Cookin' On 3 Burners

Emerging from Melbourne, Australia, the R&B outfit Cookin’ on 3 Burners weaves jazz and street soul textures into its sound and commands considerable respect in the scene. Hammond organist Jake Mason, guitarist Lance Ferguson, and drummer Ivan Khatchoyan first assembled the lineup in 1997 after recognizing a shared affinity for particular sonic palettes. Anchored in the classic jazz and soul idioms of the 1950s and 1960s, the trio placed the Hammond organ at the forefront, an instrument whose versatile prominence quickly defined the group’s identity and earned it the shorthand label “Hammond organ trio.” Their debut 7-inch, “Gravel Rash/Pie Warmer,” appeared on the Bamboo Shack imprint before the U.K. label Freestyle added the band to its roster and issued the full-length Baked, Broiled & Fried in 2007. Extensive touring followed alongside Alice Russell, Quantic, Fat Freddy’s Drop, and Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. When Ferguson departed to concentrate on his own funk ensemble the Bamboos, guitarist Dan West stepped in. The resulting sophomore album, Soul Messin’, arrived in 2009 and earned widespread notice, especially for its funk-driven reinterpretation of Gary Numan’s “Cars”; its lead single, “This Girl,” topped the U.K. iTunes R&B Chart. Blind Bet, the third studio set, surfaced in 2014 and drew further praise for its inventive string and horn charts as well as guest appearances by Daniel Merriweather, the Bamboos’ vocalist Kylie Auldist, and Tex Perkins of the Cruel Sea. A second collaboration with Perkins yielded the 2015 single “The Writing’s on the Wall,” which merged the trio’s established soul-and-jazz approach with Perkins’ signature swampy blues-rock edge. Around the same period the band began recording with Australian hip-hop artist Mantra, a partnership that introduced hip-hop rhythms and funk-electro textures. Further afield, French electronic producer Kungs enlisted the group for a 2016 reworking of “This Girl” that again registered strongly on the charts.