Horn House and Redtenbacher’s Funkestra collab on new single

21 November 2021

Digital single cover of 'Old Blood', a Jazz Funk collaboration between Redtenbacher's Funkestra and Horn House — Jazz Funk collab between Redtenbacher’s Funkestra and Horn House results in **‘Old Blood’**

The Story

How did it come to Horn House and Redtenbacher’s Funkestra collab on new single?

Scottish trombonist Nichol Thomson and Austrian bassist Stefan Redtenbacher met as students at Berklee College of Music in the mid 90s. This is where Redtenbacher’s Funkestra started out and recorded their first album in Boston. They both relocated to London where Nichol developed his career as side-man to the greats and Stefan pursued his own artistry with the Funkestra.
25 years later they re-join forces with ‘Old Blood’ featuring Nichol’s horn section Horn House. A ‘full-circle’ musical journey, hence the title.

The Musicians

(in alphabetical order of last name)

HORN HOUSE

Andrew Michael Ross | saxophone (alto, tenor, bari), flute (alto)
Nichol Thomson | trombone (tenor, bass)
Tom Walsh | trumpet, flugelhorn

RHYTHM

Karl Vanden Bossche | percussion
Stefan Redtenbacher | bass
Ross Stanley | Hammond, Fender Rhodes
Ian Thomas | drums

Spotify success

We are thrilled to report another Spotify editorial playlist success. ‘Old Blood’ has been added to their ‘Instrumental Funk’ playlist. This playlist has 268,633 likes, 80 songs and runs for 6 hours 1 minute.

Exciting to know that the Redtenbacher’s Funkestra has now 5 (!) songs on this playlist – 13 in total:

‘Kerria Lacca ‘(from ‘The Hang’)
‘Wiggles’ (from ‘The Hang’)
‘Monster Funk’ (from ‘The Hang’)
‘Crescent City’ (from ‘Big Funk Band’)
‘Old Blood’ (our collab single with Horn House, hopefully this will eventually result in an album?)

Also, personally very pleasing, most of the artists on this playlist are either contemporaries or classic Funk bands which I all love. For example:

‘Assin – The Paisley Park Sessions’ by Cory Wong (also featuring the Hornheads – the horn section around Minneapolis based trombonist Michael B Nelson, former right hand man for Prince when it came to horns. The NPG hornz, as they also were called, have played on three of the previous Funkestra records too.)

‘Pick Up The Pieces’ by the Average White Band (an all time classic and another strong connection as Hamish Stuart, original and pivotal member, has already come twice to the Masterlink Sessions to record with us. The first time round I also had the pleasure for an impromptu interview with me. Watch HERE.

‘Chameleon’ by Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters (another all time classic and one of the very first basslines I ever learnt – from vinyl of course. This was probably when the seed was sown for me to write memorable and compelling bass lines. I’ve got close with ‘Funktionality’ – played by many aspiring bassists around the world – but still working on it to get better:-)

And many more like Scary Goldings, Medeski, Martin & Wood, The Fearless Flyers, The New Mastersounds, Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, The Haggis Horns, Jeff Beck, Dumpstaphunk, Trombone Shorty, Speedometer, Lettuce, Nate Smith, Vulfpeck, Funk Inc. Orgone, Victor Wooten, Marcus Miller, Deodato, The Filthy Six, well, listen for yourself – a great playlist!