Photos by SAM DEAN The Roanoke Times

The Groove performs at 202 Market Wednesday night.

The Elmer Coles Quintet performs at Blues BBQ Company.

In one small corner of downtown Roanoke, Wednesday nights are funk night.

And we're not talking some generic funk situation, here. No, the musicians here are among the best the Roanoke and New River valleys have to offer.

On the left side of the corner, at 202 Market, it's The Groove -- drummer Kelly Gravely, keyboardist/singer Jamiel Allen, keyboard man Keith Thomas and bassist Cameron McLaughlin.

On the right side, at The Blues BBQ Co., it's the Elmer Coles Quintet -- Coles on trumpet, bassist Bernard Hairston, guitarists Greg Ayers and Charlie Hughes and drummer Carlos Aranguren.

You cannot lose at either joint. First off, it's free. Second, these guys are digging deep into funk, soul, blues and jazz catalogs for some of the hottest music ever written.

The shows started happening, coincidental to each other, in January. Between the two rooms and two sets of players, there's a fair chance that Wednesdays could be among downtown's busiest nights. The players say they want to ride it out as long as possible.

202: Funky good time

Listeners walking up Campbell Avenue on Jan. 27 could hear some old James Brown blaring from one of 202's outdoor speakers.

"We're gonna have a funky good time," Wayne "Range Da Messenga" Hancock sang as the band locked in deeply behind him. Hancock was sitting in with The Groove on a couple of tunes.

Gravely and McLaughlin spanked out the hard shuffle of "Gonna Have a Funky Good Time (Doing it to Death)," while the rest of the band sweetened it up with synchronized instrumental work. The band closed the night with a tour de force, "Soul Intro/The Chicken," written by former James Brown sax man Albert "Pee Wee" Ellis but made famous by the late bassist Jaco Pastorius.

And McLaughlin came through strong on "The Chicken," laying out those chugging 16th notes while Allen went off on his keys, then soloing strongly with a thick mixture of thumb-popping and hyperspeed triplets.

Thomas wound it out with a talk-box solo -- forget auto-tune; if you want to hear that effect, check out Thomas working it as if he were Peter Frampton on keys.

"I saw that no one else around here was doing it," Thomas said of the effect. "I thought I'd make a little niche out of it."

Elsewhere in the set, it was Gravely's ballgame. The groove meister, who has performed and recorded with his old friend, bassist Victor Wooten, once toured with the band Mazarati, led by former Prince bassist Brown Mark. Gravely sang Prince's "Pop Life," which mutated into a loungy bossa nova, and on other numbers, played sizzling drum solos.

Blues BBQ: funked up jazz

Across the corner at Blues, the vibe tended more toward jazz and bop, but with snapping backbeats from drummer Carlos Aranguren. A version of The Jazz Crusaders' "Keep That Same Old Feeling" simmered, with Coles blaring at high "G" range on his trumpet. Guitarists Hughes and Ayers added color while Hairston and Aranguren locked it down hard.

Hairston is probably the best soloist in either of the two rooms, though his forte is grooving. The guy's fingers are as loose as an old slinky, but he can blaze up the speed runs and is a fountain of melodic and harmonic ideas up and down the fretboard.

If you live relatively close and consider yourself a local music fan and supporter, you owe it to yourself to hear this cat burn.

Young Hughes seems to grow exponentially on guitar, both with chords and solo ideas, and Ayers is as tasteful as they come.

Later, the band counted off Julian "Cannonball" Adderly's "Work Song," a deep church shuffle that got greasier as it went on. That tune included strong solos from trumpeter Scott Kulick (VA Folk Jazz Trio, Big Lick Brass Band) and Blues BBQ owner Patrick Maggi on a mean trombone -- the pair had earlier provided good shout chorus help on the Crusaders' number. Keyboardist Michael Randolph was sitting in and percolating as well.

Who got the funk?

There's no need to make a hard choice here. It's all happening on the same night, and within a short distance. You don't have to pay a dime to get into either joint, and you can find cheap beer in both rooms. Great players are walking in and out, sitting in and hanging out.

Bottom line: It's a great scene.