Erik Telford Collective (ETC)

ETC is a seven-piece high-energy instrumental fusion group that I started shortly after moving to Austin, Texas. We play modal improvisation music with jazz, rock, and blues roots influences. One of the goals of the group is to play improvisational music (tradionally thought of as “jazz”) in a modern context, through the use of electronics and extended forms, and hopefully help bring jazz out of the place it often finds itself, as a museum piece or a thing of the past.

We’ve recorded an album called Kinetic that will was released in January of 2010 (iTunes). We also have a DVD/2 CD box set out from a performance at the Hideout Theatre in Austin. It was produced by that The Yellow House Studios and is available for purchase at hideoutdvd.com.

Hellfire Horns (hellfirehorns.com)

This is my three-piece horn section. We’ve officially been around for about a year and a half, but started a little before that as the horn section for Austin’s funk and soul powerhouse, Flyjack.

Since then, these are some of the folks we’ve performed and/or recorded with:

• The Walkmen
• The Scabs
• Bob Schneider
• Alice Russell
• Paolo Negri
• Kalu James
• Akina Adderley & the Vintage Playboys
• Deadman
• Fulton Read
• Chris Pierce

We’re now also featured as the horn section in Felan, an eight-piece soul band that my partner in crime, Alejandro Felan, and I started not too long ago as well as the cover band The Argyles.

Felan (felanmusic.com)

Alejandro Felan and I started this band a few months ago. Felan is an 8 piece hard-edged funk band that’s about to take Austin, TX by storm. You can check us out on our website to see what you’re missing by not coming to one of our shows.

Kalu James (kalujames.com)

Kalu writes great tunes and really knows how to connect with his audiences. He and I actually lived in Rochester, New York for six years at the same time and never even knew it, even though we sort of ran in the same circles. It wasn’t until we had both been in Austin for two years that we finally hooked up to make some music together.

Kalu called on Hellfire Horns to add a little more to the already awesome show that his band puts on. You’ll see us playing with him every now and then—whenever he needs that little extra touch to put his live performances over the top.

I also play keyboards with Kalu. Please come out and see us live and see why Kalu is one Austin’s great singer-singwriters. You won’t be disappointed.

The Argyles (theargyles.net)

The Argyles have been playing in Austin for about 20 years. They recently overhauled the band and brought on Hellfire Horns as the permanent horn section. We don’t play in public very much, but you may get lucky and see us at the next wedding or private party that you go to!