New Mastersounds

The New Mastersounds formed in Leeds UK in 1999 and cut their teeth as the resident live band at a hip dance club, playing every Friday and Saturday night for nearly two years.

A rough 8-track recording of an early rehearsal got into the hands of some London DJs, and was released soon after on two limited-edition 7” singles. Invitations to play club gigs in London soon followed, and before long the band had established a reputation around UK and Europe as forerunners of the deep funk revival scene. Fast-forward to 2004: having experimented with various line-ups and recorded 2 albums, the original 4-piece band was invited to Chicago to open for the Greyboy All Stars at the House of Blues. This gig kicked off a prolific live career in USAwhich continues to the present day, backed up by more studio records, live albums, a remix album and 2 compilations. Their quirky, catchy instrumental ditties have been used on TV and film soundtracks, and the band is the subject of an award-winning feature-length documentary: “Coals to Newcastle: The New Mastersounds – from Leeds to New Orleans”.

Over the years they have collaborated or jammed with an impressive array of musicians DJs and producers, including: Lou Donaldson (Blue Note), Corinne Bailey Rae (EMI), Quantic (Tru Thoughts), Carleen Anderson (Young Disciples / Brand New Heavies), Keb Darge & Kenny Dope (Kay Dee Records), John Arnold (Ubiquity), Mr Scruff (Ninja Tune), Snowboy (Ubiquity), Fred Everything (2020vision), Andy Smith (Portishead), James Taylor (JTQ), LSK (Faithless), Lack of Afro (Freestyle), Page McConnell (Phish), Karl Denson (Lenny Kravitz / Greyboy AllStars), Melvin Sparks (Blue Note Records), George Porter Jr (The Meters), Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker (JB’s), and Art Neville (Neville Brothers, The Meters).