The Ill Funk Ensemble : WRITEUPS

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Musician's Profile: The Ill Funk Ensemble The Message For The Week Chester, VT BY: JOE MILLIKEN ALBANY, NY - If you haven't yet heard about The Ill Funk Ensemble, it's okay, for I am not sure how many people in this area have had the pleasure. However, they recently appeared at the Red Fox Inn in Bondville and are now starting to create quite a buzz around Southern Vermont. And... now that you know the name, checking this band out is a must for anyone who can dig a fresh combination of jazz, rock, funk, hip-hop, rap, R & B, soul and everything in between. Yes, these cats can bring all this together and make it tight as a drum! READ MORE	Nippertown Album Review Nippertown.com By GREG HAYMES Let’s face it, contemporary hip-hop is a producer’s game. So, the concept of whippin’ up some crack hip-hop with a live band is seriously tricky business. If you’ve ever seen them doing their thing live, however, you know that Nippertown’s Ill Funk Ensemble can bring it on the bandstand. But whether they could successfully translate that same live excitement to a track-free studio recording was anybody’s guess, though. Until now. READ MORE	Ill Funk Straddles Live Hip-Hop, Rock Club Scene The Daily Gazette By BRIAN MCELHINEY For roughly five years now, the Ill Funk Ensemble has straddled the line between two worlds on the Capital Region’s music scene. The Albany-based five piece band, fronted by singer and rapper Jermaine Wells, is a live hip-hop band in the vein of The Roots. As such, the group often finds itself playing shows with local MCs who are backed by prerecorded music or a DJ. But the band is just as comfortable on the rock club scene, and has the chops to keep up with the four-hour, three-set night that are the norm in many of the region’s bars and clubs. READ MORE
Hip-Hop: Rooted In Musicality Utica Observer-Dispatch By CASSAUNDRA BABER UTICA — Fifteen years deep into the Albany music scene and BJ FitzGerald noticed something missing. It was a lost groove, a primal technique rooted in musicality that had yet to be brought to the region’s live music arena. It was live hip-hop and R&B — that funk, that feel-good music, he said. And so, after finding four other guys who could help him fill that void, the Ill Funk Ensemble was born. The five-piece band is one of 250 bands that will perform at the Utica Music and Arts Festival Sept. 10 to 12. READ MORE