Lettuce: 21st century funk favourites
A genre-busting six-member funk/jazz/soul/jam/psychedelic/hip-hop/avant-garde/experimental collective
Last updated 30th Jul 2020
Since 1992, the American East Coast-based, new wave funk band Lettuce have become an international sensation.
Who is Lettuce?
Lettuce are a six-piece funk, Grammy-nominated group who draw on elements of jazz, hip-hop, soul, psychedelia and so much more.
The group is made up of some of the most highly sought after musicians in the industry with roots that run deep into the worlds of hip-hop, pop and beyond.
Individually, the group has worked and performed alongside the likes of Stevie Wonder, Gary Clark Jr., Chaka Khan, Solange, John Scofield, Kanye West, Lady Gaga, The Fugees, Eminem, Dr. Dre and so many more household names.
Lettuce’s ever-changing and all-inclusive palette is often praised for the way it blurs boundaries and smashes together genres into exciting and compelling music.
Who is in Lettuce?
Lettuce is made up of an incredible set of musicians who are in high demand across the musical spectrum.
The group is currently made up of Adam Deitch (drums, percussion), Adam ‘Shmeeans’ Smirnoff (guitar), Erick ‘Jesus’ Coomes (bass), Ryan Zoidis (sax), Eric ‘Benny’ Bloom (trumpet, horns) and Nigel Hall (vocals, keyboards).
Past members have included Sam Kininger (sax), Eric Krasno (guitar), Jeff Bhasker (keys), Rashawn Ross (trumpet) and Neal Evans (keys).
How did Lettuce form?
The group originally met when they were just teenagers back in 1992 whilst attending a summer music programme, bonding over their love of artists like Earth, Wind & Fire, Tower of Power and Herbie Hancock's The Headhunters.
The collective formally began playing together when they all studied at Boston's Berklee College of Music from 1994, soon gaining local acclaim and quickly building their international reputation.
Lettuce's band name origins
While studying at Berklee, the group frequented local jazz clubs, walking in and simply asking the club owners to "let us play" - and this is how the name Lettuce stuck!
Lettuce in session at Jazz FM
We're lucky enough to have hosted the funk group in the Jazz FM studios. You can watch their explosive sessions below:
Lettuce: Albums
Lettuce have released eight studio albums: 'Outta Here' (2002), 'Rage!' (2008), 'Fly!' (2012), 'Crush' (2015'), 'Mt. Crushmore' (2016), 'Elevate' (2019), 'Resonate' (2020) and 'Unify' (2022). They've also released two live albums: 'Live at Blue Note Tokyo' (2004) and 'Witches Stew' (2017).
Read more:
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Blue Note Records: A brief history of the jazz label
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