by Danny Gassaway
New Orleans six-piece instrumental outfit Naughty Professor hits Heist Brewery Friday in between a performance Thursday at Camp Bisco and a 5-country, 9-city, 14-gig European tour. Noah Young, the Naughty Professor bassist, met his fellow bandmates in 2010 in the jazz program at Loyola University in New Orleans, where the hard-hitting, horn-heavy, groove-oriented band is still based. “Our website says our style is future funk and jazz, but I call it high energy, cerebral party music,” says Young.
2017 was a big one for Young and crew, who released their album, Identity, and followed it up with a seven-week album tour. The album included collaborations with artists such as Chali 2na of Jurassic 5 and David Shaw of The Revivalists. Since the release of Identity, the band’s presence both in their hometown and beyond has grown. In 2018 alone so far, they’ve played the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the French Quarter Festival, the New Orleans Oyster Festival and Jam Cruise.
Though the band, whose influences include Kneebody, The RH Factor and Snarky Puppy, has had success collaborating with vocalists both on the road and in the studio, they’re unique in that vocals have never been a necessity. Young says there are no plans for this upcoming tour to use a vocalist. “We’re getting to the end of our album cycle, so we’ll be focused more on newer, instrumental stuff,” Young says.
As far as what’s next for Naughty Professor, Young mentions a potential release from early 2018 shows, featuring live instrumental tracks and live performances from songs off Identity. In five years, Young hopes the band is playing more in Europe, appearing at New Orleans festivals and continuing to play at a higher level every time they step on the stage or in the studio. “I want to still be doing what we want to be doing,” Young says.
What you want to be doing is getting over to Heist Friday night and catching Young and the rest of Naughty Professor for one of the grooviest, funkiest parties of the year.
Identify – Naughty Professor