007 was born out of a gap Jeffrey "the Houseman" Clemens — drummer for G. Love & Special Sauce — noticed in New Orleans' musical landscape. In 2000, he enlisted three fellow downtown stalwarts: guitarist Alex McMurray, guitarist Jonathan Freilich, and bassist Joe Cabral of The Iguanas. Nobody else in the city was playing rocksteady.
Rocksteady is the crucial link between ska and reggae — Jamaican popular music in its brief, glorious moment of consolidation from 1966 to 1968. Stripped of the frenetic offbeat of ska, with a heavier bassline and relaxed tempo, it laid the ground for Bob Marley. The style's very name comes from Desmond Dekker's 1967 anthem "007 (Shanty Town)" — the song from which the band takes its name.
McMurray and Freilich are two of the most distinctive guitarists in the downtown scene, and their conversation over Cabral's bass and Clemens' drumming gives the music a warmth and improvisational intelligence that lifts it above mere tribute. Three-part harmony is central to the live experience. Their 2024 album The Return of Ben Downlow demonstrates undiminished enthusiasm for the form after nearly twenty-five years.
