Menahan Street Band - Make The Road By Walking

You’ve heard the hook before – the staccato eighth notes, the warm horn swells, the cry of “speech.” It’s the opening to Rolling Stone’s number one song of 2007, Jay-Z’s “Roc Boys (And The Winner Is).” But those trumpets aren’t coming from some obscure 70s soul sample. Instead, Hova’s production team looked a bit closer to home for the source, finding inspiration in the 45 of “Make the Road by Walking” by Brooklyn’s own Menahan Street Band, one of the many projects for Thomas Brenneck, best known, perhaps, as the guitarist for the Dap-Kings, the Budos Band, and Amy Winehouse. Jay-Z wasn’t the only one impressed by the track, either: a local Brooklyn principal got into contact with Brenneck after hearing “Roc Boys” on the radio, which led to a school-band performance of “Make the Road by Walking.” Recorded entirely in analog in a Brooklyn home, which was often crammed with as many as seven musicians at a time, Menahan Street Band’s debut LP, Make the Road by Walking, out October 14, redefines the idea of bedroom project. Released on Brenneck’s own Dunham Records, a subsidiary of Daptone, the album is bright and energetic, sonorous and warm, effortlessly enveloping itself in the Daptone funk Brenneck has helped to make flourish but also stretching itself out amiably into new territories.

The album maintains a mood, of course – breezy but not banal, composed but not over-thought – but Brenneck’s many influences besides soul and funk, from Ethio-jazz to rocksteady to film scores, also come through expertly and clearly. This is in musicianship and production, both of which are professionally spacious: the slight tape hiss, the vibes and sax seeping congenially into the room the other occupies – a thoroughly real and passionate approach and resulting sound: “The Contender” rides along loosely on a bouncy bass and picked guitar, everything pulling together for the hook but still leaving some answers unresolved, while “Karina” layers itself nicely with thoughts of piano solos and growling horns, and the Brooklyn cool version of Philly bravado end things with “Going the Distance,” from Rocky.

Despite its studio origins, this is a band that isn’t afraid to leave the bedroom every once in a while. Their debut live performance, in fact, will be as part of the Daptone Revue, the close-out show of the Central Park SummerStage 2008 series, itself a sign of all the label has accomplished.

Though he called on the expertise from members of the Daptone family (and extended family), including Homer Steinweiss, Dave Guy, and Leon Michels, Brenneck himself played many of the instruments when the rest of the band wasn’t around. What comes out is a fully-realized depiction of his life in Brooklyn, on Menahan Street: vibrant, exciting, and of course, very soulful.