Author: johnctripp@gmail.com

Reggae From the Roots Up: St. Lucia’s Taj Weekes and Adowa

St. Lucian singer-songwriter Taj Weekes makes music that grooves like waves on a beach: seemingly gentle yet insistently powerful. On stage and on albums like the recent A Waterlogged Soul Kitchen (Jatta Records), Weekes and his band Adowa unite a vibrant diversity of sounds with thoughtful, lush arrangements and a long-honed penchant for telling tales of hardship and hope.

This spring and summer (2011) will take Taj Weekes & Adowa on tour across the U.S., including performances at the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival (June 17), the Blissfest Folk & Roots Festival (July 8-9), and the River City Music Festival (August 28).

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Fort Knox Recordings Reggae Duo “See-I” Get Heavy

Fort Knox Collaborators & Thievery Corporation Vocalists Arthur “Rootz” Steele And Archie “Zeebo” Steele Bring Their Unique Brand Of Reggae On Their Debut Album – Injected With Heavy Doses Of Funk, Soul, Dub And Rock – To The Fort Knox Vault

Fort Knox Recordings presents the debut album from See-I entitled “See-I.” Long time Fort Knox collaborators Arthur “Rootz” Steele and Archie “Zeebo” Steele bring their band’s unique brand of Reggae – injected with heavy doses of Funk, Soul, Dub and Rock – to the Fort Knox vault.

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Africa HiTech: Mark Pritchard & Steve Spacek Go to the Source

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Nearly nine years ago Mark Pritchard and Steve Spacek began bonding over their shared passion for the seemingly disparate spheres of bubbling Detroit techno, soul and fierce Jamaican digital dancehall. First came an appearance by Spacek on Pritchard’s Troubleman album, then the collaborative track “Turn It On” released on Sonar Kollektive.

It was when they both, by pure coincidence, found themselves living in Australia that the connection was cemented. Africa HiTech is the moniker which represents both Steve and Mark’s love for all things progressive within music, whilst acknowledging that the roots of much of today’s popular music can be traced directly back to Africa.

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Novalima to Release “Karimba” on ESL Music, On Tour This Summer

Novalima to release its third album, “Karimba”, on ESL

ESL Music announced it would release the 3rd full-length album of Novalima, titled “Karimba”, on September 13, 2011. This collective based out of Lima Peru brings together Afro-Peruvian roots music with modern electronic, dub, and afro-beat. The founders of Novalima, Ramon Perez-Prieto, Grimaldo Del Solar, Rafael Morales, and Carlos Li Carrillo, became friends while in high school in Lima. Since that time they have created a recipe to take Peruvian roots music into the future. Karimba takes the listener on a trip through history and travels the Afro-Diaspora of sound and struggle. From ancient to future, Novalima digs deep into Afro roots while extending those branches on that musical tree.

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UK Soul Legend Omar and UK Bass don Zed Bias (aka Maddslinky) Collaborate

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An infectious summer anthem, “Dancing” is a collaboration between UK soul legend Omar and UK bass music don Zed Bias (aka Maddslinky), due out on Tru Thoughts as a digital single on 27th June, plus an upfront limited 12” on 9th May for tastemakers and vinyl junkies.

Morphing the talents of two heavyweights in their respective musical spheres “Dancing” manages to be both a catchy, radio-friendly modern soul song and a completely killer club cut. The staccato steel drum hook kicks in like nothing else, grabs you by the lapels and shakes you to your feet.

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Maya Azucena Releases “Cry Love”

Album Release Performance at Highline Ballroom as Part of the Blue Note Jazz Festival


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Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Maya Azucena releases her newest album, Cry Love, on iTunes on June 24th with a special headline performance at New York City’s Highline Ballroom that evening and official, physical release slated for September 13th. Attendees will be able to purchase the physical copy before it hits stores exclusively at her New York release event.
Her impressive versatility unfolds over ten original compositions plus a dramatic interpretation of “Little Ghetto Boy.”  Released on her new imprint label, Azucena Songs, and distributed by Half Note Records, Cry Love represents a powerful journey that distills the universal themes of love, survival, and hope into 50 unforgettable minutes.

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Jazz-Funk Legends the Headhunters Release “Platinum”

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The Headhunters, founded in 1973, were a legendary jazz-funk fusion band immortalized from their recordings and tours with Herbie Hancock. Widely revered throughout the hip-hop community, they collaborated with a number of esteemed rappers for “Platinum.”

Owl Studios is proud to release the bawdy, soulful new CD ‘Platinum’, by The Headhunters. The upcoming album features special appearances by Snoop Dogg, George Clinton, Killah Priest,  and others, as the pioneering band lays down the grooves that let their guest vocalists/rappers shine. The amalgam of rhythm, melody and spoken word represents, in the words of Headhunters percussionist Bill Summers, a “true fusion of Hip Hop, Jazz, Rap, Salsa, Rock, New Orleans, African rhythm and its classical forms.”

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Junior Boys Release “It’s All True”

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Junior Boys. Photo illustration by John C. Tripp.

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It’s All True is the name of the bold new album from Junior Boys, released on 14th June around the world (save the UK where it was released on 20th June). The epic 9-minute album track “Banana Ripple”  with remixes by The Field and legendary disco mixer Tom Moulton was also released on 12″ and digitally.

Ask most musicians about the inspiration behind their latest magnum opus and, at best, you’ll get some barely thought out guff about wanting to emulate the Beatles/Kraftwerk/Miles Davis/insert any other exalted artist within the canon of popular music. At worst you’ll be confronted with shoulder-shrugging indifference: “Just listen to the music, man.”

Ask Junior Boys’ Jeremy Greenspan about what motivated the making of his and partner Matt Didemus’ fourth album, It’s All True, however, and you’re soon basking in a multitude of cultural, geographic and gastronomic touchstones: namely Orson Welles, Howard Hughes, China, in particular Shanghai, Japan (the band, not the country) Banana Ripple ice cream, Carl Craig and analogue synths, but mostly Orson Welles.

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What’s The Big Idea?

[gigya src=”http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649″ width=”500″ flashvars=”offsite=true&lang=en-us&page_show_url=/photos/scionart/sets/72157626813156800/show/&page_show_back_url=/photos/scionart/sets/72157626813156800/&set_id=72157626813156800&jump_to=” allowFullScreen=”true” ] Scion’s upcoming show at their LA Gallery, “The Big Idea” features a […]