Musical movements often are created out of the sheer necessity to fill a gap in a “scene.”
If your “scene” has too much of this and not enough of that, you can do two things: sit around and complain about how much your “scene” sucks, longing for something else, or get out there and actually make something to fill that void.
Fort Lewis College music alumni Travis Dalenberg opted to fill the void. He was a founder of the “Jazz Church” series that was born at Moe’s and now happens every Sunday at Derailed Pour House. That evolved into his funk band, Bacon, which now has given birth to Funked-Up-Fridays, a new jam session of funk music kicking off tonight and continuing Fridays at Moe’s.
Bacon and The Durango Funk All-Stars are bringing back what perhaps was a forgotten genre in Durango: horn-driven and improvisational funk music performed by a dedicated group of musicians.
Bacon will be the house band for tonight’s Funked-Up-Fridays debut, then will play again Saturday night at the Durango Discovery Museum for the “Robot Rumpus” robotics display and fundraiser. The band includes Dalenberg on guitar, Alicia Leone on vocals and saxophone, Chris Ross on trumpet, Jeff Nelson on bass and Larry Craig on drums. Ross and Nelson also perform with the Durango Funk All-Stars.
“Funked-up-Fridays is an open jam. The way we’re billing it is, we have an all-pro funk band at Moe’s,” Dalenberg said. “It’s going to be a bigger event – rowdier than jazz church. It’s a similar format in that we have a rhythm section that’s going to provide a backbone and a vehicle for improvisation. Hopefully, we’re all going to find players who will know the same tunes, or we’re going to make them up. I think it will open it up to a lot more rock players and blues players. People who kind of like to play funk and rock go well together.”
And like Jazz Church, the funk event on Fridays also will serve as a weekly fundraiser to benefit the Katzin Music Scholarship Program. Each week, funds raised will go to Katzin Music to help aspiring musicians defray the cost of instruments or weekly lessons.
Dalenberg is excited and confident to play with a growing pool of local musicians, creating music as a band but using the Funked-Up-Fridays event as a learning experience for musicians, as well.
“The fun part about these jams is these amazing musicians who have the ability to sit down and not know what’s going to happen and make something cool out of it,” Dalenberg said. “There are a lot of stellar musicians who are active in the community. I know a bunch of music majors, and I want to get the Fort Lewis community down to this event. The best education is to throw yourself to the sharks. You’ll play with people that are better than you, people that are worse than you. You’re going to learn something from all levels.”
Liggett_b@fortlewis.edu. Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager.
Bryant’s Best
Today: Funked-Up-Fridays with funk music, 6 p.m., no cover, Moe’s, 937 Main Ave., 259-9018.
Saturday: Farmington Hill and Baby Toro, 9 p.m., no cover, Olde Schoolhouse, 46778 Highway 550 north, 259-2257.
