“A vibrant, live-in-the-room studio masterclass in New Orleans funk, soul and R&B” - Blues Blast
…Take some Garlic and Onions, add some Congolese and Senegalese Africans, Spanish Cubans and Frenchmen, throw in Sicilians and a few Irish for good measure, smother the lot in Cayenne pepper, drown it in Louisiana hot sauce and let it bake in a malarial swamp for a couple of hundred years. Strain it, put it through a speaker… and that’s kinda what New Orleans sounds like.
Take a gang of the funkiest musicians in New Orleans, a bunch of good songs - old and new, play them with soul every night in sweaty saloons with condensation dripping down the walls and that’s kinda what this– our new record– sounds like.
Here, in this city, perhaps more than any other place I’ve ever been, the locals demand real music played real good. That’s what they want, so that’s what we give ‘em.
As soon as the studio was fixed, after the last hurricane blew through town, I assembled the whole Absolute Monster crew down at Funk Headquarters in the Bywater and we just did what we do the way we like to do and got it done. And now all you have to do is press the play button.
(By the way, should you make it down here to New Orleans you’re welcome to swing by, but, remember, please, just keep your hands off my Zulu Coconuts!) - Jon Cleary
released April 25, 2025
Recorded at Funk Headquarters, New Orleans, Louisiana
Mixed by John Porter and Jon Cleary at The Old Brewery House, UK
Produced by Jon Cleary and John Porter
Engineered by Mike Dorsey
Executive Producer: Andrew Kelly
Jon Cleary: Piano, guitar, percussion, vocals
Cornell Williams: bass, guitar, vocals
A.J. Hall: Drums, vocals
Nigel Hall: Hammond organ, Rhodes piano, vocals
Pedro Segundo: percussion
Xavier Lynn: guitar
Aaron Narcisse: Tenor sax, alto sax
Charlie Halloran: Trombone
Jason Mingledorf: Baritone sax, Tenor sax
Harry Shearer: vocals on Uptown Downtown and Zulu Coconuts
“A vibrant, live-in-the-room studio masterclass in New Orleans funk, soul and R&B” - Blues Blast
…Take some Garlic and Onions, add some Congolese and Senegalese Africans, Spanish Cubans and Frenchmen, throw in Sicilians and a few Irish for good measure, smother the lot in Cayenne pepper, drown it in Louisiana hot sauce and let it bake in a malarial swamp for a couple of hundred years. Strain it, put it through a speaker… and that’s kinda what New Orleans sounds like.
Take a gang of the funkiest musicians in New Orleans, a bunch of good songs - old and new, play them with soul every night in sweaty saloons with condensation dripping down the walls and that’s kinda what this– our new record– sounds like.
Here, in this city, perhaps more than any other place I’ve ever been, the locals demand real music played real good. That’s what they want, so that’s what we give ‘em.
As soon as the studio was fixed, after the last hurricane blew through town, I assembled the whole Absolute Monster crew down at Funk Headquarters in the Bywater and we just did what we do the way we like to do and got it done. And now all you have to do is press the play button.
(By the way, should you make it down here to New Orleans you’re welcome to swing by, but, remember, please, just keep your hands off my Zulu Coconuts!) - Jon Cleary
released April 25, 2025
Recorded at Funk Headquarters, New Orleans, Louisiana
Mixed by John Porter and Jon Cleary at The Old Brewery House, UK
Produced by Jon Cleary and John Porter
Engineered by Mike Dorsey
Executive Producer: Andrew Kelly
Jon Cleary: Piano, guitar, percussion, vocals
Cornell Williams: bass, guitar, vocals
A.J. Hall: Drums, vocals
Nigel Hall: Hammond organ, Rhodes piano, vocals
Pedro Segundo: percussion
Xavier Lynn: guitar
Aaron Narcisse: Tenor sax, alto sax
Charlie Halloran: Trombone
Jason Mingledorf: Baritone sax, Tenor sax
Harry Shearer: vocals on Uptown Downtown and Zulu Coconuts
