Aja West and Cheeba are jazz fusion

Jazz fusion

Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...

/funk

Funk

Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

 musicians from the United States west coast. Aja West

Aja West

Aja West first emerged onto the music scene in 1998 with his debut record White Moses. In 1999, he released the progressive hip-hop album Trauma...Life in the E.R. on his own Mackrosoft Records label. The album pays homage to artists like Beastie Boys and Eminem...

 was born in 1976, and younger brother Cheeba was born May 8, 1979.

In 2005, the brothers released Flash and Snowball. The album won Jam

Jam band

-Ambiguity:By the late 1990s use of the term jam band also became ambiguous. An editorial at jamband.com suggested that any band of which a primary band such as Phish has done a cover of be included as jam band. The example was including New York post-punk band Talking Heads after Phish performed...

 Album of the Year at the Independent Music Awards

The Independent Music Awards

The Independent Music Awards is an international program that honors top-ranked independent artists and releases in more than 50 Album, Song, Music Video and Design categories....

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Aja West and Cheeba are the founders of the Mackrosoft Records music label. Aja West is the leader and conductor of the funk group The Mackrosoft, and Cheeba is the leader of The Cheebacabra

The Cheebacabra

The Cheebacabra is a psychedelic funk fusion band on their own Mackrosoft Records label. The band was formed when Cheeba parted ways with the Dust Brothers production team to focus on his own productions. The first Cheebacabra album, Metamorphosis, was released in 2003 to critical acclaim...

. Each brother plays in the other's band.

Album history

Flash and Snowball was written in tribute to the two cats the artists grew up with, one of which was deaf but enjoyed "listening" to music.