Fonville X Fribush And Burrs Flow And Flourish On “Intraspettro/Café Milano”
It hasn’t even been a full year since drummer Corey Fonville and organist Sam Fribush first joined forces in pursuit of something new. “Blue-collar jazz for the people,” as the duo described it in one breath; “organ jazz for the youth” in another. Whatever the phrasing, their Hammond organ-driven blend of jazz and R&B has already produced an impressive run with three records in 2026 alone, each pairing the duo with a different accomplished guitarist. While their growing fanbase has been enjoying each release on its own, a recent live session of “Intraspettro/Café Milano” featuring the duo alongside guitarist Morgan Burrs reveals just how spectacular this sound can be in real time.
Per Corey Fonville, the song is a “spin off” born from a long-standing fascination with lounge music and its naturally seamless fit with the Hammond organ. “I’ve always had this fascination with lounge music,” Fonville noted on social media, describing the kind of atmospheric sound you might hear drifting through swank settings. “We knew this would sound dope with Hammond organ.” He traced the inspiration back to 2011, when a YouTube search for “lounge euro music” led him to UK act Les Hommes and their 2001 track “Intraspettro.” “I’ve been hooked ever since then,” he said, adding that it took nearly 15 years to fully realize the vision, something he described as “absolutely worth the wait.”
The song moves with a breezy nu-bossa pulse that Les Hommes originally imagined as the soundtrack to a wandering late-night journey that somehow ends up in a neon-lit bierkeller in East Berlin. The two Butcher Brown members and Fribush preserve that sense of motion, channeling a free-flowing looseness that turns aimlessness into something quietly euphoric, like the final missing piece in an already full life. Fonville’s cross-stick drumming sets a light, airy groove, while Fribush’s Hammond organ washes the track in vivid color, constantly shifting your focus from one glowing hue to the next. Burrs, meanwhile, navigates the open space with agility and intent, weaving between patient restraint and flashes of quick, expressive runs to complete a remarkably cohesive interplay. It’s nearly seven minutes of pure jazz rapture, brought to life through a singular sound and a serendipitous wellspring of inspiration.
Shot by Richmond production company The Sunroom, the video finds the band in a backyard session, fully immersed in the jam and locked into the pure essence of the music, mirrored by the stripped-down setting around them. The camera moves between sweeping pans across the musicians and a fixed shot framed only by a solitary tree trunk and a stray branch, the sparse visuals gently pushing your focus back toward the players as they fully sink into the groove. In turn, the audience is drawn in as well, reveling in the kind of magic only the analog warmth of a Hammond and three versatile musicians can create.
“Café Milano” comes from January’s R&B Organ Trio, the first of three releases from Fribush and Fonville this year featuring guitarist Charlie Hunter. That same month, they also released What Day Is It, featuring guitarist Alan Good Parker, to wider acclaim. Recently, the duo dropped more recordings from the same video session with Morgan Burrs as The Sunroom Sessions, which finds the trio reworking classics by Cleo Sol, Sade, and others. This rotation of guitarists adds a different kind of depth alongside the Hammond’s own analog controls, forming a winning formula that feels primed for consistent future output, even if it doesn’t quite match the remarkable pace Fonville and Fribush have achieved in just three months.
Watch the video for “Intraspettro/Café Milano” below, and be sure to follow Fonville x Fribush, Corey Fonville, Sam Fribush, Morgan Burrs, and Butcher Brown on social media to keep up with their continually unfolding stream of new music.
