San Diego, CA · jazz-funk · boogaloo

The Greyboy Allstars

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Deep-crate boogaloo and soul-jazz played by a band that has been doing it since the acid-jazz era — grooves aged like good vinyl.

The band grew out of a partnership between DJ Greyboy and saxophonist Karl Denson, who was touring with Lenny Kravitz at the time. The two cut tracks together for Ubiquity Records before working on Greyboy's 1994 solo album Freestylin'. They started their own label, Greyboy Records, and built a house band around it with guitarist Mike Andrews (billed as Elgin Park), keyboardist Robert Walter, bassist Chris Stillwell and drummer Zak Najor.

The Greyboy Allstars built their sound on 1960s and '70s soul-jazz, boogaloo and funk: organ and electric piano, saxophone, guitar and drums locked into extended grooves. The music is largely instrumental and built for dancing rather than showcase soloing, with the rhythm section doing most of the work.

Early on the band played weekly at San Diego's Green Circle and weekend dates at San Francisco's Elbo Room, alongside club dates across Europe. Their self-released 1994 debut, West Coast Boogaloo, featured James Brown trombonist Fred Wesley; a live album and Town Called Earth followed, and in 1998 Andrews led the group in scoring Jake Kasdan's film Zero Effect.

The band parted ways in 1999 so its members could pursue other projects, with Najor stepping back from touring. A 2007 reunion produced the studio album What Happened to Television?, on which Najor still played, and the touring drum chair passed through Eric Kalb and Alan Evans before San Diego native Aaron Redfield took the seat permanently.

Inland Emperor followed in 2013, and Como De Allstars arrived in 2020, the band's first album in seven years, alongside a reissue of West Coast Boogaloo on vinyl. Eight albums in, The Greyboy Allstars remain best known as a live act, with sets built on interplay and sustained groove drawn from the records its members collect.

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