Lettuce are an American funk band formed in Boston in 1992 by musicians who met as teenagers at the Berklee College of Music's Five-Week Summer Performance Program. The original core included Adam Deitch on drums, Erick “Jesus” Coomes on bass, Adam “Shmeeans” Smirnoff on guitar, Ryan Zoidis on saxophone and Eric Krasno on guitar. The musicians reunited at Berklee as undergraduates in 1994 and began performing regularly around Boston. The band's name came from their habit of asking club owners and other musicians to “let us play.”
Lettuce's sound is rooted in 1970s funk, drawing on artists including James Brown, The Meters, Earth, Wind & Fire, Tower of Power and Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, while incorporating elements of jazz, soul, hip hop, rock and improvisational music.
Although the members were involved in other projects, Lettuce continued to perform and build a following in New York, San Francisco and Tokyo. Their debut album, Outta Here, was released in 2002, followed by the live album Live in Tokyo, recorded at the Blue Note in Japan. Their second studio album, Rage!, appeared in 2008.
The band's catalogue subsequently expanded with albums including Fly (2012), Crush (2015), Witches Stew (2017), Elevate (2019), Resonate (2020) and Unify (2022). Crush reached number one on the US Jazz Albums chart, while Resonate received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.
Lettuce have also collaborated and performed with musicians from across funk, jazz, hip hop and soul. Individual members have worked with artists including John Scofield, Soulive, Dave Matthews Band and others, reflecting the band's close connection with the wider American funk and jam scene.
The band's current core line-up includes Adam Deitch, Adam “Shmeeans” Smirnoff, Erick Coomes, Ryan Zoidis, Eric “Benny” Bloom and Nigel Hall. Their music continues to combine deep funk grooves with jazz musicianship, improvisation and elements of hip hop, making Lettuce an important part of the modern funk revival.
