March 28: Foreside Funk – catch the vibe at The Stone Church

No matter the style, music has a way of sparking a reaction from whoever is listening. It could make them bang their head, do the moonwalk, become a one-person mosh pit or simply dance to the best of their ability. Funk has a knack for pulling off the latter and when you’re seeing and hearing it performed live, the mood of the room instantly changes with the flowing rhythms. In New England, few bands embrace this genre as much as Foreside Funk, who hail from Kittery, Maine. Folks around Newmarket and the surrounding areas will get the chance to see this act do their thing on stage at The Stone Church at 8 p.m. with local organ trio J3ST kicking the night off.

I caught up with saxophonist and co-founder Stefan Vittori ahead of the show about him originally being from Europe, what initially made him cross the Atlantic, and Foreside Funk’s plans for an original debut album.

Website: The Stone Church – Craft Beer. Live Music

Address: 5 Granite St, Newmarket, NH 03857

Tickets: Portsmouth NH Tickets | Foreside Funk w/ special guests J3ST

Rob Duguay: You’re originally from Austria, and you studied jazz drumming in Vienna where you performed with jazz, rock and R&B bands. What was that experience like for you learning in that city and how much of it has had an effect on you as a saxophonist?

Stefan Vittori: It was great. During that time, I was in my young years and it was perfect for what I’m doing now with Foreside Funk. It really gave me an understanding of music and the theory of things while learning the genres of jazz and blues, so it was a great experience doing that.

RD: What initially made you want to move to the United States from Austria? Was it to further your studies or was it something else?

SV: It was family. My wife is originally from South America, but she grew up in Boston and we met in Vienna. Then after 15 years, we left because her mom and her dad lived in the Framingham area and her father passed away, so that’s why we came to the States. I quickly found work here, and that’s how we got started. We eventually moved to Portsmouth when I started working with an architectural firm, which at the time was the biggest north of Boston.

RD: Very cool. When it came to starting Foreside Funk, the band consists of 12 members, so how did you put together the lineup?

SV: After I moved here, I hadn’t played any music for years. Then our boys grew up, they left the house and I wanted to get back into playing music. I’ve always loved the saxophone, so I was looking to get back to learning the instrument. I started attending classes at the Portsmouth Music & Arts Center, which has a great community for musicians who have played an instrument before and wanted to get back into the craft. My teacher there was Eric Klaxton, who started the Soggy Po Boys, and I started taking lessons with him in tenor saxophone along with Matt Langley, who was quite a celebrity of the Seacoast back then. I just kept on taking lessons, I played in the PMAC Jazz Big Band, I started playing in ensembles and I became friends with musicians from around the Seacoast and the Portsmouth area.

Those friendships grew, the connections grew and then I started my first band, which was Bucket List Jazz Fusion, in 2017. Those were all colleagues and musicians from PMAC and we had a lot of fun playing music that was more of a funky jazz feel. Then two years later, I also co-founded another band called SheFunk, which was a 15 piece funk band that started in 2019. The lead singer was the founder of that band together with me, she was a professional musician for a long time with her husband in Philadelphia and we had always wanted to create a funk band. SheFunk grew with some really top musicians, but then COVID hit and the band broke up, but I kept Bucket List Jazz Fusion going on the side. I wanted to keep going with horn-driven funk music.

I really like bands like Lettuce, but SheFunk played more stuff by Earth, Wind & Fire and Tower Of Power. The guitar player and the drummer who were both in SheFunk also wanted to keep on going with a funk band, so that’s how we started Foreside Funk. The trumpet player Gary Lorusso and the trombone player Justin Leach joined up as well, and then I brought in the percussionist and vocalist from Bucket List Jazz Fusion, Anthony Gallo, and the keyboardist from that band, Dan Will. It’s kind of a combination of two groups.

RD: What are your thoughts on this upcoming show at The Stone Church? Have you guys played there before?

SV: SheFunk played The Stone Church back in 2019 and it’s a great venue to play at. It’s one of the oldest venues in the Seacoast and when I moved here, I really wanted to play at The Stone Church. It’s a great music club and they also give chances to local bands, so that’s how SheFunk got to play there. Since then, Foreside Funk has really taken off, we have a following now and it’s going to be a fun time. We played there twice last year and we’re hoping to have another show at The Stone Church in the fall, but I have to be careful because we also play at Jimmy’s Jazz Club in Portsmouth and at Old Longfellow Square in Portland. There’s a 50 to 75 mile radius clause, so it’s pretty difficult.

RD: Yeah, I can see that. Going into the future for the remainder of the year, does Foreside Funk have any plans to record? What are some goals you have for the band in 2025?

SV: We started playing covers, of course, stuff by Lettuce, Herbie Hancock and Dumpstaphunk among others. This year, we completely changed the setlist from last year with a new guitar player, a new drummer and a new keyboard player. With the new formation, we’ve also added some originals that we’re going to be debuting at The Stone Church. We want to write more originals, eventually record and hopefully by the end of the year we’ll have an album.