Timeless II of IV

A SUITE FOR MA DUKES

Sunday February 22nd was historic.

that night, Cal State LA’s Luckman Theatre was the place every self-respecting hip hop head worldwide envied. ArtDontSleep, Mochilla, Vtech, Carlos Nino and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson created a spectacular musical performance by having a 40 piece orchestra play select pieces of music from James Yancey’s vast discography. I honestly can’t quite explain the electricity in the air that night, I just know everyone was awed and honored to witness such a show. 

the night begun with DJ House Shoes playing a set of Dilla classics, originals and select voice messages from Erykah Badu, ?uestlove and J Dilla himself, as well as an unreleased and unleaked Dilla song produced by Shoes.

in the interim between Shoes and J Rocc, this Mochilla video played on the giant screen behind the stage…

J Rocc followed with a classic set. J Rocc seems to have ever version of every Dilla beat, the full mixes of a good number of heaters and of course a gang of unreleased heat. 

still, the biggest spectacle was yet to come. after J Rocc’s set, Common, Ma Dukes and Illa J came onstage to give a brief introduction to the rest of the show. Carlos Nino also appeared to further play host to  Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and The Suite For Ma Dukes Orchestra. 

the first of their two 45 minute sets began with the orchestra playing cuts off the Suite for Ma Dukes EP (now available on vinyl and iTunes). to hear cuts like ‘Nag Champa,’ ‘Find A Way’ and ‘Fall in Love’ live in this setting was nothing short of mind blowing, but the real treats were to come. afterwards, the orchestra began to get deeper into Dilla’s discography. they played a particularly ridiculous rendition of Phat Kat’s ‘Don’t Nobody Care About Us’ and had heads in the audience up in arms with their version of Jaylib’s ‘The Official.’ my personal favorite orchestral rendition was the ominous ‘Take Notice,’ or was it the Dilla beat pauses that Miguel and company pulled of in their rendition of ‘Jealousy’?

the intermission came and went. everyone in the lobby was smiling from ear-to-ear, ecstatic about what had just happened. as people filled back into their seats the curtain was raised once again and Carlos Nino introduced the first of a line of special guests, Karriem Riggins on the drums and Dwele on the mic. 

 Dwele performed an orchestral version of ‘Angel’ backed up by Amp Fiddler, Bilal and an amazing Portugese singer who’s name escapes me. afterwards Bilal came onstage to perform an MC-less version of ‘Reminisce,’ followed by an orchestral cover of Stan Getz ‘Saudade Vem Correndo,’ aka the original for the Dilla-produced Pharcyde track ‘Runnin’ that must have given everyone in attendance goosebumps. 

then, the closing.

‘Stakes Is High’ with special guests Posdonous of De La Soul and Talib Kweli. everyone was standing up in their seats, chanting along to the chorus. this was magic.

once again, a huge thank you goes to everyone involved with this performance. it will be a day that will go down in music history. I am humbled to have been in attendance. 

 

 

you looking real GG Allin right now

I planned on having a detailed account of what went on at the return of Nightlife/Dilla tribute night at the Echoplex this past Saturday night. But thanks to *ahem* complications, I had to miss out. Thankfully, Rhettmatic, who helped organize/conceive/promote the event, was gracious enough to tell me a little bit about the eventful evening.

“The night was a success. honestly, i was a little worried, being that it was on valentine’s daybut we were all shocked when we got the echoplex was packed, that place is huge! I heard there were long lines outside. I was stuck onstage for the most part. I had cats texting me on my phone asking me to get them past the lines. I went to the floor once just to get some pineapple juice from the bar, that’s when I noticed it was hella packed. Other than that, I was pretty much basckstage or onstage.

I was pretty intoxicated but I do know we all played Dilla and Dilla related music all night, we were all tag teaming, taking turns. It was the first time we had 4 turntables at nightlife. At one point it was me and J Rocc going back and forth playing exclusive joints. J has more shit than I do, but we were going neck and neck at one point. I was playing some stuff that Dilla actually gave me, some people have heard it, most have not, like stuff off the Ma Dukes collection and our dubplates that we got from MED and Frank Nitty. Frank Nitty remade “Pause” customized for us, he says our name in the lyrics, same thing with MED and “Jungle Love,” but like I said, J had the heat! He played the new MF DOOM over 2 Dilla beats, but it’s actually one song.

Plus it was rumored that he played the so-called “safety dance” beat that people have never heard about. Also, Illa J rocked a little set set he did a good job. Dilla would’ve been proud of him. He also brought Affion Crockett up on stage to perform one of the songs they did on the Yancey Boys album.

MED came on later, I was so intoxicated that I played the wrong instrumental version of “Push,” I played the beat CD version.

J took over and played the “Jungle Love” instrumental and MED proceeded to kill it. Karriem Riggins was also in the house, as was Bishop Lamont, Haircut aka Mayer Hawthorne, Now-On, Buff 1, Dibia$e. That’s all I saw at the time, but I’m sure there were other cats in the house. Jeff Jank from Stones Throw and Chikara from Giant Panda were there as well.

we did pretty good on the fundraising tip, but honestly i thought we could’ve done better being the place was packed. I found out after the event was over that people were making excuses saying that they didn’t have enough cash to donate but just enough to get into the club, etc, etc. I was really disappointed with people that came out to celebrate the life and music of Dilla but couldn’t donate even a dollar. Overall it was a success and we made some money for Ma Dukes, and that’s whats important. “

…

speaking of shows, in a few day’s I’ll have the pleasure of bringing a gang of homies down to San Diego for a show.

I’m especially excited about bringing down one of my favorite new voices on the mic…

Danny motherfucking Brown.

Hot Soup has recieved attention across the globe. his stage show has been winning over audiences one show at a time. his “Hybrid: Solar Bars” mixtape, a prelude to The Hybrid LP, is dropping soon. whether y’all ready or not, Danny’s coming.*

My Father’s Gun – Danny Brown (prod. DJ Dez)

Contra – Danny Brown w/ Elzhi (prod. Apollo Brown)

*pause

as for what became of my Saturday night?

a suite for Ma Dukes

FIND A WAY
ANTIQUITY
FALL IN LOVE
NAG CHAMPA

with the help of ArtDontSleep and Mochilla, Carlos Nino and Miguel Atwood Ferguson have produced a four song orchestral EP of music originally produced by James “Jay Dilla” Yancey. the pair will also perform the EP, along with other Dilla compositions, with a 36 piece orchestra at a live concert in Los Angeles on February 22nd with the help of VTech

DJ House Shoes will be opening the show.

*bonus, courtesy of Rhettmatic

Homage to Dilla – Slum Village, Frank Nitti & Illa J (prod. by Focus)

today marks the third anniversary of Dilla’s passing.

the EP is now available for purchase on iTunes and will be in stores as a limited vinyl release on April 1st, 2009.

proceeds from the sale of the record will go to Ma Dukes.

I really don’t think I have to say anything else about this.

*edit: wow, it seems i’m now posting shit on Frank 151 too. thanks guys!

timeless I of IV

this past sunday february 1st, ArtDontSleep, Mochilla and Vtech drew back the curtains on the first edition of Timeless, a four -part epic concert event series that has historic composers performing with orchestral accompaniment at the Luckman Complex in Cal State Los Angeles. Ethiopian Mulatu Astatke, widely recognized as a trail-blazer in East African music and Jazz in general, was the featured composer of the night along with a 15 piece orchestra.

the night began with DJ sets by Egon of Stones Throw, Quantic and Cut Chemist. Egon and Quantic both had sets of obscure, foreign funk and soul that were amazing. Cut Chemist performed his entire set with one turntable, a mixer and a foot pedal, creating on the spot loops and break-beats filled with funk.

still, once the screen behind the stage was raised and the orchestra began to file in, it was clear tonight was about Mulatu and his music. Performing a set entirely of original compositions with some dating back decades and some recent, Mulatu Astatke held the audience captive through two 45 minute sets.

it was truly amazing to see an auditorium full of record collectors, DJ’s, hip hop heads, producers, young people, older folk, professionals, kids wearing hoodies and fitteds, hipsters; all in awe of amazing music an a spectacular performance. this clip is not from the night in question, but it’s very recent and a good taste of Mulatu live. I also think he did this joint in LA as well.

a big, big thank you and congratulations has to go out to the ArtDontSleep and Mochilla camps for creating something so special. A very special thank you is due to the good people at VTech, they are starting to develop a tradition of supporting that next shit with their previous involvement with ArtDontSleep, Mochilla and Stones Throw. This historic event would never have been possible without their support and understanding of the importance of something like this. It’s rare to find a corporate sponsorship that is as involved and excited about the art as the artists themselves. The entire series is not only recognizing the connections between the beats we hear today and past compositions, but it’s going a step further by explicitly placing the music of today in the same musical narrative as Mulatu, Verocai and Axelrod.

on a personal level the show was amazing. It felt good to be that excited over a performance again and the atmosphere was damn near electric.

as for Mulatu, he conducted himself with the humility and poise of a legend. During the concert he stood casually over his vibraphone and drums, never rushing or forcing his playing. He seemed to truly enjoy performing.

Afterwards, at the after-party at an undisclosed location in the city, Sam and myself were walking up to the entrance when a black sedan pulled up and out came Mulatu with the same calm demeanor he displayed onstage. When we approached him with accolades of his great performance, his only response was, “thank you very much… where is the party?”

classic.

below are pictures from rehearsal (thanks to Tom from VTech) and the afterparty (thanks to Jenny Cho)

Azul comes through with more after-hours flicks for that ass.

the next installment in the Timeless series is entitled A Suite For Ma Dukes and will feature Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Carlos Nino conducting a 30+ piece orchestra paying tribute to the legendary J Dilla with an opening DJ set by the incomparable House Shoes. There will also be an accompanying EP released with selected orchestral interpretations of James Yancey’s music. More details on that soon.