Butcher Brown

Butcher Brown makes “solar music,” forward-thinking, expansive hybrids of jazz and hip-hop infused with elements of funk, soul, rock, and every other sound under the sun. Their southern psychedelic fusion has made them jazz festival mainstays who could just as easily headline shows with the biggest names in rap and rock. In addition to touring with jazz giant Kamasi Washington and sold-out European shows, they delivered an immersive NPR Tiny Desk Concert in 2021, every improvisational leap therein stemming from the synergy and inexhaustible musical curiosity of the band’s five members: drummer Corey Fonville, producer/multi-instrumentalist DJ Harrison; bassist/composer Andrew Randazzo; trumpeter/saxophonist/MC Marcus “Tennishu” Tenney; and guitarist Morgan Burrs. Between classes at VCU’s jazz program and performances at local clubs, all congregated at Harrison’s home studio: Jellowstone. Here they recorded their 2014 debut album, All Purpose Music, a jazz odyssey that laid the foundation for a catalog that includes southern soul and rock excursions, a raucous live album, jazz-funk fusion, and an Afrobeat tribute. Butcher Brown turned a corner with their Concord Jazz debut, #KingButch, blurring the lines between soul-jazz and boom-bap. The band’s latest album, Butcher Brown Presents Triple Trey featuring Tennishu and R4ND4ZZO BIGB4ND, deconstructs big band jazz and reshapes it in their image, another brilliant blend of contemporary genre-smashing injected into the past.