Stanton Moore has been the drummer for New Orleans' favorite funky jam band, Galactic, since the early '90s. That band earned its following the old-fashioned way, by playing hard and heavy music to make audiences groove. Moore's solo projects, however, lean more toward jazz, but without ever leaving New Orleans, rhythmically speaking, for a second.
"Flyin' the Koop" is Moore's followup to 1998's very clever "All Kooked Out." The core of this latest CD is the party atmosphere he gets going with Carnival beats and second-line rhythms. He gets some serious help, though.
Bassist Chris Wood, from Medeski, Martin & Wood, lays down immensely fat bass lines that keep your feet tapping even after a song ends. On the top end, he has Karl Denson, a saxophonist who knows how to find the funk. After all, he's been doing it since the early '90s with the West Coast's answer to Galactic, the Greyboy Allstars and Denson's own band, Tiny Universe. Skerik Walton adds "saxophonics," and his solos sound more like Jimi Hendrix than any reed instrument. Brian Seeger, rhythm guitarist to many New Orleans groups, meanwhile, adds his own compositions and tight, swinging guitar on several cuts.