Eric Krasno + Son Little backed by the Sweet Sounds of The Assembly

Eric "Kraz" Krasno is a New York-based Grammy-winning guitarist, songwriter, recording artist, and producer best known for his work with Soulive and Lettuce, both of which he co-founded. His own musical roots lie in funk, jazz, rock, and hip-hop, and he has written songs and produced records for a variety of artists in a range of genres including Norah Jones, Aaron Neville, Talib Kweli, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Ledisi, 50 Cent, and Matisyahu.

Krasno was raised in the suburbs of New York City, and in Fairfield County, Connecticut. His earliest influences were his musician grandfather, a professional pianist who played gypsy jazz and swing, as well as his older brother and father, also accomplished musicians though amateurs. His early attraction to classic rock records from Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Jeff Beck, and Grateful Dead influenced his decision to become a guitarist. He began playing in local bands during high school. After graduating, he attended the Berklee School of Music for one semester before transferring to Hampshire College. Despite its brevity, it was at Berklee that he encountered other founding members of the funk/jam unit Lettuce during a summer program. The band formed while its members were still in their teens and have been a going concern in both the studio and on concert stages since then. In 1999, he joined brothers Alan and Neal Evans, and Sam Kininger, to co-found Soulive, a jazz/hip-hop/folk/groove unit that recorded for several labels including Blue Note and, like Lettuce, they're known for a rigorous touring schedule.

Krasno began his career as a producer on Kweli's Quality in 2002. His reputation spread among hip-hop artists, and under various monikers he worked with a variety of rappers including Redman and Pharoah Monche, and R&B, jazz, pop, and rock artists including Keyshia Cole, Allen Stone, Dave Matthews Band, Justin Timberlake, and Nigel Hall. As a guitarist, Krasno's work has graced albums and tours by everyone from the Beatnuts, Snoop Dog, and Sonya Kitchell to Vieux Farka Toure, Christian McBride, Joshua Redman, and Dr. Lonnie Smith.

Krasno issued Reminisce, his debut solo album in 2010 on SOI, and toured with his own group while continuing to play and record with Lettuce and Phil Lesh & Friends. His sophomore offering, Blood from a Stone, was released in July 2016 through Feel Records. It was preceded by the singles "Waiting for Your Love" and "On the Rise." The latter set showcased his lead vocals for the first time alongside his playing and songwriting. Krasno and his road sextet toured throughout the summer supporting Dumpstaphunk. The same year, he produced Neville's Apache album. The studio band he enlisted included members of Lettuce, Soulive, the Dap Kings, and Budos Band. ~ Thom Jurek

aloha, the latest album from Son Little, the musical nom de plume of LA’s Aaron Earl Livingston, is available now. As previewed with the release of the invisible EP and early single, “hey rose,” which The New York Times described as comprising “bluesy distorted guitar chords, a hint of Latin rhythm and perhaps a distant echo of the Zombies’ 'Time of the Season’,” aloha blends classic soul and old-school R&B into a timeless swirl fueled by gritty instrumental virtuosity and raw, raspy vocals. Recorded at Paris’s iconic Studios Ferber with producer Renaud Letang (Feist, Manu Chao), aloha is Little’s first album to be recorded with an outside producer. The result is his boldest, most self-assured statement yet. It’s an ambitious work of vision and reflection, and an ecstatic testament to the freedom that comes from trusting the currents of life to carry you where you belong.

In order to create aloha, Little began writing and assembling album demos in Petaluma, California. However, after his hard drive fried and he lost nearly a dozen detailed demos, he was forced to begin with a blank slate, leading him to write aloha in only eight days at a tiny house and its adjacent barn. While Little plays nearly every instrument on the album himself, he put his songs in the hands of an outside producer for the first time here. The entire project was an exercise in letting go, in ceding control, in surrendering to fate.

Recognizing the power of our own self-destructive tendencies is a recurring theme on aloha. Little mourns the suicide of a beloved uncle on “suffer,” using addiction and mental illness as a lens to explore forgiveness and empathy, laments the rapidly deteriorating world his two children are set to inherit on “o clever one,” and meditates on the dangers of succumbing to passion at the expense of reason on “belladonna.”

It would be easy to feel helpless in the face of such inexorable forces, to feel as if we are prisoners of fate rather than masters of our own destiny, but Little instead finds peace in perseverance on the album. “Hallelujah,” he sings on the gorgeous “neve give up,” “though I’m battered and blue / feel like I’m born to lose…Never will I give up.”



It is a potent reminder that letting go doesn’t mean giving in; in fact, quite the opposite. Letting go can be an act of defiance, of growth, of empowerment. Letting go requires a leap of faith, and, in Son Little’s case, that faith has been richly rewarded. Whether that means this album represents the end of one chapter or the beginning of the next is impossible to know just yet, but in either case, there’s really only one thing to say: aloha.