Soul Fusion
Richmond, Virginia
Photo: Joey Wharton
Meet Butcher Brown: five groove merchants delivering a heady home-brew of jams and jazz, rhymes and beats—a funky, musical mix that makes one question why great music needs to be labeled as this category or that. The hybrid moniker “jazz/hip-hop” only begins to cover it. Their balance of raw energy and smooth sophistication, edgy improvisation with a generous dose of Southern roots (South coast hip-hop to Southern rock) reveals how equal opportunity they are in employing a wide range of musical styles, and how authentically they’ve absorbed it all.
Collectively, one could say they are a jazz ensemble—in the instruments they play, and the way they feel the music as one, building a performance together, with grace and grit. Individually, they are: producer / keyboardist DJ Harrison; drummer Corey Fonville; bassist Andrew Randazzo; trumpeter / saxophonist / MC Marcus “Tennishu” Tenney; and guitarist Morgan Burrs.
Their eighth album—#KingButch—was recorded in late 2019 and is the culmination of twelve years of dedicated focus, and commitment. It stands out as a bold step forward for the group in establishing their own sound, a choate, confident production that features the best that each member has to offer—including rhymes for the first time, showcasing Tenney’s skills as a lyricist and MC. “There’s beats, there’s jazz tunes with solos and there’s tunes with rock vibes,” says Harrison. “Also, there’s road-tested material that we got together while touring, and studio-written material. It’s a big mixing pot of all the stuff we’ve done up to this point, which is cool because it shows who we are right now.”
For over 50 years, Richmond saxophonist and bandleader J. Plunky Branch has been at the vanguard of Afro-centric jazz, funk, house music, and go-go, weaving these interrelated musical forms into a forward-looking message of empowerment, positivity, and cultural awareness.
Plunky was born and raised in Richmond, where he was mentored as a teenager by local R&B musicians and music educators, including jazz violinist Joe Kennedy Jr. Acceptance to Columbia University found him leading a popular New York City soul band. “I took my Richmond R&B roots to New York, and I’ve since then brought back to Richmond what I’ve learned in New York, San Francisco, Europe, and West Africa,” he says.
At the same time, Plunky was discovering the avant-garde jazz sounds of Pharaoh Saunders and Archie Shepp, whose work displayed a burgeoning African consciousness. A move to San Francisco in 1969 led to his joining the band of exiled South African pianist and percussionist Ndikho Xaba. “Ndikho taught me that music could be more than entertainment. I learned that music could be a political force and that in African music the beauty is the function that it plays within society,” explains Plunky.
San Francisco is also where Plunky originally formed Juju in 1971. In 1973 the group moved to New York City, where Plunky lived and worked in a loft gallery space run by Ornette Coleman. In 1974, Plunky returned to Richmond, which marked a turning point in the group’s sound. “Audiences in Richmond weren’t as interested in avant-garde African jazz,” he laughs, so the group, now known as Oneness of Juju, combined its African roots with R&B and funk, adding trap drums and vocalist Lady Eka-Ete. Plunky also helped run Virginia’s first black art gallery in Church Hill.
In 1975 Oneness of Juju’s landmark African Rhythms record was released on the pioneering D.C.-based indie label Black Fire. Frequent shows with Chuck Brown meant that Plunky was present at the dawn of go-go music. The band found itself able to move with the times, scoring early ’80s house/disco hits and touring in both Europe and Africa. In recent years, Plunky, who is a two-time recipient of NEA Jazz fellowships, has recorded in an urban/contemporary vein.