Stanton Moore Trio

Stanton Moore knows his funk. The Galactic drummer and founder has a knack for grabbing on to a groove with both fists, putting it in a headlock and twisting it into submission. The result is a tight and steady deadlocked funk. Last year, Moore invited guitarist Will Bernard and keyboard phenom Robert Walter down to his home town of New Orleans and set up shop in the famed Preservation Hall, where they recorded III, Moore's aptly titled third album, his first for the Telarc imprint. A New Orleans vibe permeates the disc, especially on Meters-inflected tracks such as "Poison Pushy," "Dunkin' in the Deep" and "Maple Plank." The trio slows it down a bit on a dusty, bluesy version of Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks," but rocks it hard on the chorus, making it easy to see why Moore was tapped to play on Corrosion of Conformity's In the Arms of God.