AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Thelonious Dub

Artist:Thelonious Dub
Song:The Admiration Of Fools
Album:Master Plan B





Thelonious Dub is a group from Los Angeles that claims to mix the jazz of Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis with reggae influences. But when I listen to them, I think they are in the tradition of Jazz Fusion. I don't hear the reggae influence. They have recently changed their name and added a vocalist possibly to show more of the reggae influence. The leader of Thelonious Dub is guitarist Joe Bartone. He was born Dec. 20, 1965 in Boston and has played in the Sun Ra Tribute Arkestra and The Extropians. As a guitarist, he is similar to guys like Bill Frisell and John Scofield. He formed Thelonious Dub in 2007 with bassist John Van Seggern and drummer Sean Rainey. Van Seggern is a noted remix producer so he uses a lot of effects. But he had left and by the time they recorded the 2009 CD Master Plan B, Brandon Schmidt was on bass and sax player Kyle O'Donnell was added to the band. So that's the band you see on this video. Their CDs are self released and they seem to do well on the Los Angeles club circuit. Bartone is a smart guy and he's been around. A lot of bands like this don't do enough to get exposure. They don't put music on Youtube so fans can experience it. If Bartone didn't do that, I would never feature Thelonious Dub as Song Of The Day. I'm not interested in shaky fan shot videos. And I do preview videos to be sure they are professionally produced. So this gives fans, especially fusion fans, to check out a band that I think they will enjoy. Bartone has changed the group name to Dub Thief and added singer Lindsay Hough. On their website, they have emphasized the influence of British ska groups like The Specials and The English Beat and de-emphasized the jazz influence. It doesn't appear that Dub Thief has released a CD yet but Joe Bartone is a jazz musician and I doubt he will be able to hide the jazz influence. I guess he just wants to be versatile so he gets a lot of gigs. But I think fusion fans will enjoy Thelonious Dub. Here's Thelonious Dub performing The Admiration Of Fools at their 2009 CD release party.