Clara, Hill, Sonar Kollektiv, Jazzanova

By John C. Tripp

Clara Hill has been a seminal figure in the urban-electronic-soul scene since her teens. A the tender age of 17 the musically inclined artist founded the acid jazz combo Superjuice with her friend Funès. The duo gained a following in Berlin’s many dance clubs, laying the foundation for Hill’s forward-leaning sound. During these years, Clara made her first steps in live music and at one of her shows, had a fortuitous meeting with DJ Alex Barck of Jazzanova. This would be one of the most important of Hill’s career. The two became friends and in 1998 he introduced her to the producers of Extended Spirit (2/6 of Jazzanova): Stefan Leisering and Axel Reinemer, who were taken aback by Hill’s soothing vocals. Leisering produced one of her first professional songs, “No Use,” which would end up on Jazzanova’s landmark “In Between” album. Good fortune seemed to match Hill’s talents and her musical output took off with a number of new projects including her group Stereoton, a band that was rooted in hip hop but played with jazz elements. Hill also collaborated on several tracks with Berlin based singer Georg Levin including his hit “(I Got) Somebody New”, that was remixed by Masters Of Work.

All the while, Hill’s voice was strenghtening and maturing as were her song writing abilities, leading to the realization of her goal to record a full length solo album. In 2004 Hill released “Restless Times, a collection of reflective songs featured over the dreamy, deep house productions of Leisering and Reinemer (known together as Extended Spirit) as well as her old friend Funès. With “Restless Times” Hill’s great soul voice caught the attention of some of the genre’s most reputable artists, including Vikter Duplaix, Atjazz, and King Britt. Hill took advantage of this internation recognition by collaborating with these artists resulting in some velvety deep soul tracks like ‘Nowhere I Can Go, with Atjazz, ‘Paper Chase’ with Vikter Duplaix and ‘Did I Do Wrong’ with King Britt.

On her second album “All I Can Provide”, released in 2006 Hill took her collaborations a step further, working with the créme of clubland´s soul and jazz knob twisters. The result is a personal and very mature album, full of great songs, sensuous moods and complex emotions. All I Can Provide furthered Hill’s vocal journeys while mirroring various musical styles like deep house and boogie, jazz ballads as well as folk oriented songs.

Fast forward to 2007 and Hill has a number of additional collaborations on her growing resume, is busy touring the world and is releasing her third full length album “Sideways” as CLARA HILL’S FOLKWAVES. For this project she crafted 10 delicious acoustic-based and folk-oriented songs highlighting perfectly her passionate and rapturous voice.
The result is a recollection of neo-folk tunes in a very calm and slightly jazzy orchestration. She also left some space for very pure guitar and strings melodies in a sensuous atmosphere and invited her friends of JAZZANOVA and EXTENDED SPIRIT, as well as singer/song writer THIEF and NATHAN AMUNDSON from RIVULETS as male singers on the album. “Sideways” is a magnificent album full of enough emotional peaks and valleys to satisfy even the most temperamental music lover. This new phase in her artistic life will please her most faithful fans and will pave the way for the Sonar Kollektiv crew in its new adventures in folk music. which will be a departure from her past collaborations and will be Hill at her most intimate and personal (thanks to Soul Seduction for this last paragraph –ed.)

Mundovibes was fortunate to catch up with her in this exclusive e-mail interview just prio to the relase of “Sideways”.

MUNDOVIBES: You have been singing and creating music since you were in your teens and at the age of 17 you founded the band Superjuice. What inspired you to create music at such a young age?

CLARA HILL: Me and a good friend of mine we were writing a lot of songs. At this time we realized this kind of music/sound was not around in Berlin. We were listening to many Berlin- live-bands but we both were not satisfied with that matter of fact that the sound we loved to listen to were hard to find in berlin. (except the sound of early jazzanova music)

Short: at this time we thought our songs where nice and brilliant and we had to play on stages…in front of a real audience.

MV: Fate seems to have been on your side, since you became friends with Jazzanova’s Alex Barck while touring. How has that first meeting with Barck and your relationship with Jazzanova directed and impacted your career?

CH: I just can say that i´m still thankful. Jazzanova was and still is a big inspiration for me. making music together with Jazzanova was a dream of mine since I´m 17 years old. And it came true when I was 21 producing NO USE with Stefan Leisering from jazzanova. I´ve learned a lot about music and making music while working with Stefan and Alex. And a positive side-effect for me was that they had many useful connections around the world.

MV: You have also had a long standing relationship with Berlin’s Sonar Kollektiv, which is one of the leading dance and soul labels. How is it to be part of this “family”

CH: It´s still a special feeling working inside of this “family”. Sonar Kollektiv is still a label which never stands still. It constantly changing and breathing. And that´s very important for me – very important and helpful for my music that grows everytime.

MV: Jazzanova have played a big role in shaping a new urban sound, much like producers of previous eras. What impact do you feel that they have had on the music you create?

CH: As I already said before, they influenced and inspired me. I also wanted to make music which is modern, fresh and at the same time timeless. Sometimes they were like teachers for me…cause in my opinion they already did so many experiences.

MV: Your first full length record “Restless Times” was produced by Extended Spirit and Funes. How did this recording come together? What concepts and experiences influenced its songs?

CH: To record a solo album, was my first goal. This special morning in 2001 I felt that “now” is the right time to make an album. To make my dream come true i chose those producers with whom i had already worked earlier. Jazzanova /Extended Spirit and friends of mine. The concept was to make fresh, contemporary but timeless songs…with many choirs within. Sounds simple but we wanted to create deep music, deep electronic — sometimes “rough” sounds — in combination with a “soft” and sweet-soulvoice.

Jazzanova’s Alexander Barck. Photo by Fabien Vouillon.

Five tracks from “Restless Times” I produced and arranged with three friends (i.e. Funès, with whom I already worked and with Stereoton´s drummer and DJ). The remaining seven tunes of the album were written, recorded and produced with Stefan Leisering and Axel Reinemer from Jazzanova, 2002-2004.

MV: “Restless Times” introduced your talents to an international audience. Were you surprised by the reaction to it?

CH: Yes, I was surprised! I never expected such a kind of good feedback. That was the reason why i was inspired to make a second album. the feedback was a kind of new impulse.

MV: The follow-up to “Restless Times”, “All I Can Provide” features collaborations with a number of leading producers. Why did you choose to do it this way, as opposed to working with just one team?

CH: First i had the idea to make a kind of compilation-album inviting different producers to work with me. (Like Ursula Rucker does before) Cause I wanted to make new musical experiences. I was curious how it would be to work with other producers from the scene.

It was a great challenge getting all these very good musicians together and bring them all on one album. Had no idea how it would be to work with so many different people. But it worked! Because all the producers I have invited and worked with speak the same “musical language”!

MV: With two full length records behind you, you are firmly established as an artist. How do you feel about your career at this point?

CH: I feel accepted but I´m not satisfied…I can´t stop making music. cant stop expressing myself that way. I believe I have to make more experiences to gain more range of my musical languages. That is why I had to make a new album…my third album…coming out in September. After working two years on “all I can provide” I had to make something fresh. it was the right time for a change.

MV: Love and relationships are major themes in your music. What is it about these subjects that inspires you?

CH: Past and present main influence is the feeling of the “unfulfilled yearning” of love. Love or relationships or friendships are themes within the most intense feelings. Intensive feelings: in positive or negative ways. Love includes hate and happiness, mourning and pain. Love includes everything. Open topic. And I like to write about that.

MV: How do your songs form and take shape?

CH: Mostly I got the instrumental-sketches at first. If the sketch is good it inspires me to write a melody or voice-harmonies…and with the melody the words are coming. Then I write a story around the words. Later I do the vocal arrangements by myself…most of the time. i have to be in a special calm atmosphere/mood. “the write moment” has to be particular which challenge me to catch the special feeling inside.

MV: Your voice adds a lot of warmth and feeling to the music, which is mainly electronic. It is kind of like the soul in the machine. How do you feel about the juxtaposition of a human voice and electronic music?

CH: I like the combination of warmness and coldness. I prefer to work with contrasts. I like the warm sound of soul (not only a soul-voice. It also can be a typical soul instrument, for instance a Rhodes-piano) in combination with the cold and strange sound of electronic sounds. Sometimes it can be very interesting if you combine a clean warm voice with dirty cold sounds. That is what makes a song so colorful and fresh.

MV: How have you grown as an artist over the years? how has your vocal style evolved?

CH: I think now I can be more relaxed because i´ve learned so many things. And I can imagine that you can hear that in my voice. Now I can trust myself more and more ´cause I know what is good for me and my music.

MV: Would you ever want to work in a more traditional “band” setting with live instrumentation?

CH: That´s what I already do! Since I have my new “all I can provide band” I´m working with live instruments. And for my forthcoming album I also chose live instrumentations to translate my musical concept behind that album. We have a drummer, a lot of guitars, bass, keys and sampler/ laptop beside some electronic sounds.

MV: How does your “live” performance differ from producing music in the studio?

CH: As I said before, I tried to mirror the width of the full productions. that’s the reason I founded this band with a drummer, bass,synthesizer +rhodes, laptop and for the new band plus a guitar. if you do a performance with a band you have more energy. that´s what I found out again…(it´s like in the past when I had my own band.) Beside of that I´m also performing my live-pa set with a DJ.

MV: Collaboration plays a big part in your music. What makes collaborating interesting for you?

CH: When I was 17years old I always worked with one person. That was OK but I had to make steps into the future. In my opinion it is good to work with many musicians to make many experiences and get new inspirations.(sure, it depends on with whom you work!) It can be a special phase in your life. And making experiences means you can develop yourself and get more structure and character. But for the last album I just worked with a small team to keep the intimate and creative athmosphere of the music.

MV: What is it like to live in Berlin right now? How does the city influence and inspire you?

CH: I just can say that berlin is a very creative town. In the part of Berlin where I live you can find many artist, musicians and students. That´s a very inspiring atmosphere. It makes me feel free. But when i´m writing my songs I have to be alone and it has to be very quite.

MV: There is a great intimacy in your vocal style which ranges from soothing to vulnerable. Do you sense this as you are writing and performing?

CH: No, not really. Cause sometimes I don’t want to sing in a smooth and intimate way. But it seems to be a kind of “trademark”…but i never influence it.

MV: Trends in music all constantly changes and there is always a “new” sound. How do you keep up with this ever evolving state of music?

CH: As I said, I try to keep up with that…but try to keep my own style…no matter if it fits to what is hip or not. But I think it is important tobe well informed. It is good to know what most of the people are listen to…it´s a kind of orientation.

MV: There is a cosmic side to your music, with the spacey sounds such as those heard in “For Your Love”. Is there a connection with jazz from the 60s and 70s here?

CH: Sure there is. My music comes from listening to soul-jazz music from the 70s, jazz folk pop from the 60s and boogie and house tunes from the 80s/90s. These directions you can find in my music.

MV: What do you think of some of the new folk sounds that are coming out now? Is this inspiring to you?

CH: Yes it was…but before the sound came out. When i was 16years old i was listening to grunge music and a lot of guitar music. Today i go back to these roots. I rediscovered the guitar music for me. That´s the reason I wrote the last album: clara hill´s folkways: sideways which is a musical sideproject.

MV: How do you want your listeners to react to your music? How do you see them connecting with it?

CH: For me it´s always important to see: how music is moving people. I would like people to be open for my music. I would like to see people are listening to my music when they are outside, travelling, sitting in the car (because of the special mood) or dancing and also when they are at home, when they are quite, deep and relaxed.

…and then the hidden tracks will wake them up.

MV: What are the challenges of creating your music, both with your vocals and working with music that is very complex?

CH: My biggest challenge is to break new musical grounds. The thing is, not to stop that process and keep the passion. And i always want to touch souls with my sound of music. which is the combination of my voice, words and production.

MV: What are the challenges in fitting your voice and lyrics to a producer’s music? How do you improvise in this context?

CH: I´m mostly co-produce my songs. which means i always say what sounds i would like to have and which directions i want to go. So there is no need to improvise in this context.

MV: The majority of your songs would are slow to mid-tempo. Is this where you feel your music works best?

CH: I don’t know. On “restless times” the focus was on mid-tempo songs. On “All I can provide” I wanted to sing on more clubby and boogie tunes. I just can say that I prefer to work on different musical styles. Otherwise it would get boring for me, probably. I don’t want to define my style…when i´m writing music I just want to reflect the current phase of my life.

MV: Who are some of your inspirations today?

CH: Musical inspirations: these days i´m listening to Nick Drake, Linda Perhacs, Beck, Beatles and Rolling Stones again

MV: Are you frustrated by the lack of exposure to bigger audiences for your music?

CH: I´m not frustrated. I already played for 30 and 1000 people. And “Rome wasn´t built in a day”…

MV: What are your feelings on the U.S. audience, which is huge but exactly in tune with what is going on in Europe?

CH: This march was the first time when i played for U.S audience. I really enjoyed it. In Miami the people were singing “NO USE” together with me…nice! I´m looking forward to play more concerts in the states. I hope there will be a small U.S tour with the forthcoming album.

MV: There will be a new full length soon. What can we expect? Are you collaborating with any one you can tell us about?

CH: As I said before…for the new album i didn´t make big collaborations. Cause this time I wanted to keep this personal and intimate feeling. For this album i wrote 8 songs. You will listen to 10 folk-songs including electronic sounds and natural guitar songs…songs which are direct and pure. I knew exactly how to create the sound for this album. I worked with marc mac and extended spirit and sung with rivulets and sascha Gottschalk from Thief. A small team and friends I know for a long time.

Clara Hill website

Clara Hill Myspace

Sonar Kollektiv

The Dining Rooms

By J.C. Tripp

Milan, Italy’s The Dining Rooms defy categorization, challenging you to listen beyond labels like “lounge” and “downtempo”. Unlike much of today’s new music, it’s not just a groove thing — there’s meaning to their music. In the 9 year s the duo of Stefano Ghittoni and Cesare Malfatti have existed, they have produced five full-length recordings that bare the markings of rigorous experimentation and growth. The Dining Rooms adroitly combine sampling and live instrumentation, creating a wide body of music that absorbs a multitude of influences including cinema, jazz, funk and blues. With equal time given to instrumentals and vocals, The Dining Rooms music is an ear-rousing melange of moody chords, complex rhythms, deep basslines, acoustic instrumentation and thoughtful lyrics. Their fifth full length recording, ‘Ink’ is a merging of styles for the group, utilizing the live instrumentation, Fender Rhodes chords, and vocals of recent releases with the cinematic, ethereal atmospheres characterized by their earlier work. ‘Ink’ is a remarkable recording, further deepening their sound and reaching a wide range of tones and colors, with thoughtful lyrics and a melancholy mood. Half of ”Ink” features vocals by guests who include several international artists such as Dodo N’kishi (Mouse on Mars) from Africa via Germany; Georgeanne Kalweit, from U.S.A. via Milan, and Tomaz Di Cunto, from Brazil. “Ink” is by far The Dining Rooms most impressive and developed recording and promises to introduce new audiences to their sound. If only they just listen.

Mundovibes had the pleasure of corresponding with the Dining Room’s Stefano Ghittoni and contributing members of the Dining Rooms in an e-mail interview. As expected, his thoughts are serious and insightful.

MUNDOVIBES: Stefano, congratulations on the release of the Dining Rooms fifth studio recording, “Ink”. It’s a fantastic recording with a variety of vibes and moods. What concepts and ideas shaped “Ink”?

STEFANO GHITTONI: “Ink” takes some things from our old feeling, going back to the origins of tdr sound, more atmospheric and cinematic than “experiments in ambient soul” and concentrated more on downtempo. It has dark elements too and we hope (but we think) to have been able to release something mysterious and spiritual. We feel “INK” as a concept album and it could be considered as something close to numero “deux” and “tre” but with the quality production of “eias”.

MV: What is the overall concept of “Ink”?

SG: The album cover of “Ink” is inspired by Jean Michel Basquiat, whose art is really close to the philosophy of writing and therefore of “ink”. So “Ink” becomes a sort of manifesto of things to say, as well as of the energy to try to say them.

MV: There is a seriousness to “Ink”, both in its lyrics and arrangements with songs like “Hear Us Now”, “Fatale”, “Ceremony”, and the title track. Is this a reflection of the times we are in or yours and your contributors states of mind?

SG: We are not living in wonderful times, obviously, but TDR have always been a little bit serious because it’s how we are in our life, we like our life, however, and we are really satisfied of how it is.

Anyway we like the idea to go deeper in life and music things…..

MV: “Ink” is a very intimate recording, many the vocal songs are personal testimonies including the title track. Please comment.

SG: “Ink” is very intimate as almost all our records have been, only “Experiments in ambient soul” was a bit too pop oriented. Anyway we are very happy of this album intensity, either vocal or instrumental tracks.

Georgeanne Kalweit speaks about the song “Ink”:

I live on a river just south east of Milan and in the summer the nocturnal nature sounds are quite intense, beautiful and evocative though. I wrote INK in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep in part due to the incessant, mantra like drone outside, to too many painful thoughts of things gone bad in the past and in part due to a deep yearning for the physical presence of a person I was falling in love with who was away on the road. Putting ink to paper in this technological period seems almost rebellious yet familiar and raw, a primordial need to either confirm, dispel or clarify emotions which can’t always be expressed with spoken words, ultimately clearing the way to the now. The idea of ink mixing with blood internally really strikes a chord regarding the toxicity of how unexpressed emotions can implode and somehow take over the human organism. In INK there is resolve in the awareness that love, reappearing and reawakening can heal in layers.

MV: There is an even balance of intstrumentals and vocal songs on “Ink”. How do you develop these songs?

SG: It’s our style. Our albums are a mix of ballads, vocal and instrumental, and cinematic funks.

MV: As is your tradition you have collaborated with several guest vocalists on “Ink”. Please tell us how they became involved in this recording and what their contributions were.

SG: The vocalists are involved in a natural way in the sense that are friends or persons we feel very close to our philosophy, so there’s a a first contact in which we explain what we need and everybody feels if the thing is its cup of tea. If collaboration is born the singer is free on his songwriting and at the end me and Cesare produce or rearrange the voice inside the track.

MV: You have a mix of languages on “Ink”, which is typical of your recordings. Is it just a reflection of a diverse world view?

SG: We have a very free approach to music and it reflects the possible mix of languages in our albums, we feel anyway to be able to get homogeneous production on them, we wanna mix different point of views, we wanna feel what we live and put it on our records…..

MV: The song “Thank You” is very political and could be addressed to any “leader” who sells out his soul. Tell us about this song.

SG: “Thank you?” is built on a strings sample taken from patchanka French band Orange Blossom……it fuses poetry, Marvin Gaye echoes, post rock guitar solo and blues and ethnic elements. Slowly goes the funk…….

Sean Martin speaks about the song “Thank you?”:

I think that…many people are consciously prostituting themselves. They know what is going on throughout the world…about the death and cruelties they’ve been contributing to, but I presume they think they’re actions will be justified if they can keep this so-called “human progress” flowing. As they say: “the end justifies the means”.

People dying in Africa because of the tons of nuclear waste dumped there don’t seem to be a problem. If killing millions of people can lead the western countries to have cheap oil, then…it seems like God will forgive them. Some of the world leaders of the past even thought that God hated strangers as much as they did, and that they would be doing Him a big favor if they tried to exterminate them by any and all means possible.The western culture’s always had a pathological superiority complex, history speaks for itself. We’re being fooled by the “great institutions” and people have been led to condone bloodshed and exploitation in the service of their

lifestyles. That’s what thank you? is all about.

Oh! By the way…I’ve recently read that you can increase the purity of your soul by

purchasing one simple product…mmm…

MV: The Dining Rooms formed nearly 10 years ago. How did you come together?

We first met in a recording studio many years ago, mid eighties probably. Then Cesare opened one of the first midi studio in Milano and I went there to do some productions. We had a good time and started to work to some productions together that then morphed in The Dining Rooms.

MV: What music tradition or scene was formative in shaping the Dining Rooms sound?

SG: We both come from new wawe and punk and they are very important for us, mostly for the concept that anyone is owner of his ideas and therefore of his music. Then we have a very wide approach to music from Nick Drake to Talk Talk, from The Sound to Velvet Underground, from Art Blakey to Herbie Hancock, Sabu Martinez, Wire and Joy Division, including early Massive Attack and Portished to name a few.

MV: It seems like there are a lot of literary and cinematic influences to the Dining Rooms? What are some of them?

SG: Wim Wenders, Jean Luc Godard, Elio Petri, Pierpaolo Pasolini, Giorgio Scerbanenco, Jean Claude Izzo, Aki Kaurismaki, Jack Kerouac and the beat generation.

MV: The Dining Rooms music always has a cinematic, moody vibe to it. What do you attribute this to?

SG: Cinematic vibe is very important for us. One of the motto of our beginning was: “background music for your personal movies”, we did some tee shirts too. It’s probably the main aim of our music, produce music who could generate emotions and images.

MV: What are you trying to communicate with your music in terms of mood, vibe and lyrical themes?

Depth, Spirituality, Peace.

MV: Your music has gotten progressively more complex with each recording. Is this just a natural progression of your ideas and abilities?

SG: It’s for sure a natural progression, it’s important for music producers try to go deep, to be more complex. We did it and it probably depends too from the fact we are using musicians in the two last albums.

MV: The Dining Rooms sound is a mixture between electronics, samples and live instruments. How does this process work?

SG: I do the initial step choosing the sample that gives the atmosphere or primary melody of the track, then Cesare works with programming and first instruments, then we both work with other samples and edit, then the musicians arrive and play the samples adding some chords. The dining rooms do the final production and mix. Sometimes we keep the initial sample, sometimes we miss it.

MV: Why did you choose this way of creating your music?

SG: I’m mostly a dj and not a musician, so I don’t play instruments but records.

I do the initial step of the atmosphere of the song and it’s obviously always a sample….

MV: It seems that samples are playing less and less of a role in your music. How has the use of samples changed over the history of the Dining Rooms?

SG: We were born as a sample based project in the sense that in first two album we used only samples (and some keys)to write-build our song. Then we felt we wanted to add something else that could allow us to surpass the sample philosophy that’s great but basically very repetitive. So we started to mix samples and live musicians to create music that could have a wider development…In this sense the use of musicians changed a little bit our music even if our attitude is the same and the origin of the song is always a sample.

CONTRIBUTING VOCALS AND SONGWRITING (l to r): Georgeanne Kalweit, Toco, Sean Martin

MV: If you had to classify the Dining Rooms music, what would it be?

SG: Easy listening ambient blues.

MV: What have been some of the critical junctures or “moments of inspiration” for the Dining Rooms?

SG: We have been and we are inspired from everything, the whole world becomes our primary source of inspiration…

MV: You’ve created a considerable body of work since forming. Please reflect on the past 10 years and how you invision the Dining Rooms going forward into the future.

SG: The future is now!

MV: Vocalist Georgeanne Kalweit plays a considerablle role on “Ink” with co-writing credits for “Hear us Now” and “Ink” both stunningly beautiful annd personal tracks. Tell us how these songs came about.

Georgeanne Kalweit speaks about “Hear us now”:

I don’t think television rules everybody’s lives but when I see certain shit on T.V., and look at society at large I am daunted and disgusted by the abuse of this media tool and the negative implications it has on the psychology of humans. It takes a lot of discipline to remain a creative, self thinking individual and weed through the superficiality and loaded messages that get projected through the news, advertising and programs (with a few exceptional exceptions on an educational and satirical level), let alone decipher what’s REALLY happening. HEAR US NOW is a sort of protest chant for anyone who sees through the mechanism and refuses to be sucked into the dynamic of envy, fear and inadequacy that can only be placated by having and acquiring more things, being overly patriotic or nationalistic and feeling superior as a result. I’d rather use my eyes to look beyond the box-T.V. screen of stereotypes that foster ignorance and intolerance to appreciate better the oddity and sacredness in differences among all humans on a global level.

MV: Why not just have the same vocalists?

SG: We were born as instrumental project and when we start to think to some singers we felt we’d have like to have different vocal point of view on our instrumentals, I think it’s not so original as anwer but it’s the truth.

MV: What is the music scene like in Italy? Is it very supportive of your work?

SG: The Italian scene is quite fresh even we consider ourselves part of a global and world movement. We have a good reputation in italy but for sure we r more appreciated in other countries.

We are satisfied of our status even the period is not so good for music business.

MV: Is it more or less responsive today to what you are doing with your music?

SG: It’s difficult to say because the market is really strange today, it is becoming smaller day by day. Anyway as I told u before we r satisfied of our status even if the fact to have lost the American domestic releases after the Guidance bankrupt has been a problem for our visibility in U.S.A., that’s a very important market. We feel anyway to be on the right side and our audience seems to be close to what we are producing.

MV: How do you feel about the categories and labels that the Dining Rooms are given, such as “downtempo”, “nu jazz”, etc.?

SG: We don’t really mind about categories….

MV: Schema records has become one of the premiere labels for emerging jazz. Much like labels like Blue Note, Impulse! and others were part of certain jazz eras, Schema seems to be the definitive label for today’s club-influenced jazz. What are you feelings about this?

SG: We are happy to release records through Schema, we are quite different from a typical Schema act but it’s cool anyway to be part of that catalogue.

MV: At what point did the Dining Rooms become a live event?

SG: We started to play live in the beginning of 2004, between the release of “Tre” and “Experiments in ambient soul”.

MV: What is the live performance like? What do you set out to do?

SG: Our live show, as our records, is a mix between electronics and instruments.

We have on stage a 5 pieces band with drums, double bass, keyboard or guitar plus vocals. I play turntables and a small key with samples. Maria Arena then accompanies our music with visuals….

MV: How does the audience react to your live performance?

SG: The audience has usually a very good reaction…..the live show is balanced between jazz and blues ballads and rolling funky instrumentals….

MV: The videos for your music by Maria Arena are integral to the live show. Tell us about the video aspect of the Dining Rooms.

SG: We work very often with videomaker Maria Arena who’s taking care of our visual aspects and producing our clips. U can see them on our my space page. She takes care of visuals during our live too.

She works with old super 8 movies taking frames and sequences and reelaborate them as we do with music and samples, we have a very close philosophy.

MV: What will you be doing for the summer? A live tour?

SG: We’ll mostly work to some side project and we’ll produce a radio show mixing music and poetry.

MV: Will you ever score a film soundtrack?

SG: We did it for an Italian movie, “Dentro la città”, a police b-movie set in Rome.

Some of our tracks are then been taken for other movie soundtracks and tv series: sex and the city, csi crime, six feet under…

MV: Any one in particular you’d like to work with?

SG: Paolo Sorrentino and Jim Jarmusch.

MV: Where do you see the Dining Rooms going in the future?

SG: What is future?

The Dining Rooms Website

The Dining Rooms myspace

Schema Records

Mark de Clive-Lowe: the Tide is High

Half Japanese half New Zealander musician/producer Mark de Clive-Lowe has been on the music journey since starting piano when he was four. Classical piano lessons, jazz for playing pleasure and hip hop and soul on the stereo gave Mark the diverse foundation that his eclectic style has developed from.

For over the past ten years, MdCL’s musical journeying has taken him to the US, UK, Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Cuba. Performing and recording in different settings collaborating with DJ/producers, turntablists, acoustic jazz artists, Japanese Kagura, and the world of latin rhythms, Mark has become a major figure in the nu-jazz movement, blending jazz, ethnic music and urban grooves into a fresh 21st Century flavour.

West London based from 1998-2008, MdCL is a key collaborator, artist and producer in the scene spear-headed by Bugz in the Attic, 4Hero, Restless Soul and IG Culture [NSM]. His debut LP Six Degrees [Universal Jazz/emarcy] was released worldwide in 2000 – signatured with an amalgamation of jazz sensibilities and urban influences, the album found a niche with DJs, critics and audiences worldwide:

‘Firmly at the front of the nu-skool jazz and beats movement’ – The Times [UK]

‘Call it nu-jazz, call it nu-house, call it future-jazz, in fact call it what you want, I’m sticking with the words awesome and genius’ – Wax Magazine [UK]

Two world tours later MdCL had taken the Six Degrees live show global including featured slots at the Detroit Electronic Music Festival – having been personally invited to perform by techno legend Carl Craig, Amsterdam Drum Rhythm Festival, London Jazz Festival and throughout Europe, Asia and Australasia. Live Events

2001 saw MdCL contributing a stand out remix production of Shirley Horn on the Verve//Remixed LP alongside tracks from MAW, Joe Clausell and Thievery Corporation and in 2002, his carnival soul-beats anthem ‘Relax…Unwind’ featuring Abdul Shyllon became one of the year’s underground hits worldwide for the likes of Gilles Peterson, Jazzy Jeff, MAW and Jazzanova. 2003/4 releases also include collaborations with Kenny Dope [Masters at Work], DJ Spinna [BBE/rapster], Rima [JCR], IG Culture, Bugz in the Attic and Restless Soul. Over the past 6 years, Mark has stamped his sound on over 150 releases collaborating with some of the most cutting edge producers and artists around the world – include tracks for soul legend Leon Ware, productions for Philadelphia’s Lady Alma and remixes for the likes of Jody Watley, Omar, Incognito and Brazilian superstar Ed Motta.

MdCL’s album TIDE’S ARISING was released worldwide March 22, 2005 on ABB Soul/Antipodean featuring a who’s who of guest artists including Bembé Segué, Abdul Shyllon, Pino Palladino [D’Angelo’s Soultronics/The Who], Capitol A [The Roots/Jazzanova] and more. Immediately a new millennium classic, Tide’s Arising was one of the standout albums of 2005 topping critics lists worldwide. Tide’s Arising Live shows have been performed in the UK, Europe, Japan, NZ, Australia and USA. 2007 saw MdCL release the Japan-only album JOURNEY 2 THE LIGHT also launching the Freedom School record label. Featuring Bembé Segué, Sammy Figueroa [Miles Davis], Jason Yarde [Jack DeJohnette] and Richard Spaven [Guru/Jose James] the album brought the 70s Black Jazz and Strata East sound into the 21st Century with MdCL’s most jazz-oriented album yet.

Projects currently on the go include MdCL’s Freesoul Sessions clubnite and releases – a fully improvised show with Mark constructing beats and full productions live on stage with a rotating cast of beat, soul and jazz musicians and vocalists and The Politik – a collaboration with Bembé Segué. He’s also produced the debut single for UK soul singer Rasiyah and the soundtracks for multi-media dance production Legends of the Underground .

MdCL performs all around the planet regularly, every time redefining audiences’ concept of club culture and electronics brought to the live stage.

Mundovibes was fortunate enough to interview Mark de Clive Lowe who graciously answered our questions at length:

Mundovibes: First of all congratulations on Tide’s Arising, a superb recording of future funk and soul. Let’s start by asking what you wanted to accomplish with this recording in terms of style, mood and direction. You have travelled quite a distance from “Six Degrees”, your previous

full-length. You seem to really be looking forward in this recording. How has your music evolved since “Six Degrees”?

Mark de Clive-Lowe: A lot has happened since making “Six Degrees” in early 1999. That album was the result of a whole lot of inspiration and experiences gained traveling around the world in 98 – my first times in Cuba, West London, San Fran and time spent in NYC, Tokyo and Europe. It was also the first time I’d messed around with an MPC so as a producer, that was a really sharp learning curve. Since then I’ve had the good fortune to work with a lot of great artists and producers – either as a session musician, writer, producer or remixer and all of those experiences have helped me grow both as an artist and producer. everyone approaches what they do differently – whether it’s kenny dope, ig culture or lemon d – everyone’s got a different flex going on. working with different people taught me a lot and also helped me to craft the direction i wanted to grow in. doing remixes like the shirley horn one for verve remixed was a great challenge – i knew that MAW, joe clausell and a few other heavy hitters were involved with the project already so i wanted to make sure i did my best. that kind of pressure can be a really positive catalyst when it comes to creativity. stylistically i’ve also returned to my roots a lot – my school years were all about hip hop and beat music, jazz was what i did as a ‘serious musician’, so now i feel comfortable in bringing it all together.

making tide’s, more than anything i wanted to make a soul record. my vision of a 21st century soul record. melding beat culture, the history and the future all in one. i’m confident as a producer to be able to make a track that mixes latin, breaks, jazz and soul all at the same time and knowing it’s going to work out fine and have my stamp on it at the end of the day, so it was really mostly about getting on with it and getting the album made. where six degrees was a definitive nu-jazz record – balancing between dancefloor and jazz, i wanted to bring in the funk, hip hop and soul elements that i love in so much music for the new record. working with the right vocalists was always going to be key and bembe segue in particular is someone who i collaborate really well with. state of the mental was the first track she came in to work on and everything just clicked so she ended up coming in on most of the album. abdul shyllon is one of the most unique male singers on the planet – no one sounds like him and no one can do what he does. i love that kind of uniqueness in people. afterall, we’re all different from each other, so there’s no sense in us all rocking the same beat or the same shoes or the same car!

MV: There is a very “psi-fi”, cosmic-urban vibe to “Tide’s Arising” with its

spacey keys and effects. How did this sound come about?

What inspired you to go in the direction you did on this record?

MdCL: Time and space – the place where the cosmic b-boy resides! i love making music that’s different and can transport someone to somewhere they’ve never been before or even imagined existed. i get bored listening to music, watching movies or checking out art that takes me to the same place as the last place which is not so different from the next place. Change. it’s all about change. change happens with or without us – no amount of systems structures, politicians or big corporations can change that. i think if you dig deep into Tide’s Arising you’ll hear the message.

MV: How place-centric or scene-scentric do you feel “Tide’s Arising” is?

MdCL: stylistically i think the way i made the album and the overall sound of it is heavily influenced by the years i’ve spent in west london and working so much with people like bugz in the attic, phil asher, ig culture, alex attias and others. to me there’s also a big amount of american influence in there- i love the dilla swing, the neptunes production style, the philly scene, so the influences are pretty global. i could have made the album anywhere on the planet, but wherever i would have made it, it would have sounded different than if i had made it some place else.

MV: How much of it is simply straight from you as opposed to where you are?

MdCL: it’s always a balance of both – the honest artist cannot filter out their surroundings when expressing their creativity, nor can they filter out their experiences and being.

MV: How “live” is “Tide’s Arising”?

MdCL: the whole way i like to make music is how i balance man and the machine – programmed beats and live performance. it’s all live, and it’s all programmed! if you check how i do the live show, i’ll program the MPC beats live on stage everytime, it’s always different, so once it’s programmed, it’s not live, but the process of programming it was live from start to finish.

MV: The only track that features your keyboard playing in a more “standard” jazz mode is ‘Pino + Mashi’. How do you feel about this type of playing compared to the more futuristic and cut-up style that is featured on the other tracks?

MdCL: it’s all music! i do feel less of a need now than before to showcase my skills as a keyboard player. i dig it with someone like Thelonious Monk – if you dont really check him too deep it might sound like he doesnt have great skills, but if you know what’s up then you know that he is in total command of the instrument. back in the jazz day it was all about “wow, i got ten fingers and this piano has 88 keys, let’s go!” but now i understand form and function better, and how space can be as deafening as a drum solo if it’s used effectively.

MV: You have developed a very complex musical vocabulary of your own. What experiences and influenes brought you to your own “sound”?

MdCL: afro cuban rhythms, 70s jazz fusion, native tongues hip hop, d’angelo and the soulquarians, j dilla, ahmad jamal, herbie hancock, miles, weather report, early jungle… lots of stuff!

MV: How do you go about constructing the beats for your music?

MdCL: the best way to understand that is to check a live gig – i’ll have a drum kit on the MPC, hit record and jam the beats. i dont really like to spend too much time building beats academically, i much prefer to do it organically and on the spot. there’s usually subtle tweaks and flips i’ll add later, but generally most of the vibe is captured from the original session programming the beat. all the beats on Tide’s Arising are loops – some are 2 bar loops, some are 4 or 8 bar, but generally they’re all pretty tight loops but i’ll go into them and flip up different parts here and there. for me, loops are about creating illusions. that’s some fun shit right there.

MV: You collborated with a number of people on “Tide’s Arising” including Tell us about some of the people you collaborted with on Tide’s Arising and the way songs came together with them.

MdCL: i’ve already talked about bembe and abdul shyllon. some of the instrumental collaborators though – pino palladino has got to be my favourite bass player on the planet. when i checked out d’angelo’s voodoo live tour, pino was incredible. he and ?uestlove holding down the rhythm section like nobody’s business. dope! i worked with pino for a couple of months in a band IG culture put together and that was a great experience – jamming every day with one of the illest bass players on the planet. when it came to doing the album tracks, pino laced a couple of tracks with his heavy sound and deep groove. at the end of the session, i pulled up a break i’d been messing round with that morning and we just jammed it out – that became ‘Pino + Mashi’. similarly, ‘masina’s world’ was from a 15 minute improvised jam that chris bailey and i had after we’d recorded chris’s drums parts for the album tracks. there was a rhodes in the studio so we just jammed it out on rhodes and drums and ‘masina’s world’ was right in the middle of all that. joel haines and miguel fuentes are a couple of other fantastic musicians. joel is sax player nathan haines’ brother and for my money, one of the best guitarists anywhere. it was great to get him involved on the album. miguel’s a don percussionist – he’s played with miles, george benson, patti labelle, lots of great artists, and we’ve collaborated in nz (where he lives now) over the years but never recorded together until the tide’s sessions./

MV: Tell us about the themes and concepts of the lyrics on “Tide’s Arising”

which are very space- and travel-oriented?

MdCL: i wanted to keep it pretty conceptual on the lyrics side – paint pictures that are universal but encourage you to think about a whole other place that isnt the city you live, the street you walk down or maybe even the planet we inhabit. i think things that get people thinking radically outside the box are really positive, especially in this day and age when so much our senses are bombarded with is designed to keep us operating, thinking and living within a defined structure and system.

MV: The chorus to ‘Traveling’ seems to be about mind travel with its chorus

‘travelling without moving’. What is this song about?

MdCL: the mind’s a powerful tool like that. as is the human spirit. there’s so far we can go, so much we can accomplish if we just put our minds and spirits to good use. captial A spells out the mission statement pretty clearly 🙂

MV: It’s amazing how keys and key sounds can set the mood in music. Is mood an important element to what you are doing?

MdCL: for anyone who’s making music, mood is everything!! i think where it’s kind of obvious how drums and vocals can set a mood, what really hits the human ear and emotions on a deeper and therefore more consequential level is the harmony of music and the harmonics of sound. so yeah, i love all that. using different sounds to hit different frequencies, using different harmonic shapes to paint different colours and stories.

MV: There is so much interaction between the “parts” of each song, where

elements interact. How did you go about constructing such complex songs?

MdCL: it’s how i hear it. i dont build it by theory or formula or intellectually, it’s just how i hear it all coming together. compared to playing with a sick jazz drummer or a heavy percussionist, the music isnt really that complex. if you compare it to say regular house music, yeah it’s more complex, but me for one, i’m tired of hearing the predictability and formula in most music. play me some different shit!

MV: Did you have to “break free” from your traditional schooling or did it just naturally flow into what you are doing now?

MdCL: i did conciously decide that i wanted to deconstruct my knowledge. i studied a lot of stuff growing up playing classical music and jazz, but beat culture really inspired me to deconstruct it. that’s what it’s all about really anyway – you learn everything and then in order to apply it without being stuck in it, you internalise it, you forget it all and then you can be free to express your creativity.

MV: How has living in West London affected your musical sensibilities?

MdCL: i’ve definitely gone back and dug through music i wasnt that familiar with before – some of the more obscure 70s stuff and early 80s music that are big influences for a lot of the crew in west london. growing up on jazz, i’d heard plenty of gene harris and ramsey lewis, but that was always playing swing. hearing them play funk on rhodes instead of straight ahead on piano, hearing the music of the mizell brothers, all that stuff freaked me out when i first heard it. everyone in west london is coming from a different background – IG with his roots and dub, phil asher with house, dego with drum’n’bass, kaidi with funk, we’re all coming from different places but find a liberating common ground with each other where we can break the walls down between the genres and just make music.

MV: Apart from your own music you perform a lot in London and Japan with a host

of other musicians. Please tell us about these performances: who do you work with and how does it function? Is it improvisational?

MdCL: i did my 10th anniversary japan tour a couple of years ago, so i’ve been going there for a while now. i usually perform with the guys who are now part of Sleepwalker and DJs including Kyoto Jazz Massive, Mochizuki from Loop and Yukihiro Fukutomi. it’s the only place in the world i still ocassionally play acoustic jazz sets, but most of the gigs are club gigs. in the smaller clubs it’s usually Freesoul Sessions which is the full improvised set, bigger venues i’ll take the whole band over and do the Tide’s Arising Live show.

MV: How do you feel about the commercial side to what you are doing?

MdCL: it’s a constant struggle and challenge to balance art and creativity with commerce and product. necessity drives me to do certain things that i might not necessarily do if i didnt have to worry about necessity, but at the same time, i’ve developed a rep as a left field progressive artist and producer so people are coming to expect me to do something different from anyone else. i just did a remix for domu’s next single and as he already had a house mix on the 12 he wanted me to do something crazy – whatever i wanted. i ended up doing a 140 bpm breakbeat thing in 14/4, then the bridge keeps changing between 3/4 and 2/4 – to me it was like roy ayers meets george duke through a breakbeat cypher. that was fun. i dont think anyone’s going to come to me expecting me to produce them a sound-a-like pop song so for now, i’m just thankful that i can make a living from doing things the way i like to do them. compromise is never the way.

MV: There are so many tags put on music today with “broken beat” being one of the most common. What do you think of this name and is it really fitting to what you are doing?

MdCL: i dont know. before it was called broken beat, it was just music – music without definition but it all shared the same conceptual ethos. everyone in west london was making music at different tempos, in different styles, but there was a common thread through it all. i think it’s become more stylized since being tagged as ‘broken beat’ but i still look at it as a conceptual thing. i just finished a remix for jaguar wright and tempo wise it’s got more to do with drum’n’bass than anything, but if you listen to it, you wouldnt necessarily think it was drum’n’bass because it has my flavour left right and centre. space funk, future soul, nu jazz, broken beat – to me, it’s all hip hop. Not like 50, but like Hip Hop – a state of mind, a way of life and a creative concept.

MV: Please describe your live performance. Do you try to match the recording or do you let each show take its own direction?

MdCL: every show is completely different – the first thing the audience hears is the click on the MPC and i build the beats from scratch. it’s pretty much live remixing the tunes so nothing is ever the same. i save up the beats after every show, so i must have over 100 beats sitting on MPC disks that i’ve never loaded back up. that reminds me, i’ve gotta get back to them and start digging some out again. i have the MPC, rhodes, bass synth, keyboards and effects, so i’m really creating the bulk of the music myself. the other musicians (usually a guitarist and drummer) augment what i’m doing, but it’s definitely the MPC and synths leading the way. the singers work with me on top of that flipping the songs different ways. the Freesoul Sessions shows are really similar except that everything is improvised – right down to the songs. when i go and see a band and they’ve rehearsed their show up and sometimes their on stage jokes are even the same, that shit is lame. i want to experience an artist’s creativity at a show, see them put their balls on the line and take some risks. d’angelo and bembe segue’s live shows are two of the only gigs i’ve witnessed that at. what i like to do live, once people get their head around it, they’re always into it – they realise it’s fresh every time. no exceptions.

MV: What can we expect from Mark de Clive-Lowe in the future?

MdCL: i’ve been busy in studio doing remixes – domu, jaguar wright, lekkan babalola, phuturistix and a few more on the way; i’ve collaborated two joints on the new leon ware album and produced 5 tracks for lady alma’s debut album. bembe segue and i have kicked off a new project called The Politik. the first 12 ‘Money’ will be out on my label antipodean records soon and we’ve just written cherie mathieson’s debut album – she’s a great singer from NZ who featured on six degrees. there’s always lots going on – i like to keep busy and keep projects in motion. i’ve got a new 12″ coming out on funk of fury records out of sweden soon with remixes by recloose and drum’n’bass crew commix, the tide’s arising remixes 12″ out in summer on abb soul, and the next installment of melodius beats on antipodean records before the end of the year. touring wise, there’s lots going on as well – live shows and DJ dates in NZ, australia, china, uk, poland and a few different spots in the states including san jose jazz festival and montreux festival atlanta. i’ve only really scratched the surface for what’s coming up, so best thing is for people to keep an eye on the website – www.markdeclivelowe.net – in short, there’s a lot of music coming and a lot of touring coming.

Mark de Clive Lowe Blog

Vanessa, Freeman, 4, Hero,

BY J.C. TRIPP

To soul seekers and house heads around the world Vanessa Freeman’s chocolate-rich voice is a blessing from the heavens. She’s graced dozens of tracks by highly-regarded artists like West London’s 4 Hero (most recently on ‘Blue Note Revisited’), Bugz in the Attic, Kaidi Tathum, Kyoto Jazz Massive and Nathan Haines (“Squire for Hire”) and Alex Attias. And as vocalist for the house outfit Reel People she scored the massive hit, ‘The Light’. Freeman is unquestionably at the head of her game, and fully in control of a burgeoning career. With her debut full-length, “Shades”, now out on London’s Chillifunk label, her many talents as a singer and songwriter are on full display. Heads worldwide are turning to this great nu soul talent.

With influences that range from Dee Dee Bridgewater to Donnie Hathaway, as well as her fellow-Londoners like Bembe Segue, Freeman deftly traverses a broad range of vocal styles. On “Shades” Freeman performs a diverse and balanced selection of polished tracks, ranging from “neo” soul to funk to West London’s signature broken beat jazz sound. Co-written and produced by the singular and prolific producer Phil Asher of Restless Soul, “Shades” is a defining moment for both and is certain to be a smashing success. The first single, “Shades”, a deliciously funky affair, with remixes by Los Angeles soul collective the Rebirth, is rapidly ascending the soul charts and getting airplay from tastemaking DJs like Gilles Peterson.

As she prepared for her debut performance at London’s Jazz Cafe, with an 8-piece band including Izzy Dunn and Rasiyah on backing vocals, Mike Patto (Reel People) on rhodes and Neville Malcolm on bass Mundovibes caught up with Ms Freeman. Exhibiting a sweet and uplifting enthusism for her music, and tolerating this writer’s phone card dilemmas (sorry Vanessa – ed.), Freeman gave us the lowdown on her journey as a vocalist and where she’s headed. Expect massive things ahead from this very talented singer.

Mundovibes: It’s spring, and you’ve got a new release out so you must be happy.

VF: Yeah, I’m very very happy.

MV: Give us an overview of the project and how it’s come about and how you feel about it.

VF: One of the bosses at Chillfunk, which is a label in London, saw me perform with one of their artists, Nathan Haines. I am one of the vocalists, and they were into what I was doing, how I was performing. And I knew Phil Asher from times before and that was put to me to do an album with him. And that all came to just making some great music.

JC: It’s a fabulous recording, it’s very rich and pulls in a lot of styles and influences.

V: Yeah, I’ve been told that. It’s like, it stems from the English style, the Brit style, to new soul to all different kinds of genres. Because I love people like Curtis Mayfield and Donnie Hathaway, as well as the singers here. I was trying to ingest that and send it out again, really.

MV: You have a long track record collaborating with a whole slew of artists from 4 Hero to Azymuth. How does that all make sense to you?

VF: With me and 4 Hero it was just an opportunity for me. With 4 Hero and stuff like that it’s just my work for one of their tunes from their album. And then basically it was just the case of being able to make it with them as much as I can. I’ve tried to work with different people as much as possible and get into different styles to push myself. And working with groups like Azymuth which are the guys from Brazil, to work with as many different people as possible.

JC: And, what is the desire? Just to express yourself in as many ways as possible?

VF: One of the desires for me is to stretch myself. I think as a singer you can get into a certain style and a certain vibe, which you can feel comfortable in. But I think what I really wanted to do is just work with people that would stretch me, as well as me stretching the boundaries of their music that they produce. It’s like, you can work with so many people and they just stretch you with your vocal skills, they stretch you with your writing skills, and you want to do the best you can. You want to be at the top of your game and that’s what I want to do. I want to be at the top of my performance, whether it’s working in the studio or whether it’s writing, or having a hand in production, which is something I’d like to go on to doing.

MV: Let’s talk about the “Shades” album.

VF: I’m really happy. I’m happy with the vocal performance that I’ve given because just now even I’m getting different feedback of what people feel about it. And definitely “Shades” is an album, it is my source, it is my heart, it’s the stuff that makes me feel enraged, as well as the stuff that makes me feel really calmed, you know? It’s my spirituality, it’s my happiness, it’s my joy, it’s everything for this moment, for this time. I’m trying to just express who I am and what I do through my music. And working with Phil, also.

MV: What is it that makes him so unique?

VF: The main thing, the thing that got me the most about Phil was his musical knowledge. He just influenced with his musical knowledge, meaning all of the albums and everything he’s got around him. It just sparked me into knowing the styles I wanted to use. Or, he’d play me a few different people that have gone before. It just got me into trying to develop my music style and the stuff that I listen to just make it as brilliant as it could be.

MV: I am just curious how you feel about the differences between British soul and States-based soul.

VF: I’ve heard of instances of when American artists have come here and they have been quite shocked that the English soul, and new-soul elements is as wanting to be as on it as they can. I don’t think they assume that they’re the only ones that can do it, or have the feel of the vibe. Because I was talking to someone about this, about the history. Even singers or musicians here, they all say ‘I’m in to Miles Davis or I’m into Donnie Hathaway’. A lot of our history, even though it’s not British based, what we refer to, our benchlines, where we start from, is American soul. I think the main thing is that people are accepting and ready to be accepting, because there are so many amazing singers and musicians over here, even more so now. There’s 4 Hero, there’s Nathan Haines, there’s a band I work with Reel People, there’s Bembe Segue, there’s so many that are flourishing. At the moment we’re really getting into our sound. Not just listening to the stuff, we’re trying to find our own thing and I think in West London there is their own sound. There is influence from abroad and London but everyone’s trying to hone in on their own sound and what they feel. People say ‘that sounds really Enlish, or I sound really American.’ There’s so many influences there. I think it’s just an acceptance of people in the US of knowing that British people are coming up with their own sound, as well as being influenced by abroad.

MV: I think it’s going to bust out here in the States and “Shades” is very accessible, it could certainly be played next to Erika Baduh on the radio.

VF: The playlists that I’ve gotten, it’s been played in between people like Amp Fidder, Bembe Segue, and I’m cool with that. Even the comparison, people say ‘yeah, that’s really like Jill Scott’. That’s their point-of-reference, that doesn’t bother me at all. To be compared to someone like Jill Scott is quite cool.

MV: How did you develop your vocal abilities and when did you discover that you were a singer.

VF: I was in the school choir and a lot of activities like school plays. And then I worked with a band called The Mighty Truth, which was an acid jazz band. Then the ‘90s acid jazz and the whole soul influence was coming through and I just started writing for them. But my main starting point was with the choir, the church, with school and just hanging out. That was the main thing I did and the main thing that got my confidence in singing in front of people.

MV: Your biography states that your parents immigrated from Jamaica. Obviously people would say ‘why not more of a reggae thing’?

VF: (laughs) Sing reggae? I love reggae, and my dad was very into reggae. My mother was into the ska thing around that time, and soul music. But I just never got into it. If I was led that way as a young girl, just constanly hearing reggae, I reckon I would have been into it.

MV: I’ve heard your voice on so many different artists tracks, everything from the Nathan Haines to 4 Hero to the Sun Ra dedication CD and it’s woderful.

VF: Yeah, the Sun Ra was wicked to do. His vocalist, June Tyson, she’s just phenomenal, so I was just happy to do it really.

MV: So, what’s coming up for you?

VF: I’ve got a gig at the Jazz Cafe, so I’m rehearsing and doing different things to lead up to that. And I’m working with Nathan Haines and Reel People as well. I just want to promote the music as much as possible and gain through it. I love the songs that I’ve done and I’m so happy to have worked with the people I have. They got a lot of heart and soul in what they do, so that’s just added to what I do as an artist.

MV: What about your live performance, how does that come over?

VF: It’s going to be the first time I’ll be performing with the band, at least at Jazz Cafe. It’s an 8-piece band, with keys, drums, bass, guitar, three backing singers and myself. And we just want to smash it, really! Have a really good time, get some warmth in there and just get a good mix of music. Just smash it as much as we can.

Vanessa Freeman Myspace

By Rose Parfitt

“High! Quality! Jazz!” A tired and hungry Italian promoter put his head back and howled and it echoed round the dank and freezing Old Street brickwork. It was late and wet on a February Sunday night and like the rest of the audience, Mario Berna had just been sent stumbling from the Barbican still reeling from 48 hours of unbelievable music. In the space of a single weekend, Jazz Britannia season had just proved to an ecstatic crowd of Londoners that their homeland is the centre of the world. In less than three months time Mario would be proving it to Italy. Thirty-nine of the UK’s most exceptional sons and daughters of jazz would soon be touching down in Rome for a four-day showcase of new British jazz – Mario’s brainchild, and the first of its kind in Italy. Courtney Pine, Gilles Peterson, Soweto Kinch, Carleen Anderson, Two Banks of Four, Abram Wilson, Orphy Robinson and Cleveland Watkiss…they’d all be there. It was like Challenge Aneka in twelve keys, but with less spandex.

Fast forward to a sunny April evening outside Red, a trendy restaurant in the classily concrete Parco Della Musica complex – Rome’s brand new triple-pod-like auditorium. Young people in distressed jeans sipped spumante at the outside tables red, white and green, while smart grandmothers and small children strolled up and down the open walkway. Under a banner reading “New British Jazz”, Mundovibes stood smoking cigarettes with a cluster of cameramen outside the Rai Sat studio next door as musicians trooped in to be interviewed for Italian TV. As the red light went on in the studio, Mario appeared by her side. “High quality jazz!” he whispered in her ear. Mundovibes nodded in agreement: the Q was a constant factor in this equation. But was new about New British Jazz?

“It would be nice and easy if I could say, well we play this new beat, or we have this new bassline…” said 27-year-old saxophonist Soweto Kinch, winding down in the dressing room exactly halfway through the festival after a set of pure hip hop-laced genius. “It’s nothing that tangible,” he continued. “It’s to do with the personalities – to do with the people, the musicians, the artists. Each one has an individual voice.”

Watching a whole Shakespeare’s brain worth of characters pass across the Sala Petrassi stage over four evenings of trailblazing music, it was clear that what he said was true. This is no scripted, manufactured movement – it’s the individuals that matter. Courtney Pine, for example, lifting his tenor up and down like the trunk of a magnificent serenading elephant; Bembe Segue scatting frenzied gibberish over a ten-piece free jazz orchestra; Carleen Anderson, kicking the monitor to hit the high notes; or 20-year-old Gwilym Watkins, more Jarvis Cocker than Jaki Byard, knocking out a solo that made his bandmates whistle through their teeth.

Like them, Soweto – at once Oxford history graduate, Montreaux Jazz Festival International Saxophonist of the Year 2002 and member of Pop Idol backing band The Big Blue – is part of a whole family of British artists pushing out the parameters of jazz by sheer force of personality, bringing their own life-sounds to bear on a music whose life-blood is change. In his case these sounds encompass everything from the Jamaican music of his mum and dad to baroque, connecting with his studies of the 17th and 18th century black population of Britain. The net was cast as wide for almost everybody on that stage.

On Wednesday, Cleveland Watkiss, vibrating music from head to naked toe, sang with a lifetime’s worth of MetalHeadz, London Community Gospel Choir and Chet Baker in his lungs, not as a lead singer but as one instrument in a band so tight they might have been wired together. By contrast, watching the controlled chaos of Two Banks of Four on Friday in full-throttle multicoloured synchopation was like seeing the Sun Ra Arkestra, Rotary Connection, Pharaoh Saunders, Abbey Lincoln and Mark Murphy in the thick of a sonic battle for world peace.

“In the UK it’s like a centre of energy,” said Mario, charging through the maze of backstage corridors in pursuit of an AWOL Gilles Peterson. “There are musicians from all kinds of backgrounds who see jazz in a different way. Cleveland Watkiss, he’s worked with Goldie, Roni Size, Talvin Singh. Soweto Kinch, he is one of the best in the world and his sounds have everything from Charlie Parker to rap music. Everybody here in this festival has a connection – Cleveland Watkiss with Abram Wilson, Soweto Kinch with Courtney Pine, Rob Gallagher and Carleen Anderson … That’s the difference. American jazz is great, but it’s always the same people and the same sounds. The difference with British jazz is that it’s more brilliant, more new, more fresh…”

So boundaries are being crossed; but that’s what they all say. What’s happening here is more profound than genre-sliding. “I think it’s quite dangerous for musicians to start thinking in terms of boundaries and even of trying to break the boundaries,” said Soweto. “The more personal a form of expression is, the more chance it has of being unlimited.”

And because of this honest connection with sounds and experiences that are personally real and true, jazz is at last reaching out to a new generation for the first time since perhaps the Seventies. “I really feel like the music that we’re creating is something that everybody could get into, something that could really broaden their horizons as to what jazz is – and what jazz was,” said New Orleans-born trumpeter Abram Wilson, his voice echoing in the cavernous marble hallway where he was taking a breather from the photographers. “Every time we do a performance I see people’s eyes light up. It’s like the more we play, the more attitudes we change.”

But attitudes are not being changed by coincidence; instead that is the purpose of a concerted evangelical-educational effort on the part of the musicians on the one hand, and the newly and admirably hep British Council on the other. “New British Jazz” was the seventh of in a series of Italian festivals called Interplanetary Soundz, organised jointly by Mario’s company, FreeformJazzProduction, Musica per Roma and the British Council to celebrate the many-splendoured thing that is contemporary British music. Since 1999, punters from Milan to Naples have flocked to hear musicians, producers, composers and DJs from Talvin Singh and Nitin Sawhney to Spacek to Dego (4Hero) and Orin Walters (Bugz in the Attic). Many of the guests of Interplanetary Soundz have also participated in British Council events in destinations as far flung as Lithuania, Bosnia, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Tanzania, doing workshops with children, collaborating with local musicians and generally spreading the word.

“The British Council is doing a great thing,” said Abram (like Carleen Anderson an American now permanently resident in London) just minutes before finishing off the festival with a set of truly incredible improvised creation, a touch of Donald Byrd, Horace Silver and Stevie Wonder setting off some almost scary originality. “Anytime kids get to hear this music, any time grownups get to hear it, that’s always an education.” And not only that – for music is and always will be a force for peace. “I think in the case of Sarajevo and certainly in the case of Kenya part of what we were doing was helping to keep good relations with the political regime out there and make sure that Britain has a friendly face as well as a democratic one,” Soweto observed.

His and Abram’s enthusiasm comes in part from their own history of involvement with an outreach project much closer to home. Tomorrow’s Warriors is a London-based organisation, run by Jazz Jamaica bassist Gary Crosby and descended from Courtney Pine’s groundbreaking Jazz Warriors collective, dedicated to nurturing young musicians from urban, working class backgrounds and giving them the platform to develop. True to its name, the rolling membership philosophy of Tomorrow’s Warriors, incarnated in a regular Sunday afternoon jam session at the Spice of Life in Soho, has spawned groups including Jade Fox, arguably the most exciting British soul act in existence, and many of the stars of the future – pianist Andrew McCormack Trio, guitarist Dave Okumu, Soweto, Denys Baptise and others. Three members of the Abram Wilson sextet we saw on Sunday were today’s Warriors none other – pianist Gwilym Watkins, Nathaniel Facey on alto and drummer Shaney Forbes, all within a hair’s breadth of their teens. With Gary Crosby on bass and Denys Baptise on tenor the sense of family about the performance was more than inspiring: musicians at every point from the start to the peak of their careers learning from and respecting each other’s ideas.

“We’re soul mates, all of us. We want to swing, we want to keep the music true to its roots but we also want to push it forward,” said Gary from the depths of a wicker beehive outside Red, whence he had escaped for a breath of fresh air with his partner Janine Irons who runs the groundbreaking new jazz label, Dune. “I personally believe that for there to be a British sound it should represent a wider group of people than it does generally. Tomorrow’s Warriors has to get bigger and stronger. The old companies have contributed a lot to the jazz circuit but new people bring new ideas. Old people can only bring what they know.”

If the newness lies in new people, the foundations have been laid by those, like Gary, who have paved the way for new talent and new ideas to come through. Without them, nothing would have changed and what they’re doing now is anything but cobwebby. People were literally bounding towards the stage on Friday night for Courtney Pine OBE – a man whose dedication to the jazz cause both musically and socially has been recognised even by good Queen Brenda for its outstanding contribution to British culture. With his big smile and the way he staggers (“Phew!”) after every eye-watering solo, Courtney Pine is the great father figure of British jazz. And like any natural born teacher, the process and the fruits of his labours are a constant source of joy. “I feel very honoured to be here in Rome with these musicians,” he said, slightly dazzled in the studio lights. “And it’s a great thing to know that someone from another country is appreciating the unique flavour of British music and recognising that we’re trying to do something different.”

In fact, one of the freshest things about this scene is the way that every sound and every source of music is embraced as an education. From the accelerated straighahead of the Tomorrow’s Warriors crew to the more dancefloor-oriented side of new British jazz represented on Friday night by DJs Gilles Peterson, Nick Matthews and Ady Harley, new is not about amputating the past; new is the salty crest of a ancient and long-travelled wave. “Jazz is the root,” says Gilles, a man who has done more than any other to push jazz music, new and old, out of the sidelines and into the middle of the floor. “I think the old stuff is very, very important for the lineage of music, and not just in a retrospective way. There’s so much to learn.”

Nick Matthews and Gilles Peterson. ©2005 Alex Capodanno.

The long and winding road to where we are now is never, ever forgotten, and that goes for all forms of music. The fact that musicians like bassist Robin Mullarkey, singer Bembe Segue, alto player Finn Peters and keyboardist Ski Oakenfull can move between the superfree jazz of Two Banks of Four and broken soul/boogie projects like Brotherly, labels like Main Squeeze or 2000Black, contemporary classical groups like Nosferatu and remixing the Sugerbabes just proves that open minds are what it’s all about.

So did they go for it in Italy? They did. More than that, they rose to their feet and screamed for more. “The audience has been great,” said Mario, taking his seat on Sunday night for grand finale, still tired and hungry but also pleased as punch. “In Italy people are very scared about the new. When they go to see music they want to be sure, but the reaction has been amazing.”

So it is: with the front door open and a kettle on the boil, it’s new, it’s British and it’s jazz. From club to concert hall the punters are shivering. From Streatham to Sarajevo the children are learning. From pocketmoney to pension the artists are collaborating. It’s happening.

Back in the marble hallway, Abram Wilson put his trumpet to his lips and tested out a little riff. “Jazz music is not old people’s music – although old people love the music,” he said, presently. “Jazz music is for everybody.”

All photographs copyright Alex Capodanno alecap@zoom.co.uk

Strictly no reproduction without prior permission of the author.

Any further use or publication of these images is forbidden without prior consent from the copyright owner.

San Francisco’s Brazilian Music Scene

Peter Nicholson reports on the Latin-Brazilian meltdown

There are many stories about the origins of house music, but all accounts acknowledge the influence of black and Puerto Rican communities on the beginnings of a sound that has now branched into a myriad of forms. And in recent years a thriving scene has grown in prominence, openly embracing sounds and styles that reflect this many-hued past. Jazzanova, John Beltran, Rainer Trüby — these are just a few names that have found success through their electronic adaptations of tropicalista music.

The San Francisco Bay Area is no melting pot where cultures lose their individual identities — if anything it’s a healthy salad of mixed greens with each distinct community contributing its own flavor. As such, it is no surprise that there is a solid roster of DJ’s sharing a broader vision of “future” dance music, while at the same there coexists a roster of live bands playing more traditional sounds. Though their repertoires and crowds may differ, all share a love of beats from below the equator and a passion for getting down.

Both the audience and the musicians who follow a more traditional approach to the sounds are not necessarily “natives” themselves. Nossa Bossa, a leading Bay Area group that plays Brazilian music, features only one one bona fide Brazilian, Raquel Coelho, whose liquid Portuguese holds together the band’s tight sets. Coelho finds that “there are a lot of good musicians here. A lot of them are from Brazil but also there are a lot of non-Brazilians who love the music and play it well too.” Two such non-Brazilians are Nossa Bossa’s drummer Keith Wald and percussionist Tammy Bueno, whose Baião, Xaxado, Samba, Bossa, Choro, and Partido Alto rhythms propel the band’s fluid style.

Bat Makumba is another Brazilian-focused outfit, though they lean more towards interpretations of Musica Popular Brasileira. Named after the 70’s classic tropicalia song by Gilberto Gil & Caetano Veloso, the band’s sweat-soaked shows have earned them an enthusiastic following and they have an album due out later this spring. Band leader Alex Koberle cites Mission district venue the Elbo Room as “a great place for live music with always a full dance floor. We play there every first Tuesday of the month and every Tuesday has a different live band playing Brazilian music.” Besides live acts, the Elbo Room hosts many DJ’s, some of whose music Koberle enjoys. Yet he qualifies that “some pieces have a pseudo-Brazilian feel that I really dislike. It sounds like people are trying to jump on the Brazilian bandwagon by throwing in some samba elements without really knowing how to do it. It just ends up sounding sloppy to my ears.”

Sloppy sounds are not what one finds every last Thursday of the month at the Make-Out Room, another joint in the Mission. Instead one is treated to choice vinyl selections by Vanka (Stellar Trax) and a rotating crew of guests like Andrew Jervis (Ubiquity), Vinnie Esparza (Dis-Joint), and Tom Thump (Cosmic Flux.) Originally from Belgium, Vanka Van Ouytsel has DJ’ed in the Bay Are for 12 years and is excited about the scene’s potential. “Locally, I’d like to see more conversing and converging between traditional latin/cuban/brazilian music and electronic dance music, on a performance as well as production level…. Although the Bay Area is blessed with a vibrant musical community from the Americas, most local bands tend to perform in the more traditional vein. At the same time, there are also a lot of local DJs and producers that share an interest in the traditional latin/cuban/brazilian sounds, so hopefully more musical fusions will be created here in the future.”

Van Ouytsel is certainly doing his part, hosting East Bay group Superbacana at his Make-Out Room party. Andrew Jervis (Ubiquity Records VP and host of KUSF’s Friday Night Session) was impressed enough by Superbacana’s demo to include them on his label’s Rewind! 2 compilation. They turned in a solid version of the standard “Reza,” adding a heavy bass drum thump and flanged keys midway through the track for a more dancefloor-oriented feel. Bandleader Caroline Chung sees the electronic scene as often more open to change than traditional musicians. “For me, being a live musician, I’ve noticed that the traditional live music scene is adapting to the new electronic sounds at a more slower pace compared to the DJ/dance music crowd adapting to the organic, traditional styles.”

He has been hosting (with the help of XLR8R magazine’s Tomas Palermo) the Friday Night Session for 8 years now and his role as head of A&R for one of the US’s most progressive labels puts him in a front-row seat for changes in taste. “There’s a lot of wishy-washy crap floating around, often promoted as a new innovation, but just because the producer sampled a riff from a Brazilian compilation or something doesn’t mean it’s any good. Fortunately there are lots of really great interactions, too . . . for instance people like Seiji, John Beltran, and Osunlade are all working with Puerto Rican musicians and rhythms right now forging new sounds where Bomba meets broken beats and house and creating new dancefloor tunes that on one level are just great to dance to but also musically deep if you care.”

At the other end of the spectrum from Superbacana, Om Record’s Afro-Mystik comes from the electronic side of things but adds live instrumentation. Headed by Om President Chris Smith aka DJ Fluid, Afro-Mystik also features Simone White (disposible heroes of Hip-Hoprisy) and the amazing vocals of Omega. But it is the live-wire antics of percussionist JSN that drives their live show, one of the best amalgamations of live and electronic performance I have ever witnessed. With the album Morphology due to drop in mid-April, the single “Natural” is already in the crates of taste-maker DJ’s like François K, Halo, and local globe-trotter Andrew Jervis. Jervis is renowned for his open mind and eclectic playlists.

DJ Vinnie Esparza is one who cares, and it shows. In addition to DJ’ing enough to be voted the Bay Area’s Best DJ by a local weekly newspaper, Esparza has a full schedule. “I run a small record label called Dis-Joint, along with Groove Merchant Records owner Chris Veltri. We do new, beat oriented music, as well as funk, soul, Latin, and reggae reissues on our “Re-Joint” imprint. Also, I work at the Groove Merchant myself a couple of days a week, where I do all of the “new music” buying.” While some of Esparza’s customers are quite knowledgeable (the Beastie Boys are just some of their famous fans), he says that “Most people who listen to “DJ” music are not even aware that the latest track from their favorite artist actually has roots deeper than they may think.” In keeping with this theme, Esparza namechecks people like “…Vanka, Soulsalaam (whom I do “New Conception” with), Cool Chris, Romanowski, Andrew Jervis and a handful of others have a real sense of history when it comes to the music they spin, both old & new.”

That seems to be the key: respect the past while looking to the future. Though some may choose to honor their forerunners by sticking with tradition, others seek to apply the same spirit to new styles. Both use these powerful rhythms to move the heart and feet and, come May when San Francisco once again hosts North America’s largest Carnaval, everyone will dance together.

Om Records

Ubiquity Records

Elbo Room

Make Out Room

SF Carnival

Boozoo, Bajou, Dust, Broom

Boozoo Bajou Hit the Bayou

BY JOHN C. TRIPP

It should come as no surprise that four years passed before Boozoo Bajou followed up their first full-length “Satta” with a new release. After all “Satta” means relax in Jamaican patois and the German duo are well-known for their totally-chilled approach to music and life. The rush of daily life might be the driving force for our world but Boozoo Bajou have decidedly opted to take it slow.

The laidback feel of their sound reflects the eased-out attitude and pace with which the Boozoo´s produce their music. Good things simply take time and “Dust My Broom”, meaning to make a clean sweep, marks a fresh new chapter for Boozoo Bajou. Firstly, they’ve parted ways with Stero Deluxe records and joined K7. Secondly, their sound has expanded into blues-influenced vocal territory, with some of their musical heroes like Willie Hutch, U-Brown and Tony Joe White appearing on the album.

Boozoo Bajou have left the lounge behind for the swamp and the resulting blues-meets-dub-meets-downtempo sound is a tasty gumbo straight out of the bayou. “Dust My Broom” is seeped with the trademark laidback Boozoo vibe but is not a rehashing of “Satta“. Yet at the same time, the classic Boozoo sound remains with deep, cinematic textures, a dub sensibility and strong songs.

Boozoo Bajou convey the essence of various roots music styles to the surface and show their intrinsic affinity, no matter if it´s reggae, soul, blues, folk, jazz or original r´n´b. The big bracket that combines the roots cultures with Boozoo Bajou is dub – that particular technique that emerged in the early seventies in Jamaica. A technique that cultivated the dissection and rearranging of music, which is now masterfully applied to the contemporary by Boozoo Bajou.

Mundovibes spoke with Boozoo Bajou’s Peter Heider and Florian Seyberth from their fishing shack, deep in the heart of Alabama.

Mundovibes: You guys have a DJ set tonight at what are you going to be dropping?

Florian: It’s at the deep space Cielo, with Francois K. We played there last year and what I really like about this place is you have so much freedom of what you can play. So I would say the fist hour would be very low and a lot of deep, roots reggae tracks, some dub cuts and some very low, deep soul tracks and take off very slowly.

Mundovibes: Which is what you are all about.

Florian: Yeah, take the time for that, not a hurry.

Mundovibes: It’s been a few years since your first full-length “Satta”. What has changed since then in terms of what you are doing?

Florian: It sounds totally different compared to the first. And after we put this record out we thought “it’s impossible to do a second Satta”. And we have some different tools and it just came out a totally different sound. And on the other end it was working with singers, like Top Cat, and it was a totally different way of working. And we moved into our studio, the studio before was a very big one, now it’s a very small one. And there’s a lot of influences from that you know?

Mundovibes: Would you say one of the biggest changes was more collaboration.

Florian: Definitely, because when you only do instrumental tracks you have 100% control. When you have singers they give the lyrics and we had several tracks where the wrote the song.

Mundovibes: For ‘Dust My Broom’ you have so many interesting collaborators. How did you find these guys?

Florian: Well, we are fans of them and one of our managers, Willie, found them by looking for over a year constantly calling them up like every day. Hunting them like bounty hunters.

Mundovibes: What is it about the blues and southern music that inspired you to do so much of it on “Dust My Broom?”

Florian: It’s, how do you say, “every thing comes out of the blues”. So it doesn’t matter what kind of color you get, it gives it a background you know? You can find blues in reggae, in old soul tracks, funk can be blues. Everything can be blues, so we get all of the electricy from it.

Mundovibes: With “Dust My Broom” is the overall mood and the overall direction or mood you wanted it to be or did it just grow a certain way?

Florian: It should be more spread out this time, “Satta” was more one flow and this time we wanted to try different things out and because of the different characters of the singers we think that the tracks are really more diverse than before.

Peter Heider: The main thing is that we really like music with a cinematic kind of feeling. Our point is always to bring the little things up, it’s really important for us that the little musical things are strong.

Mundovibes: I read somewhere that you don’t really like playing fast music live because you cannot put in those “little” elements.

Peter: That’s true, normally we are more into the flow of the music and working in the studio is not like working on a track in a couple of days. We are working on it for maybe a couple of months and for us this is much more inspiring.

Florian: Slower things come more natural out of us.

Mundovibes: Do you feel like you’re moving and maturing beyond that lounge thing?

Florian: We’ve always been outside of this. People that do this same kind of stuff, Tosca and Peter Dorfmeister, was really supporting us but we didn’t have too much contact with the people. We only saw them if we went to Berlin but there was never a lot of contact with other groups. That was the scene which was really supporting us four or five years ago when we did “Satta”.

Mundovibes: You are both musicians, you play instruments right?

Florian: Me not, I never learned how to read notes and stuff, it’s just instinct.

Mundovibes: Do you feel it’s very important, the live element?

Florian: Of course

Peter: For me, I’m doing the instrumental part of most of it or we organize musicians to do it. It’s good for me just to concentrate, to work with an instrument with Florian beside me telling me what to do or what to leave out.

Mundovibes: Considering all of the people you’ve collaborated with and all of your influences, I read again that you define yourselves as ethnomusicologists. Can you tell me what you fell about what you are doing with the music?

Peter: Overall it’s really to use the different kinds of elements and we try to do it with a lot of respect, you know? And not with just a little trick or a little sample to make it more sophisticated or progressive or something. Really, we try to keep it very respectful. We are mostly influenced by the musical culture of America or Latin America or Africa so this is what we work with.

Florian: For us older records are more interesting than the records that come out now. Now the only major thing is how they use a sample, you know? So, it’s mainly the old music that interests us.

Mundovibes: You worked with someone like U Brown who is so famous and now, instead of sampling him you’re working with him.

Florian: Yes, this was a very nice opportunity.

Mundovibes: What did these guys think when you wanted to work with them? Were they very receptive?

Florian: No, I would say no they’re not really open to that, many because they’re old you know?

Peter: They don’t really know what’s going on here (laughter).

Florian: Maybe we’re surprised sometimes, but they’re just trying it and then hopefully they’ll like it. Most of them we got personal contact with. It was very important to get a common vibe but there were some situations like Willie Hutch, we never met him and we just sent him the track. But this track was not so very progressive or out there you know. We thought that he wouldn’t be comfortable with that.

Mundovibes: Will you be putting together a live band or do you have one already?

Peter: No, we don’t. Nobody is paying for it and we need a big band to do that, but we are doing it as a sound system with a DJ and a singer. But to put together a band is difficult and we would rather be in the studio working on new material.

Mundovibes: What remixes are you doing, since that is such a big part of your work?

Florian: We did a couple of remixes recently, one for Nickodemus, one for the Funky Lowlives and some bootleg stuff–we mixed Jamaican and blues elements.

Boozoo Bajou Myspace

Jerome, Derradji, Still, Music, Patchworks, Delano, Smith, Seun, Kuti

Jerome Derradji — Still Music

By John C. Tripp

French Algerian born, Jerome Derradji moved in the America six years ago. Now living in Chicago, Jerome created his very own independent label Still Music – a boutique label that has been making a few waves internationally since its inception. With early praise from DJ / producers like Laurent Garnier, Rainer Truby, Charles Webster and magazines like BPM, XLR8R, Grooves and Straight No Chaser to name a few, Still Music is proving itself to be one of the more exciting imprints around. Still Music has strong ties with rising talent such as Frenchman Bruno Hovart aka Patchworks and was the first label to release a record from Amp Fiddler’s Project CAMP AMP. The labels other ties with Detroit were also strongly showcased on the excellent album (and forthcoming DVD) In The Dark. As a DJ, Jerome has played and promoted countless parties in both Chicago and Detroit with the acts like The 3 Chairs (Moodymann / Theo Parrish / The Godson / Malik Pittman), Amp Fiddler, I:cube, Jimpster and many others. His eclectic style is similar to the music released on Still Music: from techno to afro via deep jazz and disco with a strong touch of Detroit House. Jerome is resident at the Chicago Demon Days party. (bio courtesy of Demon Days)

Mundovibes: Can you give us some background on yourself and why you started Still Music?

Jerome Derradji: I’ve been involved in the music industry since very young, my first DJ gig was at 15 and I started my own band at 18. I bought my first record when I was 12. basically music was always around me and i always wanted to start a label. Kinda fascinated with vinyl i must say – mostly jazz and soul. After I moved to the US, I found myself working for numerous music related jobs and I ended up working at Groove Dis where Dirk (van den Heuvel)gave me a lot of room to start P&D’s there. I basically got the confidence that I could start my own imprint from that experience. I started Still Music simply because I wanted to release and expose a side of the electronic music scene that i believed needed more exposure.

MV: What types of music does Still Music represent?

JD: Pretty much everything “soulful”. It can be a dirty house track from Detroit or a jazzy tune from France, it makes no difference to me as long as it has soul. I try to get Still Music to represent music that can actually speak to you at anytime. basically I like to see the label as a medium between each artist and their public.

MV: What is the label’s mission?

JD: Our mission is to grow so we can get our artists to grow along and develop more maturity in sound and creativity.

MV: You have both artists from Detroit, Chicago, Tokyo and Paris. Would you call Still Music a global label?

JD: Yes definitely, we also have artists from Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Italy….. no borders of any kind for us.

MV: Are you concerned with musical tradition at Still Music and how are your carrying it forth?

JD: As a musician, I believe that I understand the process of creation, this helps me respect and appreciate the works that I get from our artists. We have a lot of true musicians on board – accomplished keyboardists, singers, bass & guitar players – but I think that music can be made in so many different ways that only the result counts: how the final mix can carry on an inspiration, a message, a groove…. This is the basis for the A&R here. Music needs to make you wanna dance, cry, laugh, party, think…

MV: Tell us about the artists represented by Still Music?

JD: I find our artists to be very unique and extremely talented. The common factor is that each artist involved with Still Music gives his best towards the final product. Be it Amp Fiddler dropping some stunning soul tracks, Patchworks covering Brothers On The Slide to perfection or The Godson sharing an exclusive slice of deep Detroit house.

MV: How do you develop each release, what is the process?

JD: Mostly it happens like this: An artist will send us music, I listen to it around 200 times and then if we love it we basically sign it that day. After that i start thinking in terms of remixers, final production, marketing and sales projections. The idea is to create a piece of vinyl that showcases the best the artists has to show at that precise moment and what he inspires in other more established artists.
Each 12″ becomes a small LP of sorts.

MV: You have a uniqe grahic image. Who is repsonsible for this?

JD: I am and i am not. Back in France i went to art school for 10 years, i gained a strong artistic vision out of it. This really helps me everyday in taking design decisions for Still Music. I wanted the label to have a strong identity in sound and design which i think are totally linked. But all the designers involved with us really created our image: Julian Carow, Uncle Geez ( he did our logo), Scott Shelhammer (the fantastic paintings for Delano Smith’s 12″) and lately Richard Coulson from London (he did our superb site, our brand new t shirts and most of our sleeves)

MV: What is your strategy for marketing and promotions?

JD: Right now, being a small underground independent label, marketing is done mostly in house. The goal is to let the most people know about our releases the cheapest way possible! We have a great mailing list for the usual tastemakers and we also created a series of email lists that target different layers of population: from industry people to the electronic music afficionados… All this combined works pretty well and we have been able to get nice press, nice dj support and sales without going bankrupt hiring PR companies for a single 12″ release. I also think that releasing quality music is the best marketing strategy you can have… Djs playing our tunes everywhere in the world is what makes everything happening.

MV: How important is digital downloading to the label?

JD: It is important because even if it doesn’t replace traditional distribution, it complements it. At the end of the day our mission is to spread our artists’s music all over the map. Digital downloads allow us to be featured 24/7 on a ton of cool sites and be in a mainstream store like itunes while you will never be able to find a still music 12″ at virgin, which means that we can reach a totally different audience. It is essential for our artists and their music. Also if you take the South Korean example, there are almost no new cds or vinyl being manufactured, music is distributed mostly digitally!

MV: You have a sub-label in the works called “Past Due”. Tell us about this.

JD: I actually have two new labels in the works. Past Due is a project that i’ve been dreaming of for a long time now! With the help of Rob Sevier – aka the soul investigator- we decided to create a label that reissues mostly disco and modern soul from the midwest.
The entire concept is to trace a parallel between the past and today. Most of the artists on Past Due are totally unknown but they had a short fame at the time and their music is absolutely brilliant. We are going deep in this project. We managed to find master tapes and are scheduling heavy remixes. The entire idea is to pay our respect to artists that started it all and spread their talent around the world. We are scheduling a bunch of mad 12″ and a nice cd compilation this year. The second label is going to be a techno label, i guess being around Carl Craig and Gamall at the Demon Days party kinda rubbed off on me… we are scheduling a bunch of releases on this one too with some newcomers and also some cats straight out of UR…. Also to make sure i am busy enough, i do a lot of consulting for Ron Trent’s Prescription and Future Vision labels. Here I act as a production manager.

MV: Are you happy with the label’s success thus far?

JD: Definitely, Still Music went way beyond my expectations in a very short time. I truly owe that to all the artists that entrusted us with their music and all the people that support us and buy our records everyday.

MV: What are the current and forthcoming projects from Still Music?

JD: There is plenty to be released. Next week we are releasing the first 12″ from Benjamin Devigne, a nice piece of deep jazz & house that is getting a nice buzz and we’re already preparing his full length. We have a pretty full schedule for the next year or so:
Albums from Patchworks (featuring Spacek tbc, Amp Fiddler, Paul Randolph, Darius Rashau) & Paul Randolph (featuring Amp Fiddler, Moodymann…) are in the works right now. We have upcoming 12″s from Moses McClean from West End fame, Charles Matlock (our first Chicago signing) with Phil Asher rmx. Phil is also taking a spin at remixing the recently released On My Heart hit from Isoul8 and Paul Randolph. Rondenion just finished his new 12″ for us and it is mindblowing! We also just signed Gerald Mitchell from Los Hermanos (UR) for a very special 12″ that will ravish fans of Soul City and we are expecting a massive remix on this one – a secret for the moment. And we are also finalizing the release of IN THE DARK cd/dvd (with a 30 min documentary shot in Detroit), there should be a tour in the US and in Europe with Djs and screenings of the movie.
And there is a lot more coming, we are signing new artists every month, the biggest concern being how to release all this fast enough! Oh yeah, i’ve also been recently asked to get involved on the A&R level for a Bob Marley and Ray Charles remix project due to be released on a major label in the US. If we are lucky enough we may have a chance to see some of the mixes released on wax on Still Music…

MV: You are also a DJ. What are you sets like?

JD: Well it mostly depends where I’m playing. Pretty much you can expect deep soulful house music that dives into jazz, disco, acid house and ends up techno!
I also love to play straight African and Brazilian music – i opened for Seu Jorge , Boubacar Traore & Konono #1 last year and it was a blast to play music so obscure to most americans.

MV: What do see in the future for Still Music?

JD: A lot more releases and maybe a little more focus on album projects. I love releasing 12″ but it gets time consuming and leaves me feeling like there is still more music that needs to be heard…

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