INNER CITY ALL STARS: Press

Than's how you open up the Apollo Baby! Thats how you open it up!

The Inner City All Stars ratcheted up the sweat factor at Gezellig with an eye-popping, butt-wrenching set of hybridized funk (they even busted out with a little impromptu "Rapper's Delight" while the tuba provided the funky bass line), wherein even the most wilting of wallflowers was moved to dance.

Inner City All Stars Really Are All Stars This is the time for finding some extraordinary talent as summer festivals and events unfold and emerging artist take the stage to entertain. It is amazing how the energy of the crowd, the unbridled atmosphere of open air, and the boundless limits of sound create the best showcases imaginable. Inner City All Stars is just such a discovery.

At a recent event in the Kansas City Crossroads art district, on a near perfect Friday evening, the Inner City All Stars brought an eclectic blend of rhythm, blues, disco, soul, Caribbean, and southern jazz to the stage after marching through the street like true New Orleans high steppers. It was an instant turn on for the crowd and the relationship between band and audience grew better with every passing moment thereafter. Leader of the group is Calvin Sexton who has a super high energy personality and matching vocals and trombone. His positive vibes resonate and are carried out by the trumpets, saxaphones, guitars, keyboards and the never-to-be-forgotten tuba that is played by David Seip! Other band members include Brandon Blouin on drums, Quinton Moore, Marvin Hollie on Guitar and Keyboards, Daniel Hardaway, Ira Basset on Trumpet, Deanthony McGee on Saxaphone, and just about everyone on vocals! Even the stiff, who are quick to tell you that they just came to listen and not to participate, are up and dancing, heads bobbing, arms waving in quick order. But it’s no wonder. This emerging group is making some serious rounds and drawing a lot of attention everywhere they go. The Inner City All Stars have shared some impressive stages with a lot of named acts, received a standing ovation at Live at the Apollo, and are becoming a “festival must book” on a lot of impressive arts and humanities organization lists. You’ll want their DVD “Live at the Wildflower! Arts and Music Festival 2007”. Their CD sales were extremely brisk during the Kansas City event. The audience wanted to keep the music playing it appeared long after the Inner City All Stars concluded their act with a parting musical march down the same Kansas City street . You can visit the Inner City All Stars website at http://innercityallstars.com for information on booking, and intriguing information on the groups leader and band members. This is one group you’ll definitely want to know a whole lot more about!

You. Will. Not. Stop. Dancing. The best part about living in the '00s is the different genres of music that smash like atoms, creating a brilliant flash of energy. Such is the genesis of the Inner City All Stars, who slam together old-school funk, New Orleans jazz, rap from back in the day and blaxploitation wah-wah rock into one big booty-shakin' jam. If your ass ain't movin' by the end of their set, you better see a preacher, cuz you got no soul.

If you've ever been to Jazzfest in New Orleans, you know how loud and edgy brass bands can get. Dallas got a taste of that sound Thursday night at Jazz Under the Stars from the Inner City All Stars, a Denton-based group that put some serious Crescent City funk into Stevie Wonder's "Boogie On Reggae Woman." If you missed it, the All Stars play at 5 p.m. today at Denton's Juneteenth Celebration and June 23 at Club Dada.

It was worth seeing the band, Let by eager to please trombonist Calvin Sexton, apply its sound to hip - hop hits

The Inner-City All Stars recorded their album Gotta Move On in three days, but getting their studio time was years in the making.

The front of the CD, released in January, includes this sentence in small print: Outstanding achievement is not the result of moderate effort.

The album makes a sturdy example of how this brass group bounces among the styles of jazz, funk, hip-hop and rap in its own family-friendly way.

The All-Stars, organized in 2002 and named “Best Band” this year by the Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities, performs not just at colleges but also high schools, elementary schools, military bases, festivals and as a support band for touring headliners.

They have played nearly 35 shows since February.

But once the recording support came along, in part through Lake Dallas producer Nichelson Entertainment, the group was finally able to spotlight itself on disc.

“It was pretty easy, because we had been playing those songs over three or four years,” said bandleader and manager Calvin Sexton, a 2003 graduate of the University of North Texas. “We just never had the opportunity to record them.”

The All-Stars has a fluctuating membership of six to eight. Aside from vocalist and trombone player Sexton, perhaps the most consistent member is David Seip on tuba and vocals, a member since 2006.

Seip explained that the other members join the band and then leave to work with other groups.

“It’s just a matter of what they are able to dedicate to us in terms of time,” Seip said.

When asked about how the group modulates their show song list, Sexton said they choose the best style that reflects where the show is, and Seip concurs, citing show length and audience demand.

“When we get called out to arts shows, they are usually longer, and they are wanting to hear everything,” Seip said. “For universities, they concentrate on hip-hop or a funk kind of party music. When we go to New Orleans, a lot of times, we play [the party music] because it sets us apart from the other brass bands that play in [traditional] style.”

There isn’t anything aggressive about the All Stars; in fact, they have been paired with Brave Combo.

“That’s partially by design and partially because that’s what we like to do,” Seip said. “We’re not a hard-core group. We’re very much about having a good time. But also, by design, we can go pretty much everywhere, play at a school, or at a show or at a club. People enjoy it, regardless of the situation.”

With the first album released, Seip said, he looks forward to the next. It may be a live concert recording, a style he admits is very close to what the band is about.

“That whole situation is what we’ve been doing for years now. We’re still a young group, relatively speaking. Every time we do something, things get a little more refined, a little closer to what we want to be in our heads,” he said. “And I think we get a little better vision of what we would like to do in the future. That’s what I like about being in the group.”