Introducing... The Heavenly "Hip-Rock Soul" Of The Groove Divinities

L.A. Based Indie Ensemble’s Self-Titled Debut Reflects An Ever Evolving Mix of Spiritual Trippiness, Classic
Blues/Rock Edges and Neo-Soul Smooth

Group Adds Series of L.A. Gigs and Opening Sets for Ike Turner, Leon Russell and Frankie Beverly & Maze to
All-Star Resumes Of Its Individual Members


Ask the thousands of fans who have seen the explosive
live gigs of The Groove Divinities at L.A. hotspots like
The Mint, Viper Room and Knitting Factory—and later as openers for legends like Leon Russell, Ike Turner and Frankie Beverly and Maze - and they’ll tell you they can’t
quite figure out how to label the band’s trailblazing
sounds. But rest assured, the hard to peg hybrid is all completely by design.

Boasting a freshly minted and more musically
representative moniker, the hip-rock-soul ensemble led
by Kenni Ski (vocal stylist, keyboardist, composer,
producer) and Jimmy Sloan (melody man, blues lifer, guitarist, producer) blends heartfelt lyrics and melodies, soulful rhythms and a seductive edge that can only be described as “spiritual trippiness” on their long awaited
self-titled debut CD.

Ski is cool with simplifying the vibe of his group - formerly known on the circuit as Lift Ticket—down to “indie soul,” but adds that “nothing’s set in stone.” Speaking of Stones,
Sloan adds, “The best way to describe what we do is
ask what would happen if Otis Redding and Sam Cooke were fronting The Rolling Stones and The Band, and the show was produced by Sly and The Family Stone, who
hired The Clash and The Meters to stir it up.” The band
pays direct homage to Cooke with a cover of the classic “Change Gonna Come.”

Ski says, “The first coming of that great mix of rock and soul was Otis and The Stones, and what we do blends the best
of those worlds, exploring real music…real rock, real soul, real hip hop…and making sure we communicate that
sense of taking it back while moving forward at the same time. We’re creating something unique not only musically, but also because Jimmy and I are the producers who are also the artists.”

Although The Groove Divinities’ name has changed with
the perfecting of a truly original sound throughout
numerous live gigs over the past few years, each member
of the band brings an incredible all-star resume to the fold.
In the mid-90s, Ski formed (and fronted) the group
Christion with real life soul brother Allen Anthony. Their
1997 Def-Soul/Roc-a-fella debut “Ghetto Cyrano” sold
over 300,000 copies and 600,000 singles, and
influenced the entire Neo-Soul movement.

While working on Christion’s sophomore album for Columbia, Ski was taking a break in 2000 at the famed Jazz & Heritage Festival in New Orleans when he hooked up with Sloan. Sloan, a former lead guitarist for the roots rock bands The Root Doctors, Prodigal Sons and the Holy Riders, is owner of The New King Sound Studios in the Hollywood Hills; over the years, he has produced, engineered and/or mixed tracks for Fishbone, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Rod Stewart, Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, Social Distortion and Jennifer Lopez.

“We hit it off right away, and, listening to the cool mix of music that was playing at the festival, asked ourselves, wouldn’t it be hot if someone came along and took us back to the days of Keith Richards, Muddy Waters, Sam Cooke and Otis, all at the same time,” Ski recalls. “I was about to start producing a duet between Christion and Bobby Womack for a track on the Ladies’ Man Soundtrack, and asked Jimmy to co-produce with me. The song didn’t make the final cut, but quickly thereafter, we did our first jam onstage at The Mint with Rami Jaffee of The Wallflowers, who headlined a regular Wednesday night gig there. The first song we played was a primitive version of ‘Mainline,’ which is on the new album. When we cut our first track, we knew what we were going for, but it took several years for our overall sound to take shape after that.”

The Groove Divinities also includes the veteran rhythm section of bassist Carmine Rojas and drummer extraordinaire Tal Bergman. Appropriately enough, Rojas—whose Divinities’ nickname is “Rico the Blacksnake”--launched his career as a roadie for Sly & The Family Stone before playing with Patti Labelle, Nona Hendrix, David Bowie (beginning with “Let’s Dance”) and Rod Stewart; he was Stewart’s Musical Director for 13 years. He has also worked over the years with Tina Turner, Stevie Wonder, Ron Wood, Allen Toussaint, Bobby Womack and Mick Jagger. Sloan met Rojas when Sloan was producing blues legends The Carter Brothers and needed some help with the traditional arrangements.

Israeli born Tal Bergman began his career in the States drumming for Memphis Slim, then became part of the Billy Idol phenomenon in the 80s. A foremost expert on Middle Eastern ethnic percussion, he has skinned for Chaka Khan, Dave Mason, Terence Trent D’Arby, LL Cool J and composer Marvin Hamlisch. Bergman also produced Rod Stewart’s traditional work “It Had To Be You,” and met Sloan—who was engineering--while playing on Phranc’s Milkman album.

Keyboardist Phil “Silky” Parlpiano, whose brilliant and ultra-professional first run-through of “Turnaround” earned him the name “Mr. Williams,” has played with Lucinda Williams, Rod Stewart, John Prine, Grant Lee Buffalo and Tracy Chapman; he was a member of The Holy Riders when Sloan was in the band.

The latest additions to The Groove Divinities lineup are “vibe guitarist” Southland Slim (“Muddy Waters toured Mars in the 70s and had a child named Slim,” Sloan laughs) and lead singer Trip Jenkins, whom Ski describes as “a soul man blues vocal cat who took Jimmy and me to the other side.”

“The Groove Divinities album is a compilation of all of the songs we have written and performed while we were working on our sound,” says Ski. “We like the idea of ‘indie soul,’ because we found that every time we listened to someone at a major label about what direction a song should take, it was better to just stick with our original instincts as to what moved us most.”

And the otherworldly new band name? Sloan says, “Carmine and I were at a friend’s house in Malibu one day, and tried to describe the vibe of the place to Ski. We called it a hippy commune. And Ski said, ‘Hey, someday we should have a hippy commune of our own and call it The Groove Divinities. That name totally fit the music we’re making now, and the name stuck.