Jamaaladeen Tacuma / James Brandon Lewis - On Your Shoulders at VBI Theatre at Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center

“Jamaaladeen Tacuma: The Pioneer of Free Funk Bass"

— Bass Musician Magazine

“Jamaaladeen Tacuma is the hardest-grooving bass player I've ever worked with or heard.”

— Guitarist Marc Ribot

“Jamaaladeen Tacuma is the rare bass guitarist to have found a unique voice as a jazz musician. His style has been referred to as 'free funk', and that’s true as far as it goes: he plays with the hard groove of a funk player but is rarely confined to a single chord or a simple tonality. But, since his first major gig was with Ornette Coleman in the Prime Time band starting at 19, it is equally true that Tacuma is a searching creator of interesting melodies. He can play with ruminative daring or a nervous hunt for home.”...

read more

“Jamaaladeen Tacuma: The Pioneer of Free Funk Bass"

— Bass Musician Magazine

“Jamaaladeen Tacuma is the hardest-grooving bass player I've ever worked with or heard.”

— Guitarist Marc Ribot

“Jamaaladeen Tacuma is the rare bass guitarist to have found a unique voice as a jazz musician. His style has been referred to as 'free funk', and that’s true as far as it goes: he plays with the hard groove of a funk player but is rarely confined to a single chord or a simple tonality. But, since his first major gig was with Ornette Coleman in the Prime Time band starting at 19, it is equally true that Tacuma is a searching creator of interesting melodies. He can play with ruminative daring or a nervous hunt for home.”

— Will Layman, PopMatters

“James Brandon Lewis, a jazz saxophonist in his 30s, raw-toned but measured, doesn’t sound steeped in current jazz-academy values and isn’t really coming from a free-improvising perspective. There’s an independence about him, and on “Days of FreeMan” (Okeh), he makes it sound natural to play roaming, experimental funk, with only the electric bassist Jamaladeen Tacuma and the drummer Rudy Royston, and without much sonic enhancement. The record sounds a little reminiscent of what James Blood Ulmer and Ornette Coleman were doing in the late ’70s and early ’80s — on records that included Mr. Tacuma — but it’s not clearly evoking a particular past. Maybe it’s an improvised take on early ’90s hip-hop, as Mr. Lewis has suggested, but it sounds less clinical than that. It sounds like three melodic improvisers going for it.”

— Nate Chinen, New York Times

“The mutual respect James and Jamaaladeen have for each other is evident in every note they play together.”

— Gail Boyd

“The sweetest, unexpected, soul-satisfying experience of my 2024 NYC jazz immersion. James and Jamaaladeen touched deep.”

— John Gilbreath, Earshot Jazz

Elysium Furnace Works is proud to present a formidable, acclaimed new project featuring two renowned musicians: bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma and saxophonist James Brandon Lewis, performing as “On Your Shoulders”.

This historic collaboration between the legendary harmolodic bass pioneer from Ornette Coleman's innovative electric ensemble Prime Time Tacuma with the DownBeat Magazine Rising Star on tenor saxophone Lewis is a multi-generational celebration honoring past trailblazers and offering, in Mr. Tacuma's words, "a special thank you to all the mentors and elders in music sharing their knowledge and creativity with the next generation.”

The duo will be joined towards the end of the concert by percussionist Dave Berger.

show less