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Jazz, blues, funk and fusion meet in the combustible sound of long-running Tampa band Acme Jazz Garage, featuring guitarist Matt Swenson, bassist Philip Booth, pianist/keyboardist Jody Marsh, saxophonist Rick Runion, and drummer Michael Washington. The group is sometimes joined by guest singer Shelby Sol.

Sharkskin, the second full-length album from Acme Jazz Garage, on the Solar Grooves label, is available for streaming and download, and as a CD. The 2021 album, with a mix of acoustic and electric grooves and textures, draws from mainstream jazz, Latin jazz, blues, and fusion. The group features Booth, Swenson, longtime former Acme pianist/keyboardist Bryan Lewis, and special guests: NYC tenor saxophonist Jeremy Powell (Arturo O’Farrill, Eddie Palmieri), our old friend and former gig mate; singer Shelby Sol; Michael Washington on congas and percussion; drummers Pat Close (RIP) and Dave Reinhardt; flutist Peggy Morris; and the Imperial Polk Horns — saxophonists Rick Runion and Christian Ryan, trumpeter Jen Ryan, and trombonist Alex Belliveau. Sharkskin was recorded, mixed and mastered by John Stephan at the historic Springs Theatre in Sulphur Springs, Tampa.

Sharkskin already has aired on about 25 jazz and community radio stations across the US, and is picking up great reviews.
”Sharkskin's iridescent, color-shifting quality is its essence: Jazz, blues, rumba, funk, standards, piano reflections and contemporary balladry are interwoven with accents including a hot vocal, romantic sax emerging from jammy organ-and-horn passages, and dance rhythms turning into fandangos,” writes jazz critic and author Howard Mandel in the liner notes. “All spring from bonded personnel, who, with assists from a few pals, seem capable of anything.” Says jazz journalist Ken Franckling: “There is much to love on this second recording from Tampa FL-based Acme Jazz Garage, with support here and there from some of the quartet’s musical friends. Moods shift from tune to tune as they dig deeply into a mix of straight-ahead jazz, blues, funk and Cuban rumba – all filtered by the band’s modern sensibilities.” Writes Tom Henry, of the Toledo Blade: “Sharkskin is Acme Jazz Garage’s second album, and … there’s no sophomore letdown. It’s a wonderful mix of jazz, blues, rumba, funk, and other styles in a fairly taut, 12-song package.”

The Florida-based group, organized in 2011, has played its eclectic, groove-driven music for receptive audiences at the Gasparilla Music Festival (twice), Clearwater Jazz Holiday, WMNF Tropical Heatwave (3 times), Child of the Sun Jazz Festival, The Palladium at St. Petersburg College (twice), HCC-Ybor’s Mainstage Theatre, Skipper’s Smokehouse, The Independent, Ella’s Americana Folk Art Cafe, New World Brewery, The Ale & the Witch, the Green Parrot, and many other festivals, venues, and private events. The group held a residency at Timpano Chophouse in Tampa’s Hyde Park Village, beginning in 2012 and playing twice-a-week there from March 2014 until the pandemic-forced shutdowns in March 2020.

Acme Jazz Garage, the band's first full-length recording of original music, had Acme Jazz Garage joined by special guests including conga master Gumbi Ortiz (of Al Di Meola’s band), singer Whitney James, and saxophonist Jeremy Powell, along with veteran Tampa Bay area musicians Rick Runion and Austin Vickrey on saxophones, trumpeter Ron Wilder, and vibraphonist Sam Koppelman.

The CD, released in 2016, is "a solid collection of revivalist funk and swing ... influences rooted in '70s fusion, and the various contemporary pop styles that surrounded it," says Relix magazine. "A capable excursion through one of the more playful eras of America's cultural history." Acme Jazz Garage received extensive airplay on Tampa stations WUSF, 89.7 FM & WMNF, 88.5 FM & also was heard on about 35 other US radio stations, appearing on the JazzWeek airplay chart. Ask your local jazz station to play Acme. Recorded and mixed with Stephan at the Springs, it was mastered by Ruairi O'Flaherty in L.A., and like all of the band’s music is available on the Solar Grooves label through iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, and other outlets.