Renard Poche Harnesses The Energy Of New Orleans

From the N to the O to the L to the A, Renard Poche's CD, "4U 4ME" is simply incredible. I was humming "Same Old Thing" by the Meters the other day when LisaPal told everyone on Twitter to check out the website and give the tunes a listen.

Old-school funk is where I well and truly reveal that I'm a musical mutant. i went to Brother Martin in the early-mid 1970s. One of my debate team partners introduced me to War, in between us listening to Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. The Meters actually played a BMHS homecoming dance, a big gig for them (over 1,000 people). Hanging around the basketball team (I was a sports statistician) turned me on to the Brothers Johnson, Parliament, and the Ohio Players. Then I'd go home and listen to Yes and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Total schizo. 30+ years later, however, I'm more likely to queue up a bunch of those old-school funk tunes. My son's a big part of why that happens. My 13-year old bone player's band does a lot of old school music. In fact, he told me today the BMHS band will be playing "Apache" by Sugar Hill Gang next football season. This on top of the Gap Band, Funkadelic, EWF, and DAZZ band stuff they already play.

But I digress as I listen to "Tumba." It's one thing to re-live the music of one's youth; it's another altogether to discover that someone has run with that music, updating it, kept it fresh, recharged the funk. The mixture of old school, a little of rap, classic jazz rhythms, and oh so much love and soul blend together as only a New Orleanian can make them.

The "intro" surprised me, because usually a commercial CD puts its best musical foot forward on the first track. I grabbed "4U 4ME" as a digital release, and the approach there is different. The intro is the teaser to get you to buy the other tunes. It worked on me, you can just hear the promise of good tracks in the background.

And Renard delivers, first with "Funk 4U," bringing me back to riding the basketball team bus, voice box and all. "I Thought" and its smooth sax combined with a bit of rap goes good with a Hubig's pie. The groove is definitely in full session by "Flavr," and ready to march down the street in "We R"

If "4U 4ME" was a dining experience, it would be a platonic meal.

Support NOLA musicians. Buy these tunes.