Featuring members of Westbound Train and The Toasters, for fans of The Skatalites, Westbound Train, The Slackers and Hepcat.
Void Union has a simple mission statement: preserve the Jamaican music of the 1960's, collaborate with Ska's originators, and actively recruit guest players from the ensembles that have proven equal to the task of reinventing the genre. Some of those musicians include Derrick Morgan, The Skatalites, Lynval Golding (The Specials), King Django, Angelo Moore (Fishbone), Chris Rhodes (The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Spring Heeled Jack),and David Hillyard (The Slackers, Hepcat), all of whom feature on the Void Union's recordings. In November of 2010, Vin Gordon (The Skatalites, Bob Marley and the Wailers) joined the group for a watershed European tour. Thaddeus Merritt (Bass), Rick Smith (Drums), Rich Graiko (Trumpet), Alex Stern (Guitar, Keys), and Anant Pradhan(Tenor Sax), comprise Void Union's core, but, the band's philosophy lends itself to a collective atmosphere in which like-minded musicians sit in and assure that no show is the same as the one that preceded it. The audience at a gig is not a mere handful of die-hard Ska enthusiasts; a survey of the crowd yields suits, working stiffs, parents, children, dreadlocks, moptops, and... hipsters? All turn out to bear witness to a versatile ensemble that is as at ease providing the jazz-tinged instrumental foil to a Jamaican legend as it is leading a sing-along at a neighborhood bar.