Since 1993, Brooklyn Funk Essentials have been presenting their unique brand of eclectic funk to ecstatic audiences around the world. Made up of musicians, singers and poets from around the globe, the group is an all-star-team famously mixing styles like soul, jazz, latin and house – all rolled into one ferocious funk fest. If it grooves, they will funk it!
Established in the early ‘90s by Arthur Baker and Lati Kronlund, Brooklyn Funk Essentials were regulars of New York’s vibrant club scene when their debut album, ‘Cool & Steady & Easy’, hit the shelves. Released by pioneering funk and electronic taste-makers Dorado Records and combining classic funk’s raw, mind-bending basslines, peak-era disco’s euphoric vocals and early hip-hop’s observational lyricism, the album and its follow up, ‘Make Em Like It’, topped charts around the world.
Recording of ‘Stay Good’ began in 2018 in Stockholm, Sweden and Birmingham.
On ‘Stay Good’, the band chose to work in the studio as they do on stage – as a tight-knit six-piece band, and keeping guest appearances to a minimum, with the exception of vibraphone wizard Roy Ayers appearing on the slow jam ‘Breeze On Me’. Other tracks include the Frankie Knuckles co-write ‘Watcha Want From Me’, the space-funk of ‘Funk Ain’t Ova’ and a dub-jazz version of Joe Henderson’s ‘Y Todavìa La Quiero’.