Funky Gumbo
Smokin' Jazz, Blues, Swing, and Funk Music
Individuals
Bill Engebretson - Drums, Bandleader
Some might consider growing up in a small rural town such as Glenwood, Minnesota, to be limiting. But Bill says that musically, he was exposed to a wide variety of styles at an early age. Thanks to his parents, the recordings of Doc Evans, Buddy Rich, and Ray Charles were frequently heard around the house. “I also liked rock oriented music and listened to Jethro Tull, Yes, Rush, and a host of other groups. I didn’t really care what style of music it was - just as long as it was good.”
Like many others just starting out, Bill gained his early experience in the school band programs and also through private piano lessons. Although piano and the concert band were of interest, he began gravitating towards the drum kit and jazz program. Eventually, Bill bought a kit and began performing with local groups in the area. “That was around 1981. It was a real growth period for me because the musicians in these bands were older and a lot more experienced than I was. Luckily, they were very patient and offered a lot of useful advice that really shaped my playing early on.”
After graduating in 1985, Bill enrolled at St. Cloud State University and studied classical percussion under Morris Brand. “Morris had studied with Fred Hinger - the former principal percussionist for the Philadelphia Orchestra and former timpanist for the New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. “I took a lot of the things Morris had learned from Fred and applied them to the drum kit. Like pulling the sound out of drum rather than pounding sound into the drum. “
In 1988 Bill moved to Minneapolis and spent the next fourteen years powering a variety of Twin City groups and artists including No Warning, The Dirty White Boyz, Hip Bone, 2nd Generation and Don King. Bill has shared the stage with such artists as Chicago’s Barbara LaShore, Twin City legend Cornbread Harris, and 1991 W.C. Handy Best Single Record co-recipient, Curtis Blake. Bill has also opened for national country recording artist Brad Paisley and was a 2005 University of Minnesota Morris featured drum set artist.
Although Bill enjoyed the wide variety of music he was performing in the Twin Cities, he decided to move his family back to Glenwood in 2002. “Naturally, the music scene wasn’t comparable to that of the larger city. So the only way to make it happen was to form a band of my own. In Funky Gumbo, we play a lot of blues, funk and R&B covers. But we usually take them way out. I’m playing my versions of classic grooves by Ray Charles, The Meters, James Brown, Average White Band, Stevie Wonder, and many others. I’m very happy with the band because my drumming style - which is decidedly funky with a good dose of jazz thrown on top - is able to really shine through. Most importantly, we stay pretty busy!”
Casey Kavanagh - Lead Vocals and Saxophones
Casey's musical odyssey began far before his time with professional musicians spanning 3 generations in the family. With music flowing rapidly through his veins, Casey never took a liking to the saxophone until highschool where he was introduced to a phenomenon called jazz. As a 2005 Graduate of The University of Minnesota, Morris, with majors in Music Performance and Jazz Studies, Casey has now been studying the saxophone for 14 years. Casey's versatility is unrivaled. He can peel the paint off the walls with the shredding of his horn, yet put you in that "special" place with a sultry solo that will make your body tingle. When not playing with Funky Gumbo, Casey can been seen with various other groups around the Twin Cities area. Casey's main influences are: James Carter, Ray Charles, Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, Kenni Holmen and Stevie Wonder.
"You...absolutely make love to that horn."
"Mmm, boy. You are the blackest white boy I've ever heard."
Tom Henchal - Trumpet
Listeners love the silver stylings of Funky Gumbo’s trumpeter, Tom Henchal. Tom hails from Eagan, MN and is currently attending the University of Minnesota Morris. Tom’s blowing is backed by ten years of study and performance – and it shows. With influences such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong and Maynard Ferguson it’s easy to see why Tom is so well rounded. Whether sailing high or riding low, Tom brings it home with a solid sense of each genre and leaves listeners and dancers wanting more.
Dustin Retzlaff - Acoustic and Electric Basses
Born on a farm near Cyrus, Minnesota, Dustin Retzlaff is not unaccustomed to hard work paying off. Dustin is a found member of Funky Gumbo, a band which has proven to be an excellent musical (and really enjoyable) experience for him.
Dustin was a saxophonist in high school, and a weak one to boot. His knowledge and learning strategies in music were obscured by car racing, farming, fixing and modifying racing engines, and other unneccesary commotion in the community. Little did he know that his priorities would soon be realigned. In the spring of 2000, Dustin was attending Auto Body school in Granite Falls, Minnesota, and decided to attend a university of Minnesota Morris Jazz Festival. An extended bass solo by current UMM bassist Travis Freudenberg changed Dustin's life forever.
Dustin decided at that moment that he wanted to study music as a bassist at UMM. "I didn't really know much about music, and it my be dramatic to say it this way, but that concert changed my life. I'm glad I went." Since Dustin's decision to study with Travis Freudenberg and James "Doc" Carlson at UMM, he has made huge strides as a student, teacher, and musician. He has performed extensively with the Jazz Ensembles, and excelled in the top ensemble for three consecutive years. Dustin was featured with two extended bass performances in UMM Jazz 1, and has also played with numerous other ensembles at UMM including the UMM Concert Band, the UMM flute Ensemble, and the UMM chamber winds. He assisted in over fifteen student recitals, thre half-recitals, and performed a senior bass recital in 2005.
Dustin was selected by audition to the prestigious UMM Honors Recital, an annual showcase for the leading musicians at the univeristy of Minnesota Morris. In the spring of 2005, Dustin was voted "most outstanding Jazz musician," an honour given annually by the Jazz Ensembles. But Dustin isn't only recognized locally. In the spring of 2004, Dustin was one of sixty bassists selected from hundreds of auditions to attend "Bass at the Beach," a week long seminar in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for the world's most promising bassists. "Bass at the Beach" is operated by Victor Wooten (5-time Grammy award winner and bassist for Bela Fleck and the Flecktones), Steve Bailey (former bassist for Dizzy Gillespie), and Mike Pope (formerly of Chick Corea). It was an eye-opening experience decorated with master-classes, clinics, private concerts, and shoulder-rubbing with arguably the best bassists alive today. "I'll never forget that experience. I hope to do it again someday!" he says. "You know, it taught me that no matter where you are musicially, you can learn something from anybody."
Looking ahead to the future, Dustin is busy preparing for the release of some new material on Funky Gumbo's debut CD, as well as a shared concert with guitarist Thomas Nordlund on the 2nd of April, 2006 at the UMM Recital Hall. Dustin is also providing harmonic and rhythmic foundation in Tom's senior recital on February 28th, as well as performances with the UMM Concert Band and Orchestra until May.
Farther ahead, Dustin's goals include graduate school for Jazz Studies at the critically acclaimed Music Department at the University of North Texas. Asked about his pursuance of Graduate Studies, he just smiles and says "Gotta keep goin', ya know? I'm still on a roll, and I've got a long way to go yet." A persistent musician is never satisfied, it seems.
Thomas Nordlund - Guitar
Thomas was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He raced his twin brother on big wheels and hunted turtles around Lake Alice in Fergus Falls for about six years until his parents decided it would be best if their children possessed the power of real Wisconsin cheese and moved to Madison. After discovering a tarnished trumpet in the dark corner of an upstairs bedroom closet along with a pair of guitars and the banjo his father assembled after Vietnam, he knew that although they seemed to produce strange and sometimes unpleasant sounds, they could also produce what was on all of those Beatles records in his brother's bedroom, if only he could decipher so many black dots and lines. And so he joined the middle school concert band and gained the assistance of his mother and brother in his endeavor to learn a few chords on the guitar. Soon after he was recording the entire White Album in his bedroom and learning about improvisation from a friend of a friend who had been playing the drumset since he was born. In high school he joined the jazz ensemble, continued with concert band, and crooned a bit with the vocal jazz cats. He and his brother broadened their ears and learned about library fines by bringing home piles of recordings every week from the public library. During this time he had the opportunity to perform with many small combos and attend numerous summer jazz clinics throughout Wisconsin, including Birchcreek and Whitewater. In the spring of 2006 Thomas will graduate from the University of Minnesota Morris with a B.A. in music performance. He intends to pursue a graduate degree in jazz guitar or composition.