With his new album “Back to My Roots,” David Mash takes us back to his musical beginnings in Detroit and creates a wonderful set of engaging and infectious music for your listening pleasure. Bruce Nifong brings the sax and David covers the rest of the band with compelling instrumental music perfect for a weekend by the fire or a drive through your favorite landscape. It’s the perfect soundtrack for anything you want to do. It’s funky, it’s fresh, and it’s ready to groove – “Back to My Roots” is out March 14, 2025 on all digital platforms and limited edition CDs.
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Photos of Bruce Nifong courtesy of Greg Weintraub
Drain The Swamp
I originally began this piece while working on my “Sonic Doodles” album, but the musical style didn’t fit with that collection. So this piece really set the tone for this album. The title came from a political campaign slogan that I found particularly ironic. So I started the piece with the title, and went about trying to create a swampy groove, which led to the bass line. The groove set the mood for me, and the rest followed. Immediately after the bass and drums came the funky guitar lick, which harkened back to my beginnings as a guitarist growing up in the heyday of Detroit in the 1960s. Great music, Motown, Jazz, Michigan Rock, and with this tune it all came crashing back, to me: feature my guitar playing on this album! While many people know me as a synthesist, especially from my connections to Music Synthesis and Berklee College of Music, guitar was my first instrument, and while I was unable to play guitar from 1977 to 1986, during which time I made a name for myself as an electronic musician, once I was able to play again (even if not as fast-fingered as I once was), the guitar returned to being my main musical voice.
Back To My Roots
The title says it all – this album brings me back to my roots as a guitarist growing up in Detroit. The funky interplay between multiple rhythm guitar parts, bass, drums, and keys was something I learned early in my guitar lessons with Jack Montcrief, who had played with James Brown. With this tune I sought to bring my horn writing and compositional development I learned (and later taught) at Berklee into the mix with the funky rhythm section and create a cool funky groove you can move to! Enjoy!
Just Mo
While working on the first few songs for this album, my long-time friend and musical collaborator Bruce Nifong reluctantly asked me to check out a couple tunes he was writing, his first attempts at writing at age 76! I really loved the tunes, and asked Bruce if I could arrange and produce them, and include them on this album project. We worked together to get the grooves and form sketched out, then I went to work recording the basic tracks. Bruce and I played together in Ictus for almost four years, traveling and performing many many concerts, and he has played on almost every recording I have made in the last 10 years. So we are quite in sync musically, and these tunes fit into my idea for getting back to my roots!
Bruce notes: “I‘m very grateful to Dave for the many years of collaboration through performances and recording opportunities of his music. It was through sharing one of my own recent writing attempts that Dave offered to include some of my pieces on this album. I felt that my music wasn’t ready for prime time (still unconvinced!) and didn’t measure up, but Dave was encouraging. Dave’s input and arranging suggestions as we prepared my songs for this album is so appreciated, a great learning experience for which I am truly grateful.”
“Just Mo began with a thought of writing something just to play with friends, the impetus of this one draws from my love of funk and R&B. The collaborative effort for this recording, especially from some key playing contributions, really enhanced this tune and helped to bring its development forward.”
Appellation Trail
Bruce notes, “This is probably the first piece of music I have written that I felt comfortable offering up to play through with friends. Initially just a lead sheet format, this one has gone through various stylistic changes before settling on this straight-eighth, samba-esque feel. I wanted to draw from something new and original, something simple yet fun. Enjoy!”
Blüz For Rufe
It was 1978, at my apartment in the Roslindale neighborhood of Boston, MA, and my good friend and Ictus drummer Dave Weigert and I were sitting at the kitchen table with score pad, pencils, and erasers. My cat, Rufus, was laying quietly on the table between us, and Dave put an eraser on Rufus’ head. He laid there still, almost smiling, and Dave put a pencil on his back. Rufus sat there still, happily purring, seemingly glad to be part of the task at hand – writing a new tune for the band. Dave and I passed the score pad back and forth between us, one writing a bass line, the other putting in some melodic snippets, and on it went until we had written a head tune. Dave declares, we need to name this tune for good ole Rufe boy here! So that’s the genesis of Blüz For Rufe. I finished up the tune by crafting a set of changes for soloing, and we talked through the arrangement before bringing it to the band. Here is a video of Ictus performing this in 1978 on the “All That’s Jazz” TV show that aired out of Boston:
Ictus tended to play fast and hard, often faster than I personally would like to hear my tunes, as is the case with this performance. Other than playing the tune at many gigs and concerts, the tune had never been recorded and released to the public, so I decided to go back to my roots and record a new version of this tune, my tempo, my choice of instrumentation and arrangement. I think this tempo is great for moving to, or listening to on a drive through your favorite landscape!
Prime
Bruce notes, “Prime originally grew out of an idea to write with specific players in mind. The opening sections were inspired by a piece named “3 & 4,” which I’ve performed many times, and which was composed by one of my very favorite writers and musicians, David Mash. Melody, harmony and rhythmic feel just fell into place, the various sections settling into this resulting arrangement. We featured my son James Nifong on the bass melody and solo.”
Ictonomics
In 1980, Ictus had released its first album, “Future Winds,” and we were doing more gigs for larger audiences. The band asked me to write some more “dance oriented” music for the band (since a lot of my music involved complex and changing time signatures) as the disco scene was exploding, and our audiences wanted music to move to. So I wrote two new tunes, both featured on this album, the first of which was “Ictonomics.” The name comes from the new republican finance program dubbed “Reaganomics,” so I made a play on that using the band name – since the goal was to play more gigs, make more money! I hope this version gets you up on the floor and dancing!
Bottles
Bruce says, “Bottles began as an idea for a simple melody coupled with a bass line, really just a coming-together of various ideas. The title of this one honors a special friend, Greg Badolato, who is one of my all-time favorite players, the moniker derived from his name.” Greg has been a featured player on many of my Mashine Music albums, and we toured together for many years. We would all make plays on his name, lotsa bottles, bottles, Gregorius…
Funktion 80•24
The second of the two tunes I wrote in 1980 to expand the reach of my band to larger audiences was the then-titled “Funktion 80.” A Funky tune written for a function, and with a funky groove, to get the audience moving a bit in their seats. By the time we were playing this tune we were doing more concerts than clubs, but there’s no reason people can’t move while seated, or maybe get them to their feet! This tune in its original state was built on a single funky line that is split between the guitar, bass, and piano line, accented with the funky drum part. This was part of my roots, so I decided to leave the arrangement exactly as originally written! I laid down the rhythm section tracks, then asked Bruce to add his horn parts, and as usual, I then reworked the rhythm section to support his solo section. I played a solo, which I never did in Ictus, because during the years of working with the band I was playing synthesizers not guitar. So I had so much fun playing on this tune. And because it is the first recording of this song, I decided to update the title with the year of recording, so it became “Funktion 80•24.” Enjoy!