B3 Bombers

A Tribute to the late Clyde Stubblefield

The B3 Bombers crank out a whole lotta funk and just as much fun. For the Bombers, Trudell has borrowed one of the Sabertooth’s saxists, Pat Mallinger, heard here on alto; added New York tenorist Doug Lawrence, guitarist Mike Standal and trombonist Joel Adams.

But it was the presence of drummer Clyde Stubblefield – famed for driving late ’60s James Brown classics like “Cold Sweat,” “Say It Loud,” and “Funky Drummer” – that made the real difference. With devastating fills and unexpected polyrhythms, Stubblefield ruthlessly exploited the beat he helped invent in his days with Brown, in the process marrying the Bombers to the roots of their chosen form with a directness unique among latter-day funk outfits.

With their darkened harmonies and Trudell’s baggy, low-slung bass lines, the Bombers occasionally nod to the jam-band scene – but they don’t cross the line into the flattened, affectless posturing that mars so much of its music. In general, they hew to the sharper, cleaner edge of more traditional funk, informed by the saxophonists’ strong jazz backgrounds, and Stubblefield’s incisive strokes lead the charge.

– excerpts from Critic’s Choice, Chicago Reader Author: Neil Tesser

The B3 Bombers were a various combination of: Dan Trudell, the late Clyde Stubblefield, Mike Standal, Pat Mallinger, Doug Lawrence, Joel Adams, Scott Burns, Dan Nicholson, John Wojiechowski and Tom Garling.