Music

Ipod, laptop, cell phone, your car…could you live without them?

It would be interesting to talk to different generations of jazz musicians to get their take on the role of jazz schools. While ostensibly working in the service of jazz, there is always the risk that the American style of schooling waters down the improvisational art breaking into discrete, measurable units to more easily professionalize it and fit into a nice little market-driven box.

One test of this dilemma is the work of two jazz schooled songstresses who are straddling the traditional jazz world and the underground soul/nujazz worlds.

Cecilia Stalin is a child of a massive generation of jazz musicians coming out of Scandinavia right now. She did some schooling in Europe as well as at the New School Jazz Conservatory in New York. A DJ friend of mine passed me her album, Straight Up, and I was moved by its bittersweet austerity. I’m especially into this track, “Sustain.”

Esperanza Spalding is something of a phenomenon. I have not done my research on her, but I’ve heard she was a classical player who switched over at a young age and became a virtuoso bassist. Eventually she was hired on to the Berkeley College of music faculty at some ridiculously young age. I went to see her show at Yoshi’s in San Fran and saw music heads from all over the bay. She’s incredibly popular for someone I have not seen marketed on any national scale yet. I frankly don’t know the whole story on her, but it seems that her identity as a woman-of-color, a band leader, and a bassist who also sings, informs her popularity as much as her musical style. Don’t get me wrong, I dig what I’ve heard. But, at times, Spalding’s music betrays its music school roots. When she sings the blues, I don’t buy it. She is at her best when she does Brazilian tunes that call for a certain sophisticated lightness (Think Joyce. That’s why I’m rockin’ this tune “Ponta De Areia”.

I’m gonna let Masta Ace speak for himself on this one:

Black boy, black boy turn that shit down
You know that America don’t wanna hear the sound
Of the bass drum jungle music go back to Africa
Nigga I’ll arrest ya if ya holdin up trafffic
I’ll be damned if I listen, so cops save your breath and
Write another ticket if ya have any left and
I’m breakin ear drums while I’m breakin the law
I’m disturbin all the peace cause Sister Souljah said war
So catch me if ya can, if ya can here’s a donut
Cause once ya drive away, yo I’m gonna go nut
And turn it up to where it was before nice try
But ya can’t stop the power of the bass in ya eye
I wonder if I blasted a little Elvis Presley
Would they pull me over and attempt to arrest me
I really doubt doubt it, they probably start dancin
Jumpin on my tip and pissin in they pants and
Wigglin and jigglin and grabbin on they pelvis
But you know my name so you never hear no Elvis
Strictly the hardcore dirty street level hits
God’s on my side so watch what the devil gets
Positivity hittin 50 levels deep
Comin out, they comin out the woofers in my Jeep

My homie, Rafael asked me for some broken beat. He was the one who introduced me to it in the first place and continues to be my source of inspiration on all sorts of levels. You’ll find some broken in here as well as some stuff that eludes classification but clearly references West London. Most importantly, if you have not tasted some of the sweetness coming out of Puerto Rico involving the likes of Orin Walters, there is a nice preview in here for you. I am gonna make it a mission to get a hold of that stuff and get it out there to the folks that I know are hungry for new music that honors the timeless roots.

1. Move Aside (AE Remix) - Bugz in the Attic - AE001
2. Time - Nick Holde Feat. Sacha - NRK
3. The Passage - Kid Sublime & Wouda - Dopeness Galore
4. Mighty Dub - Zed Bias Feat. Randolph - Defected
5. Uepa - Stereotyp Feat. Joyce Muniz - Man
6. Um Korpo - Ku Bo Feat. Joyce Muniz - Man
7. Comparsa - Afronaught vs Broki - Bitasweet Candela
8. Song for Letta (Broken Mix) - The Afro Jazz Pioneers - Early
9. I Exist Because of You (Henrik Swartz Love Version)- Henrik Swartz & Amampondo - Innervisions
10. Revolution (Real Live Revolution Remix by Kid Sublime) - Robb Scott - Sunshine Enterprises

Variation on the theme:

Wow. This is song i heard, loved, and thought I would never hear again. Gilles does it again. I really slept on this Digs America Comp.

DJ fflood organized a field trip of Oaklanders to check out Swedish indie-soul band, Little Dragon, as they made their US debut at the Elbo room in San Francisco. The Wily Filipino describes the event beautifully.

I enjoyed the show and couldn’t get over how much the band reminded me of musician friends of mine from Brooklyn. Its partly because of how they look and dress and the musical influences, but it was a bit more abstract than that. The generation that grew up with hip-hop and indie rock had to find a way to utilize the sounds from both. Rock offers a way of making music that draws people together into families. You could see that clearly in the rapport the band had. They communicated over the songs and within them. I could imagine long days of rehearsal that flew by with laughter, giddy excitement at sharing new finds from the record store. The folk tradition adds a story telling element. Then there is that challenge that Black American music put to the whole world over the last century and which has come to define popular contemporary music: “Make me feel it!” Now, few bands can make a wave with out passing the head nod test.

I love to feel these threads come together and Little Dragon pulls it off in a “best of” fashion. Just enough pop to avoid alienating, their sound is warm groovy and smart. Yukimi-who first blew me away with her part on Koop’s “Summer Sun” brings a rawness to the mix that is free to play within the wide space she creates with her skill as a jazz performer. She shakes the soul out of even the more quirky and awkward melodies. The whole thing made me feel teenage. Its ok to dote over a band again and share that infatuation with all the other groupies.

Official Little Dragon website.

Live on The Bomb, 88.5 FM Atlanta, GA [12.15.07]
Running time: 59:39
Bitrate: 192kbps
Type: Fire

Mike: “This is a live recording of my guest set on 88.5FM’s The Bomb!
I cut out a few bits and pieces but this is pretty much all the way live.”

01. DJ Mitsu The Beats feat. Rich Medina - Do Right
02. Jneiro Jarel - Big Bounce Theory Pt. 2
03. 9th Wonder & Pete Rock feat. Kev Brown - Always
04. Pete Rock & CL Smooth - Searching (Remix)
05. Mass Influence - A Yo! Atlanta Ya On
06. DJ Jazzy Jeff feat. Big Daddy Kane - The Garden
07. Grooveman Spot feat. Count Bass D - Japanese Trip Pt. 1
08. Shape Of Broad Minds feat. Ohmega Watts - Eyes & Ears
09. Ammon Contact feat. Cut Chemist & Brother J - Drum Riders
10. Blue & Exile - Below The Heavens Pt. 1
11. DJ Logic feat. John Medeski & Sub-Conscious - Hypnotic
12. Shape of Broad Minds feat. MF Doom - Let’s Go
13. DJ Kentaro feat. Fat Jon - Let It Go
14. DJ Day feat. Aloe Blacc - Closer
15. Dudley Perkins - Flowers
16. Klaxons - No Diggity

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The Junction at The Black New World Social Aid & Pleasure Club is quickly becoming an Oakland sure shot. Every first Friday Rebel B’nai Front and Kev Choice rock live music for a very live Oakland crowd into the very early morning. For the adventurous or the die-hard music lovers, a quick disco nap and your vintage fedora tilted to the side will help you blend in to this late night taste making session.

I made it out last Friday for my second dose and caught a preview of Kev Choice’s new “hip-hop sonata for rap, piano, drums, bass, and percussion.” Like Robert Glasper, Kev and his band discredit the proverbial binary that pits hip-hop against tradition. We’ve gotten used to hip-hop artists who dabble with jazz samples and using Beethoven riffs for dramatic effect, but this new breed of artists has the chops to absorb hip-hop into a growing vision of Black music.

This description sounds academic if not somewhat overblown, but Kev’s music is anything but. The band’s musicianship does not define them. They can get dirty. Instead they show off by moving deliberately and skillfully through their set. At one time rising into a sort of Earth, Wind, and Fire epic riffiness only to settle back down to allow Kev to outline the song with a piano solo. Then sometimes-as in the case of the Hip-hop Sonata-rolling seamlessly from one song into the next. The comparison to the roots would not be completely outlandish. But where the roots have many more years of raw hip-hop and mcing skills in their sound, Kev’s unique potential is in his combo rapper/song writer steez. The Black New World is a perfect venue in which to catch this show. The BNW itself is a passage connecting the African-American ancestry of those who made the Lower Bottoms (West Oakland) a vibrant mid-century Black community with contemporary, Black visionaries of arts and culture. Its complex enough to contain a seriously attractive and stylish young crowd without wavering toward a run of the mill bar experience for a moment. Kev Choice exploits this potential to the fullest, by creating an intimate conversation with the audience that talks about the struggle to maintain your focus and your integrity in a world that offers few such refuges.

1. Good Morning, What’s New? - Kidkanevil feat. Andreya Triana - First Word
2. With My Friends - Aloe Blacc - Stones Throw
3. Sunday - DJ Day - Audiopharm
4. We Gettin’ Down - Weldon Irvine Jr. - Bluebird
5. Languta - Hedzoleh Soundz - Blue Thumb
6. from Eddie Palmieri recorded live at Sing Sing with Harlem River Drive - Tico
7. Little Angel - Mongo Santamaria - Atlantic
8. Brobombique - Cadela All-Stars - Candela
9. Future Paradise - Yosaku - Plug Label
10. Bruketon (Simbad Dub) - Broki ft. Lisa M - Candela
11. World Town - MIA - Interscope
12. Todo Mundo - Seiji feat. MC Dolores - Man
13. Cocomotion (Remix) - ? - Ballroom
14. You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me - Crown Heights Affair - De-Lite
15. Cuicas Loucas - Luciano Perrone - Musidisc
16. Transamazonica - Antonio Adolfo & Brazuco - Blue Note
17. Open Your Eyes You Can Fly - Flora Purim - Milestone
18. Music is My Sanctuary - Gary Bartz - Capitol
19. UR (Yam Who Remix) - Alison Crockett - Wah Wah
20. Sing - Omar - Blunt
21. Kwedini (Orchestra Conducted by Hugh Masakela) - Miriam Mekeba - RCA