Melvins bassist Dave Sharp may be best known for his role in the royalty of sludge metal, but he’s also a man who won’t be pigeonholed in the genre’s heavy swamps. On May 4, Dave Sharp’s Secret Seven will release 7, an album of Afro-Latin jazz funk, via Vortex Jazz Recordings 1969. Though a jazz album might seem a weird left turn for Sharp, the bassist isn’t new to the genre, having formerly played and composed for modern jazz group Spheres of Influence.
Sharp is joined in the Secret Seven by a variety of performers of similarly eclectic backgrounds. Players on 7 range from Eenor-Yayli Tanbur of Les Claypool’s Frog Brigade to Jon-Paul Frappier, who has backed Aretha Franklin, Alicia Keys, and The Temptations, to Andre Frappier, the touring guitarist for, uh, Ne-Yo. Now, I can guarantee you this will be the first and last time this year you read the names The Melvins, Aretha Franklin, Les Claypool, and Ne-Yo in the same story.
7 tracklisting:
01. Africano
02. Chrispy Underground
03. Skeleton Key
04. Blackout
05. Boop Bwee Ahh
06. The Seventh Secret
07. Lootmar
08. Africano (radio edit)
09. Can I Be Your Squeeze?
• Dave Sharp: http://www.davesharp.com
