2023-09-18T22:18:18","date_gmt":"2023-09-19T03:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=6844"},"modified":"2023-09-19T13:02:33","modified_gmt":"2023-09-19T18:02:33","slug":"inevitable-funkiness-scary-larry-goldings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/inevitable-funkiness-scary-larry-goldings\/","title":{"rendered":"Inevitable Funkiness: A Conversation with Larry Goldings on Scary Goldings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A fifth of the way into the twenty-first century, James Brown\u2019s question of \u201cAin\u2019t It Funky Now?\u201d Is perhaps best read as \u201cWhere\u2019s It Funky Now?\u201d Most funk icons are gone, retired, or mere shadows of their musical former selves. The Godfather of Soul died in 2006. George Clinton continually hosts retirement tours that do not entirely capture the magic of Parliament\u2019s 70s output, while Bootsy Collins stepped away from live performance due to his hearing impairment. Going down the line, Prince has left his throne. Even the Nigerian Afrobeaten variety no longer has its founders, Fela Kuti and Tony Allen. But does the vibrancy of funk still survive? As evidenced on LIVE! <\/em>(Pockets Inc., 2023), one would be hard-pressed to find a modern band keeping the flame of funk alive more than Scary Goldings with John Scofield. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The band’s funk bona fides should come as no surprise, given its members. At the core of Scary Goldings is Scary Pockets, an LA-based outfit co-led by keyboardist Jack Conte and guitarist Ryan Lerman, renowned for its heavy grooving reinterpretation of pop songs. Scary Pockets, whose other members are often a rotating set of artists, initiated a long-term collaboration with Larry Goldings in 2018. The keyboardist-organist has had a long and diverse career that boasts serious jazz credentials next to experience backing pop artists like James Taylor, Colin Hay, and John Mayer. Pertinently, Goldings also worked with funk icon Maceo Parker for several years. Over three decades, he has also produced several projects with John Scofield. The guitarist likely needs no introduction, but it is worth recalling his output with jam-funk band Medeski Martin Wood and Miles Davis – who had a deep interest in the music of Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, and Prince. And speaking of the Purple One, his final bassist – the inimitably unique Mononeon – also occasionally joins Scary Goldings.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scary Goldings LIVE! featuring John Scofield\u00a0<\/em>presents the September 4, 2022 performance by Conte, Lerman, Goldings, Scofield, and Mononeon at Jazz A La Villette in Paris. Rounding out the rest of the group are drummers Ted Poor, Lemar Carter, and Louis Cole. One track, “Professor Vicarious,” with Will Lee, is from Echoplex in Los Angeles. The album consists entirely of originals, brief jaunty tunes that, despite their truncated length, provide ample room for improvisation. As this writer can attest from having experienced Scary Goldings at the 2023 Newport Jazz, the group excels live. At Newport, they so moved the audience that even an infant who could not quite walk found himself irresistibly dancing to their music.\u00a0LIVE!<\/em>\u00a0reflects Scary Goldings’ intense energy well, from the high-speed movement of the tongue-in-cheekily titled “Louis Cole Sucks” to the slower late-night shimmery simmer of “Take My Jet.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our conversation with Goldings, we discussed how the group came together, their Newport performance, their upcoming Monterey Jazz Festival performance, some possible future collaborations, and lessons learned from Keith Jarrett. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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PostGenre: Scary Goldings gave a fantastic performance at the Newport Jazz Festival. Any thoughts on it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Larry Goldings: I think it went off very well, especially considering that playing at Newport is very chaotic. The Festival gives you about seven minutes to do a line check to keep everybody on schedule. There’s no real sound check. That\u2019s the age-old challenge when touring really – figuring out in the moment how to hear each other, how the equipment is doing, and the rest. At Newport, those things are even more of an unknown because you don’t have the time to get it all together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hadn’t seen Scofield in a while, and it is always great to reconnect with him. It was also our first gig with Tal [Wilkenfeld] on bass. We had a rundown in our little trailer in the backstage area where we rehearsed the songs, with everyone just singing chaotically through their parts. It was hilarious. But the energy at Newport was great, and so was the audience. There is always a different kind of energy when you have a one-off show like that compared to a gig within a string of gigs during a tour. It was a lot of fun.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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