JF Group Social
Contact JF Group
JF Group Email List
John Funkhouser Group: Video
For Ildo Nandja • Quartet
Recorded 2017 at The Rotary Records with Phil Sargent (guitar), Greg Loughman (bass), Mike Connors (drums)
About the John Funkhouser Group
The John Funkhouser Group's music is full of empathy, fire, groove, breathtaking technique, profound intimacy, joy and playfulness. This band of Musicians without Borders spans the globe in each concert, with influences from South Africa, the Great American Songbook, Appalachia, India, New Orleans, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, 1970’s prog rock, and modern jazz. Along with Funkhouser on keys is Jerry Sabatini (trumpet), Chris Veilleux (sax), Phil Sargent (guitar), Greg Loughman (bass), and Mike Connors (drums) – a group of forward-thinking jazz musicians who “play with grace and sweetness,” according to Middletown Eye.
The title of their 2018 album Brothers, as Funkhouser explains, comes from his relationship with his fellow band mates: “Improvised music has a curious and beautiful quality whereby you can get on stage with a musician you have never met before, play a set or two of music, and instantly develop a deep, lasting and even intimate friendship.” Funkhouser has played with these musicians for close to 20 years, so the musical friendship has grown exponentially with time. ‘Brothers’ is the title “because that’s what we feel like at this point,” he says. “I think the bond that has formed between us, in all humility, shows in our spontaneity, spirit of exploration, freedom to take musical chances and say something controversial or to reveal feelings and thoughts that would remain guarded in less familiar and sympathetic company.”
The John Funkhouser Group has headlined the Jazz In June festival in Oklahoma City and played at major music festivals nationwide, including the Riverbend Festival in Chattanooga, TN, the Mellon Jazz Festival in Pittsburgh, PA, and Jazz In The Sangres in Westcliffe, CO. The band has played in New York at the Knitting Factory, Small’s, ShapeShifter and Cornelia St. Café, and all over the northeastern U.S.
“If you have ever seen and heard the JFG in person, you know how much energy they bring to a live show. Yes, each musician has technique to burn (and, there are moments when they let it rip) but they're also extremely musical. The John Funkhouser Group is wildly inventive and great fun to watch and listen to - but they can also play with grace and sweetness.”
-Richard Kamins, Middletown Eye, Middletown, CT
"Sheer beauty.....one can't help but notice the assured individuality of the musicians' work, each member of the group complementing the others for synergistically effective results."
-Bill Donaldson, Cadence Magazine
John Funkhouser Group: Gallery
Yeah! • Sextet
Recorded 2017 at The Rotary Records with Jerry Sabatini (trumpet), Chris Veilleux (sax) Phil Sargent (guitar), Greg Loughman (bass), Mike Connors (drums)
How Deep Is the Ocean • Quartet
Recorded 2017 at The Rotary Records with Phil Sargent (guitar), Greg Loughman (bass), Mike Connors (drums)
