Blue Thumb Records will release Flyin’ The Koop, a brand-new recording from Stanton Moore, on Tuesday, February 26th, 2001. The drummer of the immensely popular “steamroller funk” band Galactic, Moore continues to expand his musical vision with this release.

The 12-track collection is groove-driven, jazz-informed and stylistically eclectic, with tunes ranging from rhythmic cookers to straightahead jazz launches, from melodic beauties to raunchy funk-rompers. The album features an all-star cast of groove-minded musicians, including bassist Chris Wood (Medeski Martin & Wood), saxophonist Karl Denson (co-founder of seminal acid jazz band the Greyboy Allstars and leader of his own band Tiny Universe) and guitarist Brian Seeger (New Orleans luminary and a member of Moore & More). The album also includes saxophonist Skerik and the vocal magic of the Wild Magnolias Mardi Gras Indians (on “Fallin’ off the Floor”).

Flyin’ The Koop opens with the upbeat “Tang the Hump” with a kicking groove that Moore and Wood developed together. The disc also features such tunes as the guitar-led, straightahead-oriented “Let’s Go,” the funk-jazz of “Hunch,” the lyrical “Prairie Sunset,” and the grooving “For the Record.”

Other highlights on Flyin’ The Koop include the funkified and gripping “Launcho Diablo,” the raucous “Things Fall Apart” (inspired by Moore’s bass pedal literally falling apart after the first bar); the drum-march dirge “Amy’s Lament” (a tune Moore wrote on the piano before the sessions); and the rambunctious closer, “Organized Chaos.”

Taken as a whole, Flyin’ The Koop is one of the strongest New Orleans-based albums of the new decade. And it convincingly offers a compelling look at the next page in the city’s illustrious musical history.

In addition to his drumming duties with Galactic, Moore has been devoting his spare time to playing in various other bands, including the New Orleans Klezmer All Stars (a group that mixes traditional klezmer with street beats); his own hometown organ quartet Moore & More; and Garage a Trois with eight-string guitar wiz Charlie Hunter and Skerik.