On Saturday, November 19, Chris Frantz of Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club fame will present Residual Groove, a funk-fusion, improv-heavy dance band out of Fairfield County, and contemporary singer-songwriter Brian Dolzani.
The concert is a music collaboration and production by Verso Studios at The Westport Library and the Westport Weston Chamber of Commerce. The Chris Frantz Presents series features up-and-coming regional, national, and international talent, hand-picked by Frantz, with the goal of bringing new music to new ears and to be an incubator for rising talent.
Residual Groove is a five-piece Funk-Fusion band out of Norwalk, featuring brothers Previn Edwards (guitar/vocals) and Kiran Edwards (keys/vocals), Francesco Perrouna III (bass/vocals), Henry Thomas (drums), and Garrett Halstead (percussion). With a healthy mix of groovy originals and surprising covers, Residual Groove joins their influences and creations together through tasteful segues and spontaneously improvised segments.
Dolzani is a contemporary singer/songwriter that possesses an old soul. A listen to his music makes that point abundantly clear. So too, the fact that he lists any number of 1960s and 70s songwriters as prime influences — Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Cat Stevens, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash to Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, and Credence Clearwater Revival, among them — suggests that his roots reside in a great storytelling tradition. Like his forebears, Dolzani is all about to creating a connection to his audiences through the expression of innermost emotion. In the process, he shares a sound that is vibrant, engaging, and enticing, and like his heroes, flush with both meaning and magic.