‘The Hang’ album 12 out now

Oh yeah! ‘The Hang’ – our 12th full blown album – this collection of 11 songs has finally dropped on RSB Records, i.e. available for you to listen digitally in one go! There is a super-limited amount of eco friendly CD packages incl. 16 page booklet left – feel free to get in touch and order from me.

The backstory

This is a very special album to me on many levels! In the spring of 1996 I’ve recorded my first album in Boston called ‘Boozing Wizards (searching for the stone of funk’) – at the heart of it were Berklee professors Larry Finn (drums) and Dave Limina (Hammond organ) – we tracked live together and it was the start of a decades long friendship with Dave – who has played on most of my major releases since and also struts his stuff on ‘The Hang’.

After I re-located to London I had a ‘good go’ with the UK Funkestra 1.0 but it wasn’t until Funkestra 2.0 around 15 years ago when I teamed up with US native and UK based Mike Sturgis that we formed the nucleus of what would become the Funkestra until 2018. The third key member was fellow Berklee alumni Eran Kendler, Israeli born and UK based. With this nucleus of three (Robert de Niro would have called this the ‘circle of trust’ in ‘Meet The Fockers’) we’ve recorded many records and played many gigs with a collective of great musicians around us from the musical metropolis that is London.

The Hang

‘The Hang’ is our 12th fully-blown Redtenbachers Funkestra album, recorded live over two days at Masterlink Production Studio (near London/UK) by six Funkateers from the US, UK, Ghana and Austria.

We are probably best known for being a large ensemble horn band that has featured horn sections and players from James Brown, Tower of Power, Incognito and the New Power Generation, but this is their first small ensemble recording after ‘Concubine Chronicles (Live at British Groove)’ eleven years ago.

‘The Hang’ showcases the units creative spontaneity and an abundance of pure performance joy recording live in the studio. The recording also features high octane soloists Mike Outram (guitar), Tucker Antell (tenor saxophone) and Dave Limina (Hammond organ) propelled forward by the long-standing engine room of drummer Mike Sturgis, Karl Vanden Bossche on percussion and bandleader/producer Stefan Redtenbacher on bass.

With an extended release strategy the album has clocked up 280,000 streams on Spotify with

‘Kerria Lacca’ on the Spotify editorial playlist ‘Instrumental Funk’,

‘Blood and Whiskey’ on ‘Jazz UK’ and

‘Wiggles’ on ‘Jazz Funk’.

Unlike on previous records almost all band members have contributed tunes for this record resulting in a wider spectrum of musical colors – from the Brecker Brothers influenced ‘Shutdown’, Meters influenced ‘Bump-de-Bump’, Crusaders influenced ‘Tee Off’ to MMW influenced ‘Kerria Lacca’.

Tune by tune

Explore the backstory of ‘Shudown’ HERE.

Here the backstory of ‘Backburner’ HERE.

Check out the backstory of ‘Tee Off’ HERE.

Read the backstory of ‘Bump-de-Bump’ HERE.

Learn more about the story of ‘Kerria Lacca’ HERE.

Get the backstory of ‘The Hang’ HERE.

PERFORMERS

• Stefan Redtenbacher – bass, bandleader
• Mike Sturgis – drums
• Karl Vanden Bossche – percussion
• Dave Limina – keys (Hammond organ, Rhodes)
• Tucker Antell – saxophone (tenor)
• Mike Outram – guitar

CREDITS

Kerria Lacca’, ‘Boosh Boosh’, ‘The Hang’ written by Stefan Redtenbacher
‘Shutdown’, ‘Backburner’, Blood & Whiskey’ written by Tucker Antell
‘Squid Exit Music’, ‘Tee Off’ written by Dave Limina
‘Bump-de-Bump’ written by Mike Outram
‘Monster Funk’ written by Tucker Antell & Stefan Redtenbacher
‘Wiggles’ written by Mike Sturgis

All tracks recorded live at Masterlink Productions
Recorded, mixed and mastered by James Welch
Produced by Stefan Redtenbacher
Photographs by Rob Blackham (Blackham Images)
Graphic design by Stefan Redtenbacher
RSB Records RSB74900