Jasper Grooves Collective Summer News 2024
July 23, 2024
Summertime rolls… I hope all of you are finding opportunities to get out and enjoy this beautiful season in Colorado. Jasper Grooves Collective has some exciting news that I wanted to share with all of you! Soulful Connection, our second full length album, has been officially released on both CD and on digital platforms. It is worth mentioning that there are three tracks that were previously unreleased that have been released with the album. “At the Baggage Claim,” “The Easy Stuff” and “Early Morning Raga for D. Boon” are the three brand new ones. “At the Baggage Claim” was inspired, you guessed it, at a baggage claim. Listen for the actual baggage claim that sparked the song idea, at the end of the song. “The Easy Stuff” veers into new sonic territory for the collective and features Northern Colorado blues great and longtime friend, Cary Morin, on steel pedal guitar. By the way, if you’re looking for the full album on streaming services look for the image of Soulful Machine with the title of the album written in yellow on the cover art. The image, minus the title, is just the single! In addition to the new songs, all of the songs on the full length album have been remastered by Mark Raynes to bring them to their full sonic potential.
If you are still a fan of physical albums, the CD is also available. It does have its perks including most of the album’s lyrics, and details about the recordings as well as the personnel on all of the tracks. There were 20 different musicians who contributed to the project, so it is cool to see who it was playing the bassoon on “Skeletons of Language” or tuba on “Bad Bed Hair”! Reach out through email or message me on social media if you’d like to order a copy. We’ll get it mailed to you for $20, postage paid.
In addition to releasing the album, I also recently had the awe inspiring experience of being interviewed by iconic bassist Mike Watt on his show The Watt from Pedro Show. Watt, as you might already know, is a hero of underground music. For over 45 years, he has toured the country, initially with The Minutemen, then Firehose and then with his own groups such as Mike Watt and the Missingmen, always in a modest Econoline van logging in thousands of miles and blowing minds all along the way. Are you “down with the bass?” As a musician, it’s always great to get to talk to one of your musical heroes and a bonus to have that conversation documented. The interview/show, from July 8, is archived on Watt’s website and I’ll include a link to it here if you’d like to check it out! https://www.twfps.com/past-episodes/on-air-guest-brian-jasper-hull-from-fort-collins-co-via-skype-1
Otherwise, we are excited to announce that the Brian Jasper Hull Trio will be playing on Sunday, August 4 from 7-10 pm at the Crown Pub, 134 S. College Ave. in Ft. Collins. We’ll have the new album on hand as well as a selection of new Jasper Grooves Collective t-shirts. Mark Raynes will be on drums. Jo Asker will be on standup bass. We’ll be playing some of our newest songs as well as a choice selection of jazz standards, Brazilian tunes and, as always, some curve balls thrown in for good measure. Looking forward to seeing y’all there in the comfortable underground confines of the Crown Pub where it’s cool and breezy even when it’s a scorcher outside.