Kush Arora, a member of the San Francisco Surya Dub collective, has solidified his place as one of the most cutting-edge innovators in dub's latest evolution. The Dread Bass Chronicles unleashes urgent, aggressive beats and themes with which Arora is intimately versed in, such as the struggles of being an immigrant. A dancefloor warrior above all, he spikes his frenetic, cultural styled electronic riddims with a coterie of badass emcees to get his point across. Guests on the album include Jamaican chanters Warrior Queen (the Bug) and Bongo Chilli, as well as Panama's MC Zulu, the Bay area's own Wiseproof, and longtime spars N4SA and Jukali. Arora's futuristic style melds subtle bhangra flourishes - remnants of his Punjab heritage - with punk, industrial sounds and in-your-face dancehall. "Dread Bass" may even be on its way to becoming the sound of a post-dancehall world, one in which Arora is the sonic explorer probing new realms of musical mutations.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
The Dread Bass Chronicles Sparks a New Dancefloor Revolution
Kush Arora, a member of the San Francisco Surya Dub collective, has solidified his place as one of the most cutting-edge innovators in dub's latest evolution. The Dread Bass Chronicles unleashes urgent, aggressive beats and themes with which Arora is intimately versed in, such as the struggles of being an immigrant. A dancefloor warrior above all, he spikes his frenetic, cultural styled electronic riddims with a coterie of badass emcees to get his point across. Guests on the album include Jamaican chanters Warrior Queen (the Bug) and Bongo Chilli, as well as Panama's MC Zulu, the Bay area's own Wiseproof, and longtime spars N4SA and Jukali. Arora's futuristic style melds subtle bhangra flourishes - remnants of his Punjab heritage - with punk, industrial sounds and in-your-face dancehall. "Dread Bass" may even be on its way to becoming the sound of a post-dancehall world, one in which Arora is the sonic explorer probing new realms of musical mutations.
Friday, May 1, 2009
L.A. Jazz Collective Drops It For the People
Contemporary, forward-looking jazz plus grass-roots commitment to community through music equals a sonic co-op like no other. On its first outing, Sampler Vol. 1, the Los Angeles Jazz Collective channels the boundless spirit of the music in a patchwork compilation of some of the project's finest pickings. This is indie jazz at its best - unafraid to push the envelope and committed to the profusion of ideas that result when creatively inquisitive musicians join forces. One of my favorite tracks, "Loft Scene," injects subtle electronica within cool jazz contours. Who's ever doubted jazz's relevance needs a reality check and shot of Sampler Vol. 1.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Ex Habana Abierta Member Drops New Disc
Madrid-based, singer/songwriter Borris Larramendi, a former member of the collective Habana Abierta and The Habana Blues Band, released his second solo album Libre, which he self-produced and is available on iTunes. I'll write a proper review once I've listened to the entire disc, though I'm sure that Larramendi serves up as much swing and funk as he did when he jammed with HA - and besides, Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez plays the trap set and percussion on the album and any project he's involved in, from experimental jazz to timba-funk, is top-notch, El negro doesn't mess around. As for the remaining members of HA, they will be performing in Miami on June 6th at the American Airlines Arena as the opening act for Cuban-American salsa singer Willy Chirino.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
From Angola to Lisbon to the World Buraka Som Sistema Update Kuduro
Buraka Som Sistema's highly anticipated U.S. debut, Black Diamond, is finally here. The Lisbon-based trio makes a strain of kuduro music that's laced with the kind of urgent, raw lyrics that the music demands. Kuduro originally took root in Luanda, the capital of Angola, back in the late 80s, when African producers trying to make techno and house came up with a very different concoction. The African brew sampled traditional carnival music like zouk from the Caribbean, as well as semba and kilapanga from Angola. In its latest incarnation it gained traction in Europe via Angolan immigrants in Portugal where it morphed yet again, through the filter of European dance music. On Black Diamond, Buraka Som Sistema meld Angola's grimy electronic soundscapes and frenetic rhythms with other influences such as dubstep, drum 'n bass, soca and baile funk. Club bangers abound and there's even a true diamond in the rough that outshines the rest in "General," a thumping house track that fuses with sparkling Afro-pop guitars.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Mariza Brings Fado to the World
Photo by Isabel Pinto
In recent years Portugal's longing fado music has gotten the international recognition it's long deserved. Much credit goes to the genre's most contemporary exponent Mariza, who herself is at the crossroads of diverse global influences. On her fourth studio album Terrra, fado's reigning queen -- who was born in Mozambique and raised singing in her father's taverna in Lisbon -- enlisted Spain's most in-demand producer Javier Limón, known for his artistry and fusions on the albums of artists such as Buika, Bebo Valdés, Diego El Cigala, and Paco de Lucía, among many others. On Terra Mariza infuses fado with loads of universal appeal by collaborating with a who's who list of high-ranking international artists, including mercurial singer Buika in a duet, Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés, Brazilian luminary Ivan Lins, Cape Verdean icon Tito Paris, and Portuguese rocker Rui Veloso. A beautifully crafted album under the impeccable direction of Limón, Terra ends on a whimsical note with a playful moment between Mariza and Lins, doing their version of "Smile," a Charlie Chaplin composition, on which they had no idea they were being recorded. What follows is an interview with Mariza. Her feisty personality comes through, leaving little doubt that Mariza is a musical force to be reckoned with.
GGC: You’ve stated in previous interviews that you express fado from a different perspective. How so?
M: Well some media write things that I clearly don’t say exactly in that way. What I said is that I don’t call myself a fado singer. I call myself a Portuguese singer and I’m still respecting the basis and the lines of what I learned since I was a child but more and more I have my own perspective about this music. I have my personality that I put inside and that makes me kind of a vehicle of a culture, respecting bases, lines, roots, everything but having my own personality.
GGC: It’s true, however that you’ve taken fado, which is a genre that has many purists, into a modern era and it’s transcended geography. How do you feel when people say that about you?
M: Well I don’t, how can I say this to you, I don’t judge myself or my records. I prefer that people listen and try to understand because each person has their own way of feeling music or seeing art. In Portugal for example I never had any problems with the things I’ve been doing and what I think is that I’m trying to be kind of a vehicle of a culture of the heartbeat of a country and of a people, showing that the music we do, our culture is not minor, we have a lot to give, it’s very rich. We are in the back of Europe but we have so many things to show, so many things to give. So it’s a little bit difficult when people say I set out to change, I didn’t change anything, I didn’t want to break anything, I was just doing my music.
GGC: But at the same time, it’s very obvious that you’re open to collaborating with other musicians, and incorporating other influences into fado, which is something that happens in all kinds of music all over the world, there is no such thing anymore as a pure genre because everything is so blurred now and I think in a way you represent this future face and sound of fado, which is very global and eclectic. Would you agree with that?
M: I’m sorry they were knocking on my door and for a few seconds I lost you.
GGC: OK, I don’t know where you lost me. I was saying that at the same time, it’s obvious in your new album Terra, that you’re very open to collaborating and to incorporating influences within fado from different styles…
M: Well more and more, I don’t think people go to see, when they go to see a concert of mine, they’re not going to see a fado concert, they’re going to see a Portuguese singer. This album, Terra, the name Terra means land, land because of the music I do, I’m respecting bases, lines, traditions, roots, everything I learned with my feet in my country, in my Portugal. But at the same time I’m bringing 8 years of touring to this record, where I’m exposed to different cultures, musicians, songs, countries, everything is inside of it. This music is organic, it’s music that has movement, it’s not static, it’s music that moves, it’s music that’s in your soul, in your heart, it moves with your emotions. So when you ask me that the only answer I can give you is this. I’m not trying to break any traditions, I’m not trying to be different, I’m just giving my point of view about music and that’s my truth and I would be not sincere, I would be a fake if I didn’t do it.
GGC: Yeah, I’m not saying that you’re doing it in a calculated way, I’m just saying that you’re a product of the kind of world we live in today, which has a much more universal language when it comes to music.
M: Music is music, people like to put names, like this is bossa nova, this is tango, this blues, at the end we are talking about music.
GGC: Yes, we’re talking about feeling…
M: Music is a kind of religion. I remember in my last concert asking people if they knew the person sitting next to them, sometimes people don’t know who’s sitting beside them, the question I ask is if they notice that for one hour or two hours they were connected by the same line, it was the music, emotions, and in some way we were all a family, while for the most part maybe they have different points of view, different political ideas, different colors, different religions, I don’t know, many different things, but for one hour and a half or two hours we were in connection.
GGC: I think that’s what music is meant to be, a connection for people, a communion between the artist and the listener.
M: Yeah.
GGC: Let’s talk about Terra. I find it interesting that you chose Javier Limón to producer the album. How did that come about?
M: I met Javier in a dinner and we started talking about music and suddenly I felt we were on the same wavelength and I decided to introduce him to Lisboa, to listen to a little bit of fado and suddenly we were making a record.
GGC: Wow, I’m sure I missed a lot of details in between.
M: [LAUGHS]
GGC: I read that you invited him to a taverna. Did he play at the taverna? Did he play guitar? Did you listen to him play?
M: Yeah.
GGC: What did you think at that moment?
M: It was Javier playing, Javier is a musician, he lives for music, so for him playing with fado musicians or flamenco musicians, or Brazilian musicians, for him it’s the same thing, for him it’s music.
GGC: I’m sure you’ve heard all of the great albums he's produced and all of the great artists whom he has produced for.
M: Yes.
GGC: He has a very long trajectory in producing for giants in music. Did that come into play at all in making your decision?
M: No. Actually no. That was something that actually made me think about not asking him to do the record. I’m not here to do a commercial thing. My music is very cultural.
GGC: Anyone who knows Javier’s work knows that he doesn’t produce commercial music.
M: Yeah… and um… but then we started really talking about music very seriously and I felt like he was the person to help get in what I was looking to put in there, the message I was trying to send and he was the one who was not afraid of anything, he understood me so well. You know everybody was afraid, like ‘What do you want to do? You want to put what? You want to make what?' Everybody was afraid and suddenly Javier was the one who made me feel very peaceful inside, like ‘Let’s do it, let’s try, let’s see, if we don’t like it we stop.' And I said, ‘This person, I have to trust in him.’ I showed him what I had and then we started working in his studio in Madrid.
GGC: The album is beautiful. I have to say that I’ve been taken aback by it and especially on some of the collaborations. One of them that comes to mind is “Beijo de Saudade” with Cape Verdean icon Tito Paris. What was that like?
M: I know Tito for many, many years, since I was a teenager. He was the first person to show me African music. We are friends, I love Tito as a person and as an artist and I know he has the same feelings for me. So when I decided to sing this morna, I was singing Portuguese and I asked Tito to sing in Criollo, because in some way we are bridging Africa, some parts of which used to be a colony of Portugal, and Portugal, so we cross in the middle of this bridge.
GGC: I also loved “Pequenas Verdades” sang with Buika.
M: With Concha, yeah.
GGC: She’s wonderful. Two divas singing together…
M: She’s fire onstage, she brings the house down.
GGC: And also there’s a collabo with Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés. What was that like?
M: Well Chucho was thinking he was going to be playing something very difficult, you know very jazzy, and suddenly when we say to him ‘No, it’s nothing like that, it’s very simple, we want you to play folk, traditional rhythm from Portugal,’ he was like ‘What?’ And with Chucho you feel the Cuban thing but in a very simple, simple, simple way.
GGC: Well that’s great, he’s known for very complex music.
M: Yeah and this one was not.
GGC: You collaborated with Brazilian singer/songwriter/composer Ivan Lins on “Smile,” a very surprising way to end the album. Very whimsical.
M: Well that was kind of a… we were joking around together, everybody was talking around the studio and Ivan never stopped playing, he’s always on the piano or keyboard, he doesn’t stop, for Ivan everything is music. Let me tell you Ivan doesn’t drive because when he listens to music he crashes. For Ivan music is life, it’s everything, it’s skin, it’s being able to breathe. So all of a sudden he says you know I’m going to do something and you follow me and I said ‘What are you going to do?’ ‘Smile.’ ‘Smile?’ ‘I never played that.’ ‘Oh let’s just have fun.’ And we started playing and we didn’t know we were being recorded, they didn’t stop recording. So we played and when we finished everybody was so serious, looking at us and we looked at each other like ‘We did something wrong.’ And we were like ‘Sorry, sorry, sorry.’ And everybody was like ‘No… this must be on the record.’ ‘I said no way my English is not good enough to put into the record, I’m not going to sing in English. I don’t know how to do it, we were just having fun with the music.’ For the European album we didn’t include it but for North America we decided to put it. It’s like my obrigada (thank you) to all the people who have been supporting my work and being so wonderful to me, it’s like a kind of present.
M: Well some media write things that I clearly don’t say exactly in that way. What I said is that I don’t call myself a fado singer. I call myself a Portuguese singer and I’m still respecting the basis and the lines of what I learned since I was a child but more and more I have my own perspective about this music. I have my personality that I put inside and that makes me kind of a vehicle of a culture, respecting bases, lines, roots, everything but having my own personality.
GGC: It’s true, however that you’ve taken fado, which is a genre that has many purists, into a modern era and it’s transcended geography. How do you feel when people say that about you?
M: Well I don’t, how can I say this to you, I don’t judge myself or my records. I prefer that people listen and try to understand because each person has their own way of feeling music or seeing art. In Portugal for example I never had any problems with the things I’ve been doing and what I think is that I’m trying to be kind of a vehicle of a culture of the heartbeat of a country and of a people, showing that the music we do, our culture is not minor, we have a lot to give, it’s very rich. We are in the back of Europe but we have so many things to show, so many things to give. So it’s a little bit difficult when people say I set out to change, I didn’t change anything, I didn’t want to break anything, I was just doing my music.
GGC: But at the same time, it’s very obvious that you’re open to collaborating with other musicians, and incorporating other influences into fado, which is something that happens in all kinds of music all over the world, there is no such thing anymore as a pure genre because everything is so blurred now and I think in a way you represent this future face and sound of fado, which is very global and eclectic. Would you agree with that?
M: I’m sorry they were knocking on my door and for a few seconds I lost you.
GGC: OK, I don’t know where you lost me. I was saying that at the same time, it’s obvious in your new album Terra, that you’re very open to collaborating and to incorporating influences within fado from different styles…
M: Well more and more, I don’t think people go to see, when they go to see a concert of mine, they’re not going to see a fado concert, they’re going to see a Portuguese singer. This album, Terra, the name Terra means land, land because of the music I do, I’m respecting bases, lines, traditions, roots, everything I learned with my feet in my country, in my Portugal. But at the same time I’m bringing 8 years of touring to this record, where I’m exposed to different cultures, musicians, songs, countries, everything is inside of it. This music is organic, it’s music that has movement, it’s not static, it’s music that moves, it’s music that’s in your soul, in your heart, it moves with your emotions. So when you ask me that the only answer I can give you is this. I’m not trying to break any traditions, I’m not trying to be different, I’m just giving my point of view about music and that’s my truth and I would be not sincere, I would be a fake if I didn’t do it.
GGC: Yeah, I’m not saying that you’re doing it in a calculated way, I’m just saying that you’re a product of the kind of world we live in today, which has a much more universal language when it comes to music.
M: Music is music, people like to put names, like this is bossa nova, this is tango, this blues, at the end we are talking about music.
GGC: Yes, we’re talking about feeling…
M: Music is a kind of religion. I remember in my last concert asking people if they knew the person sitting next to them, sometimes people don’t know who’s sitting beside them, the question I ask is if they notice that for one hour or two hours they were connected by the same line, it was the music, emotions, and in some way we were all a family, while for the most part maybe they have different points of view, different political ideas, different colors, different religions, I don’t know, many different things, but for one hour and a half or two hours we were in connection.
GGC: I think that’s what music is meant to be, a connection for people, a communion between the artist and the listener.
M: Yeah.
GGC: Let’s talk about Terra. I find it interesting that you chose Javier Limón to producer the album. How did that come about?
M: I met Javier in a dinner and we started talking about music and suddenly I felt we were on the same wavelength and I decided to introduce him to Lisboa, to listen to a little bit of fado and suddenly we were making a record.
GGC: Wow, I’m sure I missed a lot of details in between.
M: [LAUGHS]
GGC: I read that you invited him to a taverna. Did he play at the taverna? Did he play guitar? Did you listen to him play?
M: Yeah.
GGC: What did you think at that moment?
M: It was Javier playing, Javier is a musician, he lives for music, so for him playing with fado musicians or flamenco musicians, or Brazilian musicians, for him it’s the same thing, for him it’s music.
GGC: I’m sure you’ve heard all of the great albums he's produced and all of the great artists whom he has produced for.
M: Yes.
GGC: He has a very long trajectory in producing for giants in music. Did that come into play at all in making your decision?
M: No. Actually no. That was something that actually made me think about not asking him to do the record. I’m not here to do a commercial thing. My music is very cultural.
GGC: Anyone who knows Javier’s work knows that he doesn’t produce commercial music.
M: Yeah… and um… but then we started really talking about music very seriously and I felt like he was the person to help get in what I was looking to put in there, the message I was trying to send and he was the one who was not afraid of anything, he understood me so well. You know everybody was afraid, like ‘What do you want to do? You want to put what? You want to make what?' Everybody was afraid and suddenly Javier was the one who made me feel very peaceful inside, like ‘Let’s do it, let’s try, let’s see, if we don’t like it we stop.' And I said, ‘This person, I have to trust in him.’ I showed him what I had and then we started working in his studio in Madrid.
GGC: The album is beautiful. I have to say that I’ve been taken aback by it and especially on some of the collaborations. One of them that comes to mind is “Beijo de Saudade” with Cape Verdean icon Tito Paris. What was that like?
M: I know Tito for many, many years, since I was a teenager. He was the first person to show me African music. We are friends, I love Tito as a person and as an artist and I know he has the same feelings for me. So when I decided to sing this morna, I was singing Portuguese and I asked Tito to sing in Criollo, because in some way we are bridging Africa, some parts of which used to be a colony of Portugal, and Portugal, so we cross in the middle of this bridge.
GGC: I also loved “Pequenas Verdades” sang with Buika.
M: With Concha, yeah.
GGC: She’s wonderful. Two divas singing together…
M: She’s fire onstage, she brings the house down.
GGC: And also there’s a collabo with Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés. What was that like?
M: Well Chucho was thinking he was going to be playing something very difficult, you know very jazzy, and suddenly when we say to him ‘No, it’s nothing like that, it’s very simple, we want you to play folk, traditional rhythm from Portugal,’ he was like ‘What?’ And with Chucho you feel the Cuban thing but in a very simple, simple, simple way.
GGC: Well that’s great, he’s known for very complex music.
M: Yeah and this one was not.
GGC: You collaborated with Brazilian singer/songwriter/composer Ivan Lins on “Smile,” a very surprising way to end the album. Very whimsical.
M: Well that was kind of a… we were joking around together, everybody was talking around the studio and Ivan never stopped playing, he’s always on the piano or keyboard, he doesn’t stop, for Ivan everything is music. Let me tell you Ivan doesn’t drive because when he listens to music he crashes. For Ivan music is life, it’s everything, it’s skin, it’s being able to breathe. So all of a sudden he says you know I’m going to do something and you follow me and I said ‘What are you going to do?’ ‘Smile.’ ‘Smile?’ ‘I never played that.’ ‘Oh let’s just have fun.’ And we started playing and we didn’t know we were being recorded, they didn’t stop recording. So we played and when we finished everybody was so serious, looking at us and we looked at each other like ‘We did something wrong.’ And we were like ‘Sorry, sorry, sorry.’ And everybody was like ‘No… this must be on the record.’ ‘I said no way my English is not good enough to put into the record, I’m not going to sing in English. I don’t know how to do it, we were just having fun with the music.’ For the European album we didn’t include it but for North America we decided to put it. It’s like my obrigada (thank you) to all the people who have been supporting my work and being so wonderful to me, it’s like a kind of present.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Daniela Mercury to Descend on Hollywood Beach
Photo By Haroldo AbrantesFresh off her batería driven trio elétrico in Salvador da Bahia's bacchanalia like no other, Brazilian singer Daniela Mercury will share some of the energy left over from carnaval with South Florida fans during a free concert in Hollywood Beach this Saturday (March 21st). Part of Brazil on the Beach -- a three day event featuring other artists such as Cris Delanno from Bossacucanova, a film screening of Samba on Your Feet, a pro footvolley tournament, capoeira, a percussion parade along the boardwalk, and much more -- Mercury will perform three songs from her new project, Canibália, a CD/DVD multi-media experience which she whimsically calls a disco voador (flying disc), set to land in Brazil around June followed by a worldwide release. The queen of bahian carnaval will also sing songs from her last album, Balé Mulato, as well as some of her greatest hits. Mercury, a Latin Grammy winner, has attracted international attention throughout her career, first as one of the most prominent singers of the axé music craze in Brazil in the 90s (also known as samba-reggae) and then as an innovator who incorporated electronic music in her already pungent mix. Recently Mercury has gotten accolades from none other than cultural commentator and Salon.com writer Camille Paglia, who was invited aboard the performance platform of Mercury's trio elétrico in February as the charismatic diva performed for six hours straight before throngs of revelers following her bloco Crocodilo. In her Salon.com column the author credits Mercury with having restored her faith in pop culture as she explores the reasons behind Madonna's decline in comparing the aging queen of pop to Mercury's goddess-like appeal. Madonna, she writes, has become a "poster girl of android metamorphosis," a displaced person who lost her Detroit, Italian-American roots somewhere along the way. Mercury, on the other hand, remains rooted to Bahia's all-encompassing black culture. She compares the Brazilian songstress's warmth, humor, and relaxed sensuality to Madonna's "laminated posturing" and even gets down to the flesh juxtaposing Mercury's "fluid body language" and "sleek, golden silhouette" to Madonna's "grotesquely sinewy arms and sallow, claw-like hands." It gets better! For a complete read, I've posted the links to the articles below.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Warriors Turned Musicians: Tinariwen Tour the U.S.
Photo by Thomas Dorn (http://www.thomasdorn.com/)Warriors turned sonic crusaders Tinariwen return to the U.S. in April after a long desert hiatus and fresh off a UK tour with folk/electronic group Tuung. With concerts in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, among others, the tour also features the group's first major U.S. festival date on April 18 at Coachella. Live In London (World Village), a new concert dvd, displays Tinariwen’s mesmerizing onstage vibe, infamous among both world music and rock fans alike. The group’s music and fascinating story have captured imaginations across genres. Once actual warriors in the heavily turbulent homeland of the taureg - nomads in the southern Sahara - the members of Tinariwen first put down their rifles in 1982 and replaced them with their voices and guitars, weapons they discovered to be more powerful. They remained underground until 1999 when the group moved to Bamako, the capital of Mali. Tinariwen have since become a symbol for the plight of the tuareg (or touareg), a people plagued by ethnic cleansing, eternal warfare and merciless drought. The band's struggle and transition from gunmen to axmen will be featured in the Al Jazeera documentary Music of Resistance. Their widely acclaimed 2007 album Aman Iman has also been reissued on vinyl.
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