Tsahara Productions & Slapbak

Hello Funkateers,

We would like to inform that Slapbak (US) will be touring for the first time in Europe from April 3rd till April 15th.
The band just released a new album on the Dutch Label Funk To The Max.
This is the real funk!!!

SLAPBAK BIOGRAPHY
Slapbak is a seven piece funk band from Orange County. They blend a high energy live performance with a tight and heavy downbeat. Add a good sized portion of bottom end with plenty of junk in the trunk, and you got a recipe that will knock you to your knees! Nobody plays funk like this band does!

Jara Harris, founder of Slapbak, is known to many Old School Funksters as the new keeper of the funk, and it's no wonder, he along with his band Slapbak have been carrying the torch for the Old School throughout the nation for the past 12 years.

Jara Harris was born January 20, 1969 in Lynwood California. His parents later moved the family to Mission Viejo California where Jara was raised from the age of 6 months. Jara started playing drums for his family band at the age of 4. The family band included Jara's three teenage siblings James, Jeff and Julie. They called themselves The 4 J's. Under their parent's management, The 4 J's performed concerts throughout the late 70's, raging from County Fairs to The Black Music Awards. In the mid 80's The 4 J's added a fifth member, the youngest of the Jara's siblings, Janine. The band then changed their name to The J. Harris Band. After cutting his teeth on the club circuit for a few years with the J. Harris Band, Jara and his siblings began to grow in different musical directions and the J Harris Band broke up.

At the age of 16, armed only with his natural musical ability and a Teac Porta-One 4 track recorder, Jara started writing, producing and performing all of the instruments and vocals on his first solo recordings. When he had developed enough original songs to play a live showcase, Jara formed his first band Jarasound. Jarasound played all the Hollywood showcase rooms like The Roxy, The Whisky and The Country Club in Reseda. At age 19 Jara was well on his way to a promising career in music. In a constant effort to expand his musical horizons, Jara accepted an offer to play bass guitar for Michael and Janet Jackson's brother, Randy Jackson, in his band Randy & the Gypsies. Jara was included on the album cover, played bass on two of the album tracks, and performed in both videos that supported the 1989 A&M Records release. That same year, Jara had the pleasure of playing on a Jose Feliciano record that went on to win a Grammy Award in 1990, for best Latin record.

Playing with famous musicians was very exciting for Jara at such a young age, but Jara felt the lack of self expression through original music was taking it's toll on him personally. In 1990 Jara formed his second group Slapbak. In less than a year and a half, Slapbak was discovered and signed by Warner Brothers Records. During Slapbak's three-year stay at Warner Brothers, they performed with funk pioneers like George Clinton & the P-Funk All Stars, Bootsy Collins, and Roger
Troutman & Zapp. Other performances include SWV, Arrested Development and the list goes on. In addition Jara co-wrote and produced with Bootsy Collins, George Clinton, Amp Fiddler and Larry Blackmon from Cameo. After realizing Jara's musical talent, Larry Blackmon invited him to play bass on 4 tracks from Cameo's "Emotional Violence" album. Slapbak had two albums recorded under Warner Brothers; the first was entitled "Fast Food Funkateers," and was released in 1993. The second was "Slapbak's Blue Light Special," this album was never released. Jara and Slapbak walked from the deal shortly after. Disheartened by the Warner Brothers ordeal, Jara recorded and toured with MCA Recording Artists 4Xample in 1995. In 1996 Jara reformed Slapbak with some new members and landed another deal with Raging Bull Records and put together a joint venture with Jara's own record label, Toxic Funk Records. Their third album entitled "If It Aint Broke, Don't Funk Wid It!" was released in July 1996. Slapbak did some touring in late 1996 and early 1997 for that album. In mid 1997 Jara was approached by 80's funksters Morris Day & the Time to tour with them for the rest of that year. Jara was also involved in a couple of other side projects. He performed with Puff Daddy's vocal group 112 on the Motown Live show.

In 1998 Jara devoted most of his time to record Slapbak's fourth album entitled "Return of the Fast Food Funkateers". This album was released in the USA late September, of 1999. In 2002 Jara signed a deal with Funk To The Max Records. This ambitious new record-label based in Amsterdam remastered the last album at the Cut ‘n’ Clear studio, added new Slapbak tracks and called it "Ghetto Funkography". It's Slapbaks new statement for the years to come; raw, fresh and with lots of funk!
   

BOOKING INFO:
TSAHARA PRODUCTIONS
Office Phone:   +32 2 513 75 99
E-mail: tsaharaprod@pi.be

LABEL INFO:
FUNK TO THE MAX B.V. 
P.O. Box 1015
1000 BA  Amsterdam
THE NETHERLANDS
Office Phone:     +31 (0)20 421 4310    Fax:    +31 (0)20 421 4316
E-mail: info@funktothemax.com Website: www.funktothemax.com
Contact: Marcel Visser: +31 (0)622 212298 (mobile)  ;  Marcel “Dice” Kaatee:+31 (0)653 211511 (mobile)       

DISTRIBUTION:
CHALLENGE RECORDS SERVICES B.V.
Noorderweg 68
1221 AB  Hilversum
THE NETHERLANDS
Office Phone:     +31 (0)35 689 8899      Fax:    +31 (0)35 689 8897
E-mail: info@challenge.nl  Website: www.challenge.nl
Contact: Hans Kesteloo: +31 (0)652 065485