by Courtenay Nearburg

The Groove Line Horns are Carlos Sosa on sax, Fernando Castillo on trumpet, and Raoul Vallejo on trombone. Yes, that is a familiar last name, but Raoul swears there is no relation to the oh-so-popular Vallejo music dynasty of Steamboat fame. The only connection is the shared gigs with percussionist Alex Vallejo in the Scabs -- that and the fast-track rise to notoriety. In fact, that's probably where most fans saw the Groove Line Horns first. The Monday night Steamboat monopoly on crowds began essentially with the Ugly Americans' spin-off project, the Scabs, about a year and a half ago, and since then the Groove Line Horns have not left the building. Now firmly established with the Atlantics (formerly known as the Atlantic Soul Revue) in that Monday night slot at the Steamboat, the Groove Line continues to draw the audience, feeding that hunger for some phat grooves and soulful moods. And then they move over to Antone's on Tuesdays for the Scabs gig where, recently, even the stars are out on a good night (Sandra Bullock was spotted once).

The Groove Line is earning a reputation, and it stretches as far away as New York City. In June, Sosa got a call from the mostly-gone but not forgotten '80s punk outfit, Suicidal Tendencies. They're back on the road, doing it their way (meaning without label assistance, or interference, depending on how you look at it), and they'd heard that the Groove Line Horns are the hottest horn section in Austin. Are they interested in jamming for the Tendencies' Stubb's appearance June 27? Oh yeah. Sosa is a long-time fan of the Tendencies' own spin-off, the Infectious Grooves. "It's like the heaviest kind of funk Prince would play, but with the Suicidal edge," (no pun intended) Sosa explains.

Sosa cites Infectious Grooves as one of his main influences as a teenager just starting to play in funk bands, along with Earth, Wind, and Fire and, of course, Parliament. Even though he saw himself as a guitar-playing rock star as early as fifth grade, for some reason his grandma bought him a saxophone instead of a guitar. He started playing the sax with bands as a sophomore and was quickly introduced to a busy college funk band known as Whitey. It was his first meeting with Houston's Fernando Castillo and Raoul Vallejo of Harlingen, who were both studying music at the University of North Texas at Denton. Sosa's high school band opened for Whitey's funk festival, and the three have not been separated by much distance since. Sosa left San Antonio to study music at Southwest Texas, and soon, Castillo and Vallejo had left North Texas to pursue music careers in Austin. Vallejo hooked up with local funk afficionados the Ging'breadman, and Castillo and Sosa joined an R&B project known as Groove Line, including local luminaries Yogi, Mike Champion, D.C. Cole, and Phil Redmond. "They were the first band that really gave us a chance," Castillo says. And the moniker stuck.

However, a trumpet and a sax do not a real horn section make, according to Sosa, and so they began courting Castillo's old Whitey counterpart, Vallejo. Vallejo was busy with the Ging'breadman, but was interested in joining the Groove Line, but money problems got in the way. There weren't enough gigs yet to support three players.

"We shot him (Vallejo) the offer a couple of times. We weren't making too much money at the time. But there came a time, and we were like, we want him so bad, we'll take the cut," Sosa says. The evolution of the Ging'breadmen into Concerto Grosso, featuring Ephriam Owens on trumpet, contributed to Vallejo's easy move from that entity to the Groove Line. As soon as the trio was complete, the offers began to roll in, and in just a short eight months, the Groove Line Horns have the opportunity to gig seven nights a week regularly.

"I really dig playing with these guys," Vallejo says of his new position. "I do that (Concerto Grosso) whenever I can, but that's not a whole lot." One exception was the chance to open for the Dirty Dozen at Antone's recently with the new line-up for Concerto Grosso. On that evening, the band was called the Ging'breadman, even though only Vallejo and two other original members participated.

Sosa cites that show as particularly inspirational in terms of what the Groove Line would like to see happen as an "ultimate" project. "Having the horn section out front, that's it. But the Tower of Power thing, just to get to play with a lot of different people, is cool," Sosa muses.

For now, earning a reputation as the best and playing with the finest musicians Austin has to offer are the priorities. "The first thing is to make sure we get our name out there. That's the big thing" Castillo explains. "And then, once you get your name out there, and people respect you, then you can get all the players you want. Right now, we're making connections."

Playing with the Ugly Americans and the Scabs has led to their first recording project (on Capricorn/Mercury), for the next Ugly Americans album. They've been in the studio for two weeks now, and as a result of the June 27 gig with Suicidal Tendencies, they have been invited to record with the Tendencies in Los Angeles, tentatively scheduled for early fall. "They get back from touring in August, then they're going to send us some Suicidal stuff that they think is pretty funky and would like to hear some horns on," Sosa says.

Musically, playing with the Tendencies is a departure from the Groove Line Horns' repertoire. But no complaints from these guys. Sosa was thrilled to have the opportunity to jam with some of the Infectious Grooves members, and although Vallejo was reserved when he first heard the Tendencies, he now has nothing but raves for the reborn crew. "I never expected to sit in with Suicidal Tendencies. But I didn't know how bad-ass they were," he laughs.

As for their current projects in Austin, nobody is bored yet. The Atlantics keep them busy on Mondays and with private parties, and they certainly respect their fellow players. Despite essentially being a cover band, the talent represented in the Atlantics' ranks keeps the music fresh and the grooves raw. Mike Barnes, the guitarist, has been seen around Austin in Extreme Heat for the last 20-25 years, according to Sosa, and has recently joined John Mills (perhaps Austin's finest jazz saxman) and Mike Hines in a new R&B project called Millennium Swing. Drummer Steve Ramos double-times with the recently recognized MC Overlord, and of course, Yogi, the man about town on the bass, of Hot Buttered Rhythm. "The Atlantics is our money. That's how we live," Sosa says.

The Groove Line is in no hurry to leave Austin for a piece of that Big Apple pie, thank goodness. Once, in College Station, they sat in with a group called Super T, a kind of Otis Day and the Knights thing that Castillo calls "the George Clinton of the frat scene." They wanted to hire the horn section, but that would require them to relocate to Nashville. "They freaked out. They were like, 'What will it take to get you guys to move to Nashville?' They were going to guarantee us four nights a week, and we're like, whew, really? I mean, that's all?" Castillo jokes.

"I personally don't think you have to move anywhere to get anywhere. We can go to LA and record and get to know people and still live here," Sosa adds. "Our main goal right now is to get picked up by a really great touring band."

Sosa is eight hours away from his undergraduate degree from Southwest Texas, and although he is grateful to have worked with Keith Winking and some of the other young musicians at SWT, he doesn't necessarily feel that the academic approach to music is the only way to go.

"You can't graduate from college with a jazz studies degree and then say you're a jazz musician. You're going to go out there and get stomped," he says, adding that most of the high profile musicians now enrolled in the SWT program came to the school after having established themselves as professionals already. "If I had one path to choose, I'd rather be a street musician than be in school."

Vallejo concurs, citing his success in Austin after leaving North Texas without a degree. "Yeah, I think it's the matter of hours you put into it. You can be in school or out of school. You're going to have to work either way."

These guys really enjoy the music scene in Austin, mentioning several other people they would like to work with here, and talking about their goals musically. Brannen Temple of Hot Buttered Rhythm and Les Fisher of Taboo head the list of drummers they would like to join up with, and they definitely want to continue to work with old friends Yogi and Mike Hines. As for other horn players, they recommend the King Soul Revue, of Sunday night La Zona Rosa fame.

"There's not a lot of horn players in Austin. All the ones I know, like Elias [Haslanger], they're doing the jazz thing," laments Vallejo. Although the Groove Line is interested in playing jazz, funk is where they are making their mark. "Funk is like, it's everything now. It has jazz, swing, be-bop. That's why we like it so much. We like to play all kinds of styles," Castillo says. As for their rapid rise to popularity, well, it's all part of the plan. "We thought it would take a lot longer," says Castillo.

"We did. Fernie and I had a plan, like a five-year plan. We just wanted to be playing in the best bands in Austin and have a name for ourselves, a reputation as the best horn section in town," Sosa adds. "Our goals are set a lot higher now."