Funktion11, a 12-piece horn band, headlined the Franklin Day Festival at Colonial Park in Franklin on Sept. 22.
The band is made up of formally-trained, world-class musicians from Julliard as well as other musical conservatories.
“They are a funk, R&B, blues and horn band,” said Frank Santora, the band’s promoter. “They play all of the standards and the covers of all the funk, R&B and jazz music. They have some original material as well.”
Santora, who has been promoting the band for about a year, has not had a hard time finding the band work. The band has a long list of accredited musicians that they have not only opened for but played with as well. From Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, to The Beach Boys and Sheila E., the high-performance band, Funktion11 does alright for themselves.
Ronnie Nalven, the band’s leader, started the band in 2005 after attending a friend’s wedding the year prior and realized he could do the same.
“I said to myself at the time, ‘I could build a band like that, someday.’ It was just a passing thought,” Nalven said. “Then, I started really thinking about getting back into music again after a long hiatus after high school. So, I joined a band in south jersey, and that band fell apart. There were four people that were left in that band who said that we should keep this thing going. We all were going to do 25 percent of the work and they eventually all left and I found myself alone. I figured I would give this a shot. I didn’t grow up thinking that I wanted to be a band leader, this wasn’t what I aspired to do.”
Nalven sent out some feelers and asked his friend, Tony Zeke if he would be interested in joining. Zeke didn’t hesitate to take up the opportunity.
“Ronnie contacted me one day and said that he needed a special guy for a special unit,” Zeke said. “I said I was his man. We went from there. We recruited a few select others and we built the rest of the band around us.”
Now, more than a decade later with years of success under their belts, Funktion11 will perform wherever they are wanted.
“We have had some highlights over the last ten years or so. We have opened for some national artists,” Nalven said. “We have about a dozen of original pieces too. We’ll pretty much work anywhere on location. We have done some travelling a bit, we go up and down the east coast. We’ll go anywhere if hired.”
Rob Edwards, a trombonist in the band, was originally from Florida. But after being recruited by Funktion11 about seven years ago, Edwards loves his new-found family.
“It’s great. When you’re with a band for this long, they become your family,” Edwards said. “Moving up here and joining a band like this, to be involved with such great quality but also really good people, it’s a testament to everyone’s character.”
Funktion11 is a rare jazz, R&B and blues cover band– it still features horns.
“We’re not an orchestra like a wedding orchestra that they hire by the piece, we are a true band,” Nalven said. “We are one of the last few large, analog horn bands that doesn’t use tracks. There are no tracks to us. Many bands use tracks big and small. What you hear, is exactly what you get with us. We are one of the last analog bands standing. Most bands, even with horns, will use computerized backing tracks, but not us. We are like an old band, like you would hear in the seventies. I am an old-school believer in what you play is what you hear. We do everything ourselves.”
Alyssa Canalichio, a singer in the group, has enjoyed her last year with Funktion11. After being recruited by the band, Canalichio notices what makes the band more diverse from other groups.
“They are really fun and upbeat,” Canalichio said. “They never miss a beat and they are different. A lot of bands usually play the same ‘Top 40’ hits you hear on the radio, and these guys you never know what you’re going to get with them. It’s always a good time, it’s a mixture of everything.”
But another difference that Funktion11 has going for them is the diversity throughout the entirety of the group.
“A woman a couple of weeks ago gave us a really nice compliment and I think this should go for life in general,” she said. “The woman said that we are very eclectic, and she loved how different we were. It was almost like looking at the United Nations because we have a lot of different ethnicities in the band and I think that should speak for everyone not only in our country, but in the world. Just to be a little more loving and caring to one another, because you never know what kind of product you can get from all the diversity.”
For more information on Funktion11, check out their website at: www.funktion11.com. For booking information call their toll-free number, 1-800-272-6573 or email Ronnie Nalven at [email protected].