B Side Players

The B-Side Players are part of a new movement in popular music, a band that honors the international cross-pollination that has always made music the universal language. They use any beat that catches their ear, regardless of geography or genre, to create a compelling, horn driven, polyrhythmic groove. “The root of all pop music is African,” says Karlos Paez, the band’s lead vocalist, trumpet player and founder. “Our sound acknowledges that fact. That’s why the music is so soulful. We’re playing the ancient beats that came from Africa to create reggae, son, Afro-beat and funk and mixing ‘em all together.”
The band has been laying down their own inimitable global funk since they came together in 1994. Their incendiary live shows made them local legends, while their albums showcased a band with a restless musical intelligence, effortlessly blending genres to fashion their own forward looking, Latin flavored, future-funk.
Paez, the man behind the B-Side Players, grew up in a musical family. His father Ezequiel Paez is a world-renowned trombone player and musical arranger who spent 17 years in Los Moonlights from Tijuana and 10 years in La Banda Del Recodo. Paez, Sr. still writes and arranges music for Bandas in Mexico. While he was still in grammar school, Karlos heard the music of Bob Marley and started playing guitar and writing songs. He met the musicians that would become the first incarnation of The B-Side Players in an African Drum class at Southwestern Community College in San Diego in 1994. “We were all playing with bands in the local funk and acid jazz scene in the early 90s,” Paez recalls. “When we started playing together, our sound was different because we brought an Afro-Latin edge to the music.”
The B-Side Players are a force to be reckoned with. “We’re proud to be on the frontline of a new musical movement that no longer represents the minority,” Paez says happily. “We now represent the Brown Majority. The surfer, suburban stereotype of California is changing fast; it’s not all bleach blondes any more. It’s nappy, Afro, rice bowled, dirty, dusty, wet, happy struggling people and we’re right there in the struggle with our music.”