Sunday Jazz Brunch - Rebecca Conner

Reb & the Good News is a Portland based funk, world, and soul group that brings optimism and cathartic release to the dance floor. Catchy horn lines and sultry vocals soar over grooves that you can’t help but move to. Led by vocalist and guitarist Reb Conner, Reb’s love of rhythms from around the world bring the dance floor on a journey that’s full of surprises. Formed in 2021 in the middle of the pandemic, these songs reach for hope in a world under pressure. Reb believes that through feeling deeply and dancing together, we can face all that we’re up against in this life. She is supported by her partner, sax and keys player Leon Cotter, (a touring member of the California Honeydrops), as well as some of Portland’s heaviest hitters: Cyrus Nabipoor on trumpet, Ross Garlow on bass and Kirk Kalbfleisch on drums.

Reb & the Good News released their debut album “Wings” on May 11th 2021. This album is a culmination of a lifetime searching for Reb’s own voice in music. At 19, her love affair with music began by playing songs around a beach fire in her coastal hometown of Lincoln City. During a subsequent trip to Europe with a guitar, jazz was the music that most spoke to her, and she returned to the States to pursue an education. Reb went to music school at the age of 21 not yet knowing a major scale. With a lot of catching up to do, her education lasted all of 7 years, starting at LCC and finishing at the University of Oregon where she focused on Jazz guitar. Reb left her last collaborative project, High Step society in 2018, and moved from Eugene to Portland ready to tell her own story and bring her own aesthetic to life.