About Me
Joe Credit and Opal Fly's Jazz Grass All Stars in Kansas City doing "Arrival" on the tour bus (thanks, Nate!)
BANDS:
I'm a guitarist/singer/writer/producer living in Brooklyn working on a number of projects in the studio and out on gigs: from roots reggae to jazz to dub to soulfolk singer/songwriter stuff to funk to straight up rock n roll. Right now, some of the projects I'm involved in are Broken Carousel (funk, soul, rock n roll), Opal Fly (gypsy jazz), Jazz Grass All Stars (jazz, blues, folk), Rhythm Party (soul jazz), Alphabet City Street Stars (dub reggae), Pandhora (soul folk), Hi Fashion Rockers (roots reggae), The Jumpers (big band jazz/rock),
and more...
It seems I've been playing guitar for as long as I can remember, but somewhere along the way, I discovered that indescribable element that separated the music I like from the music I love: rock n roll with soul, and as I would later discover, ANY music that's got soul. Exile on Main Street, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, Eat a Peach. These were the initial eye-openers. These were the albums that made me want to write songs, start a band, and get out there and play as much as possible. So I found a few friends who felt as I did and we did just that.
In 1995, Mother Freedom was born. Initially, the music was like the bands mentioned above, rock n roll with a groove and a strong blues base. As time went on and band members changed, the music grew. I began to absorb the deep funk of The JBs, The Meters, Sly and The Family Stone, and Parliament. I fell in love with The Wailers and Toots and The Maytalls and grew dreads for seven years. I began to sing more and more. Soon enough, the band took off and we found ourselves with a dedicated fan base, opening for some of our heroes like Leo Nocentelli of The Meters, New Orleans soul man Walter Wolfman Washington, and original Parliament-Funkadelic (and Talking Head) keyboard man Bernie Worrell. We won Battle of the Band contests and played gigs on Randall's Island at the Vans Warped Tour. We played college showcases and ended up playing shows in places like Iowa and North Dakota in front of crowds that couldn't get enough of us and treated us like the rock stars that we thought we rightfully were. We recorded a couple of EPs and sold them all.Mother Freedom was flying high. But somewhere along the line things began to crack. Egos clashed. Male and female members mixed business with pleasure. Seeds of distrust were sown. The tension was real, and onstage this translated into electric live shows, with a large dose of healthy (and ultimately unhealthy) competitive spirit. We eventually decided to go our separate ways right around the time that I woke up one morning to find that Lower Manhattan was in flames. The universe had shifted gears in a big way.
Most of the band regrouped and we went in a new direction. Over the next couple of years, we recorded an EP, played a ton of gigs locally, and continued with the college shows in the Midwest and the three day jaunts to Maine and Vermont. Eventually, this incarnation split up as well.
In 2003, as I was finishing up work on the soundtrack to the indie film My Brother Jack, I got into a lot of 1960s souljazz like Grant Green and Brother Jack McDuff and played around Long Island in two souljazz groups, Durasoul and Blue Monkey. By summer 2004, I packed up my van and spent much of the next year travelling around the country sleeping on friends' couches and camping out in National Forests. With my Martin acoustic in hand, I played at any venue I could find, from open mics in Portland, OR to tea houses in Santa Fe, NM and Bozeman, MT to pizza cafes in Minneapolis to moonspirit festivals in rural Wisconsin. I met all kinds of people in all kinds of places and began to write lots of songs. Stripped down to the bare elements without the luxury of supporting musicians, my voice grew stronger, more delicate, more confident, and more dynamic all at the same time.
When I got back to New York, I ended up in Brooklyn, where I did the rounds of some of the open mics and acoustic venues in Park Slope, Williamsburg, and Manhattan, honing the songs I had written on the road. But the bug to get a full band behind me again started crawling up my spine. I've been working in the studio with my band Broken Carousel recording a full album of new material which encompasses the elements of music that got me into this in the first place.
Greg Bucking is a guitarist, singer, and songwriter who, when solo, plays acoustic funk and blues with part roots reggae awareness and part world weary troubadour musing, and when plugged in, plays a funky, rock n roll soul that floats from the mind and heart to the hips and feet. Besides leading his own band, Greg has worked in a number of jazz, reggae, funk, and rock groups, sharing the stage with a range of diverse musical acts including Bernie Worrell, Bikhiti Kumalo, Wolfman Washington, Leo Nocentelli, Gregory Isaacs, and Eric Burdon. He led the funk/rock ensemble Mother Freedom all over the Northeast & Midwest with notable shows at the Vans Warped Tour and the NACA Showcase in Rochester, MN, releasing 2CDs with Greg's songs receiving airplay on numerous college and commercial radio stations. He studied songwriting and jazz at Five Towns College and wrote and produced the music for the indie film, "My Brother Jack". Greg's new band Broken Carousel is set to release its debut CD "...your proven alibi" in March 2008.
"There's no bones about it, Greg's got it going on with the funky, bluesy, soulful, acoustic songwriting and upbeat performance thing. With a soothing voice, playing foot-tapping groove-laden rhythms, and singing understandable and thoughtful lyrics, Greg gave us all a good show. "
-Jezebel Music (2/22/06)
