Vulfpeck is an American funk group founded in 2011 and based in Los Angeles. The band has released, on their own record label, four EPs, six albums, and a silent album on Spotify entitled ‘Sleepify’, royalties from which funded Vulfpeck’s admission-free tour in 2014. Fiercely independent, in 2019 Vulfpeck became among the first known groups to sell out New York’s Madison Square Garden without the help of a manager or label. The band’s most recent album, Schvitz, was released in December 2022.

The band members attended University of Michigan’s music school. They first came together as a rhythm section for a performance at the Duderstadt Center, a university facility that houses an arts library and other resources. After reading an interview with German producer Reinhold Mack, band founder Jack Stratton conceived of Vulfpeck as an imagined German version of the U.S. session musicians of the 1960s such as the Funk Brothers, the Wrecking Crew, and Muscle Shoals. The idea was to channel that era of the live rhythm section.

The band’s founding members are Jack Stratton on keyboards, drums and guitar, Theo Katzman on guitar, drums and vocals, Woody Goss on keyboards, and Joe Dart on bass. Touring partners and frequent collaborators include Antwaun Stanley, Joey Dosik and Cory Wong. Other contributing musicians include Charles Jones, Christine Hucal, David T. Walker, Bernard Purdie, James Gadson and Blake Mills.

For New York-based singer/songwriter Jackie Evans, music has always been the only option, but Evans only began releasing songs under her own name last year. Her style, often likened to the timeless writing of Carole King, Billy Joel and Sara Bareilles is, in part, the byproduct of years spent taking requests at piano bars. As a gigging musician, Evans has tried it all; from playing standards on cruise ships, to performing at theme parks and majoring in theater. The ease and confidence she carries in live performance has caught the attention of other musicians, leading to collaborations with Vulfpeck, and support slots on tour with Lake Street Dive and Jensen McRae.