A native of the Boston area, John Funkhouser was educated at Cornell University, returning to Boston in 1992 for a Masters at New England Conservatory. He lived in New York for four years, then returned to Boston and accepted a professorship at Berklee in 2001. Besides leading his own band, FunkHouse, John is in demand as a pianist and bassist, having shared the stage with such luminaries as Grammy nominees Luciana Souza and Tierney Sutton, sixteen-year-old piano savant Matt Savage, Steve Gadd, Abe Laboriel Sr., Max Weinberg, Ran Blake, Herb Pomeroy, Natraj, and the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra. He has been featured as a soloist with New England Philharmonic Orchestra and with the MIT Wind Ensemble. Funkhouser has participated in over 30 CDs and has performed at such New York venues as the Blue Note, Birdland, Dizzy’s at Jazz at Lincoln Center, as well as the New Orleans Jazz Festival and the Kennedy Center. Several international tours have led him to perform in such diverse locations as Paris, Singapore, Aruba, South Africa, and Montreal. He has appeared on Lifetime Television, ABC’s “20/20,” NBC’s “Today Show,” and NPR. He is currently an Associate Professor, teaching bass, ear training, music theory, and ensembles at Berklee.
Greg Loughman, bass
Greg Loughman started playing electric bass at age fifteen in the small town of Zanesville, OH. He earned a Bachelor of Music in jazz studies at Capital University, where he studied electric and upright bass with Doug Richeson (bassist for a number of years with Tony Bennet), Jeff Ciampa, and Lou Fisher. While in college, he worked his way into the Columbus, OH jazz scene. Upon graduation, he quickly rose to a prominent position as one of the top freelance jazz bassists in the Midwest. After spending a year in Montana, Greg moved to Boston, where he continues to pursue an active schedule of performing and recording. He has performed with musicians including Curtis Fuller, JoAnne Brackeen, Mark Murphy, Judi Silvano, Kenwood Dennard, Greg Abate, Ray Santisi, Mark Greel, Al Vega, Grammy-nominated pianist Phillip Aaberg, guitarist Mimi Fox, Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Carlos Malta, Patti Page, actor/singer James Naughton, and the Jimmy Dorsey Big Band, among many others. His musical career has taken him on tours of the US and Canada, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, the Czech Republic, and Japan. Greg is also a faculty member at the University of Maine in Augusta and at Bowdoin College, where he teaches bass.
Mike Connors, drums
Mike Connors studied jazz drumming at Berklee with jazz greats Joe Hunt and Alan Dawson. He has toured internationally with the avant-pop group Combustible Edison, the 1999 Lillith Fair, Lisa Loeb, The Andre Rice Sextet and several national Broadway tours including, Bye Bye Birdie and Anything Goes (the Lincoln Center version). Connors has also performed for/on television shows such as "Dateline NBC", "Regis and Katie Lee", "Felicity” and commercials for Cinemax, PBS, Microsoft, NPR and more. He has played on soundtracks for the films Inspector Gadget, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Gas Food Lodging and Four Rooms.
Influences
MMW, Scofield, Metheny, Mingus, Zappa, Stravinski, Phish, all kinds of world music
Sounds Like
MMW, Bad Plus, Lyle Mays, Keith Jarrett, John Taylor
FunkHouse kicks ass, but they also caress cheek. Their music is like being thrown out of a bar by a 350 pound bouncer, and then waking to realize it was only a dream and your mother is lovingly waking you with a kiss. No, no, no.......it’s like having Mike Tyson, dressed in his finest evening gown, whispering sweet nothings in your ear, and then bite it off. They’re the jazz equivalent of the iTunes visualizer.
Or, put another way: FunkHouse is an energetic, accessible blend of modern jazz, funk, blues, 20th century classical, Indian classical, and European and American folk music which create a funky, groove oriented, fresh and original sound. Although the band consists of the standard jazz trio instrumentation of piano, bass and drums, the sound of the band is anything but standard. Fired by Berklee Professor John Funkhouser’s “explosive piano playing” (Boston Globe) and set in bold relief by Funkhouser’s “exquisite, tight originals” (The Octopus, Champaign, IL) the band stretches the limits of traditional jazz forms. One piece in the band’s working repertoire is almost a half hour of continuous music. FunkHouser draws for inspiration on great composers of extended musical works from all genres, like Charles Mingus, Frank Zappa, Igor Stravinsky, and Phish leader Trey Anistasio. Smoothly integrating composed music with improvisation, “FunkHouse takes the listener on a ride through the gamut of emotional territories,” (North Denver Tribune, Denver, CO), from wild, funky romps to sumptuous, Keith Jarrett inspired ballads to burning modern jazz. As renowned pianist Kenny Werner put it, the band is “definitely on to something special.”
FunkHouse is developing an increasing reputation, building its enthusiastic fan base one concert at a time. The band has headlined the Jazz In June festival in Oklahoma City, and has played at several major music festivals, including the Riverbend Festival in Chattanooga, TN, the Mellon Jazz Festival in Pittsburgh, PA, and Jazz In The Sangres in Westcliffe, CO. They have shared festival billings with the likes of Tuck & Patti, Javon Jackson, Mose Allison, Chicago, and Jethro Tull. FunkHouse has mounted two national tours, performing in nineteen cities including New York, Chicago, Washington DC, Kansas City and Denver. The band has played in such New York clubs as the Knitting Factory, Small’s, and Cornelia St. Café. FunkHouse was based in New York City until 2000, and is now based in Boston with a new rhythm section of Mike Connors on drums and Greg Loughman on bass.
The band has two CDs of original material to its credit: FunkHouse, released in 1998 and FunkHouse II, released in 2003, which includes two extended suites and some shorter compositions.
howdy!!! funky and his fine fair friends :) your music makes me sizzle and jerk! like i've held the prongs on a plug i'm sticking in the wall socket :D
hi guys, this is eric from mondo gecko. Just thought i would extend another thanks for playing on the all asia night last week with us. Also...i wanted to get in touch with greg...i saw that he had spent some time in montana recently and played with philip aaberg who was my piano teacher back in montana for a year! So cool that you know him...great person and teacher. Take Care!
Funkhouse lives! Great to hear from you, how's life? Things move forward here...some typical NY bs on making ends meet and so forth in the industry, but a great environment to make music in. Hope to see you around, my good man! -T
