NEXT Collective: Christian “aTunde Adjuah” Scott (Trumpet)
Leading up to the February 26th release of ‘Cover Art,’ we will be bringing you interviews with the musicians and previews of the songs each one arranged for the record, so check back with us often! Christian Scott brought one of the heaviest tunes to ‘Cover Art’ in arranging “No Church In The Wild” off of Jay-Z & Kanye’s ‘Watch the Throne.’ As a special guest and “quasi-producer,” Scott brought us some insight and storytelling from the process in a style very much his own. Check out what he had to say.
DJ Raydar Ellis: Featured Vocal Samples
Check out a special feature from DJ Raydar Ellis on a few of his favorite jazz vocal samples in hip-hop and where they came from. Including Roy Ayers, Quincy Jones, Billie Holiday, Kanye West, De La Soul, and more!
Best 2011 Features: The Hip Hop & Jazz Debate
Since this Issue is a major focus of our site, we decided to re-launch Issue No. 2 The Hip Hop and Jazz Debate, which came out in Jan. of 2011. If you didn’t get a chance to read through all of our great features, now is your chance to go through them one by one, including a lengthy list of album reviews. Top Features from this Issue include Weldon Irvine, Respect the Architect: DJs Are Musicians, Word on Rap: The Vocal Instrument, Jazz Poetry, Rap: Cause and Effect of the Black Arts Movement, Insane in the Left Brain and DJ with Live Band vs DJ with Emcee.
Sounds of Brazil (SOBs): Partner Spotlight
Any music lover in New York with a general curiosity for up-in-coming international music and care to share the same space with legendary performers will have passed through SOBs at some point. This historical venue has been standing strong for 29 years now has the longest running Brazilian music series in New York, which started the year that SOBs was founded in 1982. Larry Gold, the founder of SOBs has created a uniquely home-like atmosphere for live music, where the best Brazilian, Latin, Jazz, R&B, Soul and hip-hop acts have played since their humble beginnings.
Awesome Tapes From Africa
From his home base in New York City, Brian Shimkovitz is the talented ear behind a compilation of awesome albums – standing at the helm of the blog, Awesome Tapes From Africa, he has provided the web and subsequently much of the Western world with a slew of great talents otherwise unknown outside of continental African and Western immigrant circles still blasting a bit of the homebrew from systems wherever relations have scattered and planted flags. Opening the lines of communication and cultural exchange, Awesome Tapes From Africa is the tangible evidence of Western musical influences on indigenous African musical traditions, and proof of the direct West African lineage still present in much of today’s popular music across Europe and the Americas. An empire built upon the otherwise antiquated and oft-romanticized cassette tape, Shimkovitz’s collection of sounds is the cure for rhythm deprived dancers and drum fiends alike.
Lupe, Mos Def, Kanye West with The Robert Glasper Experiment
Last Saturday night (2/26/11) The Robert Glasper Experiment took to the stage with guest vocalist Lupe Fiasco in a monumental collaboration mixing the jazz and hip-hop realms. Different on this night though, were the other guest vocalists who arrived later in the show, Mos Def and Kanye West.
Brad Mehldau Set To Start “Highway Rider Tour”
Celebrating the release of his double-disc album Highway Rider on Nonesuch Records, Brad Mehldau will launch a corresponding tour starting November 5th. Mehldau will be joined by Joshua Redman and a live orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for U.S. dates and Britten Sinfonia for international dates.
