Sam Fribush, Adam Deitch and Ari Teitel squeeze into Roots Music Project on Dec. 21

The three players behind the organ trio DTF land in a 100-capacity East Boulder room the Monday before Christmas.

Picture a Hammond B3 run through a wah pedal, a Lettuce drummer a few feet away, and maybe a hundred people in a warehouse room off Pearl Street. That is the setup on Monday, Dec. 21, when organist Sam Fribush plays Roots Music Project at 8 p.m. with Ari Teitel, Adam Deitch and Halle Tomlinson.

The show was announced Oct. 23. Tickets run $35–$300 through Eventbrite, and the room holds 100, so the arithmetic is simple: if you want in, don't wait for the week of.

Fribush, Deitch and Teitel are the three names behind DTF, the organ trio that put out its debut LP, *Another Side of the Sound*, on May 23, 2025, on Flybird Music. Each arrived with a day job most bands would envy. Deitch is the GRAMMY-nominated drummer known for Lettuce and Break Science. Teitel, also GRAMMY-nominated, plays guitar in Dumpstaphunk and The Rumble. Fribush has made his name as the organist in Hiss Golden Messenger.

The record has a Colorado connection worth knowing: it was cut straight to a vintage Tascam tape machine at Colorado Sound Studios. The first single, "Chester," climbed to No. 3 on Spotify's Jazz-Funk playlist, and reviewers at KNKX and Jazz24 heard a group that mixes classic soul-jazz with modern beats and brings real personality to the organ-trio tradition. Fribush's habit of pushing the B3 through a wah-wah gives some of it a laid-back, cinematic feel that one writer compared to Khruangbin.

The trio made its live debut at New Orleans' Maple Leaf during the 2025 Jazz & Heritage Festival and has kept a road presence since, including a night at The Rabbit Hole in New Orleans this past April. A December Monday in Boulder, a few blocks from where all three are regularly heard in bigger rooms, is a different proposition: close enough to see the drawbars move.

Close enough to see the drawbars move.

The venue is part of the point. Roots Music Project is a Boulder nonprofit at 4747 Pearl Street that doubles as a live room and an artist-development hub. Co-founder and executive director Dave Kennedy started it as a DIY answer to local bands who couldn't find gigs, holding the first event in 2015 in a former distillery. It now runs paid gig space, workshops and an Artist Incubator Program, and last October it produced the first Boulder Roots Music Festival — more than 180 bands across 15 stages on Pearl Street. When the garage door rolls up and a funk organ is going, you can hear the place from the parking lot.

That mix — players who fill festival stages, in a room built to give local musicians a foothold — is the Boulder version of a holiday party. Halle Tomlinson rounds out the bill.

Mondays are supposed to be quiet. This one has a B3.

Sources: DTF (Deitch, Teitel & Fribush) elevate organ trio funk on debut album 'Another Side of the Sound' — Grateful Web (gratefulweb.com); Another Side of the Sound album review — KNKX (knkx.org); Another Side of the Sound review — Jazz24 (jazz24.org); DTF trio share 'Chester' — Live For Live Music (liveforlivemusic.com); Adam Deitch, Ari Teitel, Sam Fribush DTF 'Good Morning' — Live For Live Music (liveforlivemusic.com); DTF at The Rabbit Hole — Ticket Fairy (ticketfairy.com); Dave Kennedy on Roots Music Project — Westword (westword.com); Boulder used to have a live music scene — Boulder Reporting Lab (boulderreportinglab.org); Boulder Roots Music Festival debuts with 180 bands, 15 stages — Axios (axios.com); Roots Music Project — Live Music Society (livemusicsociety.org); Good Music Medicine at Roots Music Project — Grateful Web (gratefulweb.com); Sam Fribush at Roots Music Project — tickets (Eventbrite) (eventbrite.com)