Robert Funk, a trombone player and recent Jersey City transplant, has toured with The Rolling Stones, recorded with James Brown and performed at Howard Stern’s 40th birthday bash at the Plaza hotel. Most recently, the horn player and founder of Rhythm Dynamics, a Jersey City-based music production company, released his first solo CD, Energy in Motion, a fusion of techno, Latin, space rock and world beat sounds designed to motivate and energize fitness.
“The original intent was for exercise,” said Funk – he swears that’s his real name – last week. “But it’s also appealing to the dance market. It’s really multi-faceted.”
Funk, who grew up in Colorado Springs, was introduced to music at an early age.
“My father played as a professional musician in Colorado,” he said. “On Sunday afternoons it wasn’t uncommon for us to sit around and listen to Brahms, Mozart and also Miles Davis.”
Funk started playing the trombone when he was in third grade and honed his skills at the University of Denver and Michigan’s renowned music school, Interlocken. In the late 1970s, when he felt he had exhausted his opportunities in Colorado, Funk found his way to New York.
Within his first year living in Manhattan, Funk hooked up with Cripsin Cioe, Arno Hecht and Larry Etkin and formed the Uptown Horns. The group quickly became a mainstay in the Manhattan music scene.
“We would play Tramps on 15th Street every week,” he said. “We became a regular Tuesday night thing. And we started working with musicians like Iggy Pop, Robert Plant, Joan Jett, Tom Waites, Joe Cocker and James Brown.”
In the late 1980s, the Uptown Horns were asked to perform with The Rolling Stones for the legendary band’s Steele Wall, Urban Jungle tour.
“The Stones was a tough act to follow,” he said. “I toured the world, stayed in the best hotels, played to crowds of 100,000.”
Other career highlights include performing with Willie Nelson and Tom Jones at Howard Stern’s 40th birthday party at the Plaza Hotel and meeting Sammy Davis Jr., while doing a David Letterman gig in Las Vegas. Vegas was where he met Sammy Davis Jr. “I get amazed at what we did sometimes,” he said.
In 1997, after the he helped compose and produce the critically acclaimed Uptown Horns Revue CD, Funk moved to Jersey City with his wife and young daughter.
“We moved here partially for the real estate and partially because we found a really nice school, the Cornerstone School, for our daughter,” Funk said. “We have a view of the New York harbor and the Statue of Liberty. And we like the multi-ethnic mix. There is a really nice low-key, down to earth vibe here.”
Since he has made his way across the Hudson, Funk continues to work with the Uptown Horns. But he has also set out on solo ventures, like Energy in Motion, which is the third hour of music Rhythm Dynamics has produced. Funk’s future projects include a solo CD of his trombone playing.
Last week, when he was asked, “Why the trombone?” Funk simply replied, “I wish I had some profound explanation, but I don’t. They just handed me a trombone in third grade and I never had the sense to put it down.”
The Energy in Motion CD can be purchased through Rhythm Dynamic’s web site at www.rhythmdynamics.com.