The concept of Cootie Brown was born nearly three years ago when bassist Brian Eckert formed a trio and began writing original music and performing in Central PA at venues such as Tussey Mountain, the Brewery, and the Crowbar. Near the end of 2004, the trio split and Eckert began to search for new members to continue performing Cootie Brown's music.
In November of 2005, he met guitar player Ryan Alford and immediately clicked. The two have written over 60 songs that delve into the worlds of Funk, Jazz, Reggae, Punk, Rock, all with a heavy dose of improvisation. They soon found percussionist Jacob Haqq-Misra (Jan. '06) and drummer Jim DeVoss (April '06) and melded much of their music into a four-piece band. Near the end of the summer of 2006, they recruited long-time friend and ripping southpaw guitarist Matt Fern (Aug. '06) and woodwind player Michael Fortunato (Sept. '06). In early October keys player Jordan Thompson responded to an ad and filled the last position to round out the sound of Cootie Brown.
With the players in place, Cootie Brown went underground in the fall of 2006 to hone their unique sound and create musical landscapes that reached over 5 hours of original songs. By November of that year, they played their first gig to a packed house at State College, PA’s premier venue, Zeno’s Pub. After 3 sets and 2 encores the hard work paid off when they were greeted by enthusiastic fans and landed a regular gig at the pub.
Over the next 6 months, Cootie Brown took their infectious music to the masses and began gigging twice a week. At the same time, the band recorded every free day they could find, amounting to what would become 3 full cds worth of the music. From the spring of 2007, thru the summer and into the fall, Cootie Brown gigged in and out of State College, venturing to the original music haven Burlington, Vermont. While the 3 cd’s were being mixed and engineered, the band played the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival, the Downtown State College Summer’s Best Music Fest, as well as playing such places as Nectar’s in Burlington, VT, the Monkey House in Winooski, VT, the Harrisburg, PA capitol building, and Bar Bleu in State College, PA.
Presented here are the 3 cds, crafted and arranged to provide the listener with a variety of styles and melodies to put into their ears, car stereo, house party, local bar, radio stations and anywhere else you can find to GET DOWN TO THE SOUNDS OF COOTIE BROWN!
COOTIE STRIKES BACK!!!:
All the players here are in perfect form for the next effort from the group. Adding more vocals, with heavy influences of straight up rock and roll, and continuing the reggae path, Cootie Brown Strikes Back provides fans with more grooves to get down to!
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