[Cover photo credit to Kristy Walker]

San Diego’s 9-piece mostly instrumental combo The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble work with Jazz and Funk to form the bedrock of their sound. They’ve expanded upon this foundation on their new 11-song album for Colemine Records, titled Gemini.

In Latin, the word Gemini denotes “two together” or “twins”. In astrological terms, Geminis are noted for being “curious and versatile.”

Recorded between late 2021 and early 2024 at The Kitchen II in their homebase of Lemon Grove, California, and the group have begun to take more and more cues from library music labels such as KPM Music, spiritually-leaning jazz labels such as Tribe & Black Jazz Records and exotica-adjacent Jazz artists such as Cal Tjader and Dorothy Ashby. They are also now leaning more into the “introspective” part of their sound.

With their current lineup of Tim Felten on keys, Jake Najor on drums, Omar Lopez on bass, Kiko Cornejo Jr on conga/percussion, Aquiles “Lito” Magana on guitar, Wili Fleming on trombone, Sheryll Felten on percussion, and both Jesse Audelo & Travis Klein on saxophone & flute, SFSE dares to go where they haven’t gone before on their new album.