115 King St.
Madison
WI
Phat Phunktion started as a fun little side project between a bunch of jazz music students at the University of Wisconsin in 1996, but over the next 25 years, grew into a jazz and funk power house that has toured internationally, shared the stage with some of the great funk masters of our time, help raise over $260,000 for cancer research at the UW Carbine Cancer Center, won multiple MAMA and WAMI awards, and amassed over 13 million plays on Spotify.
It began at a “battle of the bands” competition at the Memorial Union in 1996. From there Phat began playing a local clubs including the Mango Grill (in the University Square) and the Angelic Brewing Company for beer and food. While both are now closed, there were central to the younger bands in Madison’s live music scene of the late 90’s. As the band grew in popularity, we moved to routinely selling out venues like the Regent Street Annex, and Luther’s Blues. Up through 2003, Phat was regularly featured at festivals and clubs throughout the midwest. Phat shared the stage with music greats such as Maceo Parker, Tower of Power, War, Cameo, The Brother’s Johnson, Kool n the Gang, Rick James, The Temptations, Morris Day and the Time, and Chick Corea.
Phat took a break from touring in 2003 and 2004 while co-founder Tim Whalen obtained his masters in jazz music from Manhattan School of Music. During that time, one of our albums gained popularity in Japan, sparking a tour that lasted from 2005 through 2006 and included stops in Tokyo and Osaka Japan.
Unfortunately tragedy struck in 2006 when the wife of co-founder Al Falaschi was diagnosed with cancer, which put the brakes on all live performances. She fought valiantly until losing her battle in 2009. Phat roared back with a vengeance by releasing their fourth album, Real Life .:. High Fidelity, which won multiple MAMA awards, and earned them another tour of Japan. Since then, co-founders Al Falaschi and Tim Whalen have concentrated on writing and recording new music rather than getting in a van and touring the land. Phat has over forty thousand monthly listeners on Spotify, and has also discovered a recent phenomenon of bands from around the world covering their music….from Thailand, to Russia, to a band in Japan that does an entire set of Phat Phunktion music.
In 2009 Phat Phunktion created Funk Out Cancer, a concert and silent auction in memory of Al’s wife Kate. All proceeds are donated to the UW Carbone Cancer Center. Since its inception, the event has donated over $260,000 to help fight cancer.
Phat Phunktion was planned to be the special guest of the UW Varsity Band Show at the Kohl Center, and was set to travel to Australia to perform at a music festival in 2020, both of which were postponed due to the covid pandemic. We hope to be able to reschedule both appearances soon.
To celebrate our 25th anniversary, we will be hosting a show at the Majestic on Saturday November 6th, 2021. “Wurk” will be opening the show which starts at 8pm. Tickets are available at www.majesticmadison.com
