News

Hip Bones holds CD launch party at Southern App

Hip Bones Gary Schwantes, Shannon Hoover and Robin Tolleson will perform Saturday at SAB.

By Bill Moss, Published: August 4, 2016

The Hip Bones, a funky jazz trio led by drummer Robin Tolleson of Hendersonville and woodwind man/composer Gary Schwantes, celebrates the release of its new CD, "The Moose Lodge Sessions," with a performance at 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6, at Southern Appalachian Brewing Co.

The trio began in San Francisco in 1993 and has played festivals and clubs from Los Angeles to Washington alongside artists such as Charlie Hunter, Blueground Undergrass, EOTO and Alan Holdsworth.
The band is known for creative arrangements blending material from sources like Sting, Peter Tosh, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, The Beatles, Prince, Nirvana, and D'Angelo.
“We've always wanted to camouflage [our jazz chops] in Hip Bones, writing and arranging with strong melodic content and keeping the rhythms strong, solid, and funky, danceable frequently,” Tolleson recently told The Lonesome Banjo Chronicles. “Simplicity is beautiful. Emotion. That's what I love. Creative ways to play strong grooves. We avoid traditional jazz forms too — it's interesting to vary it, interact, but remember we're playing for people.”
"It's one thing to mash up songs using studio trickery,” said Matt Wake of Greenville's Metromix. “It's another to do so onstage with your bare hands like jazz-funk trio Hip Bones does."
"The Moose Lodge Sessions" was recorded in Nashville by Bil VornDick (Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, Allison Kraus) with additional recording in Asheville and San Francisco and mixing in San Francisco by Jerry Stucker. The record features cameos from legendary soul singer Sidney Barnes (The Rotary Connection), rappers Gift of Gab (Blackalicious) and Preach Jacobs, vocalist Samantha Hyland and Snake Oil Medicine Show banjoist Andy Pond. Hip Bones recently announced worldwide distribution of "The Moose Lodge Sessions" through The Home Grown Music Network (homegrownmusic.net).
Hip Bones' Hendersonville show will feature saxophonist Steve Davidowski (the Dixie Dregs) along with bassist Shannon Hoover and drummer Robin Tolleson.
For more information visit hipbones.net and sabrewery.com.