Grammy award-nominated Lettuce headlines Avon’s Salute to the USA Thursday, and launches a new wine

Lettuce has been fusing funk with hip-hop, rock, jazz, soul, jam, avant-garde, go-go and a dose of psychedelia since 1992, when four Berklee College of Music alumni joined up with two others in Boston. The soulful funk outfit named itself after originally showing up at college parties, asking if they could play a few songs. “Let us play” became a joke among friends and led to the shortened name: Lettuce.

Its 2022 “Unify” completed a trilogy of albums, beginning with the 2019 Grammy-nominated “Elevate.” When they gathered to make “Elevate,” they emerged with enough material for three records. Since then, they’ve released “Lettuce with the Colorado Symphony” in February, as well as the single “The Lock” with rapper Styles P, about a week ago.

“We love classical music, and some of us have played in an orchestra,” trumpet and horn player Eric “Benny” Bloom said about the live album with the Colorado Symphony. “To fill out those parts that we normally play with a symphony is like a dream come true, and it sounds so big and beautiful — we always wanted to do a collaboration with an orchestra.”

In addition to their classical background, hip-hop has significantly influenced them.

“We’ve played hip-hop all our lives,” he said, adding that they’ve worked with rappers like Dr. Dre and Kanye West, “so we thought it was very natural to have one of our favorite rappers from back in the day on one of our tracks as a remix.”

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Next week, they’ll announce their new record, which they’ll release song by song. They wrote some of the tracks during the pandemic, sending music to each other and writing collaboratively but remotely.

“When we got in the studio, we had a bunch of demos, and we ended up cutting a lot of music,” said saxophone player Ryan Zoidis. “It’s a little more evolved; it has some different avenues that we haven’t gone down before. It’s a little bit more psychedelic (with) 13 tracks and some interludes.”

The album is based upon the band’s classic, funky sound, but you’ll also find trippy hip-hop and more chill, ethereal, exploratory sounds.

“It’s not just straight hit-you-over-the-head funk. It goes down a lot of different directions. I’d say it’s our most vibey record,” Bloom said. “Put it on with drinks or glass of wine.”

And, speaking of wine, the band just released its own wine, Lettuce Crush Vol. 1, in partnership with Colorado-based, natural winery Aquila Cellars. As the press release describes it, it’s created with the “same care and creative spirit that defines the band’s approach to music.”

Available in two varietals, Lettuce’s Red Crush and Orange Crush are grown organically in Paonia and produced without additives. The bold yet balanced Red Crush blends teroldego and barbera red-wine grape varietals that originated in Italy. The wine is fermented 50% whole-cluster and barrel-aged for 10 months in neutral oak.

“Deeply rooted, high-acid, soulful — it’s the kind of wine that plays like a groove,” said Brandt Thibodeaux, winemaker and co-founder of Aquila Cellars.

Meanwhile, Orange Crush brings a citrus zest, along with tropical fruit and a hint of raspberry.

“Aquila Cellars has been a trailblazer in the Colorado wine scene for the last five years. Growing organic grapes in some of the highest vineyards of North America is very difficult and expensive. These wines came out great,” Bloom said.

The musician’s industry experience with wine began six years ago when they started a wine distribution company based in Denver, based on a passion for drinking natural wine and the realization that many Colorado restaurants didn’t offer a lot of organic wines.

“We like to eat organically, and we try to drink well. If you’re going to drink something, try to drink something less taxing on your body. We drink these kinds of wine anyway, so to make a wine with a winemaker that aligns with our ethos — very light, crushable white wine, and we make a lighter red — those are things we like to drink. It goes right with our music and our overall vibe, and the wines are great. It’s not some little liquor store wine. This is really well made wine, it’s an honor to be part of it,” he said.

Within the first week, they sold a third of the 80 cases released, and this is just the first of many ventures, they say.

Thursday, the Avon audience can expect an “exhilarating experience,” Bloom said, before watching fireworks.

“It’s just clean fun. We’re going to play all over the map, from classic soul to R&B to funk and psychedelics with a lot of improvised sections,” he said. “It’s just a really positive experience, and you’re gonna want to dance all night long. We’re in the pocket right now.”

In typical Lettuce fashion, every show differs, which keeps the musicians excited about each gig, Zoidis said.

“We never know what’s going to happen when we get up there, but, generally, it’s pretty good, so we’re excited to play, and Avon’s going to be amazing. We’ve been playing a lot together; we just traveled the world together and went to Indonesia, and our chemistry is really nice right now,” he said. “The energy of the audience directs the music a lot of the time, and I’m sure Avon will be exciting — since it’s Fourth of July, it’ll be raging.”

They especially appreciate playing free shows, which draw a diverse audience.

“We love to show you all of the different avenues that we can go down — you get something for everyone,” Bloom said. “These kind of shows are just great, uplifting and stress-free fun.”