KING HIPPO

King Hippo was born in Columbia, South Carolina in 1999, when high school friends Jeff Kozelski and Tom Eden joined forces with drummer Dennis Ware and keyboardist Justin Banks to forge a sound that blended rock and roll, jazz, and funk with fearless improvisation. Their philosophy was simple: no slow songs. Kozelski's approach was to write "complicated dance songs that we would rarely play correctly" — and audiences loved every minute of it. The band recorded three albums of original music: Friday Night (1999), Attack of the 3 Horned Hippo (2002) — a live recording at Senate Park in Columbia featuring members of the James Brown Horn Section — and Uppercuts (2004). They won the Columbia, SC Battle of the Bands by playing one continuous six-hour set, earned regional fame touring relentlessly across the Southeast, and became a fixture on the jam-band circuit throughout the 2000s. After nearly a decade of nonstop touring, King Hippo split in 2007. The members went on to shape the music scenes of multiple cities — Kozelski moved to Charleston and became one of its most prolific musicians through The Outervention, his solo project, The Spare Kings, and KODA, while Tom Eden continued performing in New England. Their legacy lives on in the DNA of every project these musicians touch.