Hip Bones

FEB - MARCH 2011

For immediate release
New Hip Bones Dates!
Feb. 22-March 1, 2011

Hip Bones returns to the S.F. Bay Area for seven shows, beginning on Tuesday, February 22 at the Panama Hotel in San Rafael, and ending Tuesday, March 1 at Yoshi’s in San Francisco. See the complete list of Bay Area shows below.

...Bad long before The Bad Plus, Hip Bones has been called “renegade jazz,” “psychedelic funk,” and “monsters of the mash-up.” It has been written, “These gentlemen push the boundaries of jazz…and get away with it!”
Hip Bones’ music combines funk and dub-flavored original instrumentals, along with spirited psychedelic covers from such diverse sources as Jimi Hendrix, The O’Jays, Sting, and Freddie Hubbard. Hip Bones has released two CDs, Threedom and 4. They are working on a new release recorded in Nashville with Grammy-winning engineer/producer Bil Vorndick (Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, Allison Krauss).
...A trio that plays more like a five-piece, Hip Bones gives jazz a good name, bringing new listeners into the fold each performance with their imagination, irreverence, tasty musical impressions and improvisations. “I’d always wanted to do an all-instrumental band. I think it gives the audience more of a chance to use their mind and heart and get out of it what they want,” says the band’s founder, drummer Robin Tolleson.
Tolleson and saxophonist/flutist/composer Gary Schwantes have been playing together in Hip Bones since 1998. Tolleson studied drums with Narada Michael Walden and has recorded with Gregory James, Instruments of Peace, The Secret B-Sides, and others. Schwantes studied with Anthony Braxton, and has played with Lou Harrison, Pam Tillis, Klezmania, and leads the genre-bending Ultra World X-tet. Bassist Shannon Hoover, from Greenville, SC, began playing with The Bones in 2008. Shannon has become well-known to music fans in the Southeast through gigs with Bobby Lee Rodgers, Yonrico Scott, Jeff Sipe and others.


Hip Bones in Concert Click here for more info
Tues. Feb. 22..........Panama Hotel, 4 Bayview St., San Rafael, CA 7pm
Weds. Feb. 23........Mojito, 1337 Grant Ave., San Francisco, CA 9pm
Thurs. Feb. 24.........Servino, 9 Main St., Tiburon, CA 7pm
Fri. Feb. 25.............Private Party, San Francisco
Sat. Feb. 26........... Jupiter, 2181 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 8pm
Sun. Feb. 27...........Aqus Café, 189 -2nd St., Petaluma, CA 2pm
......................(also)Caffe Divino, 37 Caledonia St., Sausalito, CA 7:30pm
Tues. Mar. 1...........Yoshi’s, 1330 Fillmore St., San Francisco, CA 8pm
                             ..with The Aaron Goldberg Trio featuring Eric Harland and Matt Penman

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HIP BONES ANNOUNCES FALL 2010 FUNK STIMULUS

Hip Bones, the jazz-funk-dub trio based in San Francisco, CA, and Asheville, NC, has new performances scheduled in the Bay Area. Following its successful Southeast Summer Funk Stimulus in July of 2010, Hip Bones presents its Fall Funk Stimulus October 22-27.

Click here for tour Dates

Drummer Robin Tolleson and saxophonist/flutist Gary Schwantes have been playing together in Hip Bones since 1998. Tolleson studied drums with Narada Michael Walden and has recorded with Gregory James, Instruments of Peace, and The Secret B-Sides. Schwantes has performed and recorded with groups under his name as well as Pam Tillis, Klezmania and many others and leads the World Fusion group Ultra World X-tet. Bassist Shannon Hoover, from Greenville, SC, began playing with the Bones in 2008. Hoover is becoming well known with music fans in the Southeast through gigs with Bobby Lee Rodgers, Yonrico Scott, Jeff Sipe and others.
Hip Bones music combines funk and dub-flavored original instrumentals, along with spirited psychedelic covers of music from such diverse sources as Bob Marley, Radiohead, Miles Davis, The OÕJays, Nirvana, Cream, Jimi Hendrix and Sting. Hip Bones has released two CDs, Threedom and 4, on Groosion Records.

Below is a review of Hip Bones show at Awful Arthers Towers, Roanoke VA, last summer.

Within its first couple of numbers, Hip Bones showed what it is all about Ð angular melodies, time-twisting rhythmic figures and fluent solos, often over hard-grooving loops.
Saxophonist Gary Schwantes solo over the chorus of set-opener Riptide was sly and adventurous. Underneath Schwantes work, bassist Shannon Hoover filled out the space in between with chords that evoked thoughts of Jaco Pastorius and Oteil Burbridge. Hoover ran through his own snaking, tasteful solo with a loop of the bottom-end bass pattern accompanying him. Drummer Robin Tolleson handled the mid-tempo jazz/funk number with solid understatement, dynamics and syncopation.
Schwantes provided hip compositions to go along with his skillful playing. In addition to the thick, laid-back grooves of Scram and Country Chicken, with their Mike Stern-style melody lines, the band made good use of cover material such as NirvanaÕs ÔHeart-Shaped Box and The PoliceÕs ÔWalking On The Moon. Schwantes split time among his saxophones and a flute. He's definitely a good sax man, but I could listen to him play flute all night.
The band moved into a slow, contemporary swing called The Core. It was reminiscent of the standard ÔSummertime,Õ but here, the living was greasy. Tolleson was deep in the pocket as the groove shifted into double-time. Schwantes nailed the outside-the-box lines, and again, Hoover soloed over a loop he had set up during the tune. This is a trio, but it plays like a four- or five-piece act.
Other highlights included covers of Cream's Sunshine of Your Love and a mash-up of John Coltrane's Afro Blue and Bob Marley's Get Up, Stand Up.
Skin-smackers who have been reading Modern Drummer magazine will recognize Tolleson's byline. Over the years he has interviewed great drummers including Max Roach, Dennis Chambers and Ginger Baker. Turns out, his drumming is as solid and tasteful as his writing. But saxophonists and bass players anyone interested in quality jazz, funk and world music, for that matter can find plenty of interest in Hip Bones.

Tad Dickens, Roanoke Times 7-1-10

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Oct. 2008

The Oct. 2008 tour was fantastic.
We had 2 really fine Bass players with us on this adventure. Shannon Hoover, from Anderson, SC and Grant Cuthbertson from Asheville, NC Some highlights: our first ever gig in Savannah, GA...playing the Jazz on the Square festival in Spartanburg, SC...Giving a High School Jazz Band Master Class in Henderson NC...a wild night at the Downtown Club in Knoxville, TN

Bones with Shannon Hoover at Bohemian Cafe-Greenville, SC

G and Grant Cuthbertson

Nov. 2007

Oct. tour was a blast. Highlights included shows with Col Bruce Hampton
at Stone Fest in Greenville S.C., and with EOTO at the Pour House in Charleston S.C.
The tour ended in Nashville with a gig at Windows on the Cumberland and a day of recording at the "Moose Lodge" with Bil Vorndick.

October 2007
Hip Bones Tour. Oct. 12-23.

San Francisco Trio Presents A Summer of Love Anniversary Psychedelic Funk Celebration...
Hip Bones, touring behind the band's fourth CD, 4 (2007 Groosion Records), will play at The Pour House on Wednesday, October 17 with EOTO (Travis and Jason of String Cheese).

For the Summer of Love Anniversary Psychedelic Funk Celebration Tour, Hip Bones will perform a feast of music from "the day"-- instrumental versions of Beatles, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Temptations, along with Nirvana, Radiohead and original jazz funk..

Hip Bones recently performed with Bonerama at the Boom Boom Room in San Francisco, headlined at Soho in Santa Barbara and at Twins Jazz in Washington, DC, and opened for Blueground Undergrass at the Pour House in Charleston.

Rob with EOTO

Bones @ Nashville Airport