Ernie McKone

Ernie McKone is a UK-based bassist, producer, songwriter and tutor whose speciality is jazz, funk, Latin and soul — and whose career places him at the very heart of British acid jazz and rare groove history. Alongside drummer Crispin Taylor and guitarist Mark Vandergucht, he formed the rhythm section of Galliano, the acid jazz pioneers who were the first signing to Eddie Piller and Gilles Peterson’s Acid Jazz record label. That same trio also formed the core of Push, one of the driving forces of the late-80s London underground club scene.

His track record also includes work with Sister Sledge, Incognito, Seal, Leon Ware, Reuben Wilson, Fred Wesley, Pee Wee Ellis, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Marlena Shaw, Urban Species, Reel People and the Craig Charles Fantasy Funk Band. He also runs Boogie Back Records, his own underground label releasing jazz funk and street soul since the early 90s.

Ernie is a founding member of the Monks Road Social house band, appearing on every album in the collective’s catalogue alongside Crispin Taylor in what has become one of the most locked-in rhythm sections in British soul music. The backbone of the whole operation, and one of the reasons the records feel as alive as they do.