Artist description Inventive acid-jazz and hard funk with intense improvisations and swingin' grooves. Comparable to MMW or the Charlie Hunter Trio. darkk bros. were born out of the acid-jazz movement but are really much more than that. the chaotic improvisations are really nicely balanced against hard grooves and teasing melodies. while we can be sloppy in a greasy sort of way, the overall effect is heavy, solid, swingin' and quite delicious, really!

Music Style acid jazz and funk

Musical Influences MMW, Charlie Hunter, Zeppelin, Funkadelic, John Scofield

Similar Artists MMW, Soul Coughing, Radiohead, Galactic, Charlie Hunter

Artist History Darkk Bros. met and played together for the first time as students at Northern Illinois University. They soon began playing at some of the top clubs in Chicago, such as the House of Blues, Blue Note, and Double Door. Local radio station WXRT has played their music on Local Anaesthetic, a local music showcase, as well as on the air during regular airplay. Currently, they are working on releasing a second CD and also working on seperate musical projects individually: Joe Bianco is currently playing with Fareed Haque and Trouser... Mike Hagedorn is playing with Trouser and his own band Type Wash... Anthony Fresina is releasing a solo CD in Summer '00 and producing the next Darkk Bros. CD... Jason Erdmann is playing with several funk bands in the Chicago area.

Group Members Mike HagedornAnthony FresinaJoe BiancoJason Erdmann

Instruments guitar, bass, trombone, drums, DJ

Albums darkk bros.

Press Reviews Darkk Bros. - VoidWareCMJ New Music ReportIssue 522 – May 19, 1997Reviewer – Tad HendricksonDarkk Bros., don‘t have a Hammond organ, but they‘ve got the groove often associated with the acid-jazz movement. Drummer Joe Bianco and bassist (upright and electric) Jason Erdmann anchor the whole affair by swinging in and out of the beat, hitting it dead on when they need some oomph. With this solid rhythm section, guitarist Anthony Fresina and trombonist Mike Hagedorn have plenty of room in which to stretch out. Fresina‘s limber fretwork is angular and occasionally surprising. Though he‘s probably not familiar with Joe Biaza‘s work in the criminally overlooked and ahead-of-it‘s time Universal Congress Of, the two guitarists are kindred spirits. Mike Hagedorn handles the trombone chores, playing the frontline foil to Fresina. Sonically speaking, Hagedorn leaves plenty of room for Fresina and musically, the trombone adds nice touches throughout, playing like a bopper and not insulting his instrument with the carnival-like slurs and barks that so many associate with the instrument. Hagedorn and Fresina write individually, but the band has hit upon a style that takes each writer‘s compositions in and churns them out as a unified whole of tight arrangements that are supplanted with plenty of time grooves. From the look of the back cover, these guys are young in years, but there is no doubt that they know exactly what their doing. With this in mind, it will be interesting to see where their whimsy, and a broader audience, might take them.Darkk Bros. - VoidWareIllinois EntertainerAugust 1997Reviewer – Todd Avery ShankerOn their audacious debut, Darkk Bros. boldly display their boundary-blasting jazz-based mystery music. This four-piece juxtaposes thick, resonant, and at times funky upright bass, edgy, entrancing electric guitar, and lissome yet dynamic drumming with a hearty expressive trombone. While not as easy to pin down as Medeski Martin and Wood, this inexorably inventive disc is loosely comparable to MMW‘s exciting musical environments. The pieces are diverse and original. At times, Darkk Bros. recall the provocative tuba-band Plunge with their improvised jazz-groovery (DMJ III), and at other times primo King Crimson, if only in the way they create and then detonate their hair-raising instrumental architecture (check Mr. Asshole and Big Daddy). Yet, they can also ooze chicken-scratch funk, as on Princess in a Pathfinder and especially Greasy Fingers, a slow saucy RB soul-shot. Freak Show will not only rock your world but flip it upside down. This is one of the disks shining moments, as the Bros. explore energy jazz with furios intensity and imagination, drawing keenly from forebearers like Albert Ayler and Ornette Coleman. The Bros.‘s fresh menage of guitar and trombone consistently proves to be an adrenaline-rush. At times, the songs creep to the edge of chaos with eyewatering intensity, only to melt back into a churning rhythm or thematic head. This is the shit – that rare album that‘s intriguing, challenging, and thrilling.

Location Chicago, IL - USA

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