Justin Rothberg Group: Old Business

Judging by the feel of the tunes provided by guitarist Justin Rothberg, the title must refer to the old business of funk, as there’s plenty of it here. When he teams up with Todd Groves/sax-fl-mel, Hiroyuki Matsuura/dr, Andy O’Neill/perc-dr and Gil Smuskowitz/b with his electric guitar, he has the band lay down a heavy backbeat to Groves’ flute on “No Time For The Beach” or his tenor on the greasy “Down in the Swamp.” Rothberg and the rhythm team enjoy playing with the tapping of toes as on the clippety clopping “Dollar Bin.”For a few of the songs, he switches gears and goes acoustic as on the folksy “Absent Minded/Double Jacked/Bosquait” in which the classical strings meld with Groves’ woodwinds, while the traditional sounding “The Exchange” has an earthy feel provided by warm melodic moanings.  The mix of moods serves the disc well here.

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