[New post] June 1 Vallejo/Vacaville Arts and Entertainment Source: Funk, soul stars, old and new, top 2023 Dock of Bay fest on Mare Island
gqlshare posted: "For die-hard funk and soul fans, your Bay Area show of shows will arrive in festival form in September — if you're ready to add some dips in your hips and put some pep in your step along the Vallejo shoreline.By all accounts — but especially conside" Times-Herald
For die-hard funk and soul fans, your Bay Area show of shows will arrive in festival form in September — if you're ready to add some dips in your hips and put some pep in your step along the Vallejo shoreline.
By all accounts — but especially considering the roster of performers — the Mare Island Dock of Bay Festival promises to be a showcase of leading artists, old-school veterans and a new generation. Their careers have been defined by, respectively, a highly danceable mix of funk, soul, psychedelic rock and R&B, and songs exemplified by the appealingly rhythmic and uptempo sound captured in Arthur Conley's 1967 hit "Sweet Soul Music" and the seminal artists he mentioned in the song: James Brown, "The king of them all, y'all," he sang, and Wilson Pickett, "That wicked Mr. Pickett."
Organized by Mare Island Company and Frazier Trager presents, Day 1, Sept. 9, is billed as the Old School Funk Fest and features Morris Day and the Time, Con Funk Shun, Average White Band, and Cold Blood. Day 2, Sept.10, is billed as the Spectacular Soul Fest and features The California Honeydrops, Fantastic Negrito, Monophonics, and The Altons.
IN BRIEF, IF YOU GO:
Doors open at 12:30 p.m. and the fun lasts until 9 p.m. both days on Mare Island, the longtime deactivated naval base, 850 Nimitz Ave., Vallejo. Daily tickets range from $95 general admission to $150 VIP to $250 Premium VIP. Two-day tickets are available. For more information and tickets, visit dockofbayfest.com or ftpresents.com.
Of course, the tiered ticket pricing beyond general admission includes several perks. They include VIP parking, bypassing general-admission lines, a VIP lounge with full-service cocktails, microbrews and wine-tasting, private restrooms, front-row seating, chef-prepared food, and 25% discounts on festival merchandise.
From San Francisco, to avoid weekend traffic, there will be round-trip, high-speed ferry service from the Embarcadero in The City to Mare Island — $36.50 for adults, $27 for youths (5 to 17) and seniors (65 and older). Kids under 5 ride free. For more information, visit sanfranciscobayferry.com.
SATURDAY'S LINEUP:
Morris Day and the Time, founded in Minneapolis in 1981, blends soul and dance music with funk, and rock 'n' roll. They helped to create the so-called "Minneapolis sound" in the 1980s and are also associated with Prince. Led by singer-songwriter Morris Day, 65, the band members achieved significant popularity over the decades with R&B fans, recording tracks such as "The Walk," "Get It Up," "The Bird," "Cool," "Jungle Love," and "Girl." Day announced in September 2022 that will retire after his 2023 tour.
Vallejo's own Con Funk Shun, whose popularity began in the 1970s, lays down a R&B and funk foundation influenced by James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone, the latter another high-energy, rocking funk band with Vallejo connections. Founded by high school classmates Louis A. McCall Sr. and Michael Cooper, Con Funk Shun has released 11 chart-topping albums, and numerous hit singles, from "Love's Train" and "Got to be Enough" to "Ffun" and "Baby, I'm Hooked."
A Scottish funk and R&B band, Average White Band, who compiled a series of soul and disco hits in the '70's and '80s, is best known for a million-selling instrumental track "Pick Up the Pieces", and their albums "AWB" and "Cut the Cake," which featured such tunes as "Work to Do," "A Love of Your Own," "Person to Person," "School Boy Crush," and many others. They rank among one the most sampled acts in history, sampled by the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, TLC, Too Short, Ice Cube, Eric B. & Rakim, Nas, and A Tribe Called Quest.
Cold Blood, featuring Lydia Pense, originally based in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, is a long-standing R&B horn funk band that now performs and records under the name Lydia Pense and Cold Blood, due to Pense's popularity as the lead singer. A San Francisco native, Pense, 75, has been compared to powerful belters such as Janis Joplin and Aretha Franklin.
SUNDAY'S LINEUP:
An R&B soul band, The California Honeydrops formed in November 2007, playing in the subway stations of Oakland. They have since become a Northern California favorite, crossing genres from roots and blues to R&B and soul. Led by frontman Lech Wierzynski, their sound is linked by their instrumentation, vocal harmonies, funky New Orleans rhythms on tunes such as "When It Was Wrong," "Don't Let the Green Grass Fool You," "All Day, All Night," and "In My Baby's Arms," often sweetly sung with an air of innocence.
Multiple Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Fantastic Negrito, 55, delivers music that spans blues, R&B, and American roots music. His 2016 album, "The Last Days of Oakland," won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album. In 2019, his album "Please Don't Be Dead" earned a second Grammy in the same category. His 2020 album, "Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?" notched a third consecutive Grammy also in the same category. A Great Barrington, Massachusetts, native-born Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz, Fantastic Negrito released another album last year, "White Jesus Black Problems," which is being showered with more favorable reviews. On his song list are "An Honest Man," "Plastic Hamburgers," "Chocolate Samurai," and "Night Has Turned To Day."
Based in San Francisco, The Monophonics are a psychedelic soul band that has released popular singles that include "Bang Bang," "Goliath," "Promises," and "Warpaint." With a classic sound that mixes heavy soul and psych-rock, they have built a reputation over the past decade as one of the best live bands in the country. Led by singer Kelly Finnigan, the band draws on their experience as veteran touring performers and as individuals growing up in the Bay Area. The band's most recent release is "Sage Motel," the ensemble's fifth studio album since 2012.
The Altons are a soul-rock group infused with Latin-inspired flavors and rhythms, driven by danceable grooves and soulful leads. Their albums include "In the Meantime," "Los Altons," and "The Altons." Among their singles are "When You Go," "Tangled Up in You," and "Soon Enough."
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