2/4 - Time: 7:30 p.m.

MCLA Presents!

Blues & Funk Festival (Day 1): Slavic Soul Party. Concert.

5th Annual MCLA Blues & Funk Festival
Thursday and Friday, February 4 and 5, 2010; 7:30 p.m.
MCLA Venable Gymnasium

2-NIGHT FESTIVAL TICKETS: $20 General Admission

February 4th: Slavic Soul Party

Slavic Soul Party gets the festival started on Thursday night with fiery Balkan brass, hip-grinding American grooves, and ecstatic anthems both new and old. Brash and strong as slivovitz, these nine musicians have forged virtuosic new brass band music in the heart of New York City-- melding Gypsy, East European, Mexican and Asian immigrant backgrounds with American jazz and soul.

"Prepare to be transported... a soulful, adventurously improvised blast from Party Central." - Barnes & Noble Online

"Madcap rhythms, hyperactive horns, a sense of the absurd, and just a hint of abstract jazz... everything you could want in a record." - All Things Considered

February 5th: Big Sam's Funky Nation

Big Sam's Funky Nation takes the stage New Orleans style on Friday night. Presiding over his Funky Nation is Big Sam, formerly the trombonist for the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, who blows the funk out of his trombone and refuses to let the audience sit still. Between solos and trombone riffs, Big Sam second-lines (a uniquely New Orleans style of street-dance) and gets the crowd going both in movement and in replies to his call-and-response MC-style.

"the top man on the slide trombone in the birthplace of jazz." - San Francisco Chronicle

"As long as groups like Big Sam's Funky Nation helm communal happenings like this one the funky fever is bound to spread." - Jambase Online

Contact Information: Jonathan Secor, 413.664.8718, Jonathan.Secor@mcla.edu