The Du-Rites - A Funky Bad Time (2020)

When life is good, it's good. When life is bad, it's bad. But when it
gets so bad you get the blues, life gets funky. And by the looks of
2020, The Du-Rites have no choice but to be funkier than ever before
on A Funky Bad Time, the NYC duo's fifth album in five years.

Multi-instrumentalists Jay "J-Zone" Mumford (drums, keyboards,
percussion, occasional vocals) and Pablo Martin (guitar, bass,
keyboards) were in the midst of transitioning their studio chemistry
into a live act. Their previous album, 2019's Soundcheck at 6, was
recorded live, and a January 2020 gig opening for The Skatalites at
Brooklyn Bowl set things down the right path. Then the world was
swept by a pandemic, canceling all plans. But with much worse ahead,
a derailment of plans seemed minor in comparison.

As the domino effect of turmoil continued into the spring, Jay and
Pablo retreated to their home studios and put together a relentlessly
funky, dark and nasty album, channeling the sting of a world in chaos
and maintaining their own sanity through its creation. In a perfect
example of "when times are bad, you must be badder," the duo utilizes
the chaos as fuel to be emotionally funkier than ever before. A Funky
Bad Time by default becomes the most unique and focused release in
the band's catalog; a product of unprecedented times, set to an
otherworldly backdrop their four prior releases just didn't have.

"Uptown" and "Jamaica" are not only Pablo and Jay's NYC
neighborhoods, respectively - they're the cinematic, moody bookends
to an album full of pandemic-fueled funk that goes from bedlam
("Jungle"); to apocalypse ("The San Remo Affair"); to funky blues ("A
Funky Bad Time (With Double D's)". But things never go so dark that
The Du-Rites lose their tongue-in-cheek humor, which is the Tylenol
for tough times. "Can't Buy Groove" is a grease-covered funk nugget
poking fun at amateur musicians buying expensive gear. The playful
"Hot N' Psycho" humorously sees an old man with a Cadillac attempt to
flirt in the face of cancel culture and "Done N' Dusted" is a peek
into what rehearsals actually sounded like pre-social distancing,
when Jay and Pablo could only play one instrument at a time without
the aid of multi-tracking.

With on-record credits playing behind artists as wide-ranging as
Eddie Palmieri, Ghostface Killah and Robert Glasper (as The Du-Rites)
and Tom Tom Club, Broken Bells, Danger Mouse & Karen O, Michael
Kiwanuka and Lord Finesse (individually), Jay and Pablo's playing and
composing chops cut through the limitations and darkness of our
current world for the funkiest 35 minutes of 2020.


Personnel:
Jay Mumford (J-Zone) - drums, AceTone organ, percussion, vocals,
hammond organ, clavinet, elec. piano
Pablo Martin - bass, guitar, synthesizers (Moog Taurus, wah organ)
Horn Diapersen - bass on "Arnold" and "Alfred's Nightmare"
Bruce Martin - percussion on "Uptown" and "Can't Buy Groove"
Broughamin' Fred - vocals on "Hot N' Psycho"