Deep Banana Blackout

Fuzz, Jen, Eric and Benj first got together in the summer of 1995 as a group of like-minded musicians hailing from New York and Connecticut, joining forces to play Funk, Soul and R&B covers from the 60’s and 70’s for the pure love of that music. As the band members’ chemistry became apparent, all other projects fell to the wayside so that they could focus on writing and arranging original material and eventually form Deep Banana Blackout. The band soon became a highly acclaimed musical force on the East Coast underground live music scene, with their soulful groove embedded in the roots of funk and weaving their own compositions, extended improvisations and music from other artists such as Sly and the Family Stone, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, and Parliament/Funkadelic.

Over the course of their 30 year history together, many notable musicians from the Funk, Rock and Jazz world have joined them on stage. The list includes legendary musicians such as bassist George Porter Jr (The Meters), trombonist Fred Wesley (James Brown/P Funk), keyboardist Bernie Worrell (P Funk), drummer Clyde Stubblefield (James Brown), guitarist Warren Haynes (Allman Brothers Band/Govt. Mule), John Scofield (Miles Davis), trumpeter Michael Ray (Kool and The Gang/Sun Ra), drummer Mike Clark (Herbie Hancocks Headhunters) as well as drummer Chris Franz and bassist Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads/Tom Tom Club to name a few.

In July of 1997, they released their first studio effort entitled Live in the Thousand Islands. The album was recorded in Hartford, CT in the old Colt.45 building and was produced by the band members themselves. In February 1999, they released their second recording, a double live CD called Rowdy Duty and later on that year, the band’s label Artkin Touchya Records released a funky jazz and hiphop favored album by Fuzz and his band On The Corner entitled B’Gock!