Artist description Bruce Mack is a composer/keyboardist/vocalist/percussionist and native New Yorker now living in New Jersey. He has led several bands - PBR Streetgang, Rebels Be Phuncky, The Bruce Mack Experience and most recently Tricky Dilemma. Mr. Mack is also keyboard-synthesist and member of the critically acclaimed band Burnt Sugar (The Arkestra Chamber) and is featured on the bands 5 recordings to date- 'Blood On The Leaf', 'The Sirens Return', 'The Crepescularium', 'Fubractive' and most recently 'The Rites' which is based on Stravinsky's 'Rites of Spring' and also features Conductor-Butch Morris, (THE)Pete Cosey and Melvin Gibbs. "My musical range includes Blues, Vocal-Jazz, and African Percussion. The groups I've led and been a part of bands who have been featured on recordings produced by the Black Rock Coalition (BRC) and as a solo artist on the Zahmbee-Karlt label in Detroit/Germany. I have co-produced 2-full length recordings for the BRC titled 'Blacker Than That' and 'The Bronze Buckaroo Rides Again'. Other production credits include the Hip-Hop group Vision Quest, music for on-air ads for Thirteen (WNEW) and MTV. Although I am a fan of Popular and so many other genres, my approach to creating music is often experimental in an effort to come up with something new. The picture on this page is of me playing the Udu drum. Since 1997, percussion has become a major part of my playing and creating. I started to play drums after putting it off for so many years and needing to understand my own roots more clearly. The drum is helping me define myself as a musician and with allowing me to put my emotions in my music more than I have in the past". The rest of my time is spent teaching music to kids of all ages in public schools, afterschool workshops and youth service agencies.

Music Style Funk-Rock-R&B-Experimental/Electronic-Improvisations

Musical Influences Isley Bros./Sly Stone/George Duke/Michael Franks/Bernie Worrell/Roy Ayers

Similar Artists A combination of BT Express, Mothers of Convention & Brian Eno

Artist History The history of the band I originally gained notariety for and whose music is mostly featured 'Experience- vol.1' begins in 1985 with the production team (writers/producers/label owners) Ken Edmonds and Bruce Mack and their establishment of a now-defunckt indie label called ATTIC SOUNDS. Tired of the lack of creativity on radio and the record industry's unwillingness to embrace and expose new genres and styles of music being created by new black artists, Ken and Bruce decided to do it themselves. During the process of setting up the label, Ken and I hung out at clubs in lower Manhattan such a s '55 Grand, which had a great sound system and you could see some fome of the most progressive musicians in New York. One in particualar was a guitarist named Vernon Reid who had gained notoriety playing in Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society... After Frequenting the 'downtown music scene' we became acquainted with Vernon. So, one afternoon in the fall of '85, while returning from DiskMakers (pick-up test pressings of Chemical Pollution), in the West 4th Street train station, we ran into Vernon and some friends who happen to include Michael 'Doc' Greene... Vernon (generally speaking) asked what we were doing. We told him of the label we had just formed and he invited Ken and I to a meeting the following Saturday. This meeting happened to be the first official meeting of the Black Rock Coalition or the BRC as its known to many. Excited about the idea, we joined immediately after the first meeting! It turns out that PBR StreetGang was the first band to officially associated with the organization. None of that would have meant anything without Vernon's constant and generous encouragement. Which I'll always be greatful for. With the BRC we made additional contacts that helped us promote and sell our record and as a result we started recieving requests to perform live. Although we were not ready... The original version of 'Chemical Pollution b/w 'You Got Me' did well on college radio. But we always had a lot of fun changing the rhythym of it for every show. PBR' gained some popularity, toured nationally and recieved excellent press (DownBeat, Underground, the Boston Globe, The Paper, Village Voice and others). International press includes New Musical Express - Ian Cranna. The band had only one excursion out of the country in 1991, when we went to Bari, Italy to be part of The Black Music Festival that featured the Black Rock Coalition Orchestras and many of the original BRC member bands, such as D-XTREME, J.J. Jumpers, Michael Hill's Bluesland, and others...GANGSTARR played this festival also! The 'Streetgang was said by a few to be the next Black Rock band to follow the success of Living Colour. Hey, it is what it is...and people say a lot of things. And that requires a lot of things to be in synque...but it was nice to hear folks thought of us that way. Anyway, in 1991 we released a live recording independantly, titled 'Live And In The Rough' (at Chestnut Cabaret-Phila. PA, Aug. 25th, '90/cassette only), sold it in Tower Records where it did well. But, we never released a full length studio record. In 1992, the band went through a transition because several members were working out of town quite a bit and we lost consistencu with our sound. With that feeling of something lost, I felt the bands previous monikers had passed their time. Especially since several members were in demand elsewhere and I didn't want to try and replicate the sound we created because it was based on our chemistry and would never be the same . So, I started creating some new music that involved a new band, as well as creating some minamilist/hip hop type stuff. Those sampled ideas will be featured in a later release. I still find it necessarry to inform the public about the ills of society. The band (regardless of influence) always had its own personal 'edge' and would often express that by featuring the guitarist or keyboardist providing a combination of color and chaos. The guitarists have been: Ken Edmonds, Michael 'Doc' Greene, Anthony M. Peterson, Dave Fuzynski, Martin Ayodele Aubert and Marvin Sewell. All (particularly Doc Greene and A.Peterson) have made contributions to the writing and arranging that defined and redefined (respectfully) the direction of PBR Streetgang. Other players/members and guests of PBR' and Rebels are: Drummers- Jerome Smith, Marque Gilmore, Bill McClellan, Damon Mendez Bass- Paul Frauley, Mark White (Spin Doctors), Mark Peterson, Pete Cummings, Brian Hardgroove, and Me'shell IndegeoCello Keyboards- EJ Sharpe Hollinsed Vocals- Lynell 'Spice' Canagatta, Rhonda Brown, Jhana, Daisy Shumake, Valerie 'Amafujo' Inniss (who's voice you hear on all these PBR' recordings except on 'Want Me', the vocalist there is Nadu). Horns- Jorge Sylvester, Atiba Wilson, Emmett McDonald Before formed the 'Streetgang I was a member of Atiba Wilson's group-The Dolphin Street Band. PBR Streetgang was also featured on the BRC' compilation (The History of Our Future/RYKO)performing 'Didn't Live Long' which features Amafujo as lead vocalist. This unit changed towards the end of 1991 but the name remained until '93, when it became 'Rebels Be Phunky'. This unit featured Marvin Sewell, D.Mendez, P.Cummings, Amafujo and EJ Sharpe. Both were amazing bands! But the band wasn't making money consistently so, the band was forced to go on hiatus. In 1996, I was featured as a solo artists with the PBR line-up, on a compilation called Pop Cycle: Detroit Underground on Zahmbee Karlt/GmbH, performing '6:30'. It features the Peterson brothers, Amafujo and Bill McClellan. '6:30' received very good press along with the compilation (produced by Detroit guitarist and producer-Jake Smith). It is also featured on my first DAM CD titled 'Full Length, First Time'- the 1st of a series that will feature live and studio variations of songs and their evolution. You'll see when you check out this late version of Chemical Pollution ... From 1995 until August, 2001 I was also managing and producing for an indie label-Fuzion Entertainment which features the hip-hop band Vision Quest. In that time i ahv also served as a teaching artist with various Arts-In-Education programs throughout the New York City area.u

Group Members Bruce Mack, Marvin Sewell, Pete Cummings, E.J. Sharp, Damon Mendez, Bill McClellan, Valerie 'Amafujo' Innis, Mark Peterson, Anthony Peterson, Marque Gilmore, Michael 'Doc' Greene, Mark White.

Instruments Bass, electric keyboards, guitar, drums, sax

Albums PBR StreetGang is featured on 'The History Of Our Future' (RYKO) and on Detroit Underground/Series 2 (ZAHMBEE/KARLT), Zahmbee@aol.com. Bruce co-produced with BRC member Jimmy Saal 'Blacker Than That'-the BRC's 2nd compilation.

Press Reviews The bands have had reviews in such publications as Guitar World, DownBeat, New Musical Express, Underground, The Boston Globe, CMJ, and GiantStep.

Location West Orange, New Jersey - USA

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