As we prepare for the New Year release of The GroovaLottos new single, here is your chance to learn the line dance The PHUNK in seven easy steps.
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Producer's Notes: Building The Groovalottos Album Pt 7
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As a GroovaLotto, playing and singing are intertwined. |
Recording the lead vocals for a project can be stressful and for many years it was the most difficult part of recording for me. My last several albums were the result of tons of discussions and consultations with studio singers, producers, and my own trials and errors in the studio. I understand from a few friends who worked with him that Prince prefers to record his vocals with no one else in the studio. He gets his engineer to set up a microphone for him and they leave him to his work. Since I used my own studios for my solo projects, it was easy to use the Prince method, but going back into a third-party studio, I had to revisit my old consultations for the vocals on this project. For some reason, after a few passes and re-passes, the vocals were okay, but just not rising to the occasion of the songs.
With my previous solo projects, the studio versions and the live version varied greatly because of the differences in personnel. With The GroovaLottos, the project dictated that the album is an 'enhanced' version of what we do live as a trio. So the vocal was a matter of recreating some of the best performances of these songs at our shows. Luckily, I have a habit of filming our shows for archival and evaluation purposes and found several old shows where the versions of the vocal were particularly inspired. The other key factor that I observed with these performances was that I played while I sang. THAT WAS IT!!! The next time in the studio, we set up my keyboard and did a keyboard pass along with the vocals. Not only did the vocals make the leap, but were spot on in one or two takes and the keyboard part ended up becoming the new main keyboard part as it was also more in the groove with the tracks.
Dan, our extremely patient engineer, dumped the leads and basic onto CD for us to listen to over the week. According to my notes, the backing vocals were going to be a combination of horn parts and street-corner doo-wop harmonies, layered under the Sam & Dave, two voice call-and-response stuff that we do live. Eddie Ray and I ended up having a lot of fun crafting the backing vocals for these songs as we gave each voice a character and a name. For example, "Do You Mind.?" has a shared lead by Medium- sized Jimmy and Handsome Al. Then we have The Tennessee Choir Boy and Mel Tourmé, with the Cookie Monster on the low part. When we did a test market on this song, we let the vocal harmonies ride and found that people thought we were a much bigger band until they saw the video. In about three sessions, we have great reference leads and back-ups for all 13 songs.
Now on to one of the hardest parts about being in a band, that's like family, and a business.
NEXT: Replace The Bass... or not...
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Monday, August 3, 2015
The GroovaLottos Bring "The Phunk" to Mashpee Community Park on 8/11
MASHPEE - The GroovaLottos makes a stop in Mashpee Community Park on Tuesday, August 11 at 6PM as part of the Summer Concert Series sponsored by the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod and TD Bank. The concert is free and open to the public, who is encouraged to bring a picnic supper and enjoy the evening.
Winners of the 2015 Silver Arrow Award for the Soul Music category, and finishing their first album at MDI Studios, the band has had an active summer of regional touring, with shows throughout the cape, as well as Boston, the South Coast, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Recently headlining the Onset Beach Jazz Festival and touring with the Cultural Survival Arts Festival, The GroovaLottos will be headlining the Boston Jazz Fest on August 29th along with jazz singers Pat Braxton and Rebbeca Parris.
Their July 4th alcohol-free concert and dance drew a diverse audience of people who danced all night to the soul-funk-blues grooves of the band. They are now looking into making the dances a monthly Song Keepers event.
For more information, visit www.thegroovalottos.com
Saturday, August 1, 2015
Monday, July 27, 2015
Thursday, June 4, 2015
WellFleet Catches A Case of 'DaPhunk' on July 8th @ Prez Hall
WELLFLEET - July 8th, The GroovaLottos bring their soul-funk-blues party to Wellfleet Preservation Hall, 335 Main St, Wellfleet, MA 02667 (508) 349-1800.
Tickets are $12.00 and can be purchased on-line through the Prez Hall website:
www.wellfleetpreservationhall.org
Tickets are $12.00 and can be purchased on-line through the Prez Hall website:
www.wellfleetpreservationhall.org
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
JULY 4th Alcohol - Free Concert & Dance in Cotuit

The Concert & Dance will follow the Cotuit 4th of July parade as well as the 94th Annual Mashpee Wampanoag Powwow. There are many people on the cape currently in recovery and/or trying to lead clean and sober lives, with little opportunities for adult entertainment outside of bars and nightclubs. The Song Keepers' events provide a way to party and celebrate a healthy lifestyle.
Song Keepers, Ltd. is a newly formed non-profit arts and education organization, dedicated to preserving and continuing the musical traditions of soul, funk and the blues, while providing high quality social and educational experiences for the community at large.
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Ending May with a Boom in Plymouth & Mashpee

Cabby Shack
30 Town Warf
Plymouth, MA
(508) 747-0653
Showtime 9:30 pm
The party continues Saturday evening at Dino's on Deck in Mashpee!!!
Dino's On Deck
401 Nathan Ellis Hwy (Rte 151)
Mashpee, MA
(774) 238-7062
Friday, May 15, 2015
R.I.P. to Mr Riley "B.B." King

The GroovaLottos are saddened by Mr King's passing and thank him for his legacy. Wishing Mr Riley BB King a peaceful journey.
Thursday, April 30, 2015
The GroovaLottos PACK 'The Onset VFW
A short distance away, at Gilda's Stone Rooster, the band appears on the 2nd Saturday of every month. They also appear monthly at the Cabby Shack in Plymouth. The band also has upcoming shows in Mashpee, Hyannis, Boston, Hartford, and Falmouth.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Producer's Notes: Building The Groovalottos Album Pt 6
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A little more flavor in the pot from Eddie |
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A floor tom with a broken kick petal makes quite the boom |
As I listen to the playbacks on some of our cuts, like "The Storm" and "Make It Look Easy" I find the exploration here must be what Berry Gordy felt when he went to New York to hear Jackie Wilson record one of his songs, and the producer added some Afro-Caribbean back-beat percussion, and how it gave his song a whole new feel and groove. Likewise, when you have the basic trio rhythm section lay down one pocket, and the djembe and bongos come back with a counter groove; all tied together by 'the one', especially when we decided to lay in the western, big drum on the songs. Here, in the percussion tracks we have several examples of call and response between African (West and east) and 'Pan NDN' percussion.
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My Djembe brought some ancestors into the mix |
Building an album, to an extent, is like creating audio imagery, where the sound becomes a mood-based landscape if you will. As music critic, Howard Dukes once observed of my work as a producer, I tend to be a fan of the classic 'concept album' approach to a project. With this project the concept is simple, a band of grown and funky musicians grooving through a set list at a concert. The final sound needs to be organic, ambient and exciting, while groovy, warm and funky... a dichotomy of sounds and textures... an audio rice and beans dish.
In building these tracks, what I've done is taken the recipe of funk albums produced in the 1960's and 70's, combined it with elements found in 1980s and '90's hip-hop and creating an album of the raw, funky, boom and bap free of samples, drum machines, time correction, and left as a pure work of musicianship.
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bongos and cowbells... funky... |
Missed any of the parts? Follow the Whole Producer Notes series here
PRODUCER's NOTES
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Monday, February 23, 2015
Saturday, February 21, 2015
AUDITIONS: Dancers Wanted for TV Show 3/18

Dancers Wanted for tapping of Live From Center Stage featuring The GROOVALOTTOS. Dancers of all ages wanted for a live studio filming of a soul-funk band. Looking for dancers in the style of Soul Train and American Bandstand.
Dress in your funkiest outfit!!! Be at the Cape Cod Community Media Center by 7:30 pm (17 Shad Hole Road, Dennis Port, MA) and party with New England's Phunkiest Band!!!
A guaranteed PHUNKY Good Time!!!
Check the Series, "Producer's Notes: Building The Groovalottos Album"
Friday, February 20, 2015
Producer's Notes: Building The Groovalottos Album Pt. 5
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When bass players rock the drums... |
In these days of electronica, percussion tracks are usually samples and loops that can be cut and paste into the song. Percussion provides the framing and While not a soul records, but a definite homage to blues, "My Generation" by The Who would have been lost as a dance record completely if they had not used hand claps to frame the wild style drumming of Keith Moon, who characteristically played inside, outside, under, over and next to the pocket of the tune, as one would more so expect from a jazz drummer.
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Eddie getting funky on the bongos |
This is also where your engineer makes a big difference, as Bob Yen has old school training, sensibilities and know how from engineering, producing and mixing countless albums as well as being a sound man for numerous live shows for a myriad of rock bands like Journey, Areosmith and the like. Most of your r&b and hip-hop engineers now are lost if the instruments are not plugged directly into the boards or are not software patches. To produce a descent, human soul record outside of New York, Chicago or Los Angeles, you need to find a good rock and roll engineer.
These rich percussion tracks that the hip-hop producers loved sampling and looping in the late 1980's and 1990's also gave me an appreciation for the texture and dimension of layered percussion. The old school process of sampling and looping required a degree of skill in manipulating and placing the sample that has been largely replaced by the use of software like Pro tools and so forth. One of the most impressive examples in hip-hop history actually didn't use sampling, but pure DJing skills. On the album "Straight Out The Jungle" by The Jungle Brothers, for example, their DJ Sammy B actually mixed and cut from his turntables directly onto the recording, using a drum machine as the metronome/ percussion link. Likewise, Gangstarr alum, DJ Premiere used to use a 4-track and the pause button feature to build his loops, feeding in the breaks from his turn table every two or four bars.
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A djembe player that went to Goddard? Impossible... |
Armed with bongos, djembe, tambourines, cow bells, a drum kit, broom shank, riser, four pairs of hands, and shaker, we went about building the percussion tracks of the album, giving each song it's own recipe. When we play out live, especially restaurant and jazz bar gigs, we often love to play with time signatures -super imposing 4/4 over 6/8, 5/4 and under 7/8 or 12/8- we found ourselves recising this habit with bongo and shaker patterns over the grooves of the song.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Producer's Notes: Building The Groovalottos Album Pt 4
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Bob Yen engineering as Redbone thumps the groove |
Eddie Ray's drum tracks are about as funky as you can get. After redoing my keyboards from the original scratch track, it was time to bring in Redbone and do the bass lines. Redbone and Eddie Ray have been playing together for years, having been in the legendary band, West Side Soul together in the 1990's, they are a bass an drum unit. Listening to the basic tracks and then listening to other records with great, funky bass and drums I began to get ideas that would lift our sound into a new paradigm rhythmically.
My sensibilities had been colored with the work of great jazz musicians playing on soul and funk records as well as the 1990's era of hip-hop where producers like Pete Rock, Ali Shahid Muhammad, DJ Mark the 45 King, and DJ Premiere created some remarkable sounds from their sampling and looping work, juxtaposing swing beats against straight time beats. Ironically, virtuoso jazz players and untrained DJs turned producers have similar ears and concepts that escape conventional concepts of how music should be performed.
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Producers notes on playback. As usual, Redbone nailed it. |
Redbone is a natural born talent and genius of the bass; being self taught on the instrument and growing up singing doo-wop on the street corner as a kid. From the first time that he came to a band rehearsal, it was clear that he understood and felt the groove and could make us feel it too. You see, a soul-funk record is about feeling, and the ability to convey that feeling to the listener. I would put him up against most conservatory trained jazz or rock bass players any day, as he comes with the kind of soul in his playing that they aspire towards. As a band, one thing that we often do in rehearsal and at gigs is play around with time signatures on tunes. One night, while playing a tune in 4/4, Eddie Ray decided to go into 6/8 while I went into 2/4 and Redbone stayed in 4/4. It's a math problem along the lines of solving equations and looking for the common denominator.

Also taking a page from Motown's studio band, they were all active jazz players who would record in the studio all day and play out at the clubs at night. The jazz clubs provided them with an opportunity to experiment with grooves, feels, and chord voicing. Elements of these experiments would often find their way into the arrangements of the songs they'd record the next day. In gathering footage for our documentary, "The Song Keepers" we ended up collecting hours of footage of our live performances and audience reactions. Pin-pointing elements that made particular performances stand out and translating them to the studio was how we created our basic tracks.
For any organic player, the studio can be a very restrictive environment. Most of my work as a producer has been trying to find ways to be organic in the studio, even when dealing with the electronica approaches of my last couple of albums. The production challenge here was getting Redbone to play like Redbone at a gig who can play in, out, next to, under, over, in front and behind the pocket naturally. Today, he was making the mistake of trying to lock himself to Eddie's kick drum. What I needed him to do was respond to it.
Since we were recording the bass DI, Redbone was able to sit in the control booth and record to the playback on the monitors instead of through headphones. I was able to sit behind him and be the annoying voice in his ear, coaching him through the bass parts. The end result: 12 of the best bass track recordings that I've heard in quite some time. "Ask Yo' Mama" is on it's way to being an instant classic album.
Missed any of the parts? Follow the Whole Producer Notes series here
PRODUCER's NOTES
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