The Du-Rites - Gamma Ray Jones & Sound Check At 6 (2018/2019)

The Du-Rites have only been in existence for a few years, but the musical life of the NYC funk duo has been anything but quiet. Comprised of multi-instrumentalists Jay Mumford (aka J-Zone) on drums and keys and Pablo Martin on guitar, bass and synthesizer, the pair has already cranked out two albums, a handful of 7” singles and worked with a wide range of musical greats - ranging from Eddie Palmieri; to Ghostface Killah; to Robert Glasper; to Bobbito Garcia - proving they can groove with anyone. Through it all, Jay and Pablo have honed their composing and playing chops to go into uncharted territory for their third LP, Gamma Ray Jones.

Inspired by the musical scores of the iconic cop shows of the 1960s and ‘70s, Gamma Ray Jones is the musical backdrop for a lost 1972 TV series that never made it past the cutting room floor at NBC. With the rival crime-fighting shows of the day brawling for airtime (Mannix, McCloud, Banacek, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, The Mod Squad, The Rockford Files, etc.), Gamma Ray Jones proved too real, too violent and too expensive to produce, prompting the network to cease production on the series after the pilot episode, Get This Turkey Outta Here!, was filmed. The fact that the star of the show was none other than NYC’s own street justice warrior, Pedro “Gamma Ray” Jones, Hollywood execs didn’t want the smoke. The pilot sat in a film reel vault for 46 years with one glaring omission - the music. Enter: The Du-Rites.

Scoring the lost pilot with the utmost attention to detail, Jay and Pablo go from synth-driven big city overtures (“Gamma Ray Jones Theme”); to cold-blooded funk (“The Mean Machine”); to jazz and Latin-tinged soul (“Big Shirley’s Place,” “Amsterdam Ave.”); to cinematic, orchestral movements (“Go Down Swinging”). There’s even a chase scene (“Showdown!”), proving The Du-Rites not only studied the songbook for cop show funk (written by legendary composers Lalo Schifrin, Quincy Jones, Dave Grusin, Mike Post, etc.) - they spent many a night watching the shows in syndication.

Where 2016’s debut album brought funky grooves and vamps by the pound and 2017’s Greasy Listening brought a raggedy live nightclub band into your living room, Gamma Ray Jones is The Du-Rites musical backdrop for 20” long cars, Mateus wine, sport jackets, 10 minute fist-fight scenes and all that was gritty about New York City in the 1970s.

It’s ironic that The Du-Rites (J-Zone and Pablo Martin) are already on their fourth album in three years when you consider the group began as a back burner endeavor. More ironic is the fact that the duo has become a live outfit over the past year, considering two multi-instrumentalists can’t play 2-3 instruments at the same exact time. With Jay playing drums and keys and Pablo playing guitar and also holding down keys (both of them contribute on bass guitar), it was impossible to execute The Du-Rites live on stage. So accepting the label of studio band early made it easy to crank out albums with 1960s frequency. With 2016’s eponymous debut, 2017’s Greasy Listening - ironically a tongue-in-cheek jab at their situation, dubbed a s a fake “live” album - and last year’s TV cop show score, Gamma Ray Jones, the Du-Rites had quickly and neatly carved a lane. But the time to grow beyond a studio outfit had come. And opportunity knocked.

An offer to play NYC’s prestigious Symphony Space (at The Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater) on Valentine’s Day 2019 was too sweet a gig to pass up on logistics, so The Du-Rites went back in the woodshed, adding Bill Harvey to handle bass guitar duties and Martin’s fellow Tom Tom Club member, Bruce Martin (no relation), to not only take over on keyboards, but add a whole new layer of groove by doubling up on percussion. The quartet rehearsed tirelessly through the winter of 2018-19 in preparation for Symphony Space and put together a greasy gig on Cupid Day that had folks ages 8 to 80 putting their dancing shoes on instead of spending $250 in some jive ass restaurant. Symphony Space was a giant professional leap and a whole lot of fun for the band, but to stop the roll there would put all that work and love for the stage in vain. So when Pablo and Bill dug up a filthy old mixing board with a unique sonic sheen that could capture the live show in all its greasy glory, the Du-Rites decided to hit it again for their fourth album (and first official live album), Soundcheck at 6.

The Du-Rites’ original 70 minute show was trimmed to a svelte 40 and thrown down live at the intimate, yet groovy Undisclosed Location in Brooklyn. The live renditions of their funkiest offerings give the band a chance to stretch out, improvise and even talk some stuff! Dig Jay dropping childhood anecdotes over a slow-cooking, bluesy rendition of “Neckbones” (before exploding into the real thing). Or the Afro-Cuban jam that was added to heat up “Mr. Porter”. The added percussion breakdowns in “The Man With The Golden Tooth” mesh jazz-funk with D.C. Go-Go energy. The Mannix tribute and extended drum solos kick “Showdown” up another notch and the Cumbia breakdown on “Ghetto Ferris Wheel” makes it clear the quartet version of The Du-Rites has the extra musical muscle to re-funkatize the studio releases. Both Bill and Bruce put their own personal stamps on The Du-Rites sound without subtracting from it, making Soundcheck at 6 a Cadillac brougham-tastic, cosmic excursion in neckbone funk!