Papa Grows Funk turns 5
by Keith Spera • New Orleans Times-Picayune • April 8, 2005
Idle Monday nights led to a full-time gig for John "Papa" Gros.
To fill his open Monday nights he launched an informal New Orleans funk project, Papa Grows Funk, at a weekly residency at the Old Point Bar, later moved to the Maple Leaf.
Papa Grows Funk is now Gros' main gig, with two CDs -- 2001's "Doin' It" and 2003's "Shakin' " -- and 200 shows annually on a touring circuit that extends from coast to coast and to Europe and Japan. PGF songs have turned up during broadcasts of Major League Baseball's championship series and the National Basketball Association finals. After a Sunday evening set at the French Quarter Festival, the band celebrates its fifth anniversary Monday at the Maple Leaf.
"It's taken on a life of its own," Gros said. "We've found that there's a market for what we do, and it seems to keep getting bigger and bigger."
Gros is joined by guitarist June Yamagishi, saxophonist Jason Mingledorff, alternating bassists Marc Pero, and drummer Jeffrey "Jellybean" Alexander, who replaced Russell Batiste early this year. A typical set may include Mardi Gras funk, "Sea Cruise" or other rhythm and blues classics, original material and jams.
And they never work from a set list.
"All the tapers who record us always want to know what songs we play," Gros said. "I tell them to send me a copy (of the tape) and I'll e-mail the list, because I have no idea."
They plan to record this week's anniversary show, plus two Jazzfest gigs, for a live album.
"We've spent five years working on our musical communication onstage, so it's at a high level," Gros said. "We don't practice a lot, we don't talk about it. But when we're playing, everybody's completely into what's happening at the moment. We've turned five great individual musicians into a band."
In Japan, they've sold 3,000 copies of their two CDs. In early 2004, several hundred enthusiastic Japanese fans grooved to PGF at Club Quattro in Tokyo.
"It was like the Beatles," Gros said. "In the first song, when we went into June's first solo, whoever was sitting down was screaming and jumping up and down. It was wild."
New York, San Francisco and Colorado have long embraced Papa Grows Funk. But plenty of markets remained untapped, as recent forays into Texas and south Florida made clear.
"Five years into it, I've learned there are people that want to hear us," Gros said. "And they're excited when we show up. And it's not just here. That gives us the momentum to keep going forward."