Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber has been defying categories for over two decades, blurring the lines between funk, rock, soul and free jazz. If You Can’t Dazzle Them With Your Brilliance, Then Baffle Them With Your Blisluth Pt. Two captures that renegade energy in raw, live form. Recorded in Detroit and Ohio, the result is an improvisational summit where groove and chaos coexist in glorious balance.
From the starting tease, “Chicken Scratching Dré Shows SaxTone the Way” lays down a sly, greasy funk wiggle—bubbling bass, teasing sax and a groove that just won’t quit. Then, without warning, the epic, “Hollering Hoodoo Ghosts Conduction #1” drops you into a 12-minute cosmic sprawl of shifting tempos and controlled chaos. It’s Burnt Sugar in full command of their conduction magic, stretching sound until it snaps back funky.
The meditative “Spiritualizing” provides a brief breather before a shape-shifting cover of “Black Cow.” Steely Dan’s slick irony melts into a psychedelic funk stew, all sweat and intuition. How can you make an already funky song funkier? Burnt Sugar et. al does it. By the time “Frankenstank” kicks in, Shelley Nicole’s commanding vocals cut through like a sermon: “The world’s going crazy, the least you can do is dance!” Guitarist Ben Tyree and saxophonist V. Jeffrey Smith take the cue, shredding through the track’s electric pulse. This hits the heart and the head.
Trumpeter Flip Barnes opens “Someone to Love You” with lyrical grace before Nicole glides in, soul-soaked and unhurried. At over twelve minutes, you are left satiated, yet there is more goodness to come. The Arkestra turns it into a slow-burner that never settles. “Summertime at Paula’s Barn” re-imagines Gershwin with funk-jazz swagger, and “Inna Shelley Over Detroit” rides a hometown groove that feels both reverent and reckless.
The personnel list reads like a who’s who of Burnt Sugar lifers: Jared Michael Nickerson is holding down the low end, while Leon Gruenbaum bends tones through his talk-box. André Lassalle sets guitars ablaze as Anthony “SaxTone” Arrington and Dave “Smoota” Smith blast brass commentary. Paula Marcus keeps the whole thing grounded on congas.
This isn’t a record that plays by the rules: If You Can’t Dazzle Them With Your Brilliance, Then Baffle Them With Your Blisluth Pt. Two rewrites them mid-jam. Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber doesn’t just blur the line between genres; they obliterate it, fusing funk, jazz, rock and soul into one free-flowing celebration of improvisation. It’s messy, it’s fearless, and it’s as alive as live music gets.
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