Sir Acha

Recorded in early 2015 at Telefunken Studios in South Windsor, CT, Rewind is the first full length album released by West End Blend.

Michael Hamad of the Hartford Courant describes the state of the band in Sept 2015:

It's party time: West End Blend, the Hartford funk/hip-hop collective with the double-digit membership, has a new album coming out — "Rewind" — and celebrates with a CD release show at Hartford's Arch Street Tavern on Saturday, Sept. 26.

"As we've been getting more gigs and more people have noticed us, we're realizing: This is getting a little serious," singer Erica Bryan says.

Guitarist Jesse Combs and drummer Sam Horan formed West End Blend by handpicking musicians they knew at the Hartt School in West Hartford. Eight of the original members lived on the same street, in Hartford's West End, and jammed together frequently.

At the time, Bryan was a double major in jazz studies and music composition at Hartt.

"I didn't know them all too well, but I heard about it and the possibility of it and the name of the group that Sam and Jesse had in mind," she says. "It really stuck with me."

Bryan, a classically trained musician, had no experience fronting a funk band: "I really didn't know much about how to present this music in this way for a live setting. That was something I had to learn."

In 2014, West End Blend released two EPs: "Live From Telefunken," recorded at Telefunken Studios in South Windsor for a spot on WNPR's "Where We Live," and "What It's All About" (also recorded at Telefunken). Early on, Bryan and keyboardist Paul Philippone wrote the songs, but now everyone contributes.

"Nearly all of us have written a song, some of which you probably haven't heard yet," Bryan says. "We've all been continuously writing, and there's more to come for sure."


The songs on "Rewind" are expertly arranged; they straddle the line between jazz, funk and hip-hop, with horns — trumpeter/vocalist Mike Bafundo (who sings lead on "Come Around," a song he wrote), tenor saxophonist Mike Oehmen, bari/alto player Vicky Medeiros and trombone player John Mundy — locking in on inventive unison lines, over the punchy guitars of Combs and Mike DiPanfilo, Philippone's ambient synth layers and the rhythm section of Horan and bassist Tom Sullivan. There's some late-era disco ("By the Phone"), heavy, funkadelic-inspired rock ("Come Around," which morphs into a double-time, horn-driven gallop), slow-burning R&B ("Fresh Like a New Dollar") and carefully placed pockets of improvisation.

"We have a couple of new things that we'll reveal for the CD release party," Bryan says. "A lot of what we perform live is a combination of our two EPs and other covers that we've Blend-ified."

In addition to the Arch Street show, West End Blend performs nearly every weekend throughout the state. Some band members are regulars at jam sessions. A subset of the group recently spun off into Boo-Yah, a more compact unit that offers free funk shows every Wednesday at Arch Street — anything to keep playing and making connections.

"It's important for musicians to have our ears in different places," Bryan says. "It's important for us as a band to be able to bring different influences together. It makes us stronger."

Still, any regional band becomes familiar with the tension between staying local and touring nationally.

"It's definitely a challenge, getting 11 people on board," Bryan says, "but we do have plans to expand and keep growing. Many of us are in situations where we have other jobs than performing, and that requires our time during the week."

At least they can ride together: West End Blend recently bought a van, which will allow it to avoid carpooling to gigs, convoy-style.

"We're totally ready to get started planning our move to more areas in the Northeast and the country," Bryan says. "The van is a huge step for us, because it means that we can expand in ways we couldn't before."

"We want to have our heads in the game," Bryan continues, "because it's a lot of fun being around these guys and performing, writing, collaborating and learning with them. I didn't think it was going to grow into what it has, and I really see great things for it in the future."