Eddie started his real live music career in 1989 aged 18, having left his Welsh homeland to study Jazz at Leeds College of Music. More interested in live performing and getting his own thing going than college work, he quickly rooted out the best players in town and set up his first band ‘the Jazz Mailmen’ – dedicated to playing the golden era of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. After transcribing all the parts and enforcing a dress code of bop suits, he set about taking the UK Jazz dance scene by storm. During this time British hard bop legend Tommy Chase asked him to relocate and join his band, but Eddie had other ideas.
Around 1991 Eddie's love for Grant Green inspired him to put a Hammond-based line up together. With the sound of Big John Patton, Lou Donaldson and Ivan Boogaloo, his band ‘the Eddie Roberts Organisation’ toured UK and managed to get their first European dates: Holland’s ‘Queen's Birthday Celebrations’ in Amsterdam.
The next step in 1993 was to downsize to a hammond trio - this happened after meeting two guys who nailed it down more than the seven-piece that the Organisation had become. The Three Deuces were born. After a live album was released, (recorded at Leeds’ legendary Jazz dance club ‘Yardbird Suite’) great reviews ensured extensive touring opportunities, headlining Italy’s Jazz festival in Bari with Greg Osby as well as many UK festivals, and the start of a regular slot at the Jazz Café, London. ‘Down at Arts’ was playlisted on Jazz FM for most of 1996 – ‘Arts Café’ being the place where it all started and ran weekly for 3 years.
Other projects in tandem with the Deuces were: ‘Gaucho’, inspired by Joe Henderson, Chico Hamilton & Gabo Szabo, Sam Rivers and the rest, which consisted of percussion, double bass, guitar, tenor sax & flute; and The Mastersounds – the original ‘keyboardless’ line up of the ‘New Mastersounds’ with Simon Allen, Dan Brown and percussionist Sam Bell.
In 1999 Eddie’s focus moved to ‘deep funk’. 10 years of listening to the Meters had to come out at some point – hence ‘The New Mastersounds’. Soon after the first 7” was release on Blow it Hard records ('One Note Brown' - now a rare collectors' 45) they gigged at Jazz Café alongside Funk DJ/collector Keb Darge. This meeting proved to be a fruitful one – 3 singles and 1 album with Deep Funk Records earned them the dubious title ‘Best Funk Band in the World at this Moment’. 2001/2002 saw some heavy international touring for the extended 8-piece band. Late 2002, whilst various options for a second NMS album were being considered, Eddie’s own ‘Cooker Records’ teased fans with a couple of new 7" singles, as well as re-releasing the highly sought-after debut album.
Eddie’s love for 60’s blue note & hard bop however didn’t waver despite the media hype of the Deep Funk scene, and after a conversation with Adrian Gibson (Booker & DJ at Jazz Café/Messin Around) Eddie was commissioned to produce a hard bop track with the ‘Deep Funk’ sound for a ‘Messin Around’ compilation. Eddie had ulterior motives at this recording session – to record a number of ‘old school’ tracks with re-arranging & remixing in mind. This project is called ‘Roughneck’, a term often used to describe his dynamic guitar style, and over the last year the multi-tracks have been fed into the mainframe and remix work is under constant progress. The first 12”, ‘Diggin' Around’, was released in Feb 2003 and a wave of positive responses hit Cooker’s shores. (e.g. “Pure & Genuine, Double Bass Monster. Strong Heavy Jazz Elements. Very, Very Good” Espen Horne). The double vinyl album and CD of ‘Roughneck’ were released in August 2004 on One Note records. This was universally well-received, and has subsequently been licensed to P-Vine Records in Japan.
In Spring 2003 Eddie was approached by UK DJ & producer Mr Scruff to play on his remix of the Ramsey Lewis classic 'Do What You Want' for the Verve Remixed series.
Then in April the original New Mastersounds quartet took matters into their own hands and set up a dedicated label for the band: One Note Records. The second album, 'Be Yourself', was written, recorded and mixed over summer 2003 and released in the UK on 27th October. A much broader project than the first album (which had been, to a degree, constrained by the demands of Keb Darge's Deep Funk dancefloor crowd) 'Be Yourself' reflects more truly the scope of Eddie's musical influences and experience, hence the title. The album features writing and performance collaborations with urban poet LSK - whom Eddie had previously worked with on his Sony album ‘Outlaw’ – and with young soul diva Corinne Bailey Rae, now signed as a solo artist with one of the UK majors. In 2004 more heads were turned by the Eddie Roberts-produced remix of the Random Factor/Georg Levin tune Move On for dance label 2020Vision. This led to another commission – a remix of the modern house classic ‘Believe’ by Soldiers of Twilight, to be released as part of 2020’s tenth anniversary celebrations. Eddie later produced the NMS version of Jack McDuff’s Butter for Yo’ Popcorn, now released as a 7” single on new French label Soul Cookers Records. (“My favourite funk band on the planet release one of their best records yet. Smokin’ Hammond dancefloor jazz, you won't hear much better from anyone.” – Pete Isaac, Jelly Jazz) In May 2004, having played with the NMS in Chicago, opening for the Greyboy AllStars at the House of Blues, Eddie and the band returned to the UK to play three gigs with Blue Note sax legend Lou Donaldson. Eddie MD’ed an exclusive set of souljazz / boogaloo tunes carefully selected for the UK audiences from Lou’s late sixties output.
After a busy summer Eddie took some time off from gigging in order to focus on the next NMS album project, which was recorded in November 2004. This is What We Do is released in April 2005, simultaneously in the UK, USA and Japan. The US and Japanese versions feature a sax solo from guest performer Karl Denson whom Eddie had met at the Greyboys gig in Chicago.
Aside from promoting This is What We Do in the UK, Europe and USA, there are wider plans for 2005. Around May, Eddie will be producing another New Mastersounds album featuring original arrangements of soul-jazz & boogaloo tunes by the likes of Big John Patton, Jimmy McGriff, Lonnie Smith, Lou Donaldson et al. He is also planning another collaboration with DJ Keb Darge for Keb’s KAY DEE label, schedules permitting. Meanwhile Eddie Roberts is pulling together another line-up to follow up his Roughneck project and playing plenty of real jazz in his residency at Matt & Phred’s in Manchester.
Eddie Roberts Discography
DIG! Alliance 12” (Clean Up Records)
Soul Station ‘Cut ‘n the Groove’ CD (Yardbird Suite)
Ripley 12” (Tongue & Groove)
The Three Deuces ‘Live at Yardbird Suite’ CD (Yardbird Suite)
The Three Deuces ‘Down at Arts’ 12” EP (Yardbird Suite)
Gaucho ‘Friday Workout’ CD (Iroko Records)
Lazonby Group ‘War All The Time’ CD (Slam Records)
The Mastersounds ‘GT/Minnie the Kicker’ 7” single (Yardbird Suite)
The New Mastersounds ‘One Note Brown/Burnt Back’ 7” single (Blow It Hard)
The New Mastersounds ‘Ode to Bobby Gentry/Taurus’ 7” single (Blow It Hard)
James Taylor & The New Mastersounds ‘Fire/Foxy Lady’ 7” single (Blow It Hard)
Evil Eddie & the Super Slinkys ‘3 on the B/Side Skip’ 7” single (Blow It Hard)
The New Mastersounds ‘It’s All Right Now’ 7” single (Deep Funk)
The New Mastersounds ‘Hot Dog/Drop It Down 7” single (Deep Funk)
The New Mastersounds ‘Keb Darge Presents’ CD & Album (Deep Funk)
The New Mastersounds ‘Nervous’ 12” EP (Deep Funk Records)
Youth Club Classics ‘Keep On It’ 12” (Cooker Records)
The New Mastersounds ‘(So you Can)Get Back/Can't Hold Me Down’ (Cooker)
The New Mastersounds ‘So Much Better/Better Off Dead’ (Cooker)
The New Mastersounds ‘Keb Darge Presents’ CD (Cooker - rerelease)
The New Mastersounds 'Nervous' 7" single (Kay Dee Records)
Deep Funk Allstars ‘Deep Funk’ Library CD (Zomba)
Rhianna ‘Word Love remix’ CD Single (Sony Music)
Eddie Roberts ‘Diggin Around’ 12” EP (Cooker)
LSK ‘Outlaw’ CD (Sony Records)
Verve Remixed 'Do What You Want' Ramsey Lewis - Mr Scruff Remix (Verve)
The New Mastersounds 'Be Yourself' CD (One Note)
NMS4 feat. Corinne Bailey Rae 'Your Love Is Mine' 7" single (One Note)
John Arnold ‘Inside’ Mr Scruff mix feat. Eddie Roberts 12”EP (Ubiquity)
Random Factor feat. Georg Levin ‘Move On’ New Mastersounds Remix (2020Vision)
Eddie Roberts ‘Roughneck’ CD and LP (One Note)
The New Mastersounds ‘Baby Bouncer’ / ‘The Minx’ 7” single (One Note)
The Link Quartet ‘Spider Baby’ guest sitar (Hammondbeat)
The New Mastersounds ‘Butter for Yo Popcorn’ 7” single (Soul Cookers)
The New Mastersounds ‘This is What We Do’ CD and LP (One Note)
Soldiers of Twilight ‘Believe’ – New Mastersounds Remix (2020Vision)
Around 1991 Eddie's love for Grant Green inspired him to put a Hammond-based line up together. With the sound of Big John Patton, Lou Donaldson and Ivan Boogaloo, his band ‘the Eddie Roberts Organisation’ toured UK and managed to get their first European dates: Holland’s ‘Queen's Birthday Celebrations’ in Amsterdam.
The next step in 1993 was to downsize to a hammond trio - this happened after meeting two guys who nailed it down more than the seven-piece that the Organisation had become. The Three Deuces were born. After a live album was released, (recorded at Leeds’ legendary Jazz dance club ‘Yardbird Suite’) great reviews ensured extensive touring opportunities, headlining Italy’s Jazz festival in Bari with Greg Osby as well as many UK festivals, and the start of a regular slot at the Jazz Café, London. ‘Down at Arts’ was playlisted on Jazz FM for most of 1996 – ‘Arts Café’ being the place where it all started and ran weekly for 3 years.
Other projects in tandem with the Deuces were: ‘Gaucho’, inspired by Joe Henderson, Chico Hamilton & Gabo Szabo, Sam Rivers and the rest, which consisted of percussion, double bass, guitar, tenor sax & flute; and The Mastersounds – the original ‘keyboardless’ line up of the ‘New Mastersounds’ with Simon Allen, Dan Brown and percussionist Sam Bell.
In 1999 Eddie’s focus moved to ‘deep funk’. 10 years of listening to the Meters had to come out at some point – hence ‘The New Mastersounds’. Soon after the first 7” was release on Blow it Hard records ('One Note Brown' - now a rare collectors' 45) they gigged at Jazz Café alongside Funk DJ/collector Keb Darge. This meeting proved to be a fruitful one – 3 singles and 1 album with Deep Funk Records earned them the dubious title ‘Best Funk Band in the World at this Moment’. 2001/2002 saw some heavy international touring for the extended 8-piece band. Late 2002, whilst various options for a second NMS album were being considered, Eddie’s own ‘Cooker Records’ teased fans with a couple of new 7" singles, as well as re-releasing the highly sought-after debut album.
Eddie’s love for 60’s blue note & hard bop however didn’t waver despite the media hype of the Deep Funk scene, and after a conversation with Adrian Gibson (Booker & DJ at Jazz Café/Messin Around) Eddie was commissioned to produce a hard bop track with the ‘Deep Funk’ sound for a ‘Messin Around’ compilation. Eddie had ulterior motives at this recording session – to record a number of ‘old school’ tracks with re-arranging & remixing in mind. This project is called ‘Roughneck’, a term often used to describe his dynamic guitar style, and over the last year the multi-tracks have been fed into the mainframe and remix work is under constant progress. The first 12”, ‘Diggin' Around’, was released in Feb 2003 and a wave of positive responses hit Cooker’s shores. (e.g. “Pure & Genuine, Double Bass Monster. Strong Heavy Jazz Elements. Very, Very Good” Espen Horne). The double vinyl album and CD of ‘Roughneck’ were released in August 2004 on One Note records. This was universally well-received, and has subsequently been licensed to P-Vine Records in Japan.
In Spring 2003 Eddie was approached by UK DJ & producer Mr Scruff to play on his remix of the Ramsey Lewis classic 'Do What You Want' for the Verve Remixed series.
Then in April the original New Mastersounds quartet took matters into their own hands and set up a dedicated label for the band: One Note Records. The second album, 'Be Yourself', was written, recorded and mixed over summer 2003 and released in the UK on 27th October. A much broader project than the first album (which had been, to a degree, constrained by the demands of Keb Darge's Deep Funk dancefloor crowd) 'Be Yourself' reflects more truly the scope of Eddie's musical influences and experience, hence the title. The album features writing and performance collaborations with urban poet LSK - whom Eddie had previously worked with on his Sony album ‘Outlaw’ – and with young soul diva Corinne Bailey Rae, now signed as a solo artist with one of the UK majors. In 2004 more heads were turned by the Eddie Roberts-produced remix of the Random Factor/Georg Levin tune Move On for dance label 2020Vision. This led to another commission – a remix of the modern house classic ‘Believe’ by Soldiers of Twilight, to be released as part of 2020’s tenth anniversary celebrations. Eddie later produced the NMS version of Jack McDuff’s Butter for Yo’ Popcorn, now released as a 7” single on new French label Soul Cookers Records. (“My favourite funk band on the planet release one of their best records yet. Smokin’ Hammond dancefloor jazz, you won't hear much better from anyone.” – Pete Isaac, Jelly Jazz) In May 2004, having played with the NMS in Chicago, opening for the Greyboy AllStars at the House of Blues, Eddie and the band returned to the UK to play three gigs with Blue Note sax legend Lou Donaldson. Eddie MD’ed an exclusive set of souljazz / boogaloo tunes carefully selected for the UK audiences from Lou’s late sixties output.
After a busy summer Eddie took some time off from gigging in order to focus on the next NMS album project, which was recorded in November 2004. This is What We Do is released in April 2005, simultaneously in the UK, USA and Japan. The US and Japanese versions feature a sax solo from guest performer Karl Denson whom Eddie had met at the Greyboys gig in Chicago.
Aside from promoting This is What We Do in the UK, Europe and USA, there are wider plans for 2005. Around May, Eddie will be producing another New Mastersounds album featuring original arrangements of soul-jazz & boogaloo tunes by the likes of Big John Patton, Jimmy McGriff, Lonnie Smith, Lou Donaldson et al. He is also planning another collaboration with DJ Keb Darge for Keb’s KAY DEE label, schedules permitting. Meanwhile Eddie Roberts is pulling together another line-up to follow up his Roughneck project and playing plenty of real jazz in his residency at Matt & Phred’s in Manchester.
Eddie Roberts Discography
DIG! Alliance 12” (Clean Up Records)
Soul Station ‘Cut ‘n the Groove’ CD (Yardbird Suite)
Ripley 12” (Tongue & Groove)
The Three Deuces ‘Live at Yardbird Suite’ CD (Yardbird Suite)
The Three Deuces ‘Down at Arts’ 12” EP (Yardbird Suite)
Gaucho ‘Friday Workout’ CD (Iroko Records)
Lazonby Group ‘War All The Time’ CD (Slam Records)
The Mastersounds ‘GT/Minnie the Kicker’ 7” single (Yardbird Suite)
The New Mastersounds ‘One Note Brown/Burnt Back’ 7” single (Blow It Hard)
The New Mastersounds ‘Ode to Bobby Gentry/Taurus’ 7” single (Blow It Hard)
James Taylor & The New Mastersounds ‘Fire/Foxy Lady’ 7” single (Blow It Hard)
Evil Eddie & the Super Slinkys ‘3 on the B/Side Skip’ 7” single (Blow It Hard)
The New Mastersounds ‘It’s All Right Now’ 7” single (Deep Funk)
The New Mastersounds ‘Hot Dog/Drop It Down 7” single (Deep Funk)
The New Mastersounds ‘Keb Darge Presents’ CD & Album (Deep Funk)
The New Mastersounds ‘Nervous’ 12” EP (Deep Funk Records)
Youth Club Classics ‘Keep On It’ 12” (Cooker Records)
The New Mastersounds ‘(So you Can)Get Back/Can't Hold Me Down’ (Cooker)
The New Mastersounds ‘So Much Better/Better Off Dead’ (Cooker)
The New Mastersounds ‘Keb Darge Presents’ CD (Cooker - rerelease)
The New Mastersounds 'Nervous' 7" single (Kay Dee Records)
Deep Funk Allstars ‘Deep Funk’ Library CD (Zomba)
Rhianna ‘Word Love remix’ CD Single (Sony Music)
Eddie Roberts ‘Diggin Around’ 12” EP (Cooker)
LSK ‘Outlaw’ CD (Sony Records)
Verve Remixed 'Do What You Want' Ramsey Lewis - Mr Scruff Remix (Verve)
The New Mastersounds 'Be Yourself' CD (One Note)
NMS4 feat. Corinne Bailey Rae 'Your Love Is Mine' 7" single (One Note)
John Arnold ‘Inside’ Mr Scruff mix feat. Eddie Roberts 12”EP (Ubiquity)
Random Factor feat. Georg Levin ‘Move On’ New Mastersounds Remix (2020Vision)
Eddie Roberts ‘Roughneck’ CD and LP (One Note)
The New Mastersounds ‘Baby Bouncer’ / ‘The Minx’ 7” single (One Note)
The Link Quartet ‘Spider Baby’ guest sitar (Hammondbeat)
The New Mastersounds ‘Butter for Yo Popcorn’ 7” single (Soul Cookers)
The New Mastersounds ‘This is What We Do’ CD and LP (One Note)
Soldiers of Twilight ‘Believe’ – New Mastersounds Remix (2020Vision)
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PROMOTION
Légère Recordings
Lindenallee 19a
20259 Hamburg
Germany
fon 0049 (0)40 879 769 13
fax 0049 (0)40 879 765 41
helmut@lounge-records.de
