Reborn is Contemporary Christian Music transformed via 70′s Prog rock to today’s Coldplay classics. The Cafe Band has transformed the standard CCM Genre into blues, country, pop, progressive rock, and more. This diverse band of brass, strings, guitars and dynamic vocals led by Jeff Finger transformed the music to new musical heights under the vision of Stu Wilson’s production and arrangements. This “Reborn” album also supports the transformation of today’s enslaved by donating profits to the Bay Area Anti- Trafficking Coalition (BAATC). It’s available on Itunes and many other digital outlets beginning January 13, 2013. Visit www.mppc.org/reborn for more information!
About Cafe Band
The band is a group of 20 or so musicians who play the weekly services at the Menlo Park Presbyterian Cafe services. The band’s lead singer and leader is Jeff Finger. While the main instrumentation is bass, guitars, drums, keys and vocals at any given time you may hear violin, harmonica, djembe, cajon, saxophone and at times a harp or oboe! This variety is what inspired Stu Wilson to take some of Cafe’s favorite worship tunes and give them new life. Jeff came from a musical family, his father was a studied lyric tenor and his mother is a lifetime church pianist. Singing publicly when he was only five, playing trumpet when he was eleven, Jeff was in the music scene early and continued on as a vocalist in choirs touring the Midwest, South and Southwestern U.S. until he was 26. He began playing acoustic guitar in his early twenties and has been leading worship bands for almost 20 years. Stu likewise grew up with music all around – his mother being a competition accordionist. Stu played symphonic violin, jazz violin, string bass, and bass guitar and has been active in music all his life. Recently Stu has studied arranging and the recording arts, earning a Associates in Music Technology, culminating in the Reborn CD.
How “Reborn” came to light
Two years ago, in January of 2011, band Leader Jeff Finger approached the entire group about the idea of producing an album together made up of the favorite selections of the band’s repertoire. After the band selected the music, Stu Wilson, convinced that this shouldn’t be “just another cover tune CD” drew from musical influences and artists like Sting, Coldplay, Yes, Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, Peter Gabriel, as well as country, the blues, bluegrass, gospel, rock, progressive rock and, even a hint of reggae transformed the songs into new genres and styles that gives every song on the CD it’s own unique “reborn” style.
Gigs
The Cafe Band plays every Sunday in Menlo Park for a thriving faith community of 600 people known as “the Cafe Community” at MPPC.
Special Interest
The Cafe band wanted Reborn to go beyond “another CD” and has partnered with the Bay Area Anti- Trafficking Coalition (BAATC) http://www.baatc.org/ that was founded by Betty Ann Boeving. BAATC has a focused effort to address the sex trafficking problem in our backyard – right here in the Bay Area. Interestingly enough, its evolution as an organization practically mirrored the two years of development of the album by the Cafe Band. From the early part of 2011, Betty Ann began developing an approach to fighting the slave trade on the Peninsula, an approach that is now about to sponsor its 2nd (and biannual) summit in January of 2013, a gathering of people from all over the United States to consider how the average person can be an ambassador of this fight against one of the great evils of our time. As a result of this partnership, the musicians of the Cafe Band will donate the sales of their music and this album to support new life for victims in human trafficking.
What People Say about the Cafe Band
- “They make your spirit soar with music that is worshipful, joyful and deeply moving!” “They blend the contemporary with the traditional to draw your heart close to God’s heart!”
- “They are professional musicians with a very personal sound. I appreciate the mix of music with saxophones, acoustic and electric guitars, drums and especially the beautiful vocal harmony. I love that it is unpretentious yet well done.”
- “They blend contemporary and modern music in a way that appeals to everyone.”
- ”The Cafe band helps me enter into a sacred space with God. Their musical choices are deep and they make our time together awesome – literally!”
- ”Beautiful & moving – inspires worship.”
- ”I have worshipped at the Cafe for 6 years. Jeff has assembled a unique group of musicians and vocalists that rock the Cafe each week with their uplifting praise music. They blend contemporary and modern music in a way that appeals to everyone.”
- ”For the last 6 years I have experienced both joys and pits from a variety of family and health issues. I often come into the 9:32 service with a heavy heart and a mind that won’t stop. The music centers me and provides me with the meditative uplift I need before getting into the word!”
- “There are no words to describe the joy that the Cafe band brings to me each and every single week. “Their music fills my soul with God’s joy and spirit and brings me close to God through this worship and praise for his Holy name.”
- ”Our Cafe band is truly a gift and sign of God’s amazing grace in our broken world. Each and every Sunday I leave Cafe filled with God’s music and love through the magic of the music.”
- ”Jeff leads our service with such joy that the music sets the tone for embracing the message with an open heart to God’s word.”
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