What happens when you take some old friends who just happen to be five of the most soulful players on the funk circuit today, throw them onstage together at The Maple Leaf for the 3am slot on the last night of Jazzfest, and let them rip? Well in most cases you might have a pretty damn good one-off, but in this case, you get The Nth Power, the newest supergroup to hit the funk/soul scene and they are about to take the country by storm.
http://youtu.be/Bw6jePt3_HM
Anchored by one of the hardest working (and hitting) drummers out there, Dumpstaphunk’s Nikki Glaspie, and Lettuce’s soul brother Nigel Hall, The Nth Power kick off their first ever national tour in Washington, DC tonight. The 2 week “Thank You” tour will find the band trekking down the eastern seaboard into the south, before circling back through Chicago and New York and will be sure to leave a lot of new converts in their wake.
Rounded out by Nate Edgar of John Brown’s Body on bass, Nick Cassarino of Big Daddy Kane and Jennifer Hartswick’s band on guitar, and djembe master Weedie Braimah of Toubab Krewe, the band has been percolating since their one-off gig at Jazzfest in 2012. As Nikki Glaspie tells it, as soon as they started playing together that night they knew they had found something special and became determined to harness the energy of that night into something larger. It’s been a slow climb for the quintet until now though, as they’ve only been able to write songs and gig between the many commitments of their other full-time bands, but the pieces are all starting to fall into place.
They first released a six-song EP which dropped at this year’s Jazzfest, and are now in the midst of recording a proper full-length debut which should come out at some point next year. I was lucky enough to catch some of their set at the Bear Creek Music Festival a few weeks back and the energy and cohesion that these 5 players bring to the stage is a rare sight. The grooves were deep, the guitar was incendiary, and the vocals were silky sexy smooth.
If you are a fan of any of these musicians, you owe it to yourself to check out this new project. True, they are not as in-your-face as some of the other bands they play with, but rather a slow steady burn that will move your soul just as much as it will move your feet — and sometimes it’s better that way, isn’t it? In short, expect big things from these folks, and catch ‘em in these small clubs while you can.
The full tour dates are below.
The Nth Power “Thank You” Winter 2013 Tour Dates
12/03/13 – Gypsy Sally’s – Washington, DC
12/04/13 – The Blind Tiger – Greensboro, NC
12/05/13 – Charleston Pour House – Charleston, SC
12/06/13 – Asheville Music Hall – Asheville, NC
12/07/13 – Pour House Music Hall – Raleigh, NC
12/08/13 – The Vinyl – Atlanta, GA
12/10/13 – 3rd & Lindsley – Nashville, TN
12/11/13 – 2720 Cherokee Performing Arts Center – St. Louis, MO
12/12/13 – Concord Music Hall – Chicago, IL (w/Lettuce)
12/13/13 – Drom – New York, NY
12/14/13 – Thirsty Moose Taphouse – Portsmouth, NH
12/15/13 – The Spot Underground – Providence, RI
