Doors to Distant Rooms

MUSIC REVIEW: Brian J & The Pimps of Joytime

Fred Allen, one of the wittiest of all ‘40s radio comics, lamented that TV, which ended his career, was “chewing gum for the eyes.” Today’s more adventurous music lovers, sifting through Clear Channel chaff and Top 40 filler, can identify with Allen’s complaint. So much “music” is just “chewing gum for the ears.”

Wasn’t the Internet supposed to help with that? Wasn’t it supposed to open doors to distant rooms where original, impassioned music is being made without focus groups and marketing executives?

If you dig a little soul, funk and fun spicing your modern musical stew, I’ll save you some searching: Brian J & the Pimps of Joytime can be found online, at their own site and the obligatory MySpace page, and they have just the recipe for you.

And no bubblegum flavoring.

Joytime’s MySpace page features “unreleased music” including “Joytime Radio.” The tune is a Warp Speed way to get foot-tappin’ happy; no one needed to tell me that Sly Stone was a big influence. Popped bass and plucked guitar top a cool keyboard groove, with vocals halfway between sung and spoken telling the tale with a relentless, tumble-forward energy.

I had to talk with this Brian J guy.

So I did. I told him what I thought about his genre-bending style: “Reviewers have a tough time putting you in the appropriate boxes, right? I mean, it’s ‘hip hop but not’ with wordplay that’s lyrical but educational, like rap, and with this New Orleans influence that keeps everything stirred up like gumbo.”

Oh, man. Creative writing class crap. “Help me here, Brian.”

“You’re doing a fine job,” he replied. “It started out as my thing, then when I collaborated with Black Pearl [sampler, percussion, harmony vocals] that brought in more hip-hop.” With gal pal Hagar Ben Ari on bass, Chauncy on congas and vocals, and Moe Roberts on drums, Joytime makes maximum use of every sonic element and musical influence.

At their site you can hear short clips of all 12 tracks from “Brian J & the Pimps of Joytime: The Album.” You’ll want to buy the CD, though, because it’s absolute torture to get only 10 seconds or so of “Hey Mr. J,” musical love child of Curtis Mayfield and War. The sly hip-hop doo-wop of “She Do” demands to be played loud and repeatedly, while “Love Music #4” is just about the perfect R&B ballad, with doubled vocals and a Tower of Power slow funk thump and all.

This package is tight, the arrangements are right and the future -- well, the future should be bright. Right?

“We’d be playing more,” says Brian, “but [Black] Pearl is living in New Orleans so we only gig when the bucks are right. But we’re working on a fuller gig schedule, and this fall we want to hit the colleges.”

The most important thing to know about Joytime, Brian adds, is that “there’s nothing like the experience of our live show. We are a dynamic group of characters and create a cool presence on stage. The objective is to take the people higher. We don't pimp ho’s, we pimp shows."

Published in the July 2006 issue of Freshout Media.