Jelly Bread

"Four musicians and four musical styles converge into what might be the next big name to come out of Reno/Tahoe"
- Jackie Ginley, Moonshine Ink (Nov 09, 2012) - Moonshine Ink

"Four musicians and four musical styles converge into what might be the next big name to come out of Reno/Tahoe"
- Jackie Ginley, Moonshine Ink (Nov 09, 2012) - Moonshine Ink

"Jelly Bread.... fronted by the mind-blowing drummer Cliff Porter and Dave Berry on guitar. They exposed their infectious talent as they ripped through southern-fried funk, reggae and roots music with tracks from their No Dress Code album, like “Safe & Sane”, “JB Jazz” and “Infectious Grooves”, where they pay homage to modern masters of funk. "
- Spencer Rouse, JamBase (Nov 06, 2012) - JamBase

Jelly Bread is rising.

The Reno quartet solidified its lineup last spring, recorded an album and donned dapper, three-piece suits for a CD-release party.

“We wanted to make an impression,” bandleader Dave Berry said. “We wanted to show up to a gig looking like we had a job.”

Jelly Bread has received plenty of job offers ever since, steadily performing at clubs and venues throughout the West. And today it adds an accolade to its résumé: Lake Tahoe Action 2012 Band of the Year.

The band sounds like Tower of Power or Dumpstaphunk with a Southern drawl. It plays a combination of R&B, gospel, funk and pop with frolicsome instrumentation accouterments like a lap steel guitar and an organ talk box. Drummer Cliff Porter has a name for it: “feel-good music.”

- Tahoe Daily Tribune

"Jelly Bread's 'NO DRESS CODE' voted best album of 2012 by the readers of the Reno News & Review"
- Best of Northern Nevada 2012, Reno News & Review (Aug 09, 2012) - Reno News & Review

"Jelly Bread opened the night, diving right in to its unique micro-climate of play. The rambunctious hourlong set included a handful off Jelly Bread's new release, “No Dress Code,” which backs up its recent win as Best Album of Northern Nevada by the Reno News & Review. Joining Berry's guitar work and vocals, Cliff Porter mans a red eight-piece drum kit with perfection and sass. When Porter asked the gathering crowd, “Any slide guitar fans up here in Tahoe?” If you weren't before, you became a devotee after their sashay through “Laid Out,” which featured Berry's adept lap steel work. Their closing play on “Infectious Grooves” melted into “Higher Ground,” and could've gotten Elain Benes dancing like a sista. Jelly Bread can't be plopped into any one music category, but shares playful bloodlines with Tower of Power and Stevie Wonder, with undercurrents of rock and country. ”

Dana Turvey - Sierra Sun - Sierra Sun

"Infectious Grooves,” the opener of the band’s new disc No Dress Code, sets the tone proper. Drummer Cliff Porter lays down snare-poppin’ grooves that lead the music. On this first track, the group members wear their influences on the sleeves—there are name drops and musical references to Parliament-Funkadelic and Robert Randolph and the Family Band, among others—and when the songs ends with an on-the-dime change into a few bars of Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground,” someday exclaims, “Wait a minute—whoa! We didn’t get clearance for this!” It’s fun stuff. One highlight is the stanky “Laid Out,” one of a handful of tracks to prominently feature some great bluesy lap steel playing by vocalist and mutli-instrumental Dave Berry (the winner of RN&R’s big songwriting contest back in ’09).

- Brad Bynum - Reno News & Review

"Cliff Porter drums his triplet layin' ass off from the jump and the sparkling horn charts are a throw back to that Brecker Brothers and Tower Of Power era of furiously funky horns. Standout tracks for me start with track 1 "Infectious Grooves," a name-dropping roll call the the OG's and young Turks in the game, it's a tour de force of full frontal funk."... "No regional band in recent memory has better blended seemingly disparate styles more effectively as Jelly Bread has here. On 'No Dress Code' Jelly Bread's big party band sound and stand out sectional work is a no-holds-barred-booty-shakin'-til-you're drenched-in-sweat-funk-manifesto. But they somehow manage to stay thoroughly steeped in a Rock-Americana style sensibility on songs like "Laid Out" and "Never On Time."... "Track 9, the monster fusion jam "Love Come To Me" is a burner. Porter is a standout throughout on vocals and his drum fell recalls that of Mike Clark on The Headhunters "God Make Me Funky."

- Oliver X - Reno Tahoe Tonight

A moment erupts during the first track, “Infectious Grooves,” on Jelly Bread’s new album, “No Dress Code,” that speaks volumes about the Reno band’s ability to transfer the “gotta-get-up-and-boogie” electricity of its live shows to the studio.
After bouncing through up-tempo funk grooves driven by drummer Cliff Porter’s snare tattoos and colored by itchy and wah-wah-ing guitar licks and warbly organ, Porter — his rich voice alternating between singing and rapping, and referencing funksters such as James Brown and Sly Stone — sounds surprised as the quintet locks into a four-chord riff. It’s Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground,” later covered by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
“Are we gonna do it?” Porter exclaims . . . then launches into the lyric — “Peop-oh-le” — before slamming the brakes: “Whoa-oh-oh. My bad!”
The humorous spontaneity sets the table for a nonstop celebration of the funk, soul and roots music Jelly Bread has come to be known for since forming in 2009. And there’s no need for covers on this album of 14 originals by what is perhaps the hardest-working Reno band, playing dates throughout the region.
Jelly Bread dishes up more than one flavor in its populist approach. “The album’s called ‘No Dress Code’ because every song’s different,” Berry says. Indeed, there’s a giddy olio — from the fast Delta blues of “Laid Out” to the percolating reggae of “Safe ’n’ Sane,” the torchy soul of “You Don’t Want Me” featuring Reno’s dusky-voiced Whitney Myer (a 2012 contestant on NBC’s “The Voice”), and the smooth “JB Jazz” featuring a horn section of Los Angeles players.

Variety is one key to the album’s listenability. Another is the band’s avoidance of flat-out jamming — a trap of instrumental-heavy bands in the studio. “Everything’s very structured,” Berry says. “We know how many bars we’re gonna go, and then we’re going to end it.”
- Michael Sion - Reno Gazette-Journal

"The genre blurring musical alchemy laid down by Reno's Jelly Bread on their second studio album 'No Dress Code' would make noted funk musicologist Ricky Vincent's nostrils flare at the odiferous stank. Always chameleonic, the best of Jelly Bread's eclectic proclivities are on display, melding elements of high desert twang, Oakland funk and rock on an album whose calling card is high energy, counter balanced by exceptional songwriting and storytelling. 'No Dress Code' represents a demonstrative commitment by the group to capture the sonic vitality of their live stage shows on record with crystalline clarity - a feat that few festival or touring acts ever fully achieve"..."My favorite song off 'No Dress Code' track 4, "Laid Out", is unlike anything I've heard. Part country grammer, part down home ho-down and all fire, "Laid Out" has a rollicking indie alt-rock radio appeal. I'm no Jean Dixon, but this track has breakthrough mass appeal written all over it"...

- Oliver X - Reno Tahoe Tonight