LOS ANGELES (Top40 Charts/ J. Plunky Branch Official Website) - Veteran saxophonist, J. Plunky Branch, known to thousands of progressive jazz fans simply as 'Plunky' is a prolific, versatile, and eternally youthful composer and performer who has been making audiences groove since the early 1970's from his hometown of Richmond, VA to London and Paris. Plunky is making millions of new fans everyday via the airplay his song 'Drop' is receiving on Michael Baisden's nationally syndicated urban talk and music radio show.
'Drop,' the ultra-funky instrumental opening track on Plunky's Cold Heat CD, is turning up the heat across the country. The song was produced by Danja Mowf, whose credits include Aaliyah and Missy Elliot. Incredibly, 'Drop' is based on a sample taken from Plunky's own 'African Rhythms,' a tune that shot him to soul-jazz stardom in Europe over 30 years ago, in 1975. With 'Drop's' daily airplay on The Michael Baisden Show, Plunky is reaching 55 small and mass-market urban stations throughout the U.S. Baisden's staff acknowledges that 'Drop' is show's most requested song. The track's growing popularity is generating sales and critical acclaim, and it earned Plunky and his group a coveted engagement on the 2007 Capital Jazz Super Cruise along with Boney James, Pieces of a Dream, Lalah Hathaway, Ledisi, Sinbad and over 2,000 partying jazz fans.
Plunky is a charismatic bandleader who commands the stage with the same intensity whether he and his group, Plunky & Oneness, are performing for ten people or 10,000. The group has opened for legends like Ray Charles, Patti Labelle, Earth, Wind & Fire, LL Cool J, the Yellowjackets and B.B. King. Back home in Richmond, VA Plunky is an institution. When he's not touring, the saxman jams on weekends to SRO crowds at the city's swanky Martini Kitchen and Bubble Bar. He keeps the energy high, the beats funky and the melodies cool and jazzy.
Plunky's catalog of 24 previous releases includes ventures into jazz, funk, world beat, gospel and 'Nubian age music,' his term for some of his bluesier sax meditation projects. On Cold Heat, his 25th album released on his N.A.M.E. Brand Records, Plunky blows hard and sings about life, love and the pursuit of the groove with lyrics that teach, soar and inspire. The album's slamming hip-hop tracks are a fresh new twist to Plunky's repertoire, largely because they were produced by Setworkrz, the Virginia-based production duo with the Dirty South address and the international flavor. Setworkrz is composed of Plunky's son, Jamiah 'Fire' Branch, and partner, Al Dokes. The two young producers are generating hip-hop beats so hot that rappers, singers, moviemakers and television producers clamor for Setworkrz tracks and krunk grooves.
Cold Heat is a collaboration that represents a milestone in Plunky's colorful career, from being a studio musician for TV's top-rated 'The Cosby Show' to scoring a Top Ten Soul chart hit in London with 'Every Way But Loose.'
Recently there have been more and more high profile Plunky concert dates including performances at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC with Wyclef Jean, Shaggy and Jimmy Cliff, and a show in Richmond with Go-go master Chuck Brown that drew 15,000. Plunky's extensive European touring has taken him to England, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Recent performances in France led to the release of Plunky's highly praised DVD project titled Plunky & Oneness of Juju Live In Paris.
Plunky has also traveled to Brazil and to Cuba twice to research and produce music recordings and a documentary film, Under the Radar: A Survey of Afro-Cuban Music.
