Break beats were 30-second drum sections of funk songs that early hip-hop pioneers looped to create the foundation of rap beats. Around this same time, the spaced out jazz maestro Sun Ra was touring the country with his group dubbed the Arkestra. In 1996 when Miles Tacket and Mix Master Wolf decided to form a band, they decided that the aforementioned were two crucial elements they wanted to be part of their sound, and so they came up with the name BREAKESTRA. While these two founders are the only members who have stayed with the ten-piece jazz-funk orchestra group since its initial formation, many of BREAKESTRA's former musicians have gone on to write and perform with The Black Eyed Peas and other popular funk, hip-hop and rap groups.
