Celebrating the New Year in New Orleans should always involve funk. And for New Year’s Eve 2013-2014, OffBeat Magazine is co-hosting a funktified bash at the Joy Theater with Winter Circle Productions and Louisiana’s Tin Roof Brewing Company featuring the UK’s New Mastersounds, Eddie Roberts’ West Coast Sounds, New Orleans’ own Gravity A and more to be announced. Proper funk from all coasts will be in the house.

The New Mastersounds headline New Year's Eve 2013-2014 at The Joy Theater.

The New Mastersounds are a four-piece band based in Leeds, England, whose modern take on vintage soul, jazz, funk and rock draws influences from Jimmy McGriff and Jimi Hendrix, as well as their most closely associated mentors, New Orleans funk pioneers, The Meters. Having toured throughout Europe, Japan and the USA, The New Mastersounds have earned global recognition as a key band in the “New Funk” scene.

Their tourmates, Eddie Roberts’ West Coast Sounds, are the New Mastersounds founder and Welsh guitar maestro’s collective of “roughneck” American musicians that he fell in musical love with upon moving to the Bay Area. Two years ago, Roberts packed his gear and headed for the American west coast for good. He reconnected with Hammond B3 virtuoso and (San Francisco) Boom Boom Room stalwart Wil Blades. He found drummer Jermal Watson (Dirty Dozen Brass Band) on this year’s international funkster gathering at sea, Jam Cruise. When Jazz Mafia horn players Joe Cohen (tenor sax) and Mike Olmos (trumpet) guested on the New Masterounds’ album Out on the Faultline, Roberts had an epiphany; “I realized how amazing they were, and it set an idea off,” he said. “The addition of horns automatically changes the sound, although I would say that the grooves and the overall style of the West Coast Sounds is more similar to the New Mastersounds than my solo material, which has usually gone in more of a club jazz direction.”

Gravity A plays New Year's Eve with The New Mastersounds.

OffBeat Best of the Beat 2012 nominees for Best Funk Album, Gravity A, will open for the New Mastersounds and Roberts’ West Coast Sounds on New Year’s Eve with their New Orleans-bred brand of improv funk infused with electronic drum-n-bass breaks. Together now for almost 10 years, the quartet is inspired by the soulful jazz expressions and second-line fusions of their hometown, yet still draws heavily upon the eclectic possibilities of electronic progressions. The band’s sound is highly dependent upon the musicians’ passion for live instrumentation and improvisation, which often lends itself to a rambunctious adventure grooving through sunrise. As opposed to Newton’s well-known “gravity b,” Gravity A has taken their name from the force responsible for the cohesion and semblance of all subatomic matter.

NIGEL HALL ADDED TO NYE LINE-UP!

Royal Family funkster Nigel Hall added to NYE line-up!

Funk keyboardist and vocalist Nigel Hall has been added to the New Year’s Eve line-up. Core Royal Family Records member and lead vocalist for the Boston-bred funk outfit, Lettuce, Hall has recently relocated to New Orleans and now leads the Nigel Hall Band, among working on several other projects, including a high-energy James Brown cover band. He continues to preserve the soul of the Royal Family legacy with its crew of Berklee College of Music grads, as well as influence several New Orleans musicians with new projects. When asked about himself, Nigel reflects, “I’m just someone who lives, eats, drinks music.” This ethic becomes clear when Nigel takes the stage. Hall is also an established keyboardist, currently working in the studio with Chapter 2, featuring Eric Krasno, Adam Deitch, and Louis Kato. His addition to the New Year’s Eve line-up at the Joy seals the deal on what should be the funkiest New Year’s party in town Tuesday night.  [update as of 12/23/13]

The New Year’s Eve event will also feature more acts to be announced in the coming weeks, as well as an optional VIP experience with premiere balcony seating, complimentary Tin Roof beer, full open bar from 8pm – Midnight, complimentary midnight champagne toast, a commemorative poster and more. Doors are at 8 p.m. with showtime beginning at 9 p.m. Tickets for The New Mastersounds New Year’s Eve show on Tuesday, December 31 at the Joy Theater (1200 Canal Street) go on sale this Friday, November 22 via the Joy Theater website. VIP tickets start at $150, and General Admission tickets are $40. The show is ages 18 and up and open to the public. For more info, please call Joy Productions at 504-528-9569.

OffBeat Concert Ticket Give-away Contest

OffBeat Magazine is giving away a pair of tickets to spend New Year’s Eve

with us and the New Mastersounds plus special guests at the Joy Theater (an $80 value)!

Simply fill out the online form below to enter.

Winner will be notified via Email with ticket claim instructions by Friday, December 27.

Good Luck!