Buckshot LeFonque

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Buckshot LeFonque was a musical project led by the saxophonist Branford Marsalis. The name comes from Buckshot La Funke, a pseudonym that Julian Cannonball Adderley used for contractual reasons on the 1958 album Here Comes Louis Smith. Marsalis had played with Sting, Miles Davis and others and wanted to make a new sound by combining classic jazz with rock, pop, R&B and hip-hop.

Music and breakthrough

It began as a collaboration between Marsalis and the DJ and producer DJ Premier. In 1992 Marsalis moved from New York to Los Angeles to become musical director of The Tonight Show, where Jay Leno was the new host. At his house in Los Angeles he received DJ Premier and the sound engineer Ben Austin and began work on the first album. He put together a band from jazz players of The Tonight Show Band, among them Jeff Tain Watts, Robert Hurst, Kenny Kirkland and Kevin Eubanks. Recording took place in Sony Studios in the summer of 1993.

Influence

Two albums were released: Buckshot LeFonque in 1994, largely with productions by DJ Premier, and Music Evolution in 1997, on which Frank McComb mainly sings. The trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis and the rapper Uptown also often took part. The project belongs among the attempts of the 1990s to bring jazz and hip-hop together.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1994Buckshot LeFonque
• 1997Music Evolution

See also

• Buckshot LeFonque