Du-Rites, The (J-Zone & Pablo Martin) Sound Check At 6 (Recorded Live!)

It’s ironic that The Du-Rites (J-Zone and Pablo Martin) are already on their fourth album in three years when you consider the group began as a back burner endeavor. More ironic is the fact that the duo has become a live outfit over the past year, considering two multi-instrumentalists can’t play 2-3 instruments at the same exact time. With Jay playing drums and keys and Pablo playing guitar and also holding down keys (both of them contribute on bass guitar), it was impossible to execute The Du-Rites live on stage. So accepting the label of studio band early made it easy to crank out albums with 1960s frequency. With 2016’s eponymous debut, 2017’s Greasy Listening - ironically a tongue-in-cheek jab at their situation, dubbed a s a fake “live” album - and last year’s TV cop show score, Gamma Ray Jones, the Du-Rites had quickly and neatly carved a lane. But the time to grow beyond a studio outfit had come. And opportunity knocked. An offer to play NYC’s prestigious Symphony Space (at The Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater) on Valentine’s Day 2019 was too sweet a gig to pass up on logistics, so The Du-Rites went back in the woodshed, adding Bill Harvey to handle bass guitar duties and Martin’s fellow Tom Tom Club member, Bruce Martin (no relation), to not only take over on keyboards, but add a whole new layer of groove by doubling up on percussion. The quartet rehearsed tirelessly through the winter of 2018-19 in preparation for Symphony Space and put together a greasy gig on Cupid Day that had folks ages 8 to 80 putting their dancing shoes on instead of spending $250 in some jive ass restaurant. Symphony Space was a giant professional leap and a whole lot of fun for the band, but to stop the roll there would put all that work and love for the stage in vain. So when Pablo and Bill dug up a filthy old mixing board with a unique sonic sheen that could capture the live show in all its greasy glory, the Du-Rites decided to hit it again for their fourth album (and first official live album), Soundcheck at 6.