Lefties Soul Connection

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Lefties Soul Connection

Lefties Soul Connection is a raw, largely instrumental funk band with an important role for the Hammond organ. Their internationally respected music is inspired by The Meters and other, more obscure funk and soul bands from the sixties and early seventies, plus influences from mod, garage rock, breakbeat and hiphop.
Full biography

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Members

Alvin Bartels   orgel, percussie
Cody Vogel   drums
Onno Smit   gitaar, percussie, zang
Pieter Bakker (2)   basgitaar

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Former members

Paul Willemsen   gitaar, percussie
Bram Bosman   basgitaar, percussie

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News archive

Hind met Lefties Soul Connection op stap (2/19/09) 
Vertrek bassist Lefties Soul Connection (10/7/08) 

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Concerts & Festivals

by Podiuminfo / Festivalinfo

6/2/12, Dongen Draait Door, Dongen
6/15/12, De Doelen, Rotterdam
6/16/12, Indian Summer Festival, Broek op Langedijk
6/29/12, Concert at Sea, Brouwersdam, Nederland
7/6/12, North Sea Jazz, Rotterdam
7/14/12, Bokpop, Valkenb urg a.d. Geul
7/14/12, Breda Live, Breda
More results Less results

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Biography Lefties Soul Connection

Lefties Soul Connection is a raw, largely instrumental funk band with an important role for the Hammond organ. Their internationally respected music is inspired by The Meters and other, more obscure funk and soul bands from the sixties and early seventies, plus influences from mod, garage rock, breakbeat and hiphop.

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2001

Alvin 'Alviz' Bartels performs as a DJ at the Struttin' nights at the Amsterdam club Bitterzoet, where he plays raw funk with his co-promoters, DJs Taco Fett & Lord Fader. In order to perform the music live himself, he contacts guitarist Onno Smit (with whom he played in the funk band The People Tree) in August to start the band Lefties Soul Connection. With Alviz on Hammond organ, a bassist and drummer Cody Vogel the band gives its first performances at the Amsterdam clubs Mazzo and Panama. In this period Lefties Soul Connection plays mainly instrumental covers of tunes by The Meters, Booker T. & The MG's, The Mighty Imperials and Larry Ellis & The Black Hammer.

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2002

Early in the year Bram Bosman becomes the regular bassist. The band starts writing its own material, which they perform at the soul nights at the Amsterdam venues Melkweg and Paradiso where they are joined regularly by the English MC Gee. During one of his Struttin' nights Alviz meets the owner of the German label Melting Pot Music. The meeting results in the Lefties Soul Connection's first release: the 7'' Doin' The Thing (December).

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2003

The band continues to write original material and performs in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. They share the stage with foreign acts like the Soul Destroyers from England and The Sugarman Three from the States.

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2004

The second single for Melting Pot Music is Bouncing Ball (February) followed by the promo record Dutch Soul Food, featuring all of the tracks off the singles plus three new tunes. They give concerts in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Great Britain and Switzerland. At the Amsterdam Paradiso the band takes part in a jam session with soul singer Sharon Jones. In November the 6 track 12'' V2 is released.

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2005

The Lefties Soul Connection performs in France and England (at the Jazz Cafe in London's Camden Town) and at the Supernatural Funky Musique Festival in the Utrecht district Leidsche Rijn. The band also appears in the year's finale of the VPRO radio show Club 3voor12. They provide contributions to compilations and release the single Peacock Strut (April).

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2006

The single Organ Donor (January) is an arrangement of a DJ Shadow song. The 7'' is also received well abroad, and is played by the British DJ Gilles Peterson. All Lefties Soul Connection releases up to 2005 are collected on the CD/LP Hutspot. In the Netherlands this compilation is released by Excelsior Recordings. In concert the band is regularly joined by Paul Willemsen (Amigos Electricos, ex-Supersub) on guitar and percussion. In January Lefties Soul Connection are featured at the Groningen Noorderslag festival and in the summer of 2006 the band performs at festivals like Dour in Belgium and Lowlands. In the fall the musicians leave for Germany to do a series of concerts. In December their Xmas single Back Door Santa, a Clarence Carter original, is released.

Supersub

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2007

Lefties Soul Connection is featured in a special edition of Struttin' at the Groningen Eurosonic festival in January. The band also performs at both the Tilburg and Amsterdam editions of the Fret a-Live! festival organized by music magazine FRET in March/April. The single Fais Do-Do (about the old Cajun dance of the same name) is released in April, followed by the second album Skimming The Skum in late May. 'With the speed of light Lefties Soul Connection has developed into the best and coolest Dutch funk band by far', newspaper De Volkskrant writes in its review of the album. In the fall the artists' collective TwoThings makes a music video for Fais Do-Do.

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2008

At the end of the year bassist Bram Bosman leaves the band to concentrate on other styles of music.

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2009

In March and April Lefties Soul Connection does a Dutch theater tour with singer Hind.

Hind

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2010

Singer/guitarist Onno Smit invites some musical friends for his culinary music project Beans & Fatback, named after a Link Wray album. On the resulting CD Finger Licking Good!!, packaged as a cookbook, Smit mixes soul and country.

Beans & Fatback

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Discography Lefties Soul Connection

In the discography you will find all recordings that have been released listed chronologically. We restrict ourselves to the title, the type of audio, year of publication or recording, label, list of guest musicians, plus any comments on the issue.

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Photos Lefties Soul Connection

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Video Lefties Soul Connection

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