HISTORY
The Jazzrascals first met on a training scheme for the unemployed in Manchester, England. They made music together for the first time in Bernie Hot Hot, where they rapidly made a reputation for themselves, culminating in the support slot for Smokey Robinson.
After a brief spell as Smile, formed with ex-Bernie Hot Hot members, and in Kalima, cult Factory jazz group, they started their chequered career as Reel Funk Inc which got them critical success, airplay but no money. Mostly they just dealt with rapidly mounting legal bills and communication with the management by fax.
This experience with the music business in all its tarnished glory was just too close to the Ruth Fraser novel excerpt used in all the early Reel Funk Inc promotional material. Time to cut loose...
The Jazzrascals started back at square one - home studios, jamming at local clubs, sampling, composing. This time they were looking for another way of distributing the stuff they were producing. The internet was the solution.
Now all promotion and distribution is tightly controlled by the Jazzrascals organisation, with the internet as the primary route.
And most of the stuff is free too.
