"When I used to go to Mardi Gras parades with my parents, the first thing you'd hear coming down the street was the drums. I would get so excited. I think that funk music just gives you that same feel, that rhythmic feel that makes you go 'Oh, yeah, man, here it comes!' " (Stanton Moore, reprinted from Offbeat Magazine)
Stanton Moore is a drummer in the best tradition of his native New Orleans. For several years, Stanton's full-time occupation (does 24 hours a day count as full time?) has been as a founding member of Galactic. Their grueling, nonstop tour schedule has helped earn the band a huge following nationwide (not to mention a contract with Capricorn/Mercury!), and has established Stanton a serious reputation as a funk drummer. Still, those who have seen Stanton in the many bands he's played in (including the New Orleans Klezmer All-Stars) or sat in with (including Widespread Panic) know that there's more to the story. (He was one of the few musicians selected for the New Orleans Gambit's "40 Under 40" - an annual list of the city's 40 "best and brightest" citizens - and in a city dominated by music that's saying something!)
This is clearly addressed with the release of Stanton's solo album All Kooked Out! on Fog City Records. Taking a break from the "steamroller funk" of Galactic, Stanton enlisted the aid of some musicians who had fallen prey to his infections enthusiasm - including Charlie Hunter, Skerik, and a small cast of New Orleans funk/jazz heavyweights. While the end results include some serious funk bombs, what makes this solo project so special is that Stanton can now be more widely known as more than simply a funk drummer, and as far more than just a "loop player" (the modern kind of drummer who has overdosed on sampled, looped drums and has lost the connection to the source of those samples). Stanton shows his unique ability to play with an understanding and respect for the traditions that have come before him (and in New Orleans those rivers run deep!), but to also lend a sense of humor, enthusiasm, and deep funkiness to almost any groove.
Any fan of funk music in general and New Orleans funk music in particular knows that the sound of the legendary Meters casts a long shadow. And certainly even a casual listener will hear shades of Meters drummer Zigaboo Modeliste when listening to Stanton. But an understanding of the history of the music places things in their proper perspective. When interviewed with his fellow members of Galactic by the magazine An Honest Tune, Stanton explains:
" Yeah, we check that stuff out and that's definitely our largest influence and it's fun to play. But we're definitely still trying to take what they did and move it in a direction that's new. Like we're into Lou Donaldson and Grant Green and Jimmy Smith and Lonnie Smith and all those cats. We try to take those influences and stew them together in a little gumbo pot and come up with something a little bit different.
I think a lot of people don't take that initiative to understand that music. Especially with funk, you see a lot of bastardized funk going around and its like to learn funk guys will go back and learn the Red Hot Chili Peppers to learn how to play funky. We'll check out the Meters but then go back and try to find out where they're coming from like Professor Longhair, and then where he got it from like the Mardi Gras Indians and the brass bands. And then from where they got that from Jelly Roll Morton. And then try to go back from where Jelly Roll Morton got his stuff: Congo Square. You just try to go back further and further and always try to come up with something that's fresh. "
(reprinted from An Honest Tune magazine)
