The Budos Band

The Budos Band, an American big band, characterize their music as "doom rock Afro-soul big band with a '70s touch." Their versatile style unites disparate realms spanning trippy psychedelia and Afro-funk alongside '70s hard rock and late-'60s soul. Onstage, their precisely choreographed performances deliver intensity, spontaneity, and humor while inviting audience involvement. The ensemble functions as a 21st-century jam band, allowing improvisation within hypnotic, intricate pieces whose arrangements remain polished, concise, and groove-oriented. Early on, members concentrated on fusing personal favorites ranging from Mulatu Astatke's Ethio-jazz and Fela Kuti's Afrobeat to the funky instrumental soul of the Bar-Kays, Muscle Shoals, Tower of Power Horns, and J.B.'s. Between 2005 and 2010 their recorded output—Budos Band I, II, and III—mirrored those roots. With 2014's Burnt Offering the group changed direction, incorporating early-'70s psychedelia and Krautrock while introducing darker, hallucinatory textures. They toured extensively, refining material across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. On 2019's V, Budos Band merged their established danceable funk with metal-inflected psych rock. They marked 15 years with 2020's Long in the Tooth. Frontier's Edge, a six-track EP, surfaced on Diamond West Records in 2023.

The Budos Band formed during a jam session organized by Brooklyn's Afrobeat kings, Antibalas. Specializing in horn-driven world roots funk, the ensemble maintains a fluid roster featuring David Guy and Andrew Greene on trumpet, Cochemea Gastelum on tenor sax, Jared Tankel on baritone sax, percussionist Dame Rodriguez, Thomas Brenneck on guitar, Robert Lombardo on congas, Mike Deller on organ, Vincent Balestrino on tambourine and shekere, Daniel Foder on bass, and drummers Brian Profilio and John Carbonella, Jr. In 2005 the group issued the self-titled The Budos Band on Daptone Records and followed with The Budos Band II, also on Daptone, in 2007. Following a tour and an extended hiatus during which individuals contributed to other projects, the band reconvened for a third album, fittingly titled The Budos Band III, released in August of 2010.

The Budos Band also supported fellow artists' sessions, backing Charles Bradley on his 2013 cover of Black Sabbath's "Changes." In October 2014, the Budos Band resurfaced with Burnt Offering, an album that departed from prior directions by immersing itself in psychedelia, soundtrack textures, Afrobeat, and funk. A tour spanning four continents kept them traveling for over two years.

Following the deaths of Daptone family members Sharon Jones in late 2016 and Charles Bradley in 2018, the group entered a period of mourning, during which Brenneck and Tankel relocated to California. Previously, while all based in New York, Budos convened every Thursday night to compose. After the move, additional members became fathers. Circumstances required adjustments to their working methods. Brenneck and Tankel returned to New York to write and record at the band's new Diamond Mine studios in Long Island City in Queens, the first occasion they had composed and tracked an album in one place. Titled V, Brenneck carried the tapes to Los Angeles for mixing with Daptone's Gabe Roth, who had produced the first three Budos albums. Lead single "Old Engine Oil" appeared in February 2019 and became a club hit, followed in March by "Veil of Shadows." The full-length V arrived in mid-April.

The Budos Band observed their 15th anniversary via the late-2020 release Long in the Tooth. The album further connected the Farfisa-driven Ethio-funk and break-laden hip-hop grooves of their initial two records with the psychedelic Black Sabbath-inspired rock riffs of later work, while foregrounding their signature Afro-jazz horn section. In 2023 the band issued Frontier's Edge, their first project outside Daptone. The six-track genre-fluid collection appeared on their own Diamond West Records, operated by Brenneck and Tankel.