Advanced Tickets $25 here
$30 at the door
Album Release Show
The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble is a 9 piece, heavy, mostly instrumental funk band from San Diego, CA. Their influences are vast and include Hip Hop groups like Wu-Tang Clan and De La Soul, as well as funk and soul masters like Isaac Hayes, The Meters, and James Brown. Two of their LPs debuted in the top 15 on Billboardโs Contemporary Jazz Chart. SFSE is equally at home in the studio as they are on the stage, where their original songs transform and take on new life through live performance. They have shared the stage with Kamasi Washington, Quantic, Lee Fields, Monophonics, Jungle Fire, and most recently served as backing band for Hip Hop legend, Big Daddy Kane. They released a live album in 2023 on All-Town Sound. They released their 5th studio album, โGeminiโ, on March 28th thru Colemine Records. ...
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Advanced Tickets $25 here
$30 at the door
Album Release Show
The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble is a 9 piece, heavy, mostly instrumental funk band from San Diego, CA. Their influences are vast and include Hip Hop groups like Wu-Tang Clan and De La Soul, as well as funk and soul masters like Isaac Hayes, The Meters, and James Brown. Two of their LPs debuted in the top 15 on Billboardโs Contemporary Jazz Chart. SFSE is equally at home in the studio as they are on the stage, where their original songs transform and take on new life through live performance. They have shared the stage with Kamasi Washington, Quantic, Lee Fields, Monophonics, Jungle Fire, and most recently served as backing band for Hip Hop legend, Big Daddy Kane. They released a live album in 2023 on All-Town Sound. They released their 5th studio album, โGeminiโ, on March 28th thru Colemine Records.
In Latin, the word Gemini denotes โtwo togetherโ or โtwinsโ. In astrological terms, Geminis are noted for, amongst other things, being curious and versatile. For San Diegoโs 9-piece (mostly) instrumental combo The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble, Jazz and Funk have always been the two genres that theyโve consistently and effectively melded together, forming the bedrock of their sound. Exercising their stylistic curiosity and versatility, theyโve expanded upon this foundation on their new 11-song long player for Colemine Records.
Recorded between late 2021 and early 2024 at The Kitchen II in their homebase of Lemon Grove, California, SFSE steer their โintrospective party musicโ into fresh sonic realms. While their breakbeat-heavy brand of funk-soul-jazz is still the cornerstone of their sound, as displayed in tunes such as โMakinโ Movesโ, โThe Grifterโ & โDonโt Tripโ, theyโve begun to take more and more cues from library music labels such as KPM Music, spiritually-leaning jazz labels such as Tribe & Black Jazz Records and exotica-adjacent jazz artists such as Cal Tjader and Dorothy Ashby. Now leaning more into the โintrospectiveโ part of their sound, particularly on โMother Earthโ, โFreddieโ and the title track, they evoke the spirits of Freddie Hubbard, Phil Ranelin, Wendell Harrison, Bubbha Thomas, Chester Thompson and even Cannonball Adderley at his headiest & most cosmic (listen to Adderleyโs โSoul Zodiacโ & โSoul of The Bibleโ albums for reference). โCorporatocracyโ takes it a step further with an extended tabla solo, which floats in and rides the percussive wave before kicking into its funk-driven, modal vibe.
With their current lineup of Tim Felten on keys, Jake Najor on drums, Omar Lopez on bass, Kiko Cornejo Jr on conga/percussion, Aquiles โLitoโ Magana on guitar, Wili Fleming on trombone, Sheryll Felten on percussion, and both Jesse Audelo & Travis Klein on saxophone & flute, SFSE maintains their commitment to keeping it funky, but dares to go where they havenโt gone before and, as a result, breaks exciting new ground in their overall sound.
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