Honking away

The Heavy Metal Horns get brassy

by John Sinclair

New Orleans is the birthplace of funk. It comes from the drum, which may be why the legendary drummer Earl Palmer was the first to popularize the term back in the early 1950s, when he was functioning as a key member of the house band at J&M Studios, backing up soulful recording artists like Professor Longhair, Fats Domino, Lloyd Price, Smiley Lewis, and Little Richard. Generalissimo George Clinton has confessed that his first experience of the funk was by way of Lee Dorsey's great mid-'60s Amy Records single, "Get Out of My Life, Woman," an Allen Toussaint production backed by the nasty instrumental quartet that would become world famous as the funky Meters.

Today, the second-line New Orleans sound of the Meters -- as it was propelled by drummer Joseph "Zigaboo" Modeliste -- has inspired a new wave of entrants in the funk sweepstakes, mostly young men of the Caucasian persuasion determined to plumb the depths of a musical idiom that they -- unlike their chosen mentors -- have had to learn from records. A New Orleans group called Galactic recently bragged in print that they measured their funk authenticity by the 34 Meters tunes they had studied and learned by rote.

Now comes a horn-driven funk band from Boston, the Heavy Metal Horns, who have perfected their mighty groove through the medium of near-nightly performance. Long road trips from New York to Denver to California, back through New Orleans (opening for Dr. John at Tipitina's during JazzFest!) to Florida, and returning home via gigs all along the Eastern seaboard, have massaged away any residual stiffness and endowed the Horns' sound with a silky sheen that'll be on display when they headline the Somerville Theatre this Saturday.

Although the band's tongue-in-cheek moniker probably helps land them gigs they wouldn't otherwise get, the only thing that rings of "heavy metal" is the members' apparent youthful immersion in rock and pop music of the '70s and '80s. Their music owes much more to the Average White Band than to Led Zeppelin or the MC-5, however, and their attractive repertoire ranges from soul and funk to jazz and blues. "We feel that we're creating our own place in the music scene," saxophonist Henley Douglas affirms. "People don't know how to categorize what we do, and we like that."

Dakini (Danger), the latest CD from the Horns, is a proper document of the band's remarkable growth and a testament to their many strengths, among the first of which is a varied but congruent body of original compositions by the members of the ensemble. "The Horns are always working, writing and recording," Douglas points out when I catch up with him at a New Orleans gig. "The album shows how different everybody is in their writing -- and how many different grooves there are to our shows."

The group's veteran hornmen are shown off in several convincing settings, from hard-grooving selections like "Head Trip," "Surprise Candidate," and "T.N.T. (The Night Tripper)" to the smooth urban contempo sounds of "Caddy" and "Our Way" to modern funk anthems like "In It," "Wrap Around Me," "Joe Mama," and "Sharky" -- this last coupled with a high-spirited romp through "Donna Lee," the difficult Miles Davis composition from 1947. "Albatross" has a lot of bebop in it too, and the closing number, a medley of the themes from Peter Gunn and James Bond, reveals another of the band's many roots in American popular music.

Just as on stage, the Horns' tasty trumpet solos are taken by Garret Savluk, the supple trombone statements contributed by Hikaru Tsukamoto, and the heavy-duty saxophonics provided by Henley Douglas (tenor and bari) and John Vanderpool (alto and tenor). Vocalist Craig Rawdings is showcased on the composition "Wrong or Right," and he sums up the Horns' worldview in the persuasive "Go with the Flow" (which is featured in the soundtrack to the film Code of Ethics, a recent Sundance Festival entry). The ensemble and solo playing are top-notch throughout, with special kudos to guitarist Felix Rentschler and saxophonists Douglas and Vanderpool. Drummer John Perkins is crisp and swings hard. Everything is in good working order, and there's plenty of grease in the skillet.

The Horns enjoyed a turn-away crowd for their record-release party at Johnny D's back in February; now they'll have their first all-ages theater show at the Somerville Theatre. "We'll be coming off our spring tour before the show," Douglas crows, "and the band'll be ferocious! It always is after a tour."

The Heavy Metal Horns play the Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square, Somerville, this Saturday, May 10. Tickets are $10 in advance at the box office, $12 day of show, or available via TicketMaster at 931-2000.