Kerbside Collection - Cue Blue (2026)

The Brisbane-based Australian gritty jazz-funk ensemble Kerbside Collection has released “Cue Blue”, its fifth studio album. It returns to a stripped-back, home-cooked quartet sound of guitar, bass, drums and brass. This approach took shape on the band’s recent recordings, including “Fleet Streak” from the “Golden Rules” compilation, and echoes its first records from 2013 (“Mind The Curb”, “Night in Tunisia”). The foundation is classic New Orleans funk and soul in the vein of early The Meters, Boogaloo Joe Jones, Melvin Sparks and Billy Butler, but the album is not purely retro and connects with the current deep funk scene: The Greyboy Allstars, Eddie Roberts, The New Mastersounds, The Mighty Mocambos, Breakestra, Cookin’ on 3 Burners, Lance Ferguson, The Bamboos.

The record is stylistically varied. The opening single “Shivers” is the band’s calling card: silky guitar, rubbery bass, tight crusty breaks and sweet brass, followed by a mod-funk workout with Northern Soul and Motown touches. “City Park Avenue” is New Orleans funk with strutting brass and tambourine; “Coffee Grinder” is b-boy funk with a razor-sharp break, a chunky riff and a trombone solo. Then comes an early-60s boogaloo in the spirit of Harlem and the Puerto Rican Bronx (Willie Bobo, Mongo Santamaria, Ray Barretto), featuring a baritone sax solo by Joseph “Papa Joe” Roberts. “Sittin’ On The Porch” moves into Southern Louisiana Delta blues: kooky Casio percussion imitates sprinklers and mosquitoes, trombone stands in for passing cars, and guitarist TC Tyler channels John Lee Hooker and R.L. Burnside, evoking Brisbane’s humid heat. A cover of the People Under The Stairs hip hop classic “San Francisco Knights” brings another guitar solo. The album closes with the jazz ballad “Shimmer”, featuring Elliott Parker’s upright bass and a trombone melody, and the title track “Cue Blue”, a blue-eyed soul number written by Parker in the manner of Donny Hathaway and Marvin Gaye.

Most of the material was written by a relatively new member, guitarist Tyler, whose playing will appeal to fans of Tower of Power and John Scofield. The lineup also includes trombonist Ben Young, tenor saxophonist Julian Palmer, trumpeter and flugelhorn player Zach Chambers, drummer Jason “Paprika” Bell (who also plays piano on “Shimmer”) and pianist Daniel Mougerman (“Cue Blue”). The result is a groove of refined funky arrangements: gritty jazz-funk and fine rustic soul from down under.

Tracklist:
1. Kerbside Collection - Shivers
2. Kerbside Collection - Slip'n' Rip
3. Kerbside Collection - City Park Avenue
4. Kerbside Collection - Coffee Grinder
5. Kerbside Collection - Air Head Boogaloo
6. Kerbside Collection - Sittin' on the Porch
7. Kerbside Collection - San Francisco Knights
8. Kerbside Collection - Shimmer
9. Kerbside Collection - Cue Blue