Thundercat The Silent Master Behind The Genius
Famed bassist, producer and singer-songwriter Stephen Bruner aka Thundercat has recently returned to the Brainfeeder fold with his much awaited solo Jazz-Funk excursion.
Aside from his own solo projects, the legendary musician has also featured on three of Flying Lotus’s albums, Erykah Badu’s New Amerykah Part 1and Part 2 and Kamasi Washington’s The Epic. 2015 took his credentials to another level, as Thundercat made his standout contribution to one of the greatest albums of the year – Kendrick Lamar’s ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’ – since then all eyes have been firmly focused on Thundercat.
Releasing his latest mini-album, The Beyond/ Where Giants Roam, earlier this year featuring the brilliant track ‘Them Changes’. Thundercat is joined by Flying Lotus on production for six tracks as well as by the iconic Herbie Hancock who appears on “Lone Wolf & Cub”. Other Brainfeeder members Kamasi Washington, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Mono/Poly make their guest appearances on sax, strings and production.
Raised in South Central and Watts, LA – Thundercat belongs to prodigious Jazz home, his brother is the drummer Ronald Bruner Jr., in Suicidal Tendencies and his father drummed for Diana Ross and the Temptations. At only 30, he’s already amassed a staggering résumé that defies his age and the time he’s born into – he brings an originality together with a careful appreciation of the legacy of the Jazz, Funk and Soul greats.
A collaboration with Flying Lotus on Lotus’ last three records paved the way for Thundercat to finally set out on a solo project and from there led to an introduction to Kendrick Lamar. Initially enlisted to play bass on one track for the album, soon enough Thundercats ended up collaborating on most of the album with the TDE producer Sounwave. The results on ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’ were an inimitable Jazz-Funk arrangement that underlined the soundscape of the album with standout tracks ‘These Walls’, ‘Wesley’s Theory’, ‘Hood Politics’ and ‘Complexion’.
It may have been possible for those close to Thundercat to have been able to predict the extent of his creative genius though it feels like Thundercat’s legacy is one has yet to continue for a long time to come.
Don’t miss Thundercat when he co-headlines two dates of the forthcoming Internet Tour in the U.K.
25th November 2015 – The Internet & Thundercat – Manchester Academy 2
26th November 2015 – The Internet & Thundercat – London KOKO
