ABOUT THE CITY CHAMPS
The City Champs are the latest in a long lineage of Memphis musicians to grab the mantle
of funky, soul-jazz instrumentals pioneered by acts like Booker T & the MGs, Willie Mitchell
and The Bar-Kays.
“The Safecracker” features 7 prime cuts of Memphis Stax inspired soul-jazz and funk, produced and engineered by Memphis producer and film composer, Scott Bomar
(the Bo-Keys, “Hustle & Flow” & “Soul Men”) at his Electraphonic Recording studio. The sessions were tracked and mixed entirely on analog tape—Bomar used his Scully
1” 8-track machine, which was the same model used at Stax, Muscle Shoals Sound, and Chip's Moman’s American Studio.
The City Champs are lead by guitarist, Joe Restivo, who holds a BFA in Jazz Studies from the prestigous New School, in the Jazz and Contemporary Music program,
where he studied with Jack Wilkins, Junior Mance, Cecil Bridgewater, and Phil Markowitz.
Organist Al Gamble, hails from the Muscle Shoals, Alabama region, and has performed live and on recordings with such notables as Rufus Thomas, Syl Johnson, Alex Chilton, and the Memphis Horns.
Drummer George Sluppick is a native Memphian who has spent most of his life on the road performing live and recording with JJ Grey and MOFRO, Ruthie Foster,
Albert King, Robert Walter's 20th Congress, and George Pajon Jr.
The
Vinyl is mastered straight off analog tapes, directly to disc by Larry Nix on same Neumann lathe he used daily at Stax.
