On Stage Tonight (Bonus Track Version) Malted Milk and Toni Green

• 1 Introducing 02:10
• 2 Touch You 04:28
• 3 Easy Baby 04:58
• 4 Human Wave 05:21
• 5 Sweet Baby 04:40
• 6 Nola Dance 06:39
• 7 Hope She Believes In Me 04:36
• 8 Sunshine 04:27
• 9 True Love 07:44
• 10 Down The Road 07:21
• 11 That Wiggle 04:49
• 12 Da Bump 09:30
• 13 Final 02:42
• 14 Brand New Man 06:36
• Total Runtime 01:16:01

Info for On Stage Tonight (Bonus Track Version)

Since their debut album under Dixiefrog Records, MALTED MILK continues to grow up and the band is, now, considered as a real new soul attraction. Today they have invited, on their damn Live album, 20SYL from the national acclaimed HOCUS POCUS band (with the hit band C2C in the top of the European and worldwide charts) plus some other guests as the fresh young female singer and guitarist NINA ATTAL or KARL W. DAVIS. With this first live recording, MALTED MILK takes a real turn in its career and becomes a huge and concrete French value in the afro american music style!

True, the great Soul sounds of Black America have rocked our lives for the past fifty years, but it doesn’t mean that this precious musical heritage shouldn’t be revitalized, that its groove couldn’t be reinvented!

Malted Milk’s unrivaled soulfulness is more than a sign of their respect for this glorious past.

The boundless energy you will find on their albums is a mere sample of their ability, a glimpse of their electrifying potential on stage.

Blues purists, funk freaks and avid listeners alike will testify to the authenticity of Malted Milk’s musical might. Inspired compositions, precise arrangements, elegant vocal harmonies, and clever production… who could ask for more? Chances are their artistic honesty will conquer new adepts among those whose ears haven’t yet been polluted by artificial pop sounds.

You can bet on it, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Solomon Burke and Howard Tate wouldn’t have remained unmoved by these recordings. But this is not the least of Malted Milk’s achievements, who have managed to impose their soul-drenched repertoire in Europe. With so many dull imitators and usurpers around, this insistence on originality sanctions the work of creators who insist on making their way, regardless of the commercial consequences of their musical acts.

And if you still entertain any doubts about the worth of these superlative players, try a simple experiment: let yourself be drawn by the strong pull of their dazzling horns and impeccable tempo… A handful of seconds should be enough; you will end up begging for more.

“C’mon, get some! You won’t regret it!”

Malted Milk and Toni Green
In these times of international soul-blues new wave (Eli "Paperboy" Reed, Jamie Lidell, Raphael Saadiq, etc…), the French scene seemed to lack worthy representatives of the genre…until the advent of this third Malted Milk opus, determined to make up for this shortage!

Malted Milk moves within the sheerest Afro-American musical tradition, brilliantly combining blues and funky soul. This notoriety goes far beyond the French border, since the band has also performed abroad on many occasions, either accompanying headliners or to participate in the finals of the Memphis International Blues Challenge in 2007. "Milk And Green", their last project from the meeting with the soul singer Toni Green, will be released autumn 2014.

What do southern soulstress Toni Green and European soul-blues group Malted Milk have in common? The answer is simple: Milk & Green are probably the best kept secrets on the rhythm & blues scene these days. But now that they’ve joined forces to record what could well become one of the most powerful albums of the decade, you can bet your bottom dollar (euro, pound…) that the news will spread like wildfire.

Once an active member of the Isaac Hayes traveling show, Memphis-born Toni Green got her start at an early age: “My father was a musician and everybody came to my home to rehearse. The Bar-Kays, the Mad Lads, everyone.”

After a stint with vocal quartet Imported Moods, she joined the roster of legendary producer Willie Mitchell, alongside Al Green, Ann Peebles, Otis Clay and Syl Johnson. An alumnus of Andrew Love of the Memphis Horns, and a longtime cohort of Marvell Thomas (son of Rufus and brother of Carla, two soul stars long associated with the famed Stax label), she honed her chops with Luther Ingram and the Doobie Brothers before becoming a mainstay on the New York studio scene, doing background singing for the likes of Dennis Edwards, Betty Wright, Millie Jackson, Luther Vandross, the SOS Band and Con Funk Shun. By the time Toni moved back to Memphis in the mid-90s, she was ready to record under her own name, but times were hard for pure soul artists at the height of the hip-hop era and she never really got the chance to record the album that would make a difference.

“But things are going to change,” says Toni who was thrilled when she was offered the opportunity to work with Malted Milk on this project by producer Sebastian Danchin. “This guy from Europe came to visit me. He’d been wanting to work with me for fifteen years, just waiting for the right moment. First thing I asked him was: ‘What took you so long?’” Toni laughs. “I was actually waiting to find a group that could play ‘in the pocket,’” confirms Danchin, using the common expression in Memphis for musicians that play with real soul. “At one time, I was in Memphis recording an album at Willie Mitchell’s studio and I almost called Toni, but it would have been too frustrating to have her guest on just one track. And then I thought of Arnaud and Malted Milk.”

Arnaud Fradin, a powerhouse blues guitarist and strong vocalist with a killing falsetto, had all the necessary credentials for this project, having burned up the soul-blues trail from Tennessee to Florida, Paris to Amsterdam and London. By the time the present project got the green light from Nueva Onda Records, Malted Milk had turned into a war machine with plenty of funk to spare, according to Toni: “I was in awe of these guys when I first heard them. The drummer, Richard, is incredible, I haven’t played with anyone that consistent since the days of the Hi Rhythm section. The horns are top-notch, Igor the bass player is incredibly creative, just like Tim who plays keyboard, the baby in the band, he’s like my son.”

After several months of intense preparation, Milk & Green met in the studio in March 2014. Recording took place over ten days at the Bonison studio, a first rate facility in the French countryside, near Nantes. On the supergroup’s agenda was a mix of covers borrowed from people as diverse as southern soul songsmith Tommy Tate, R’n’B diva Mary J. Blige, Philadelphia’s own Garnet Mimms, as well as Hi Records luminaries Syl Johnson and Ann Peebles. “We decided to record a version of Ann Peebles’s Slipped Tripped and Fell in Love, in order to show where our inspiration came from, says Malted Milk leader and singer Arnaud Fradin. We also wanted to showcase our own work, and half of the album’s repertoire are originals written and arranged in the studio with Toni.”

The end result reflects Milk & Green's vision of 21st century soul, a funky and bluesy mix that takes the ball rolling way beyond the retro soul sounds that have been the norm for the past few years. Judging from the reactions an explosive song like Just Call Me has gotten on the soul radio circuit in the US, or from French audiences when the band recently performed it on the Victoires du Jazz ceremony (the French equivalent of the Grammys), this superlative album should be a winner upon its release this fall, allowing Malted Milk and Toni Green to tour Europe abundantly in the next few months. Several tours are already in the works, missing them on stage will be at the peril of anyone with a strong feel for contemporary soul.

Booklet for On Stage Tonight (Bonus Track Version)