After hearing a bunch of the amazing albums from Daptone & the Truth and Soul Records artists such as El Michels Affair, Menahan Street Band, Budos Band, Lee Fields, etc., Tim Felton (organ/electirc piano) was highly inspired and realized he needed to put together an ensemble to make gritty recordings & perform this music fused together by all of his eclectic influences. These influences ranged from Afrobeat, Soul-Jazz, Trip Hop, Soul/Funk, Ethio Jazz, Jazz-Funk, & psychedelic music from around the world. Tim started in a few smaller soul-jazz & instrumental funk quartets, but he was craving a bigger sound. The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble was fianlly born in 2012. Under Tim’s direction, SFSE started with some material he had been working on for a few years, and before too long, they collectively began writing new tunes. The band have also partnered with one of the top independent Funk/Soul labels in the world: Colemine Records.
I had the pleasure of catching of with Tim recently to get the low down on the brand new album from Colemine Records, ‘Step Down’. We got into the seed to flower of the album and it’s tracks, finding out a couple of ways certain songs were brought into this world. Tim also is in his element when he build a setlist out of songs off the new record and other artist’s art. Since I have shared almost all the tunes on air, this was certainly a path listeners will want to walk down. Speaking of walking down…Tim is based out of San Diego and is an avid hiker and tester of new beers, so he provides a trail recommendation to take with a certain new beverage of choice. To know him is to well, have words with him. Tim is also the editor/engineer for one of my favorite radio proGrams, ‘A Way With Words‘. [Martha & Grant are friends of the program] so we find out what a day in the life is for that Tim and I may have wondered out loud if there’s ever going to be a segment where he answers questions around the ‘music’ topic?
