| Viperhourse |
Funk
ViperHouse is a 10 piece acid jazz/avant funk ensemble from Burlington
Vermont consisting of trumpet, alto and bari saxes, trombone,
violin, hammond organ, upright and electric basses, guitar, percussion,
drum kit and vocals.
One of the premises of the group is to put the acid back into the acid
jazz (not to mention the jazz). The whole viper thing (in reference to
the name), goes back to the old jazz musicians from the 20's who played
in the spasm bands. Vipers were people of questionable means. . of ill
repute. So what are we doing? Re-empowering the name . . . maybe kind
of.
We do mostly originals, but we love to throw in odd renditions of a
whole variety of tunes such as: Virgin Jungle (Duke Ellington), A call
for all demons (Sun Ra), Stoned out of my mind (The Chilites),
Pithycanthropus Erectus (Charles Mingus), Is that all there is (Peggy
Lee), Sunny (Bobby Hebb), For the turnstyles (Niel Young), Friday the
13th (Monk).
ViperHouse has been steadily garnering a dedicated, and hefty fan base
throughout the North East. In New York shows have included weekend
headlining at The Elbow Room and The New Music Cafe. ViperHouse will
also be returning to the Knitting Factory for their second appearance at
this great venue this winter.
ViperHouse has also had the pleasure to be asked to do weekend headling
shows on a bi-seasonal basis at The Iron Horse Music Hall (Northampton,
MA). The Iron Horse is a great north east venue and has hosted everyone
from Miles Davis to Suzanne Vega.
This summer the Vipers had the pleasure of playing some great
festivals such as the JVC International Groove Fest in Toronto, Ben and
Jerry's One World One Heart, The Ottawa Jazz Fest (where they have been
asked to return next year to do a feautre headling act), and The
Discover Jazz Fest opening up for hammond organ legend Jimmy Smith.
ViperHouse has shared shows with ensembles such as The Screaming
Headless Torsos, Groove Collective, Liquid Soul and Michael Ray & the
Cosmic Krewe. Look for them with The James Taylor Qurartet this November
in Burlington, Vt.
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