PizzaExpress Jazz Club (Soho)

Cultural Capital is Sexmob's 9th album, a celebration of 20 years of making music, bringing music to the people, and survival. This project is the band's first completely self produced effort with all original compositions by Steven Bernstein and recorded at bassist Tony Scherr's apartment. Conceived as "music for music lovers" the album was originally available only from the band with no copies given to press, according to Bernstein's desire to have it be "ungoogle-able". Cultural Capital released in the spring of 2017, and Sexmob is currently touring both the US and Europe in celebration of this new project.

"The Big Easy comes to Caramoor when New Orleans pianist Henry Butler teams with trumpeter/arranger Steven Bernstein and The Hot 9 for a tour through the classic early songbooks of Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton, and many more... a scintillating set in which the earliest roots of jazz were transported to the age of 21st-century postmodernism.”

Houston Press

Now celebrating its 20th year, Sexmob (Steven Bernstein - slide trumpet, Briggan Krauss - saxophones, Tony Scherr - bass, Kenny Wollesen - drums) continues to deconstruct familiar pop tunes with subversive impunity. Everything from Prince’s “Sign O’ the Times” to John Barry’s “Goldfinger,” the Grateful Dead’s “Ripple,” Nirvana’s “About a Girl,” the Rolling Stones’ “Ruby Tuesday,” Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die” and ABBA’s “Fernando” is fair game for this band of musical renegades.

And Bernstein is explicit about Sexmob not being a cover band. ”Covers to me means you play it exactly like the record,” he explains. “I just take songs that I feel have a great melody and do them in my style. So I’ll pick a tune and tell the guys, ‘Let’s Sexmob this!’ And I realize that's what jazz musicians have always done. That’s how Lester Young and Charlie Parker and Miles Davis got popular. They played the songs that everyone knew. And because they could recognize the song then that invited them into their style."

Band Lineup

Steven Bernstein (trumpet)

Briggan Krauss (alto sax)

Tony Scherr (bass)

Kenny Wollesen (drums)