StopSmiling

• Reuben Wilson
• The Blue Note Years
• 11.14.2008

ReBar, Brooklyn

One day after STOP SMILING descended on the nation's capital for the DC Issue release party, Hammond organ aficionado Reuben Wilson sat down at ReBar in Brooklyn to play a set with some of his new friends. Wilson, whose forty-year-long original songbook has graced vinyl released by the likes of Blue Note and Groove Merchant, paired up with a cadre of contemporary players to present the crowd with something old, something new, something funky, and something blue.

Accompanying Wilson were saxaphonist Cochemea Gastelum (Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings; Robert Walter), guitarist Al Street (Sugarman 3; Dr. Lonnie Smith), percussionist Yoshi Takemasa (Akoya, Antibalas), and drummer Eric Kalb (Dr. Lonnie Smith; Melvin Sparks; the Dap-Kings).

The group fingered through a variety of Wilson's firey soul, jazz and funk oeuvre, meshing styles at once both timeless and cross-generational. DJs Tommy "TNT" Brenneck and DJ Honeydripper capped off the set with funky soul seven-inches spinning late into the unseasonably warm Brooklyn night.

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Thanks to Kristofer Rios and Deep in the Pocket for bringing Reuben Wilson and everyone else together, and for putting on the show. 

photography by: Matt Rogers and Kristofer Rios