Recently Purchased: Bonerama’s Horns of Plenty

The trombone-funk band Bonerama were an expected pleasure in their Saturday- lunchtime set on the first weekend of this year’s New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. The group’s evolving fusion of local funk muscle, jam-rock improvisation and the horns’ big-band harmonic movement has never disappointed on stage, since I first bumped into one of their Fest shows in 2002. The surprises this year came when Bonerama opened that day with a herd-of-bison charge through the Grateful Dead’s “The Other One,” from 1968’s Anthem of the Sun, then paid tribute to their late neighbor, Alex Chilton, with a brawny medley of “The Letter” by the Box Tops and Big Star’s “O My Soul,” with the ‘bones taking over for the guitars in the latter’s growling off-kilter riff. For those moments alone, I had to get that set to go. Bonerama, April 24th, 2010 (Jazz Fest Live) is available as a CD or download at munckmusic.com, along with other great performances from both weekends of Jazz Fest 2010.