With the release of Grab Bag: 2007-2023, The Greyboy Allstars, once again, redraw the boundaries and redefine the terms of their iconic brand of West Coast boogaloo. The title of this eighth LP from GBA could suggest a random assortment of miscellaneous tracks, yet rest assured there is nothing random, nothing miscellaneous about these nine stellar cuts, previously unreleased over the past decade and a half of the quintet’s illustrious 30-year history. Perhaps stylistic and sonic outcasts resulting in their exclusion from previous albums, here they seamlessly come together to highlight the more experimental side of the quintet’s ever-evolving sound and vision.
Born in San Diego as the “Allstars” of DJ Greyboy’s underground label, the five musicians offered living, breathing interpretations of his rare groove, crate-digging discoveries. Flash forward thirty years later and GBA have grown into legitimate “Allstars” in modern music. Away from GBA, guitarist Elgin Park aka Michael Andrews is a notable composer of scores for film and television, ranging from Donnie Darko to Freaks & Geeks to his most recent work on the upcoming animated documentary Piece by Piece that tells the life story of singer and producer Pharrell Williams through LEGO pieces. Robert Walter, the group’s keyboardist, has been jumping between tours with Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, and Phish’s Mike Gordon, among others, while leading his own 20th Congress. Saxophonist Karl Denson divides time between his touring juggernaut Tiny Universe, as well as the jazz-based KD3 trio, while handling saxophone duties on tour with no less than The Rolling Stones. And then there’s the liquid cool of GBA’s rhythm section: bassist Chris Stillwell and drummer Aaron Redfield, a formidable, first call rhythm section on pop and hip-hop sessions, including credits on recordings by Sia, Elton John, CeeLo, and Charli XCX.
In December of 2023, when GBA’s recording sessions focused on new material ran out of time as various members were called back to their other “Allstar” jobs, they’d take advantage of the pause to dig into a generous back catalog of songs that hadn’t been previously issued. Many of the tunes were too experimental or didn’t quite fit within the context of the albums for which they were originally recorded, yet had still gone onto become staples of their live shows. The nine tracks sizzle in sequence, opening with “Slip the Grip,” a classic GBA party starter that used to ignite their live sets. There’s “Watch Out Gail,” another cast-iron cooker, and “Speed Freak,” that dazzles, as its title suggests, with pinpoint frenzy awash in the ensemble’s telepathic sense of the group mind. Next up is “Boxes,” sliding into Walter’s compositional jazz, and again pushing the five to outer territory.
The quintet saunters into the smooth for a middle three on the sunny daze of “San Diegogo,” the AOR leanings of “LLL,” and the vamping wanderlust of “Suadela,” an early standout from their most recent sessions in 2023, that downshifts into unexplored spaces new and provocative.
More still, there is a Michael Jackson cover, an instrumental take on “The Way You Make Me Feel,” that’s yet another live favorite. And the closing “Pixie Stick,” the second of the two gems pulled from their most recent recording endeavors, that with a Cheshire grin, slinks and bops its way to the finish line. All told, Grab Bag is this premier boogaloo dance band at its most elastic, eclectic, and experimental.
The Greyboy Allstars are arguably one of the most influential bands of their time to revive and reinvent the rare groove sounds its individual members first discovered on records from the ‘60s and ‘70s by artists like Grant Green, Richard “Groove” Holmes, Stanley Turrentine, Lou Donaldson, etc. What accounts for the band’s longevity and ability to keep re-imagining itself thirty years later?
Robert Walter: I think we have we have stayed together and relevant because of our shared love for certain American musical traditions: improvisation, rhythmic playfulness and the beauty of ensemble playing. Even as our sound has evolved we have continued to keep things naturalistic and let both our strengths and limitations work to differentiate ourselves from current trends. This band has always existed in its own unique universe.
Grab Bag: 2007-2023 collects previously unreleased recordings, many of which have long been staples of the band’s live sets, alongside covers, outtakes and all around rarities that never made previous GBA albums. Why release these recordings now when the band is already close to finishing a new studio record?
Elgin Park aka Michael Andrews: We were deep into our new record, but we had to pause because Robert had to leave for a tour with Roger Waters and Karl had limited time due to his obligation with The Rolling Stones. We knew we had these tunes in the vault that we loved and have always wanted to release and this seemed to be the perfect time. We also wound up including two tracks, “Suadella” and “Pixie Stick,” from our latest recording sessions, so it’s really representative up to the present.
RW: For the next record of new material we are attempting something more expansive and ambitious. Because of our busy schedules of other projects we’ve had limited time together so it made sense to go back in archive and put out some of our favorites from the past several years. A lot of these songs on Grab Bag are more experimental and representative of the edges of what we would normally do stylistically. I think it shows our range in a great way.
The title of GBA’s first album was West Coast Boogaloo and that phrase all these years later is still frequently used to define the band’s sound. As a founding member of GBA, does that description still resonate and what does West Coast Boogaloo mean to you?
EP: Boogaloo is a style of music that I initially thought of as funky, blues-based, soul music, à la Ivan “Boogaloo” Joe Jones. His guitar playing had an enormous impact on me initially during the early days of the band and he remains a primary Influence. We are from the west coast and we love this syncopated, agile style of funk, so we called our debut record, West Coast Boogaloo, and ever since, it’s stuck.
RW: West Coast Boogaloo was our way of separating ourselves from existing labels. The music is funky, but we aren’t exactly a funk band in the traditional sense. There is more influence from the 1960s and the beginnings of combining jazz with soul music. Using the word boogaloo I think also implies a little less cerebral approach to improvisation. This is supposed to be music that is fun to listen and dance to while still having some interesting harmonies and rhythms.
The material on Grab Bag is often disparate and actually outside of the tried and true GBA sound and yet it works as a whole. Was that a surprise? Will that inspire the band to be more experimental on future recordings?
EP: We are always trying to move outside of the basic parameters of the initial soul jazz construct that we based the group on, however we know those basic ingredients will be the staples and what we pepper in there will break through the boundaries, however subtle. Be it synths, or slowing down, relaxing the grooves, leaning into what we initially thought was silly, like “acid jazz.” Oppose genres, mix folk and funk or ‘60s boogaloo and new wave. Acknowledge that we are in the modern world and have access to everything that has come before us. The point is to have fun creating music that makes us laugh and dance.
RW: We have always had widely diverse influences. It’s cool to hear how these have taken shape over the years. I think most of all we have grown into ourselves rather than just emulating our heroes.
With so many of your heroes either having passed or slowed down considerably in their careers, including artists who’ve directly collaborated with GBA like Melvin Sparks, Fred Wesley and Gary Bartz, does the band feel like the proverbial torch has been passed to carry on a sound and aesthetic?
EP: When we met those guys, they were icons already, strangely the age we are now. We looked at them as mentors, however brief our time together was. We absorbed their experiences, not just the music. They let us know that we could do this. We were lucky because Greyboy and Karl had the foresight to contact them and hire them to record on our albums and join us on tour. We got our lessons from the best. These folks invented this music we were shedding with them. Now we are the same age, 30 years later, and they are still inspiring and many of them still playing. Hopefully we are letting younger folks know they can carry the music forward, mine it, change it.
RW: We have been lucky to learn about this music from first hand interactions with the older generation. In the past this was how music was passed down. I think it’s more valuable to spend time with older musicians rather than just learn from their recordings, so in a way the torch was passed. But I always tell people who like our band to go back and listen to the masters.
When GBA first formed, you were the Allstars of DJ Greyboy’s small, underground label. 30 years later you’re all legitimate Allstars with its individual members having played stadiums, scored major films, recorded on contemporary pop hits, while collectively having paved a path forward for a new generation of bands. How does that feel when you stop to look back on the last 30 years and how does it inform GBA’s direction forward over the next 30 years?
EP: For me, the band inadvertently determined the diversity that has become my career. After Zero Effect, the first film score we did as a band, I found myself in the world of film and television where I spend most of my time and energy. I continue to collaborate with the band members during the process of making music for movies. Robert played keys on recent music I made for Piece by Piece, the new Pharrell Williams doc which happens to also be a Lego movie. He is often in the studio with me as I navigate making music for films and television. Simultaneously we will jump into the tunes GBA are working on or we will open up the archive for fun and mess with older tunes. Everything we have done has everything to do with who we will be in the future. We are part of each other’s future. Every record, every collab, every movie, defines who we are. When we return to the five of us, it’s the same and different and we move forward as always cranking on tunes and having a good time.
RW: Yes I feel like we now have earned our name. In the beginning it was more of an ironic way to explain our extended catalog of music. We were the Allstars of this small label, but now we really have gone on to do so many things as individuals, as group and also in smaller collaborations between the various members. Everyone plays on each other’s solo projects and it really feels like a big extended family of great musicians. I continue to be thankful and proud to be part of it.
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