M'lumbo is a long-running, critically acclaimed band based in NYC, whose music spans several genres jazz, electronic, rock, hip-hop and incorporates sounds and rhythms of the world's cultures and traditions Western orchestral, African, Latin, Asian. Founded in the mid-1980s by working rock and session musicians with broad musical backgrounds, M'lumbo was conceived as a vehicle for eclectic, hand-made music free of the mannerisms of any era but free also to reference any of them. From the start, the band's music has featured improvisation, interplay, and a wide dynamic range from relaxed and sparse to intense and many-layered.
Material on M'lumbo's earliest releases was a mix of originals and innovative cover versions which gained recognition and acclaim,
and ensuing airplay. Some of the band's covers Mickey Mouse, Movin' On Up (Theme from The Jeffersons), Hawaii Five-O have been among their most popular tracks. In the later 2000s and early 2010s, M'lumbo would return to covering pop-culture "standards" with versions of such favorites as Hawaii Five-O revisited, Sesame Street and Beat It.
Except for a period in the early 1990s, M'lumbo's music has had few sung lyrics, but it has often had vocals: many songs have some speaking or singing, found, cut up, or performed by band members, of varying prominence, ranging from incidental color to hooks and even dialog or narration that functions like a lead vocal.
As a band and individually, M'lumbo and its multimedia crew have done creative work for hire for various well-known performers and national brands. Such work doesn't always result in credits, but often enough it has: drummer Dr. Jaz Sawyer has recorded and performed with many notable artists, including Abbey Lincoln, Wynton Marsalis, George Benson, Bobby Hutcherson;
Director and Director of Photography Matt Bass has an extensive reel comprising commercials, documentaries, and music videos.
In 2020 M'lumbo released its most recent two albums on Ropeadope Records, Fairytale Aliens and Celestial Mechanics.
M'lumbo has been active through the pandemic, writing and recording new material, collaborating mostly remotely with each other and with special guests Jane Ira Bloom and Page Hamilton. The result has been a couple of albums of new material that will see release in 2023 (see below, During and Since the Pandemic).
History
Beginnings
M'lumbo was founded in the mid-80's by Robert "M'botto" Ray and "Zombie" Ron Boggs as an escape from commercial music. They were then, amongst other projects, in a mainstream "rock" band managed by Mick Jagger's manager, which included Page Hamilton. Page would go on to play with Glenn Branca and found Helmet, but enjoyed M'lumbo since its earliest days and in later years has collaborated with the band (see below, Page Hamilton).
Its earliest, hand-made cassette releases were instrumental, semi-acoustic, African-inspired, live performances of originals and reimagined, sometimes medleyed covers (Mickey Mouse, The Lion Sleeps Tonight, The Flintstones, Perry Mason, In A Gadda Da Vida, Crossroads/Hava Negila/others), performed as structured pieces that allowed for improvisation and for cued or gradual transitions between sections. The constraints and opportunities of live recording placed a premium on listening and playing in supportive or complementary ways, and more quietly than loudly. These aspects of the band's aesthetics have endured to the present day.
The cassettes began selling well at local East Village record stores (Tower Records, Sounds, Multikulti, Generation, Kim's Video, others), leading to radio play on over 100 U.S. stations and many appreciative reviews which compared their sound to Sun Ra, electric Miles Davis, King Sunny Ade, and The Bonzo Dog Band.
Their first public performance was at the original Knitting Factory (they would go on to play at all three Knitting Factory locations, regularly at the second — *see below [link to section]), and soon thereafter in the Masters of Modern Music series at St. Ann's Cathedral.
This version of M'lumbo released the band's first CD, Life After Death (1991), a collection of new tracks plus digital releases of tracks from their three cassettes.
M'lumbo has since been featured on many public, college and progressive radio stations worldwide, including syndicated shows featuring their music, including John Schaefer's New Sounds; All Mixed Up with Peter Bochan, Michel Pollizi's show Le Melange on Radio Libertaire.