niko schabel assembled a collective of berlin-based musicians, notably the unmistakeable and unforgettable bajka on vocals to put forth their first release, berlin serengeti. the work is fueled by 'jazzy, earth-shaking tropical dub and snake-charming soul, channeling mulatu and coltrane in a dub shack studio with a barrage of big horns blasting blacksploitation flavors with an eastern funk twist...'
try it out. climb into your ride and crank up 'the hop' as you fly on the street. as the sun goes down, snake charm your partner with the dub infused groove on the sweetly whispered 'el cielo', so warm and buttery...
there is something deep inside simon green that understands the relationship, the dance, the interplay between a guitar and double bass played in parallel, between the bass and drums played in tandem, and between the horns and xylophone played in turns.
then there's the relationship between simon's instrumentation and that magical, sensual, sweet voice that is bajka. you'll hear her throughout his third album, days to come.
it's on 'walk in the sky', that he creates a world that exists in the twilight, a world where i happily live, dance, dream and love... where words describe a private little utopia and where the percussion - that sweetly syncopated drum, triangle, and cowbell make my temperature rise higher and higher. but it's not just the pure attraction of complimentary sounds, it's also the substance that reels me in: the bliss, the universal truth:
"they live happily for they know from the past life simply doesn't last so they live for today for tomorrow they may not be able to walk in the sky..."
bonobo - walk in the sky (feat. bajka):
the whole album is masterful. pure musical genius, aussi beau que bon! if you wanna shake the spell off... read 'between the lines', "we can't change the world but we can change the way we live"...
bonobo - between the lines (feat. bajka):
and finally, off the bonus CD... 4 minutes and 22 seconds of pure instrumental jazz-induced sonic breakdown...
one day that will stay with me forever is stevie wonder opening the 30th anniversary montreal jazz festival.
after settling into our hotel, my friends and i arrived at mainstage around 3pm to nab some prime concert real estate. it was soundcheck and could hardly believe our ears as we approached the scene. stevie was rehearsing 'overjoyed' and 'higher ground'. then he greeted us with a robotic distortion: 'mont-re-al, ca-na-da' - everyone went wild.
our cell phone were no use so it was good to see folks interacting with each other rather than their crackberries and iphones. we met some really fun and interesting people and i even ran into an old uni friend. people started packing in. it got very hot, to the point we started removing our layers of clothing. hours went by talking, drinking, some people were smoking, my charming friend ky giving out his self-styled wonderlove t-shirts as we all groved to the dj pumping soul and r&b classics. more familiar faces. we enjoyed the company, the heat, the groove. everyone got into it. it was a good day.
when the rains came a multicoloured patchwork of umbrellas went up and our little group started dancing and singing, echoes rippling through the crowds nearby as we attracted attention and bemused smiles, nods and more singers... stevie was running late but we were having fun, the massive crowd doing the wave and singing 'my cherie amour' la-la-laaa-la-la-la's. we weren't gonna let a little wetness stop us.
when stevie finally came on stage, the clouds held their breath. the rain trickled off and stopped. the umbrellas came down and stevie declared that tonight we would to ignore the rumours and scandalous money-making media hype and dedicate the evening to celebrating the life and music of michael jackson. amen to that. then the band broke into "i can't help it", co-written by stevie and quincy jones for mj's 'off the wall' record. the 100,000+ crowd went nuts.
in fact, throughout the set, the pa system played mj tunes between performance pieces. and the entire place - including stevie and band - would just dance to them. a true and proper way to celebrate mj's music... not cover it, not sing over top of it, but to listen, to feel and to enjoy it. simply magical. mj's spirit was there with us that night, enjoying the moment with us too.
one highlight was when stevie decided they would "do it right" and play some jazz at the jazz fest! which included some miles davis and john coltrane - all done with the confidence of a team of musicians so tight and so good, to not only play soul and funk - alongside stevie - one minute, but then cover jazz masters with him the next.
another highlight - aisha morris - stevie's lovely daughter and one of his four back-up singers, who covered nat king cole's 'gonna laugh you right out of my life'. it the first time i heard the song and she gave me shivers.
and throughout the 2 1/2 hour concert, stevie might have had the most fun of us all. he played the harmonica, piano, he sang and danced and talked to us. a gifted musician and vocalist and a true lover of life, he cracked some jokes, asking the francophones in the crowd "voulez-vous coucher avec moi?"... stumbling at the beginning of a song, admitting in his good-natured laugh that forgot the words, then inviting the audience to sing middle eastern sounding vocal scales to a new track he's laying down... tough! the crowd had fun with it. and we danced and danced and danced and he gave us what we wanted to hear... (almost)!
as the show came to a close, light showers rained down over the crowd. they felt so good. a montage of mj tunes played out as all the musicians, backup singers and stevie himself came to the front of the stage. and everyone danced.
and then stevie said something that will always stay with me. he said: "if you have a big heart, love somebody. and if you have a really big heart, love everybody".
and with that, 15 minutes of glorious fireworks lit up the sky.
so for you my dears, here he is, jazzing it up and performing "higher ground" at the sound check we happened upon earlier that day:
taken from the compilation at the close of the century, available at steviewonder.net.
jazzanova's berlin-based label, sonar kollektiv, marked its 10th annivesary by inviting their best musicians to make guaranteed niceness - a collection of select label re-workings. the centrepiece - in my opinion is a wicked minimal techno track, "rej" by âme.
they took the techno epic orchestral.
if i had any doubt before, i don't anymore life after death exists, and it sounds like this...
sonar kollektiv orchester - rej:
now listen to âme's original.
apparently quentin harris agrees. here's him mixing rej into david gray's "see you on the otherside".
my colleague has been stuck on standby in addis ababa, ethiopia for four days now following a business trip. on a brighter note - who knew that ethiopian airlines has duty free music?!
specially packaged and available inflight, is a recording by prolific ethio-jazz icon, mulatu astatke. schooled in europe and north america, astatke returned to his native ethiopia in 1969 to pioneer a wave of ethiopian jazz music that blended african, latin, modern jazz and ethiopian instrumentation. a highly addictive brew filled with infectious energy.
i'm sure my colleague could use some of that until she finds a flight home.
so in the meantime...
mulatu astatke - yegelle tezeta ("my own memories"):
thanks to jim jaramusch's film, broken flowers for getting this into my head. and for making me want to get my hands on astatke's work.
it's dark. i am inside. i pull down the shades to block out the pinpricks of light invading the window. all i can see now is the light from the disc player. i set it in motion and lie down. close my eyes...
enter a lonely trumpet. soon accompanied by keys, keeping time. then a talking saxophone... and finally a lazy drum-brush.
this is the opening of city of light, the brüknahm project's latest and yet to be released album, recorded in paris.
this is the science of music. tracing in the footsteps of the greatest jazz 'ghosts' that ever were, the track is pure math and science and soul set to sound. i am paralyzed now, listening to the bass that breaks up the middle of the track as the saxophone comes back in to enchant me, and then the track continues its story. an epic that ends in a banging drum and dizzying horn.
and from there it's a choose your own adventure. any track on this album could chase it and you could find yourself at street level hustling in an immigrant hood, in a ancient basement jazz club in the 5th, at dinner or cozied up in front of a fire in the republique...
as i lay here, powerless and motionless in the dark, this track sends me right back to the brilliant, throbbing, and nostalgic city of light.
although i've never met the brüknahm project, which is saundi wilson and sebastian bardin-greenberg, listening to this song makes me feel as though they know me inside out. their music is powerful. it's thoughtful and sensual and has the ability to move me, more and more every time i listen.
the brüknahm project - all those great ghosts:
december 2010 update: the bruknahm project have just released 'city of light' online... you can find it at itunes
some people live by it. others shout it from the rooftops.
schooling the ignorant masses who have erroneously bestowed on them their given "class", their "status", their "place" and their "lot", a few people had the guts to tell it like it is, in their own skin.
this was one such woman. even when she whispered, she belted out the truth. that yes, she had class. she had status. she had important places to go and she had a lot to teach the world. and no one's fear could keep her truth locked up. and the world is better for it.
like the woman behind it, this track is an epic. spanning styles and influences like classical piano, jazz infused bass, gospel wails, flamenco-echoed hand claps, funky blues guitar, and not to mention a be-bop inspired scat to top it all off... this is what music is made of. truth. this woman had something to say. and i'm glad she did, because i doubt anyone could sing the truth they way nina sang it.
i've been itching to fly lately... dreaming of traveling to distant lands and escaping the big rat race. exchanging it all for a little exploration, some intrigue and a welcome nod to the unexpected.
translation: i have not had a holiday in a long time.
so in what would ordinarily be a mundane sunday morning routine of making breakfast and autopiloting into cleanup mode, i've decided to post something to launch my spirit out of this world.
the bruknahm project is sebastian bardin and saundi wilson, from paris, rio de janiero, and los angeles. they live in nyc and produce an eclectic mix of jazz, trip hop, middle eastern vibes, dub, electro, french chantilly lace, hip hop, breakbeat and everything that sounds good with all that.
on their myspace page, they eloquently describe themselves like this: the block party, the won ton, the teflon don, roti, natty dread, norman's bread, fascati's pie, do or die, nickels and dimes, restoration, the slave, nyabingi's, smurf village, nathans, the guaguanco, the plantano, kim chi, o.e., the conservatory, the bullet proof joint, bam, the kosher deli, jube, the promenade, the pierogis, the pjs, the yarmulca, the dollar van, medina, masjeed, the b-ball, the beats, the cipher, 90 nations.............one love
and wherever that is, i'm there.
bruknahm project - siba dub plate, my great escape:
there's nothing quite like brain food, the stuff you listen to late nights working on something good. and while everyone around has fallen asleep, you stay awake addicted to the beat.
ok.... enough said. this is what it sounds like in my head.
so i'm skipping out and chilling at home on a chilly windy sunday afternoon... nothing like this jazzy quincy jones tune redone by amy winehouse with its rootsy percussion and capricious vocals to sound-track my comfy cozy wrapped up indoors fall afternoon of lounging about...
niko schabel assembled a collective of berlin-based musicians, notably the unmistakeable and unforgettable bajka on vocals to put forth their first release, berlin serengeti. the work is fueled by 'jazzy, earth-shaking tropical dub and snake-charming soul, channeling mulatu and coltrane in a dub shack studio with a barrage of big horns blasting blacksploitation flavors with an eastern funk twist...' 
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