We are cooking audio gumbo... our special recipe includes some funk, jazz, hip hop mixed with brass band traditions, spiced up with African and other world rhythms...music for the people!

Big Beat, the second album of the Underground Horns, a brass band from Brooklyn, New York, draws on a mix of different styles from all over the world with one

We are cooking audio gumbo... our special recipe includes some funk, jazz, hip hop mixed with brass band traditions, spiced up with African and other world rhythms...music for the people!

Big Beat, the second album of the Underground Horns, a brass band from Brooklyn, New York, draws on a mix of different styles from all over the world with one thing in common: they all are hard grooving.

The title track comes in a Afro beat and a more Dance oriented version, "Arabian flavor" mixes Bhangra rhythms with Arabian and Balkan influences, "Omelette Town" visits New Orleans with its second line groove, "Shumba" is a traditional song from Zimbabwe, "When will we come together" is a reggae tune with some dub elements, on "Let's Go" percussionist Okai displays his rhyming skills along a funky hip hop groove, "La Luciernaga" pays homage to the salsa traditions of New York, the Black Civil Rights anthem "Lift every voice and sing" has this euphoric church feel and the upbeat "Tranquility" combines Ethiopian pentatonic with a propulsive rhythm.

Usually Underground Horns play live as a 6piece unit, but for this recording they assembled the big family - on most tracks you get to hear eight musicians: Welf Dorr (alto sax, bass clarinet) - Kevin Moehringer (trombone) - Mike Irwin (trumpet) - Satoru Ohashi (trumpet) Nate Rawls (tuba) - Kevin Raczka (drums, perc.) - Andreas Brade (perc, drums) - Okai (djembe, vocals)

Here are some quotes from a review of our first album "Funk Monk" in All About Jazz NY (2009): "Alto saxophonist Welf Dorr has spent the last several years putting his own unique spin on the brass band, an instrumental lineup that is usually found in NYC crossing jazz with Balkan music. Although Dorr does look to Serbia for part of his musical muse he also draws heavily on a host of things including Afro-Cuban rhythms, funk and Thelonious Monk... ... Dorr draws on the power of a lineup that, along with his alto, includes drums, conga, tuba, trumpet and trombone to produce kick-ass dance music but doesn't devolve into parody. This is really wonderful new brassy jazz fusion music that even brushes up against psychedelia .... ...shots of funky brass juice .... stylistically diverse... an infectious charmer.... slow blues burner... plenty of room to improvise... beautifully subtle Mid-Eastern infused... (Elliot Simon, All About Jazz NY, Nov. 2009)