Down To The Bone – The Main Ingredients 2011

01 - Uptown Hustle
02 - A Change Has Got To Come
03 - Second Nature (feat Imaani)
04 - Music Is The Key
05 - Watch Me Fly (feat Imaani)	play
06 - Together We Stand
07 - A Universal Vibe
08 - South Side Overdrive		play
09 - Closer (feat Imaani)
10 - Cut And Run
 		
Personnel:
Julian Crampton - bass
Davide Giovannini - drums
Neil Angilley - keys
Alex Bennett - keys
Oli Silk - keys
Joe Becket - Percussion
Imaani Saleem - vocals
Mark Jaimes - guitar
Ian Crabtree – guitar

One of the UK's best jazz-funk groove bands, and one of the country's most successful jazz exports (their album "Manhattan To Staten" reached No 2 on the Billboard US Jazz Albums chart). Led by Stuart Wade, long-time producer/writer behind the band, the line-up includes vocalist Imaani, formerly of Incognito.

The new album - their ninth - is their strongest for several years, opening with a seven-minute masterpiece "Uptown Hustle". Other highlights include "Together We Stand" and "Watch Me Fly", featuring the glorious vocals of Imaani. Julian Crampton, also a former Incognito band member, keeps things moving nicely on bass. --- CD Description. Amazon.com

Sadly too many great British musicians and bands (across all kinds of genres) are more revered in the States than they are at home. The wonderful Down to The Bone are a case in point. Stuart Wade and his cohorts have been making their infectious brand of groove-heavy soulful jazz-funk since the mid nineties yet here in the UK their charms are known only to a small, committed number of fans. In the States, though, it's a different matter. There, they're followed by a huge numbers of devotees and back in 1999 they were the country's best selling independent jazz artists while their sound-defining 'From Manhattan To Staten' went to number 2 on the Billboard Jazz Charts.

'The Main Ingredients' is the DTB's ninth studio album and I'm confident that this will be the one to enlarge their UK fan base. My confidence stems from the fact that the LP contains two stunning vocal tracks. The band don't often "do vocals" ( I can think of their Hil St Soul collaboration, 'It Should've Been You') but here they've come up with two corkers – 'Watch Me Fly' and 'Closer', both featuring Imaani. The former, which has a lovely Latin feel to it, boasts a strong melody line which perfectly suits the singer's passionate style; the latter is more of a structured groove than a "proper" song, but it's done gorgeously and should please the more adventurous modern soul crew... and that's my point. Many of the UK modern soul crowd are notoriously "conservative" and seem to have some kind of in-built resistance to instrumentals. Here the Imaani vocals should help them get into the rest of the album, and appreciate Down To The Bone if full flow. Then, they'll discover the lucid, sharp clarity of 'Uptown Hustle' – a typical DTB groove; then there are the looser, jazzier sounds of 'A Change Has Got To Come' and 'Second Nature'. 'Music Is The Key' is more laid-back and built around a catchy piano figure while 'A Universal Vibe' slows things down just a little and as the title implies the tune offers some delicious, almost hidden vibraphone. But then again, each track - though true to the Down To The Bone signature sound - boasts a little intrigue... adding to the album's attractions.

Down To The Bone are playing live dates in the UK and across Europe through the summer and with radio support too, 'The Main Ingredients' might finally see Down to the Bone achieve what they deserve. --- soulandjazzandfunk.com

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