Miles King & The Foolish Knights

In the organizer's words:

When Miles King & The Foolish trudged into the Mocambo Records studio in November 2021, they had no idea what to expect. A grinning Björn, old-school mics and a small Fostex 8-track tape machine. The Hammond was quickly dragged into the cellar, the tape was threaded and - bang - the magic unfolded and the instrumentals of the TAPES EP were in the can. Since then, Miles has set up a small project studio in grandma's old party cellar in a suburb of Frankfurt, producing various songs for Soulport Records and new singles for the band alongside old Tascam consoles, taperecorders and rustic 60s mics.

Miles' musical journey began at the age of twelve in the back seat of his father's old Corsa, when he heard Ben LʼOncle Soul for the first time. More and more records by Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Charles Bradley and Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, among others, adorned the walls of his room and Miles switched from cap, T-shirt and sneakers to hat, suit and sunglasses. The band formed in Osnabrück in 2019 and regularly performs on stages across Germany.

Tommie Harris, born in 1938 in Bessemer, Alabama, already had a close connection to music as a member of a small family gospel group as a child. His passion for the drums became apparent early on, and during his school years he performed in jazz and marching bands. His talent was recognized and encouraged by Youssef Latif.

After leaving school, he was part of the Fabulous Dukes, where he gained his first stage experience. While serving in the army in South Korea, he spent most of his time playing and practicing drums. He later founded the Fabulous Upsetters, which developed into the funk band Heatwave in the early 1970s. Tommie himself brought Johnny Wilder Jr. and Rod Templeton, who would later write Thriller for Michael Jackson, into the band.

After his time in the army, he moved to Europe, where he pursued a successful music career. He performed with well-known artists such as Luther Allison, Sam & Dave and Calwin Owens. In 1987, he was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame for his outstanding achievements.

Tommie Harris is known for his energetic performances and broad repertoire. He performs regularly on European stages with various bands such as The Blues Cats, Caravan and the Tommie Harris Gospel Trio. His participation in the "Tommie Harris and Friends Jam", which takes place every second Tuesday of the month, is particularly noteworthy.

In 2022, Marcel Bach and Henri Jerratsch formed the band "The Upper Sides" with other musicians and produced songs for the first Soulport Session, where the instrumental "The World Must Change" was recorded on a hot summer night.

Tommie and Marcel met at Tommie's session and got together for writing sessions. Tommie contributed the lyrics and after a demo take it was clear that this song urgently needed to see the light of day.the members of "The Upper Sides" are: Henri Jerratsch (drums), Felix Redeker (bass), Marcel Bach (organ), Steffen Freitag (guitar), Jan Schepmann (trumpet) and Joscha Ter Wey (tenor saxophone).