In March 2025 Bella, Bo, and Ross had a rendezvous in the studio again, this time with the legendary Reeves Gabrels. Gabrels worked with David Bowie for over a decade during Bowie's heaviest and arguably most experimental era including the collaboration and tour with Nine Inch Nails. Since 2012, Gabrels has been the lead guiarist for The Cure and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2019.

The crew worked on and developed a half dozen songs with Reeves and tracked Bella's vocals on Ethereal Waltz and Summer Daze. The next album is shaping into a much heavier collection of songs than Buffalo Monroe Meets Willie Waldman, and will be released Summer 2025!

The name Willie Waldman is one you’ll find in the liner notes of great artists and groups such as Banyan, Rob Wasserman, Perry Farrell and the late Tupac Shakur. While the list goes on, there’s much more to this trumpet players credit than simply recording as a sideman on many of today’s contemporary artists albums.

Willie Waldman was born July 5th, in Santa Ana, California, summer of 1965. Since Willie was three years old he’s been infatuated with music, specifically one instrument, namely, the trumpet.

​

Willies first album, The Willie Waldman Project was recorded largely in the summer of 2000. Produced and engineered by Dave Aaron, Willie has brought an array of talent to the table showcasing the musicianship of: Daniel Shulman (Garbage), John Molo (Mickey Hart/Phil Lesh), Tony Franklin (The Firm/Jimmy Page), Greg Kurstin (Sheryl Crow/Red Hot Chili Peppers) and Stephen Perkins (Janes Addiction/Banyan/Methods of Mayhem, Porno for Pyros). An all original album, Willies thoughts are that this recording encompasses the roots of Memphis and the freeform of L.A. bringing an eclectic, jam oriented jazz album that will definitely knock your socks off!

williewaldman.com

​

In the interview earlier this year, The Wizard 88.3 met over Zoom with Willie, Ross Rice, and Bo Monroe and the conversation had tons of stories and insights along the way in Willie's journey. So many jams, so many artists, so many albums and bands and you never know who may show up to a Willie Waldman Project show!!!

Link to Radio Interview on YouTube

​

Bella, Bo, Willie, and Ross headed back into the studio in January of 2025. Worked on 10 more songs and tracked trumpet, ukulele, and even some theremin. We have much more music on the way!!!

Keeping track of reports on music being shared on the airwaves, it has been such a delight seeing our songs being played in so many amazing playlists!

"Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with Boston-based Jazz Bassist of Buffalo Monroe Matt Courtney .. We caught up with this veteran and talented journeyman to talk about the new 2024 CD Buffalo Monroe Meets Willie Waldman, his journey in music and the band in general. They are a jazz-fusion band from Boston that formed in 2020. The founding members of the band are multi-instrumentalists Rachel and Matt Courtney, also known as Bella and Bo Monroe. Building off of their demos, the duo started professionally recording their music in 2022. This album features the legendary bassist Ron Carter. It’s a stellar story. Dig in."

Link to the interview

About Neon Jazz:
A Jazz radio program airing since 2011. Hosted by Joe Dimino and Engineered by John Christopher in Kansas City, Missouri. Giving listeners a journey into one of America's finest inventions .. Jazz. From Miles Davis to The Bad Plus, the world of Jazz is our playground. Listen to each show at https://www.mixcloud.com/neonjazzkc/

Reviewing our reports, every song on the album has been played on the radio with 'Ode to the Maestro' being the song with the most spins at the moment averaging a play a day since the album was released.

​

The screenshot above highlights one of the radio shows 'Dorian Interludes' was featured on, right in between Paul McCartney and Dolly Parton!!! We have also been honored to be included in radio playlists with Stanley Clarke, Chick Corea and Béla Fleck, Kamasi Washington, Pat Metheny, Mike Stern, Bernie Worrell, Wilco, Jeff Coffin, Talking Heads, The Clash, The Cure, Black Sabbath, Gregg Allman, Punkadelic, The Reddcoats, DJ Logic, Hermanos Gutiérrez, Andrew Bird Trio, Hiatus Koyote, among so many other great artists. 

​

The album has been on the radio charts for 15 weeks so far this year! It looks like stations in Baltimore (MD), Burlington (VT), Jackson (MS), Chicago, Omaha, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and New Orleans are stations that have been playing our songs the most so far. Sending a huge thank you to all the DJs that have helped share our music with the world!!!

If you only consider the album cover, which is totally psychedelic, and then insert the CD into the player, everything fits perfectly, as you find yourself in a form of jazz/funk with intonations of the 70s, except the quality of the production and the rhythms are very much of our time. Buffalo Monroe is a group that defines itself as (jazz/fusion), offering their first album with a great lineup of truly unexpected artists, including the excellent Ron Carter and Gregg Bissonette. This formation, which was born in 2020 near Boston, is led by Rachel and Matt Courtney. Willie Waldman, trumpeter and co-producer, features on all the tracks of this album. Originally from [Indiana], he started playing in the [Memphis] clubs of Beale St. and eventually teamed up with Herman Green, Calvin Newborn, and Jimmie Ellis at Club Hardy. The group transformed into FreeWorld and toured with Stevie Ray Vaughn, the Robert Cray Band, Albert King, and Joe Cocker. Willie Waldman, a member of the group Banyan with Stephen Perkins, released a solo fusion-improvisation album, *Trumpet Ride* (2001), which reached the Top 20 on the NACC and Jazz Charts. Willie has participated in numerous recordings and you can hear his trumpet on albums by 2pac, Snoop Dogg, Warren G., K-Ci & Jojo, Jodeci, Salt & Pepa, the Eastsidaz, Coolio, and Perry Farrell, to name just a few. He has also been hired to work on several soundtracks, including *Tombstone*, *Under Siege 2*, and *101 Dalmatians*. Waldman, an artist with a grueling tour schedule with the Willie Waldman Project, has played alongside countless greats, including Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Joe Satriani, Nels Cline, Mike Watt, Norwood Fisher, Flea, John Frusciante, Jake Cinninger, Thomas Pridgen, Tony Austin, Jay Lane, Terry Saffold, Herman Green, John Avila, Tony Franklin, Rob Wasserman, Norton Wisdom, and Robby Krieger.

All of this is to try to show you how surprising, timeless, and extraordinary this album is, and that the combined experience of these artists offers a remarkable album where it is easy to get lost on the first listen. Besides the excellence of all these artists, there is a very advanced sound research here, a form of experience, certainly, but one that fills our heads with images, pushing the boundaries of what is possible, in part thanks to Bissonette’s [and Vinnie Amico's] powerful and very inspired drumming, which provides a foundation for the musicians, allowing them to exploit all their resources.

You may be surprised at the first listen, finding this album too rhythmic—it’s just an impression, as the notes come from all sides, not to overwhelm the listener but to take them directly into this unique universe. The track “Ode to the Maestro” certainly best represents the very essence of this album, a perpetual sound balance, and at the same time, one cannot help but think of artists who have given us [these] kind of emotions in the past. Whether you categorize this group as jazz/fusion or jazz/funk, it is evident that this is great art, which rightfully deserves to be among our “Essentials.”

Thierry De Clemensat
USA correspondent – Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News

PARIS-MOVE, June 1st 2024

Follow PARIS-MOVE on X

::::::::::::::::::::::

To buy this album

Website

Performers on this album include:

• Upright Bass: Ron Carter

• Electric Bass, Ukulele, Guitar: Matt Courtney

• Keys: Rachel Courtney

• Keys, Rhodes Piano, Melodica: Ross Rice

• Trumpet, Horns: Willie Waldman

• Drums: Vinnie Amico

• Drums and Percussion: Gregg Bissonette

• Guitar: Harold McCummings

• Guitar: Clint Wagner

• Producers: Matt Courtney, Rachel Courtney, and Ross Rice
  Co-Producer: Willie Waldman
  Sound Engineer: Ross Rice
  Sound Engineer: Frank Rosato
  Sound Engineer: Nolan Thies
  Mixing Engineer: Ross Rice
  Mastering Engineer: Frank Rosato

• Metacognitive Records © 2024

These nine songs feature funky talent from across galaxies and the musical spectrum, and we hope you enjoy these jazz-funk-fusion grooves. The band created these frequencies which, when played in the right sequence, tell a story of Bella and Bo Monroe meeting musical giants and heading to Rus' Lab to develop a Chromatic Schematic, which set them on the path to The Maestro.

Available on streaming platforms including Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, etc. CDs available here.

On March 28th, 2023 we woke up at the Vampire Hotel in NYC and went to pick up the Maestro. The drive to The Bunker Studio with The Maestro was surreal; for you see, Mr. Carter is from Planet Elegance. In the studio, we were transported to Planet Elegance, indeed, while recording Dorian Interludes and Falling Leaves. The song Falling Leaves is an unreleased song from the late great Calvin Newborn, a mentor to members of the band, brother of American jazz pianist Phineas Newborn, Jr., and also happened to give guitar lessons to American blues legend Howling Wolf. Recording these songs with The Maestro is without a doubt one of the most amazing things we have ever experienced and we are thrilled to share this music with the world!

Bella and Bo first met Gregg Bissonette when attending a Bass Extremes concert with Steve Bailey and Victor Wooten. The band was incredible. After the show, Gregg blended into the crowd, with complete humbleness, even waving back at us when saying hello. We suspected he also might be from Planet Elegance. After the first session with Gregg, we were mesmerized by how he completed each song with such excellence.  Gregg asked when the next session was, and that inspired us to create over 25 tracks that we recorded with him in 2022. Some of these are a part of the debut album Buffalo Monroe Meets Willie Waldman. The first of many albums featuring our friend Gregg Bissonette. 

On October 15th, 2022 Bella and Bo traveled to upstate New York and met Willie Waldman, Ross Rice, and Vinnie Amico for an improvisational jam that we wanted to have as an artifact of our research endeavors. With Willie on trumpet, Ross on keys and engineering sound, Vinnie on drums, and Bo on bass. Together we produced the October Session, featured on our first album. We were so lucky to have all of these amazing musicians recording an improvised set together. The magic was apparent and most of the songs created in that recording session were in one take. These soulful sounds take one on a journey into another dimension of adventure! After the session with the four-piece band, Willie recorded trumpet on our other tracks with Gregg Bissonette.  Over the course of that weekend, Willie recorded a total of 20 songs on horns.

Getting to try out an XR stage and bend reality contributed to the filmed footage for our music videos. You can see the same technology used on the set of The Mandalorian and Grimes' video for Shinigami Eyes. What makes this unique is that the visualizations happen in real-time rather than adding the effects in post-production. Click on the link in the title to see behind the scenes.

Bella and Bo created do-it-yourself demos of some of their work and started sharing them with the world in 2021 and 2022. These demos helped carve a path for the duo in the industry, leading to collaborating with musical giants including The Maestro, Mr. Ron Carter, from Planet Elegance.

Multi-instrumentalists Bella and Bo Monroe have traversed space and time with the aim of assembling a musical research group to add more beauty to the universe through energy, frequencies, and vibrations.

​

After their civilization found The Voyager Golden Record, they were inspired to explore the terrain of musical experiences and traveled lightyears from the Messier-51 galaxy, landing in Boston and forming the band Buffalo Monroe. This collaborative group merges multiple musical interactions with some of the most prolific and impressive talents this galaxy has ever known, particularly between New York and LA in this first expedition. At last, Bella and Bo are ready to share their initial findings in the debut album, Buffalo Monroe Meets Willie Waldman.