The Pimps of Joytime mix samples and dance beats with tasty live musicianship and sweet vocal harmonies, bridging the gap between underground funk, soul, pop, dance, afrobeat and latin. Brian J is the band’s ringmaster. He started The PJT’s in Brooklyn back in 2005, where they cut their teeth while playing clubs in Williamsburg and the East Village. On stage, he’s the lead singer and guitarist, and in the studio, he’s the funkiest one-man-band this side of Minneapolis. This multi-ethnic band found a way to put a modern twist on a retro sound, creating dirty, ass-shakin’ grooves like no one else out there.

With over 20 years of experience as a dj/producer/promoter and all around horticulturalist on digging for beats and planting the musical seeds of rhythm and sounds in the Los Angeles music scene, dj dAz brings you the best in soul, reggae, hip hop, jazz, funk, and dance classics... as co-founder of Umoja Hi-Fi, DJ’s Daz and Tomas were highly recognized as pioneers in the L.A. underground club scene, and in 1993 combined their knowledge of hip hop, dancehall, reggae, rare grooves, and breaks to create the UMOJA Soundsystem, a crew of like minded DJ’s that have branched out all over the country, spinning grooves from San Diego to Washington D.C., and spreading the good word of UMOJA (a Swahilli word for Unity). During the early nineties Daz was working with Delicious Vinyl records and through a co-agreement, established the legendary Acid Jazz club Brass. Brass at the time were responsible for the west coast promotion, marketing and development of gold and platinum selling top 40 r&b, pop, and hip hop groups, and helped launch the careers of musical artists; Jamiroquai, US3, Digable Planets, The Brand New Heavies, The Roots, The Pharcyde, and many more.

Márcio Local stands at the crossroads of two great traditions in modern Brazilian music, with one foot in samba, the heavily percussive Afro-Brazilian dance music that took its modern form in the early twentieth century, and the other in soul, the African American music rooted in the blues that attracted a mass audience in Brazil in the 1960s and 1970s. Once regarded as a faddish import, soul music has been effectively Brazilianized such that it now constitutes a local tradition in big cities like São Paulo and Márcio's home town of Rio de Janeiro. Márcio has also discovered ways to combine these two traditions to forge new variations of samba-soul by exploring the ever-expanding modern soundscape of Rio. He is also something of a sensual romantic who makes music thinking about lazy Saturday afternoons at the beach, a game of soccer, the drama of sexual seduction, and the bustle of the urban scene. In this way, he belongs to another tradition in Brazilian music that celebrates the pleasures of everyday life and the redemptive power of a catchy tune.

For The Record With Márcio Local - "Soul do Samba" - Video by Maia Stern


The weekly club Afro Funké is the brainchild of African Afro Roots Reggae star, Rocky Dawuni, who realized LA's need for a night dedicated to African music, culture and art and it's far reaching legacy around the world. Dawuni, who's based in LA and his native Ghana, together with producer and photographer Cary Sullivan created Afro Funké, bringing on board resident DJ and partner Jeremy Sole's Musaics. Each week Afro Funké presents guest DJs, live performances, dancers, record release parties, fundraisers, art installations, crafts and more while Sole spins his unique Musaics, or sound collage-blends of hip hop, jazz/funk, dub reggae, afro beat, and remixed world beats; pieced together with tribal breaks, and uplifted by dubbed-out turntable manipulation and live instrumentation.

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