The Budos Band

The Budos Band

The Budos Band is a US instrumental group from Staten Island, New York, formed in 2005 and active since then. The band records for Daptone Records and is known for a sound that draws on afrobeat, funk, jazz, psychedelic rock and soul. The group has a core line-up that includes Thomas Brenneck, Mike Deller, Daniel Foder, Andrew Greene, Dave Guy, Rob Lombardo, Brian Profilio and Jared Tankel.

Origins

The band develops out of an after-school jazz ensemble at the Richmond Ave. Community Center in Staten Island, where the core members meet as youths. Their shared interest in rougher soul music leads them to late-night ferry trips into Manhattan, where they watch bands including Antibalas, the Sugarman Three and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings at the No Moore Club. After resistance from the band director over the direction they want to take, they leave the community centre ensemble and form Los Barbudos, a name that changes to The Budos Band in 2005 after one member shaves.

Style and recording

The band describes its music as Afro-Soul. Jared Tankel explains this as music drawn from Ethiopian sounds with a soul undercurrent, then combined with 1960s-style influences. The Budos Band rehearses in a small space on Sand Street and expands its sound through afrobeat and soul influences.

After playing for a Daptone A&R representative, the band is signed immediately and goes into the studio for a recording session that results in a full-length album recorded in the space of a few nights. Its releases are made at Daptone's House of Soul studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Members and personnel

The band performs with an expanded line-up of eleven members, and at times as many as thirteen. Musicians who appear on its studio albums include Brian Profilio on drums, Daniel Foder on bass guitar, Thomas Brenneck on electric guitar, Mike Deller on organ, Jared Tankel on baritone saxophone, Andrew Greene and Dave Guy on trumpet, Cochemea Gastellum on tenor sax and flute, Dame Rodriguez on cowbell, clave and tambourine, Vincent Balestrino on shekere, Rob Lombardo on bongo and congas, and John Carbonella Jr. on congas and drums.

First album

The first album, The Budos Band, also features guest appearances by Neal Sugarman on tenor saxophone and tambourine, Duke Amayo on congas, Johnny Griggs on cabasa, Daisy Sugarman on flute, and Bosco Mann, also known as Gabriel Roth, on rhythm guitar, cowbell and congas.

Label and associated scene

The Budos Band records for Daptone Records, alongside other funk and soul acts including the Mighty Imperials, Sugarman 3, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings.