All musicians are the product of their environment, and all music is a unique statement that relates to the life journey of that musician. Johnny Moezzi’s path has been more eclectic and wonderfully encompassing than most, which shows through his music. Born of Persian and Italian parents, musically ignited by the music of BB King and raised and educated on both sides of the USA, he was a member of The Beachwood Rockers Society and bandleader and guitarist for blues icon Miss Mickey Champion.
But it is also to the pop music of his youth that he looks to create the musical shape and feel of Funky Papu and this, combined with any number of musical elements garnered from across geography and genre, sound, and style gives him an incredible sound palette with which to paint his musical pictures.
So it is an album with a pop heart and infectious feel, but it is also cleverer than such a description might suggest. There is room for the Prince-esque pop of “I Built a Woman”, the driving, slightly psychedelic, funky 60’s grooves of “Justice Wheels”, and more raucous and rawer rockers like “The Beast”, all rounding off with a groovesome R&B ballad that the Stones themselves would have wrestled you bodily to the ground to get their hands on back in 1971.
It’s a great album. It is a pop album. But it is also more than that…so much more than that.
