Average White Band Live @ The Pacific Jazz Institute at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley | Nov 3rd-6th, 2011

The Average White Band, widely regarded as one of the best soul and funk bands in the history of music, returns to Jazz Alley for four funk-filled nights.  For the better part of the last thirty years, the Average White Band has performed sold-out shows around the world, confirming the timeless appeal of their infectiously danceable funky soul.

In the decade when funk music grew up, a number of self-contained bands made their mark on the music world, and none more than a seemingly out-of-place group of white guys from Scotland. With a self-deprecating group name, great guitar work and the tightest hornsection this side of Tower of Power, the Average White Band stormed onto the U.S. charts in 1974 with their self-titled White Album. A blistering set of soul and funk masterpieces, AWB featured the across-the-board instrumental hit Pick Up the Pieces and a slew of now-classic cuts, including a sizzling remake of the Isley Brothers’ Work to Do and the smooth Nothing You Can Do (later covered by Tavares).

In January 1975, Average White Band’s breakout single Pick Up the Pieces and the album AWB reached the top of the pop and R&B charts. For the remainder of the decade, the group took their killer groove around the world, leaving in their wake a trail of hits such as Person to Person, Cut the Cake, Schoolboy Crush, A Love of Your Own and Queen of My Soul.  The original lineup of six Scots disbanded in 1982, sharing the fate of many R&B artists who found themselves swimming against the strong tides of disco and punk rock.  In 1989, the band regrouped around founders Alan Gorrie and Onnie McIntyre and has toured relentlessly ever since.  Most recently, the band released the record Times Squared in (2009) which includes thirteen more AWB favorites, a follow up to Soul & the City (2006).

One of the most sampled bands ever, AWB’s music has been used by over 200 hip-hop and rap artists, including Janet Jackson, Bobby Brown, TLC and P. Diddy, and has influenced a whole new generation of funk and soul acts.  In just the last few years, AWB’s Pick Up The Pieces has been given the big band treatment by Phil Collins, turned into a “musical conversation” by Chris Rock, lyricized by jazz legend Jon Hendricks, played at numerous sporting events and used by Crest and Mitsubishi for television commercials.  The song also appears in the soundtracks to the movies Undercover Brother, Swingers, The People vs. Larry Flint, Private Parts, Bowfinger and Streak. Though perhapsbest known for this timeless instrumental mega-hit, the band’s strength actually lies in their consistently accomplished song-writing, stretching across several gold selling albums and multi-Grammy nominations for the legendary Atlantic Records.