The Muzik Makerz blew the minds of several listeners at Smoken’ Joe’s BBQ & Blues last Saturday night. This five piece band featuring Maurice Starr Jr. and Bugg Nasty performed slick, smooth renditions of classic R&B numbers as well as a few of their own highly polished originals.Throughout the show the band only seemed to get better. There’s a slickness to their operation. Well-oiled, they ride like a limo, going from mellow to strident in a matter of moments. There was also an electricity coming from these guys. Faucher got fiery on guitar during several songs. You might expect to see flames coming out from between his fingertips and his fret board.
Bugg Nasty, playing rhythm guitar early on, functions almost like a second lead player. His rhythm parts had traces of sweet melody in intervals of notes he paid out like a counterpoint melody. He built atmospheres on some songs with his fuzzy leads that would keep spiraling around the main melody.
On Keyboards, Maurice Starr, remained sublime, at first a quiet, subtle presence with his understated synth lines. He eventually unpacks himself to show he is a competent master of ceremonies.
Maurice Starr cruised through some microphone malfunction, which he corrected mid-song. He was an eloquent vocalist and really wrapped his voice around the twists in the lyrics. If you heard this guy sing, you might think he was zapped by a creator who gave him a charge of unusual talent.
Bugg Nasty did some keyboard work too, when Maurice Starr was fronting at the mic. Nasty made some sweet sounds of his own up at the keyboard.
Starr practically browbeat Huff into taking a drum solo early in the show. Huff, modest, didn’t seem to want to do his solo at that point. But he did it anyway. And his solo was some kick ass stuff. He was all over his drum set, stopping long enough at each piece to smack out rapid fire rolls with varying dynamics. The crowd cheered him on, yet his facial expressions indicated he was very modest about the attention.
Starr’s original song “Summer of 62” found Mr. Nasty playing some fuzzy guitar sound that he wound around the main melody and kept it sublime all the while. Starr went on to nail the soulful mourning of “Ain’t No Sunshine” with his rich timbre pulling out the tenderness.
Some fabulous guest players turned up near the end of the first set. A saxophone man named Lawrence Terry came in and not only played well but gave off a vibe of incredibly positive energy. Terry made his sax sing like a canary with sublimated exotic sounds. This sax man played some clever exchanges with Maurice Starr’s keyboards. At one point, these Muzik Makerz sounded as progressive and subtle as Weather Report back in the day.
The Muzik Makerz got down with their version of The Temptations’ classic “My Girl.” Mr. Starr finessed the lyrics with his smoother than anything vocal and Faucher came in majestically with bend, sustain, and dynamics of the melody line.
The Bob Marley classic “Stir It Up” got a boost from Faucher’s keen sense of where to accent the notes, right over the half-beat that lives in between the whole beats. Another guest saxophone player, Jake Hiller, made his horn sing soprano until Faucher took over the melody chores and put out an echo-like lead phrase that had the sounds of the Caribbean’s in his phrase.
The band jammed on the opening riff of Bill Wither’s 1970s hit “Use Me.” After going into the main body of the song, Hiller went to town, blaring his sax lines, blowing one after another in quick succession, each line seeming to grow in stature as he went along.
The Muzik Makers, with guest singers Nate Stringfield and Sara Thompson, closed out with Michael Jackson’s “Rock With You.” Each singer rocked the crowd with their vocal highs, stretching their timbre to get to that real down and dirty soulful feeling.
