A funk band from the South Bronx, ESG recorded for 99 Records and Factory back in the early 1980s. Their stripped-down but deeply polyrhythmic tracks have always crossed over between white and black audiences — from being covered by Unrest to being sampled by Wu-Tang and Gang Starr.
I love the band but I didn’t know until today that their name stands for Emerald, Sapphire and Gold. I don’t always pay attention.
I only saw them live once, myself — in 1990 or so at a weird hippie warehouse space in Manhattan called Wetlands.
These are the only bits of video I know of hosted online currently from their 1980s heyday, but clearly more has been shot.
This article appears in Jan 7-13, 2015.
