"Imagine Mike Post Feeding funk pills to his session
men and you are there or thereabouts. Lovely stuff. 4/5"
– IDJ MAGAZINE
"With one foot in the past and the other firmly palced
on the kick drum, this new project from drummer producer Teddy
Rok looks like it has all the hallmarks of another classic. 4/5"
– DJ MAGAZINE
______________________
The
Stance Brothers is a new project of Teppo “Teddy Rok”
Mäkynen. Teddy has gained fame both as a producer and an
outstanding drummer. Teddy is the drummer of The Five Corners
Quintet and its leader on stage, to name one of Teddy’s
jazz groups. Finnish jazz press has selected him several times
as the “drummer of the year” and he has been awarded
on many occasions. His debut album “Universal Four”
by the Teddy Rok Seven received enthusiastic reviews and showed
Teddy’s skills as a composer, arranger and producer. “Universal
Four” also won the Jazz Record of the Year -award in Finland.
THE BIRTH OF THE BROTHERS
Teddy started experiencing with a 4-track cassette recorder and
2 cheap microphones round a year ago. The result was satisfying
and the idea about an imaginary soul jazz / funk band started
taking shape. When Teddy had figured out the “line up”,
meaning the different instruments that the band had, he started
to write and record the music with a clear aim in his head and
The Stance Brothers was born.
The Stance Brothers had a relatively short, but quite a productive
career between the years 1969-1973. Isiah, Dwayne and Byron
started first playing together at school and continued under the
name Stance Brothers at Dwayne’s and Isiah’s parents
garage. They recorded their music with a 2-track recorder which
Byron had borrowed from his neighbor. These recordings were never
released as the brothers were never really satisfied with the
result. The group broke up when Byron had to move to another city
and Isiah was drafted by the army. Dwayne’s bad hip (a result
of too much basketball on a concrete surface) saved him from being
drafted and he started working as a door to door salesman. This
is the point where the tracks are lost but thanks to Teddy, their
music will live.
The album, titled “Kind Soul”, which
“Steve McQueen” and “Jay’s Lament”
are taken from, is a sort of a “re-issue” of an album
that Teddy and every other vinyl junkie would have always wanted
to find from a flea market or from a dusty cellar of their godfathers
house. We hope that you are one of those people.
