Menahan Street Band

One of the standout ensembles in today’s retro-soul landscape, the Menahan Street Band draws from a broader palette than most contemporaries, pulling equally from vintage jazz, global traditions, and classic film scores alongside the vintage R&B sides favored by crate-diggers. Producer and guitarist Thomas Brenneck established the instrumental outfit, which retains a soulful character regardless of genre boundaries and has issued several distinctive albums while serving as backing musicians for others, most prominently Charles Bradley. Their 2008 debut, Make the Road by Walking, delivered expansive atmospheric grooves that supplied source material for Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, Kid Cudi, and 50 Cent, whereas The Exciting Sounds of the Menahan Street Band arrived in 2021 brimming with renewed creativity following an almost decade-long hiatus. In 2024 the band teamed with Brazilian singer/songwriter Rogê for the collaborative Tropical Man EP.

Thomas Brenneck originally assembled the Menahan Street Band as a studio unit to function as house band for Dunham Records, the soul-focused imprint he launched under the Daptone Records umbrella. He recruited players from various Daptone-affiliated projects: Dave Guy on trumpet, Bosco Mann on bass, Fernando Velez on percussion, Homer Steinweiss on drums from Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Aaron Johnson on trombone, Nick Movshon on bass from Antibalas, Mike Deller on organ and Daniel Fodder on bass from the Budos Band, Leon Michels on multiple instruments, and Toby Pazner on keyboards from El Michels Affair. The group’s inaugural release was the single “Make the Road by Walking” b/w “Karina,” recorded by Brenneck in a makeshift bedroom studio inside his Brooklyn apartment.

Shortly after the single’s appearance, Brenneck met Charles Bradley, a veteran soul performer who performed as a James Brown tribute artist whenever opportunities for original material proved scarce. Impressed by Bradley’s abilities, Brenneck enlisted the MSB to support a Dunham single, “The World (Is Going Up in Flames)” b/w “Heartaches & Pain,” issued in 2007. Jay-Z’s 2007 sampling of “Make the Road by Walking” for “Roc Boys (And the Winner Is) …” from American Gangster heightened the band’s profile, prompting them to record the full-length Make the Road by Walking, which in turn attracted further sampling interest from major hip-hop artists. The resulting record sales and licensing revenue allowed Brenneck to relocate his studio from the bedroom to a Queens loft. As Bradley’s profile gradually rose, the Menahan Street Band remained his regular accompanists, contributing to the 2011 album No Time for Dreaming. The group also found space for a second album of its own, 2012’s The Crossing, yet commitments to Bradley on Victim of Love (2013), Changes (2016), and Black Velvet (2018), along with members’ obligations to their primary bands, postponed any further MSB album for years. Their patience was finally rewarded in 2021 with the third LP, The Exciting Sounds of the Menahan Street Band, which once more highlighted the ensemble’s expansive influences and instrumental command. The 2024 Tropical Man EP with Rogê marked the band’s first outing on Diamond West, the label Brenneck founded with former colleague and current artist’s attorney Jared Tankel.