Jeff Dynamite - The Powers That Be (LP - Black Vinyl)

After over two decades shaping the modern soul, funk, and rare groove scene from behind the scenes, Jeff Silverman—better known as J. Dynamite—is stepping forward with a vision his own: The Powers That Be. This album marks a new chapter for an artist whose fingerprints have been all over the modern soul and funk landscape. As co-founder of Truth & Soul Records, Dynamite was instrumental in the New York soul revival that grew from Desco, Soul Fire, Truth & Soul, and Daptone Records. He became a producer on Aloe Blacc’s Good Things album and later brought his ear for groove and atmosphere to video-game music as a soundtrack producer for Rockstar Games on GTA V and RDR 2.

With The Powers That Be, J. Dynamite reunites with many of the musicians who helped define the funk and soul resurgence. The album features Grammy-winning bassist Nick Movshon, with credits including T&S productions, Aloe Blacc’s “I Need a Dollar” and Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black; Stuart Bogie (Antibalas, TV on the Radio, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings) on flute and saxophone; guitarist Luke O’Malley (Antibalas, The Roots); keyboardist Jake Pinto (Magic City Hippies); Miles Francis (Antibalas, EMEFE) on drums; vibraphonist Angelo Outlaw; Grammy-winning Latin percussionist Reinaldo DeJesus; Vincent John (Eraserhood Sound); and a cast of longtime collaborators.

Despite the history of the musicians involved, The Powers That Be is deliberately not a nostalgia trip. Dynamite turns the accumulated experience of a long career into something immediate, personal, and forward-looking. The album is not a retrospective but a chance to hear what happens when a producer with decades of musical history finally puts his own name at the center of the record. For longtime followers, it marks the return of a producer whose influence can be traced through much of the soul and funk renaissance of the last twenty-five years. For everyone else, it is an introduction to an artist who has spent decades shaping the conversation and is finally telling his own story.