Breakestra - Deuces Up, Double Down
Break. As in "breakbeat." That ten second slice of percussive magic in the middle of a funk song that, when looped together by progressive South Bronx DJs in the 1970s, became the basis of the hip-hop movement. Arkestra. Out-there jazzer Sun Ra's funkafied concept of the stuffy classical orchestra. Flip the script and you wind up with a unique definition of the 10 piece, Los Angeles based ensemble known as The Breakestra. The Breakestra was born as the result of a vision by bassist/guitarist/upright cellist/producer Miles Tackett. Tackett fell in love with hip-hop after hearing Ultramagnetic MC's' Critical Beatdown in the late 1980s - the era in which tons of dusty drum breaks and funky samples first saw the light of day via enterprising hip hop producers such as Paul C., Pete Rock, Large Professor and DJ Premier. "In retrospect, I see that I gravitated towards hip hop because of its roots in funk music, " Tackett told URB Magazine in 1999. "Now I realize that hip hop is the only music keeping funk alive." In 1996, Tackett more actively embraced his role as cultural preservationist. As part of the original crew that produced LA's weekly coffeehouse series The Breaks, Tackett spun records by The Meters, Kool & The Gang and The JB's. But he was a musician before he was a DJ. Why not assemble a band to rock the breaks he loved? A band that could interpolate and interpret that glorious funk for the hip-hop generation?