20th CONGRESS, SUGARMAN THREE, SKERIK, STANTON MOORE AND FAREED HAQUE SUPERJAM IN CHICAGO

Silver Wrapper Productions, Chicago's funkiest showgoers, threw an epic party of SuperJam proportions Saturday night at Subterranean, in Chicago. Combining old-school funk of the Sugarman Three with today's funk of Robert Walther's 20th Congress, and mixing in saxfrek Skerik and Stanton Moore on drums. Here's the recap, from a man known only as "The Big A".

So the opening act takes the stage. The Sugarman Three. Whoooooosh....These guys can flat out throw it down. Very funky, jazzy, boogaloo, groove music. Shake yer ass, and keep it shakin. They play this insane solid, rockin hour and a half set. People were freakin, and remember, it's just the opener.

So then around 11:30, Robert Walter's 20th Congress takes the stage. These guys truly came to play tonight. I mean an off-the-hook throw down funkaloo. They play a few tunes together as the core band, and then they invite Skerik, onto the stage. If you have never actually seen this guy play, it is quite awesome. He does some strange things to a saxophone, getting sqawks out of it, yet he somehow manages to rage hard. So you've got Skerik, the freak, and 20th Congress horn man, Chimie.

But then an even more special thing happened. That band on stage was joined by none other than Stanton Moore. Yup, shows up after Galactic opened for Counting Crows and Live at Tinley Park. Sickest! I think it was at this point when I realized, that what we were witnessing, was history being made. Unforgettable stuff. The kind of stuff that one usually hears about, but is rarely there to witness first hand. And definitely not the kind of thing that happens every Saturday night in Chicago, right? It was also at this point in the evening when I released my mind of all thoughts other than what was happening here and now in the moment. It was definitely bliss.

And the band played on...Stanton relinquished the throne back to the 20th drummer, and they were on their way again. This time joined by Neil Sugarman, saxophone player for the Sugarman Three. So now you have THREE saxophone players blowin together. I would be remiss to mention the incredible talents of the core band members of the 20th Congress. Of course Robert Walter on the organ and keys, Chris Stillwell on bass, George Sluppick on Drums, Chuck Prada the percussionist, and Chimie, the horn man, who is now fully entrenched with Skerik and Sugarman. So the saxophones are raging, we got thick bass lines, organ groovin, and who should show up at that point, Chicago's very own, Fareed Haque.

Fareed takes his time getting set up in the back of the stage, almost surveying the scene unfolded before him, of which he is about to enter. He chooses to play a nice hollow body acoustic, a Gibson style. A fine choice to provide those tasty funky licks, but he has other ideas in mind. He plugs in, and I swear, I watched the the whole groove move to another level. Literally, it was like taking these very nice funk, jazz, grooves and launching them into orbit. He brings music to new heights for me, places very few dare to dwell. I'm thinking of flying to San Francisco to see Fareed next Friday with Alan Hertz and friends.

Very intense music, nobody was sitting still, and not one soul had anything but a complete look of utter amazement and joy on their face. I think all knowing fully well they were part of something very special, and wanting to enjoy and be in every moment of that. And finally, the music ends. Its 2:40am. Over three hours of continuous tunes. No set break, no down time, three hours of solid, in your face, move yerself, whoooooshhh!