Friday Kitchen

Friday Kitchen is a groove-based band comprised of Brandon University School of Music students. Each member of the group is currently studying either Jazz Performance, Music Education, or Classical Performance. The band came to be due to the members shared desire to play more contemporary styles of music, while still incorporating improvisation and other musical features of the genres they are all studying. This creates a unique and personal sound to the group, which can be very dynamic and fit within many contexts.Most of Friday Kitchen's music is a mixture of Funk, Fusion, R&B and Jazz, while also having a Pop and Rock influence at times. They themselves describe it as "Social Music", which aims to get people dancing and enjoying themselves while listening. The band has a unique ability to go from extremely quiet and mournful ballads from the likes of D'Angelo or Daniel Caesar, all the way to bombastic backbeats and lush horn textures like Prince and Stevie Wonder. Some other notable influences of theirs include; Anderson .Paak, Herbie Hancock, Thundercat, Sarah Vaughan, Taeko Onuki, RH Factor, Jhené Aiko, Miles Davis' Second great Quintet, Terumasa Hino, Marvin Gaye, Fleetwood Mac, Takuya Kuroda, Kenny Dorham, IU and Ariel Posen.Each member of the band brings a unique set of skills and musical experiences which help us become such a mixture of different styles and genres. The band's leader, Dylan Pilcher is a jazz trumpet player who has had the chance to play and learn with many notorious musicians from North America. He is responsible for leading and directing the band and is often found expressively soloing overtop the rhythm section. Esteban Seunarine and Anil Ramgotra share the drum and percussion roles in the band. Even though both drummers have very different styles, they can blend perfectly to create an infectious groove and propel the band forward. Janina Macalalad is the bands anchor. Responsible for keeping the band on track, every single note she plays will make you want to groove. Dane Neufeld is a brilliant guitarist who utilizes his many influences from jazz, fusion, and rock to create a lush texture within the band. Kendra Martinussen is the band's tenor saxophonist and is gifted in her ability to adapt and direct the dynamics of the band in any musical situation. Jonathan Si is our French Horn player, who adds a gorgeous colour to the band and fills out our horn section beautifully. And finally is the bands vocalist Shelby English. Shelby is the perfect voice to compliment this band. By using a mixture of classical, and jazz techniques, she can manipulate her voice to dynamic extremes, while still sounding unique and gorgeous.Friday Kitchen is currently playing shows in Brandon, MB and is in the process of booking shows in Winnipeg, MB for the beginning of 2023.

November 2022 Sessions