Roots Tonic

Roots Tonic : Josh Werner (Bass) Aaron Dugan (Guitar) and Jonah David (Drums) all went to Mannes Jazz Program (New School) together. We had never actually played all together, but we all knew of each other. Josh and I had played together quite a bit, as we were part of a small group of musicians at the New School interested in playing other styles and working with whomever we could.

Come to think of it, we were probably the only two students intensely interested in playing Reggae. We learned to lock our grooves in while playing behind many poets and emcees at the NuYorican Poets Cafe and through our experience playing shows such as Verse 4 Verse, All That and Words. We went on to join Butta, a group put together by Ettienne Stadjweick and Rocky Lamontange to play the Rock Steady Crew Anniversaries and tour colleges up and down the east coast. Josh And Aaron had played together while attending the New School as well. Aaron's experimental Free/Jazz/Drum n Bass group 717 played quite often around NYC. It was during one of these shows that Matis, (aka Mathew Miller at the time) became a fan of Aaron's playing. Time went on and after Matis had become religious, he happened to meet Aaron while walking on the street in mid town Manhattan. They exchanged numbers. Aaron was called that very night to play Washington Square Park with Matis, the first gig. Aaron was asked to assemble a band. He called Josh, and Josh called me. We first played together at the Y.A.M in Crown Heights, and we never looked back from there. - Jonah __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



Our First Album, Produced by the legendary Bill Laswell: Roots Tonic Meets Bill Laswell ~~ A futurist space/dub transmission! ~~ Out on ROIR May 9th! ______________________________________________________________



"Band mates Aaron Dugan (guitar), Josh Werner (bass) and Jonah David (drums) are three of the tightest musicians in the Western hemisphere, never missing a beat, playing in perfect unison. You can feel the energy and emotion of every note released from their fingertips." - MEAN STREET