Lettuce

Funk and jazz group Lettuce was formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1992. Influenced by musical outfits such as Tower of Power, Earth Wind and Fire, and Herbie Hancock, the band was founded by bassist Erick ‘Jesus’ Coomes, drummer Adam Deith, guitarists Adam ‘Shmeeans’ Smirnoff and Eric Krasno, and saxophonists Eric ‘Benny’ Bloom and Sam Kininger. The teenage musicians were classmates at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts and spent the summer of ’92 playing together before the group’s members pursued other interests. However, after they had all graduated, they reformed Lettuce and began to pester local club owners to ‘let us play’, which inspired the group’s name. Keyboardist Jeff Bhasker joined the group, and they began to build a local audience before taking their show on the road and expanding their following across the US. With Hammond organist Neal Evans replacing Bhasker, Lettuce released their debut album, Outta Here, in 2002. That debut was subsequently followed by Rage! (2008), Fly! (2012), Crush (2015), Mt. Crushmore (2016), the Grammy-nominated Elevate (2019), Resonate (2020), and Unify (2022). Several line-up changes occurred over the course of the band’s career and several members went on to form other successful groups including Soulive (featuring former guitarist Eric Krasno and keyboardist Neal Evans). Other current and former band members have played with Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, the Dave Matthews Band, John Scofield, Robert Randolph & the Family Band, and Wyclef Jean.