Sun Hop Fat
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Sun Hop Fat

Oakland, California, United States | SELF

Oakland, California, United States | SELF
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"Local Licks"

Sun Hop Fat, Sun Hop Fat

Modeled partly on acid jazz and partly on the Ethiopiques series that immortalized Ethiopian and Eritrean musicians of the Seventies, Sun Hop Fat provides a fairly improbable concept for a party band. The group's minor-key harmonies easily translate to funk. A thick drizzle of horns, woodwinds, and rhythm section instruments gives the illusion of chaos. (self-released)

- East Bay Express


"Localized Appresh"

Sun Hop Fat is a local 12-piece inspired by the ecstatic late 1960s Swinging Addis period of Ethio-pop, which itself was at least partially inspired by James Brown. The modern band lays out that inspiration groundwork in each track, building off the legacy and adding its own grooves, coming off like a jazzy Ethio-pop orchestra.

Fronted by vocalist-flautist Krystal Nzoiwu and Bay Area native Daniel Silberstein, Sun Hop Fats' silky flow, joyously booming brass, and funky rhythm section create naturally bopping underground jazz club atmospheres, and are said to inspire a live dance experience. One might assume a hindrance to on-stage movement given their sheer quantity, yet they do indeed incite the party promised.

The East Bay band brings that raucous party west this weekend for a headlining Slim's show alongside some psychedelic soul bands traveling up the coast from Santa Cruz.

Year and location of origin: 2008 in the Belly of the Vulcan Lofts, Fruitvale.

Band name origin: Taken from a market near our practice space. We liked the sound and the fact that we could buy gummies and live animals there.

Band motto: Put your faith in the Red Chair of Doom.

Description of sound in 10 words or less: Mulatu Astake inspired dark jazz and soul from Ethiopia’s Swinging Addis period.

Instrumentation: Horns: Krystal Nzoiwu (flute and vocals) Dan Sarna (trumpet) Scotty Maxx (trumpet) Nicholas Gyorkos (trombone), Ryan Morgan (trombone) Jeremy Greene (tenor sax). Rhythm section: Harrison Murphy (keys), Reese Bullen (drums) Jesse Toews (bass) Theo Winston (guitar) Daniel Silberstein (Percussion and vocals).

Most recent release: The Fernet Suite on Electric Sparkyland Records.

Best part about life as a Bay Area band: Great venues, great friends, strong dancers, good drinks.

Worst part about life as a Bay Area band: Public transportation system in the East Bay. No 24/7 BART trains.

First album ever purchased: Theo, Appetite for Destruction by Guns 'N' Roses; Daniel: 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of... by Arrested Development.

Most recent album purchased/downloaded: Theo: Queen "A Day at the Races,” waiting for the new Dirty Projectors album; Daniel : Blue Mitchell "Booty" and Takamba.

Favorite local eatery and dish: Theo: The El Gordo taco truck on International Blvd. Al parstor tacos!; Daniel: Phnom Phen House, I have been eating BBQ chicken there since I was 10.

- San Francisco Bay Guardian


"Sun Hop Fat!"

he music of Sun Hop Fat is at once strange and soothing. The Oakland-by-way-of-Santa-Cruz jazz and funk ensemble employs Eastern scales that sound familiarly alien—the music you would expect to hear in an old adventure movie when the hero enters a smoky Arabic watering hole. Then again, maybe it is the soundtrack to Scooby and Shaggy skulking around some old haunted mansion: trill, snake-charmer flutes and horns that rise and fall in ominously ornate chords. Sun Hop Fat's tunes are heavily influenced by Ethiopian jazz and the music of Mulu Astatke, who championed the sound in his native Ethiopia and was instrumental in importing the music to America. Bass player and founding Sun Hop Fat member Jesse Toews (who also plays in Santa Cruz "psychedelic Motown throwdown" outfit, Harry and the Hitmen) says that he and his band were drawn to Ethiopian jazz and other East African sounds because of the "seductive" note choices and interesting polyrhythms. While the music originated from African traditions, Toews explains, "because it is so close to the Middle East, it has all these Eastern scales," which give the music a "haunting element," especially to Western ears. The spooky sounds of Ethiopian jazz, combined with the group's penchant for American funk and soul, make his band the perfect choice for Halloween night at The Crepe Place—or "Creepy Place," as Sun Hop Fat trombone player and Crepe bartender Nick Gyorkos has been known to call it. “There is a haunting nature to the music that is totally appropriate for Halloween … it's a get-down, but it's also this dark and cerebral journey," Toews says of Sun Hop Fat. "We throw in a lot of elements that stretch just outside the box and add a dark twist." - Santa Cruz Good Times


"Ethiopian Ooomph"

Sun Hop Fat is the name of a pair of Asian grocery stores in East Oakland. It’s also the name of an 11-piece instrumental band playing at Carbone’s on Friday.?

“We really liked the way the words sounded together,” keyboardist Harry Murphy says of the name.?

The Oakland-based crew is made up of a large group of friends with a very specific focus and highly distinctive musical concept: 1970s Ethiopian jazz from the Swinging Addis era. The best part about such a concept is it introduces a style of music that many aren’t very familiar with.?

Most of the band members either majored in music in college or have been playing a musical instrument for most of their lives. This gathering of expert musical minds resulted in a dense and vibrant collaborative, a reinterpretation of Ethiopian music that bursts with jazz, soul, a rich horn section and expansive improvised jams that can be likened to the trained spontaneity of Garage A Trois and Medeski, Martin & Wood. ?

“We took Ethiopian scales and applied it to American instrumentation,” bassist Jesse Toews once told Brown Condor. “It’s a crazy blend.”?

The band – whose song catalog comprises mostly covers – reinvents classic songs by pioneers of the movement like Mulatu Astatke, who was among the first to fuse American jazz and funk with traditional Ethiopian five-tone scales more than 40 years ago.?

“When I first heard [Ethiopian music], I fell in love with it,” Murphy says. “The music itself is pretty simple with a lot of elongated solo sections and improvisations.”?

Murphy also points out that the often-overlooked Afropop of the late ’60s and early ’70s has obvious traces of influences coming from American music icons like James Brown and even Elvis, resulting in very danceable underlying rhythms coming from the bass and percussion parts. ?

“The music uses some unique scales and melodic patterns that are very original and distinct from other forms of music,” Murphy says. “It’s a combination of traditional African music with Western rhythms that make it kind of funky.”?

SHF’s skill is exceedingly impressive, as is its ability to weave a tightly knit bond between baritone and tenor saxophones, trumpet, flute, congas, bass, keyboard, guitar, and any other instrument introduced into the epic collective. ?

At a show last year at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco, the stage looked like it was at capacity with the large amount of musicians. The audience was locked in with the band’s heavy grooves and engaged with every direction the songs went in. But even when they’re cramped like sardines on a tiny stage, SHF takes its musicianship to a higher level and busts out psychedelic constructions that many times extend beyond the 10-minute mark.?

Sun Hop Fat has yet to release an album, but Murphy says they are currently at work on their first EP, which will feature mostly original tunes and should be out some time later this year.?

It will offer further evidence that sharing a namesake with a grocery store known for its outrageously enormous selection of sauces, spices and condiments is quite fitting for a band that uses so many different worldly ingredients. ?

- Monterey County Weekly


Discography

The Fernet Suite EP

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Bio

Sun Hop Fat is a 10 piece groove and jazz band based in Oakland, California. The group reinterprets music from the Swinging Addis period of Ethiopia. The music that Sun Hop Fat creates is at once haunting and soothing. The band takes the listener on a ride through their senses. The music is shapeshifting sometimes it's a tempest of noise and other times a calm ripple of horns, vocals, and rhythm. Sun Hop Fat is a band that will go right to your hips.