Salt City Grooves

“We keep people in,” drummer Emanuel Washington says of his three-piece funk/soul/hip-hop outfit Sophistafunk. “They sit back and soak it in when they realize, ‘Oh, snap! Only two people are playing that music.’ It holds them in. They look at Adam Gold playing 18,000 keyboards all at once and they’re like, ‘Holy crap!’” The trio have honed in on their sound since meeting in Syracuse in 2007 and still call the Salt City home, though they’ve taken over stages from California to England. The multi-talented group blends Washington’s funky rhythms with Gold’s Moog mastery, topped by Jack Brown’s hip-hop-meets-Bob-Dylan spoken-word artistry. They’ve even attracted the love of Food Network star Guy Fieri, who featured the band (and Gold’s restaurant, Funk ‘n Waffles) on his program, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Since then, they’ve played his private birthday party, and at Fieri’s personal request, in March 2013 they became the first band to appear at the International Home and Housewares Show in Chicago. Though they’ve gigged around the globe, the boys still find that people react to their music just the same. “It feels very natural,” Brown says. Washington finishes the thought, “Onstage it doesn’t feel like, ‘Oh, we’re in England.’ We could be anywhere in the world. People are dancing, grooving. Just like Jack said, it’s so natural. You’d think it would be different, but people are just grooving.”