In one week we lost both Johnny Otis & Etta James, in remembrance….

Etta James was born on January 25th 1938, Jamesetta Hawkins died January 20, 2012, James was one of the most sustainable divas on the R&B scene with more than half a century as a performer and a long list of hits to her credit. She was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. James’ contralto voice is both rough and tender, on the faster material not unlike blues shouters like Big Maybelle, Big Mama Thornton & Koko Taylor, but more soulful on the ballad side.

Singing with a female doo-wop trio, she was discovered as a teenager by Johnny Otis. As featured vocalist, just turned 17, she had her first R&B #1 hit with Johnny Otis’ “The Wallflower (Dance with Me, Henry)” in 1955. She recorded for Modern Records & Kent Records for the rest of the decade.

In 1960 she signed with the Chess label and became the labels top female star throughout the 60’s and a regular R&B and pop charter with her signature song “At Last”, “Sunday Kind Of Love” “Stop The Wedding” a.m.o. In 1967 she - as Aretha Franklin before her - went to the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio to record the successful and more soul styled album “Tell Mama”, introducing another R&B classic, “I’d Rather Go Blind”. From 1965 to the mid 70’s however she battled heroin addiction and her popularity declined. She recorded with Chess until 1976. Her Chess era career, addiction and relation to Leonard Chess is a sub-story portrayed in the 2008 movie “Cadillac Records”. The role as Etta James in the movie is played by Beyonce Knowles who also recorded some of her songs for the soundtrack.

After years of decline and struggle in 1978 she recorded one of her all-time best album efforts, the Jerry Wexler produced “Deep in the Night”, but what could have been a strong comeback instead was the beginning of a decade of recording silence. Finally, in 1988 she went back to the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio she so successfully recorded in twenty years earlier and with Barry Beckett and the top studio session players made the album “Seven Years Itch” and from then on and until 2006 she has recorded frequent and solid albums. In January 2011 she was diagnosed with leukemia.

Till next time….

Email us: streetnoise_show@hotmail.com

Our next air-date: will be February 3rd, 4pm - 6pm PST & in the U.K. 12am - 2am.

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I decided just to showcase one artist this week because of his impact on a music, and the springboard of a cultural & political revolution the one and only father of AfroBeat….

Fela Anikulapo Kuti was born in Abeokuta, Nigeria in 1938, was a singer-composer, trumpet, sax and keyboard player, bandleader, and politician. Kuti was one of Africa’s most controversial musicians and throughout his life he continued to fight for the rights of the common man (and woman) despite vilification, harassment, and even imprisonment by the government of Nigeria. Born to Yoruban parents, Kuti was strongly influenced by both parents, his mother being Funmilayo, a leading figure in the nationalist struggle. Practically all of his records are dominated by political events and discussions from the approach of Pan-Africanism.

In 1954, Kuti joined the Cool Cats as a singer in that highlife band (highlife being the rage of the Lagos music scene at the time). During this period Kuti developed his own unusual sound which he described as highlife-jazz. In 1968 Kuti announced the arrival of Afro-beat, within the year was promoting his sound all over the USA on a 10-month tour where he became influenced by American jazz. When he returned to his homeland he opened a nightclub, the Shrine, and changed the name of his band to Africa 70 (and later to Egypt 80). His bands traditionally included the typical huge line-up consisting of many singers and dancers, numerous saxophonists, trumpeters, drummers, percussionists, and of course, many guitarists blending African rhythms and jazz horn lines with politicized song lyrics. His music was intricate, rather than calling it Afro-beat you might more arguably consider it Afro-jazz. Entire recordings often consisted of just a few songs and this propensity for jamming set up a roadblock for Fela to attain commercial acceptance in the United States. He also abhorred performing a song after recording it, and this led to audience disinterest in the U.S. where the people wanted their music to be recognizable hits.

Kuti continued his outspoken attacks on the Nigerian government. When the people returned to power in 1979, Kuti began his own political party - MOP (Movement of the People). The military returned to power in 1983 and within the year Kuti was sentenced to five years in prison on a spurious currency smuggling charge. He was released in 1986 after yet another change of government.

Fela Anikulapo Kuti died on Saturday, August 2, 1997, at 4pm (local time) in Lagos, Nigeria. It had been rumored for some time that Fela had a serious illness he was refusing treatment for, many said he was suffering from prostate cancer. But as it turns out, Fela died from complications due to AIDS. As Fela’s brother, Olikoye Ransome Kuti, said at a news conference:

“The immediate cause of death of Fela was heart failure, but there were many complications arising from the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome”.

Fela was a man with great influence in the African music world, he is irreplaceable and his presence will be sorely missed!!.

Till next time….

Email us: streetnoise_show@hotmail.com

Our next air-date: will be January 20th, 4pm - 6pm PST & in the U.K. 12am - 2am.

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Hi-lighting some of the artists that we played on today’s show:

Darondo

A mystery to most, Darondo records are high on the wants-lists of many collectors. He is spoken about in hushed-tones by other Bay Area musicians. Back in the day he was seen cruising around town in a white Rolls Royce (with a “Darondo” license plate). He opened-up for James Brown and lived a colorful lifestyle hanging with folks like the notorious Fillmore Slim. Take a listen to these tracks, released for the first time together on an album, and you may agree that he could have been the next Al Green or Sly Stone. But about 25 years ago Darondo disappeared.

Releasing three singles in the early 1970s (as Darondo, Darondo Pulliam, or the miss-spelled Dorando) he mixed low-rider soul with blues and r’n'b. He delivered in a variety of styles from the socially-charged “Let My People Go” to the sexually-driven funk of “Legs”. All three singles were recorded in the San Francisco Bay Area, and both sides of each of the singles are fantastic productions.

“You can hear a little bit of everything,” says Darondo about his music style. “There’s a little jazz and a little soul. They say if you Black you supposed to have soul. I got Latin flavor in me so there’s some Latin in it. Definitely got the Blues in it. I sound kinda’ country but I grew up in the Bay Area,” he adds.

But after the release of his three 45s Darondo stopped recording. “It was mostly me, just having a good time with a real good hobby,” he says. “It wasn’t about money but about having fun. Something I just liked to do. Maybe your dream is to be a James Brown or Frank Sinatra but those were just mostly dreams to me.”

Outside of the music business Darondo was living life to the full, and it eventually caught up with him. “Folks would say Daron got that dough,Daron Do that’s how I got the name. I used to get my suits tailor made, one of a kind, like my rings. A player can’t have the same ring as someone else. Got my rings specially made with diamonds and stones. But in order to get yourself together you had to get away from all the fastness. I was driving around in a Rolls Royce, I was a fast young man,” adds Darondo.

Darondo now lives in Northern California with his wife and family and is delighted to hear his music is getting a second wind courtesy of DJs and collectors like Gilles Peterson who recently picked “Didn’t I” for his “Digs America” compilation.

Frente Cumbiero

Bogotá’s Mario Galeano is a bass player, a record collector, a music scholar and a composer. His band is called Frente Cumbiero, and together they stand at the heart of the current renaissance of Cumbia music. Unlike the electronic sounds of Mexican Sonidera and Argentinian Cumbia Villera that first hit global soundsystems, the new Colombian approach uses the orchestra as a starting point and preserves a real sense of the Afro-Caribean and its vinyl culture.

With dark hair, a round face and a moustache, the flannel-clad Mario Galeano could almost be mistaken for of Pablo Escobar or one of Fernando Botero’s characters. He is what you would call a “real Colombian”. Imagine him with a sombrero and a ruana poncho on his shoulder and he would fit the image of a local cowboy. The difference is that he’s sitting at the counter of Matik Matik, a Belgian-owned bar dedicated to the promotion of experimental jazz, folk and cumbia, located in the arty and popular neighborhood of Chapineiro. It is a thousand light years from the harsh realities of basic Colombian life, and yet is a place that perfectly reflects what modern Bogotá represents: an ever-changing, inventive, juxtaposition of eternal features and new prospects.

He can be seen anytime hanging with interesting piers such Quantic, another producer dedicated to taking Cumbia to another level through the use of traditional recipes and unexpected blends. Whereas then he was only starting to promote his new record, (which his British-Colombian friend enthusiastically endorses) This time round you can be sure that the Frente Cumbiero 45s that were pressed in the US on names you can trust are sold out, and he is on the verge of being distributed by London’s legendary Honest Jon’s Records.

The Lijado Sisters

There is much to love about the Lijadu Sisters, identical twins of entirely self-determined nature who sing like birds, albeit carnivorous birds with roomy lungs. The sisters raised a brood of four kids, none of whom allegedly knew which Lijadu sister, either Kehinde or Taiwo, was their respective mom. The Lijadu Sisters seemed to be well in control of their professional destiny and critical of the colonial mentality that pervaded Nigerian record companies. They also had little patience for the male chauvinism that was seemingly part of the furniture in their native Nigeria.

The Lijadu Sisters also featured in one of my favorite music documentaries, Konkombe. The work of English director Jeremy Marre,  Konkombé was the Nigerian installment in his 14-episode world music series, “Beats Of The Heart”, which ran often on PBS during the late ’80s. The three chapters concerning the black diaspora (Jamaica, South Africa and Nigeria) held the best blend of musical, political and cultural content, and of this trio Konkombé was beyond fabulous. It was loaded stem to stern with great performances, fascinating archival footage, revealing interviews and near-palpable neighborhood funk. (With much of the last; speaking at New York’s Museum of Natural History, Marre described the horrors — corpses left in front yards —routinely encountered during his Nigerian shoot.)

The Lijadus are seen taking care of their kids and rehearsing in the side yard of their house. Without much accompaniment beyond a couple of talking drums and acoustic guitar, the sisters sing in unison, laid-back and vibrantly erotic in the same breath: “If you want to…you can touch me.” Then the camera invades a session with the Lijadu Sisters at the cramped, over-heated Lagos recording studio run by their record company, Decca West Africa. The same song is being recorded, but feels rushed, not nearly the wonderfully loose-limbed affair heard a few minutes previous. Aside from coping with their crumby work environment, the sisters do battle with their overbearing producer (a Nigerian version of the evil producer portrayed so well by Lou Reed in Paul Simon’s otherwise regrettable film, “One Trick Pony”). It’s a wonder Kehinde and Taiwo got anything done at all, much less music of the quality heard on today’s show track “Orere Elejibo”

Till next time….

Email us: streetnoise_show@hotmail.com

Our next air-date: will be January 6th, 4pm - 6pm PST & in the U.K. 12am - 2am.

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Hi-lighting some of the artists that we played on today’s show:

Willy Moon

In pop music, image most definitely matters. Not in the sense that each of our stars have to be the beautiful epitome of glamour, instead today we’re more in need of unconventional looking, striking figures. Lurching over a solitary camera lens, Willy Moon announces his image, identity and sound all in the space of 90 remarkable seconds on first work “I Wanna Be Your Man”. Most important of all is that this all amounts to a positively fascinating image.

The stripped-back, 50s rock n’ roll inspired style is an incredible creature in itself. In the aforementioned video, ‘Moon’, dapper in a three-piece suit, strides from one side of a stage to the other with absolute confidence. A short video it might be, but it documents the beginnings of a potentially iconic pop-star.

James Mason

Guitarist/keyboardist James Mason was a member of Roy Ayers‘ legendary late-’70s jazz-funk band, making his most prominent appearance on the 1977 LP “Lifeline” and its Mason showcase cut “Running Away.” That same year, Mason recorded his debut solo album, “Rhythm of Life”, for the tiny New York independent label Chiaroscuro. It went out of print in an extremely short time, and Mason never recorded another one, pretty much disappearing from sight. However by the ’90s, Rhythm of Life had attained near-Holy Grail status among acid jazz enthusiasts, partly because of its rarity and partly because its music — even more rooted in funk than Ayers’ — seemed to perfectly epitomize what the rare-groove revival was all about. Finally, in 1999, England’s Soul Brother Records acquired the rights to the master tapes and reissued Rhythm of Life on CD, allowing the album to claim its rightful status as a lost classic!

Axel Boman

Axel is in fact the Swedish word for shoulder, but born and bred Stockholmer Mr. Boman could just as easily have been named Rumpa, the Swedish word for ass, since most of his life has been dedicated to moving just that body part. It was around 1992 that Axel’s ass started dragging the confused youngster into all sorts of weird situations – dodgy warehouses, blooming fields, sweaty basements – just about any place that had a nice sound system and someone pumping a fat bass line through it. With his older brother already being a collector of the latest techno and house records, Axel started keeping a strict diet of fresh beats which has kept him alive and kicking ever since. Building a reputation for himself in the small but very friendly Stockholm club scene, he was soon acknowledged as one of Sweden’s most skillful and best looking dj dudes. Naturally, production activity followed shortly. Working out of small studios in his hometown as well as in Gothenburg (where Axel took his master degree in fine art), tracks like the underground hit “Arcimboldo” on Ourvision Recordings soon landed in the crates of connoisseurs like DJ Koze, Magda and Seth Troxler. His sounds is raw, playful and drenched in oceans of soul – just the kind of stuff the dancefloor’s of today are longing for. 2010 was the big breakthrough year for Axel and his ass, with the epic screw house anthem “Purple Drank” being released on DJ Koze’s new Pampa Records imprint, going off to London to participate in the Red Bull Music Academy and starting up his own label Studio Barnhus together with Petter (Border Community) and local Kornél Kovacs. 2011 will see Axel releasing a lot of new material and remixes on labels like Permanent Vacation, Moodmusic, Glass Table, Hypercolour, Tartelet and of course Studio Barnhus.

Till next time….

Email us: streetnoise_show@hotmail.com

Our next air-date: will be December 23rd, 4pm - 6pm PST & in the U.K. 12am - 2am.

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Hi-lighting some of the artists that we played on today’s show:

Adrian Younge Presents Venice Dawn

The first single on Wax Poetics Records, “It’s Me” featuring guest singer-songwriter Rebecca Jordan. Classic production techniques and authentic instrumentation recall the glory days of ’70s soul, while the vocal workout and swagger allow the music to sit firmly with modern artists who redefine soul like Erykah Badu. Younge commands the Rhodes electric piano, Hammond organ, Hohner Clavinet, harpsichord, synthesizer, vibraphone, guitar, bass, flute, sax, cello, and drums, crafting with a singular vision.

Following up his score for the cult-classic film “Black Dynamite”, composer Adrian Younge has created “Something About April”, a heavy, psychedelic mix of dark soul and cinematic instrumentals with hip-hop aesthetics. Some say it’s a mix between Aretha Franklin circa 1969 and Wu-Tang circa 1992.

Dennis Jr

We have been playing tracks from a  DJ sampler culled from the debut album of Norwegian ‘nu-disco’ necromancer Dennis Jr., the beautifully titled “Elektro Donkey” released via Norway’s Beatservice Records. Music making since the early nineties, Dennis Jr. previously released music through the cult favorite Jazid Collective label in addition to a string of well-received EPs through his own Akustikk Recordings imprint. Style-wise, Elektro Donkey spans across the genre-scape, from dub via nu-jazz and nu-soul to future/cosmic disco and house. Four brilliant, forward-reaching tracks are found within including collaborations with Christabelle (partner to Lindstrøm on their “Real Life Is No Cool” album) and legendary Nigerian jazz sax player Dennis Otone (past sessions with Fela Kuti and Stan Getz). All this should more than whet your appetite for the full Elektro Donkey album coming soon!

The Time & Space Machine

The accepted gospel is that punk killed the prog rock dinosaurs. But over 30 years after Johnny Rotten first sneered about “Anarchy In The UK,” it’s his tight-jeaned descendants still wedded to the notion of three-chord thrashing who now seem more dated. Progressive rock has recently gone from guilty secret to something plenty of people are prepared to shout loud and proud about; whether it’s Lindstrøm making his claim for Vangelis‘ crown or producers like Etienne Jaumet and Quiet Village making cosmic disco and psychedelia that’s as much Peter Gabriel as it is Gloria Gaynor.

Probably best-known for The Grid’s novelty banjo-wielding 1994 hit “Swamp Thing,” Richard Norris has also let his love for all things patchouli-scented come to the fore of late in his remixes with Erol Alkan as “Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve”, tie-dying tracks from Goldfrapp, The Chemical Brothers, Midlake and others a distinctly hippy Balearic hue.

The Time And Space Machine, Norris’ first full-length solo project since 1987’s “Jack The Tab” album, goes much further back than the birth of acid house, ’80s Balearica or even prog’s ’70s heyday, however. Rather, The Time And Space Machine seems more like one of the curios Norris would uncover when he worked at Bam Caruso—the UK label responsible for reissuing compilations of obscure ’60s freak-beat rock throughout the ’80s. From the techno colour cover to track titles like “Mushroom Family” to the album’s general reefer-heavy air, The Time And Space Machine is less an update of the psychedelic ’60s than a lovingly-rendered facsimile; the only real trace of an electronic beat comes in the opening “Time and Space.”

Norris largely constructs his tracks from live-sounding bass, ragged guitar solos, carnival organ and the manic drumming of his mate Wildcat Will. He even finds space for flutes and sitars on the aforementioned “Mushroom Family,” while “Midsummer Night” has a similar getting-stoned-around-the-campfire vibe. The Time And Space Machine is stuck, as a haze of guitars and curlicues of brass envelop lyrics about “mother nature”—which sound even more flower power when sung by naïf-like female singer Raissa. It’s a vision of psychedelic bliss that comes with the comfortable rosy tint of nostalgia, rather than any of the scarier brain-bending edges of the original music that inspired it.

Till next time….

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Our next air-date: will be November 25th, 4pm - 6pm PST & in the U.K. 12am - 2am.

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The SBTRKT story starts from the sound system of an east London club called Plastic People, which is both underground in location and in the music it specializes in. It was here that SBTRKT met a gentleman named Tic and was schooled by the sounds that came pulsing from the club’s now infamous speakers. It was through Tic he was signed to Young Turks Records, and also through him that he met Sampha, who is one of the key collaborators on the album and one half of the SBTRKT live show. Other key collaborators on the album are Roses Gabor, Jessie Ware, and Little Dragon.

Through the years, and his development as an artist and producer in his own right, SBTRKT has worked with collaborators both sonic and visual to emphasize his ideas and vision. The performance and visual style has also become an essential part of this setup. Performing in his trademark tribal mask, watching SBTRKT translate his sound live is the opposite of what one would expect from the traditional producer/DJ. “The live show is an expansion of what has been created in the studio and the tools I’ve used to make them. Just because a song has been created with a laptop, it doesn’t mean that is the best way to perform it live, but for me, neither is bringing in a 5 piece band to re-interpret your songs. I see live shows in a very different light to producing in a studio as it’s about translating into a medium for performance. The basic setup is myself on an acoustic drum kit with extra electronic triggers, and Sampha on 2 keyboards and vocals…. although it’s constantly developing whilst we learn new ways to perform songs and experiment with new ways to route our live audio.”

Speaking about his mask, he explains, “…it reflects that in worldwide tribal societies that wearing a specific mask would evoke the spirit of an ancestor or animal, and is prominently used in ceremony and celebration. It’s about uplifting the soul and challenging the normality of electronic music and production.”

SBTRKT’s debut album pulls off a series of impressive feats: it’s bursting with fresh ideas, and yet it sounds immediately familiar. It’s sound-patterns and rhythms can easily soundtrack the ecstatic hands in the air dance floor moments as well as reliving the monotony of the morning commute. Its influences are incorporated with subtlety and sophistication: dense enough to interpret, yet light enough to dance to.

Los Angeles based punk band “The Bronx” – aptly named after the left coast borough – has for the last 6 years redefined what punk means, sounds like, and doesn’t look like. After 3 self titled full lengths, countless tours all over the world, more 7 inches and eps then one can count, the band returns with their latest offering, yet another self titled full-length: Mariachi El Bronx

Mariachi el Bronx was probably conceived in August of 2006 in Los Angeles’ infamous “Downtown Rehearsal space.” It all started as a way to flip the Electric goes acoustic performance garbage, because that’s never good. El Bronx were invited to play live on television but decided that a cheesy acoustic version of their song was not what they wanted to do. The Original El Bronx line up, or at least as it appeared on TV. featured guest appearances from Zander Schloss ( Wierdos, Circle Jerks) and Keith Douglas (Mad Caddies). The project triggered something inside all of them that was unexpected.  They instantly started writing new songs. The body of the record was written all over the world. As the Bronx played, El Bronx wrote. Inspired by the jungles and beaches of New Zealand, “sleepwalking” was one of the first songs written, along with “my brother the gun.” The music for “Quincenera” was written under the German summer sun. And so on, and so on.

Vincent Hidalgo, son of David Hidalgo (Los Lobos, Latin Playboys) joined El Bronx in late 2007. Vincent really helped bring everything together. as a unit they poured their heart and soul into every song, musically and lyrically. Jon Avilla (Oingo Boingo) was picked to produce the record. Alfredo Ortiz (Beastie Boys / Money Mark) plays percussion and an unnamed string quartet that did them a “solid” but wouldn’t give the band their names due to contractual obligations to the television show “American idol”. Mariachi El Bronx touches on many facets of mariachi music, the most well know beingNorteno as well as Jorocho, Juasteka, Bolero and Corridos. It may seem strange for a band that blasts the audience into outer space every night to take this direction, but mariachi music is every bit as much of a soundtrack to southern California as punk. They are seamlessly intertwined!

Till next time….

Email us: streetnoise_show@hotmail.com

Our next air-date: will be November 11th, 4pm - 6pm PST & in the U.K. 12am - 2am.

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Mayer Hawthorne grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, just outside of Detroit, and vividly remembers, as a child, driving with his father and tuning the car radio in to the rich soul and jazz history the region provided. “Most of the best music ever made came out of Detroit,” claims the singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, who counts Isaac Hayes, Leroy Hutson, Mike Terry, and Barry White among his influences, but draws the most inspiration from the music of Smokey Robinson, Curtis Mayfield, and the legendary songwriting and production trio of Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland, and Eddie Holland Jr.

The “retro” tag is added to almost any contemporary work that sounds like it was originally recorded between 1966 and 1974, and Hawthorne, among the newest contributors to the genre, is aware of how trends come and go.  The amazing thing apart Hawthorne apart from his incredible vocal chops is  that he writes all his own songs and for his demo when he originally got signed to Stone’s Throw Records is that he played all the instruments! His new album out this week, “How Do You Do” marks his debut major release on Republic/Universal.

And after meeting in person, it’s to believe that Hawthorne was also the lead vocalist. Few expect such heartfelt sentiment to come from a 29-year-old white kid from Ann Arbor, but he has caught the ear of his family at Stones Throw, as well as BBC Radio 1 host Gilles Peterson and producer/DJ Mark Ronson. Expectations are high for the admitted vinyl junkie who never planned on taking his crooning public.

Hawthorne has produced and played instruments for much of his life, but never intended to become a singer. He isn’t formally trained, and never sang in the church choir or in any of the bands he was in before founding the County (formerly the County Commissioners). But here he is, new school soul sensation, who has taken the Motown assembly-line production model and eliminated nearly every element but himself and a few hired hands. “I think Mayer is the only artist in the history of the label that I’ve signed after hearing only two songs,” says Peanut Butter Wolf head honcho at Stone’s Throw. “Sometimes, you just know it’s the right thing to do.”

And for those willing to believe anything is possible, be grateful to have Mayer Hawthorne on the scene. It’s not just throwback music anymore – this revival is all about progression.

Born and raised in Minneapolis, José James came of age with the sounds of Prince, hip-hop and Modern jazz. Discovering an early passion for both music and creative writing, José combined these through performance - singing jazz standards, originals, and the works of John Coltrane with his quartet throughout the Twin Cites. Becoming a member of the groundbreaking avant-garde performance poetry and jazz ensemble Ancestor Energy, José was determined to devote his life to music, community, and spiritual unity.

Moving to New York City to attend The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, he was mentored by and recorded with both the legendary drummer Chico Hamilton and the pianist Junior Mance. There he also met his first ensemble that would form the studio and international touring band for his 2008 debut album “The Dreamer” (Jan 2008, Brownswood Recordings).

A chance meeting in London with international tastemaker and DJ Gilles Peterson led to a record deal on Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings label. Drawing upon diverse influences such as Freestyle Fellowship and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, “The Dreamer” was an international critical success.

Signing to Verve/Universal in 2010, James’s third studio album “For All We Know” (May 2010, Impulse!) was released on the legendary “Impulse!” label, home to many of John Coltrane’s masterworks. Largely recorded in a single day at the famed Galaxy Studios in Belguim, “For All We Know” is a deep and timeless duo album of jazz standards featuring Jef Neve on piano. Winner of both the Edison Award and L’Académie du Jazz Grand Prix for best Vocal Jazz Album of 2010, “For All We Know” was James’s most intimate project to date, with performances in premiere concert halls such as L’Olympia, Royal Festival Hall, and De Roma, as well venues such as the Umbria Jazz Festival, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola and Cotton Club Tokyo.

As a featured guest José has recorded albums with Junior Mance, Chico Hamilton, Nicola Conte, Bassment Jaxx, Jazzanova, Toshio Matsuura, J.A.M., DJ Mitsu the Beats, Taylor McFerrin, and Flying Lotus. Recent projects include guest performances with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s “A Tribute to Billy Strayhorn” at Rose Theater, as well as touring internationally with McCoy Tyner’s “The Music of John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman.” José James has released his new single, “Trouble,” which we played on the show, from the forthcoming 2012 album “No Beginning, No End”

Ask your average music fan about Arthur Verocai, and you’ll probably be met with a blank stare. Even among those well-versed in Tropicalia, Verocai lacks the name recognition of Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Os Mutantes or Jorge Ben. And in the ultimate sign of contemporary anonymity, Verocai has no Wikipedia page. But while unsung in his prime, the songs of the Rio de Janeiro-raised composer-crooner have been recently rediscovered, and cited as a touchstone for younger generations of musicians — making him akin to the Tropicalia version of Shuggie Otis, Vashti Bunyan or Son House.

In particular, the former civil engineer’s self-titled masterpiece has rightfully received lavish acclaim, with DJ/production maestro Madlib, MF Doom and Ludacris all sampling his samba and sunshine-soaked soul. Recorded partially in response to the repressive military junta then running Brazil, “Arthur Verocai” synthesizes soul, classical, funk, folk, samba, rock and jazz, occupying a psychedelic middle ground between Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” Miles Davis’ “Bitches Brew” and Frank Zappa’s “Hot Rats.”

Verocai’s self-titled opus received little fanfare upon its release in 1972; weak sales persuaded him to pursue more commercial opportunities (he spent much of the ensuing two decades working as a music advertising executive). Only just now is he starting to get the recognition he so rightly deserves!

Till next time….

Email us: streetnoise_show@hotmail.com

Our next air-date : will be October 28th, 4pm - 6pm PST & in the U.K. 12am - 2am.

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This last few weeks I have been really getting into my new discovery Hollie Cook, she sounds like a real reggae diva from the Trojan area but a new fresh approach she embodies the feel and style of our show!

Hollie Cook was born and bred in West London in a household dominated by music. She gravitated to the sounds of Marc Bolan, David Bowie and The Cure. With Sex Pistol Paul Cook as her dad, music was always around.

Entering professional acting, singing and modeling at a young age; Hollie soon rejected her performance arts schooling for a musical path truer to her influences. Family friend and Slits singer Ari Up persuaded Hollie to sing backing vocals for a new EP ‘Revenge of the Killer Slits’, which she followed by ditching school to join the band on a six week tour. Hollie was now an official Slit – Ari referred to Hollie as the ‘Second Singer’ – so when it came to record a new Slits album in LA, Hollie’s vocals, keyboards and even her song ‘Cry’ all featured.

More collaborations followed: a duet with Jamie T on his ‘Chaka Demus’ EP,, with Ian Brown on ‘The World Is Yours’, and most significantly as featured vocalist on Mike Pellanconi/Prince Fatty’s underground reggae hit ‘Milk and Honey’. The single received airplay across BBC Radio 1, 6 Music, XFM, Kiss and even ended up on Grey’s Anatomy. Hollie jumped at the chance to get in the studio with Mike as she was smitten by the tracks she had heard. Hollie’s passion for reggae singers Janet Kay and Phyllis Dillon combined with classic 60s girl groups formed the basis for her new solo work of self coined ‘tropical pop’. The two have recently been locked in the studio recording her self-titled debut album scheduled for release on Mr Bongo Records in May 2011.

Hollie is currently lending her skills to The Rotten Hill Gang, a fluid crew set up by Gary Stonadge from Big Audio Dynamite II, who are on tour with a reformed Big Audio Dynamite this year.

Keep on the reggae tip, another amazing release this week is Little Roy’s amazing ode to Nirvana, ‘Battle For Seattle’.

Little Roy has announced details of the release of his album, ‘Battle For Seattle’ is a  collection of 10 songs recorded by Nirvana in a reggae style, the album is the brainchild of Prince Fatty, aka Mike Pelanconi and the Mutant Hi-Fi, aka Nick Coplowe, and it features the vocal talents of Little Roy, one of the great singers from Jamaican music’s classic era in the 1960s and ’70s, who cut tunes with Studio One, Matador, Prince Buster and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry.

Being a fan-of-old, Nirvana was the obvious choice for Prince Fatty when considering the idea of a ‘whole album cover version’. Obviously, the choice of singer, who’d have to step into Cobain’s shoes for ten tracks, was crucial.”I’ve worked with Little Roy for a long time,”says Mike,”and so I knew tonally it was right for him.”

A man with the ‘right credentials’ Little Roy cut his first single at the legendary Studio One in 1965 and grew up in Kingston surrounded by many of Jamaican music’s biggest hitters - Prince Buster, Lee Perry, Bunny Wailer & Peter Tosh. Later a growing interest in the emerging rasta religion saw him release some early roots classics such as ‘Prophesy’, ‘Christopher Columbus’, and ‘Tribal War’.

With a heavyweight figure like Little Roy on the team, ‘Battle For Seattle’ was never going to be anything other than totally authentic. However, the album has prompted joy and admiration from everyone that’s heard it, on both sides of the musical fence - reggae, and rock. “We had the best intentions at heart,”says Prince Fatty.”We had to think about it from both sides. We wanted to be respectful to Nirvana, and Little Roy. He’s the real deal. We couldn’t just rip into this.”

Recorded old-fashioned style, using tape and vintage analog equipment. Prince Fatty’s band included Horseman, Mafia, from Mafia & Fluxy, Bubblers (from the Ruff Cut band), erstwhile Wailers guitarist, Junior Marvin and George Dekker of The Pioneers.

Little Roy admits it was a struggle getting to grips with the songs.”When I listened to the lyrics as he sung them, I found it hard to pick up on what he was saying. The lyrics came too quickly for my ears and were buried in the music. It sounded to me like he was crying out. You have to listen deep to get it. The melody was always there, though, so I knew this was a chance for me to bring them up so people could really hear what Kurt was saying. People could enjoy the words of these great songs through me singing them in my reggae style - reggae fans like me who didn’t know about Nirvana would love the songs, and Nirvana fans could enjoy the music all over again.” He laughs. “Music is not a one-road thing, you know.”

As for Little Roy, does he feel that ‘Battle For Seattle’ matches up to the giants of reggae?”Yes, there is a parallel,”he says.”You know, Bob Marley - he’s great - he would say, ‘One good thing about music, when it hits you feel no pain’. So it’s just the same thing - when these Nirvana songs hit you, you’ll feel the music, and no pain.”

On one side, you have David Neerman, vibraphone player and free spirit in Europe’s fledgling creative scene. On the other side, we find Lansiné Kouyaté, a Maestro of Malian music and an undisputed master of the balafon. Kouyate-Neerman is the shortened version of the names Lansine Kouyate and David Neerman. Lansine is a Paris-based and Malian-born balafon extraordinaire, while David is a French musician with piano and percussion training. David plays the vibraphone throughout, with additional noise effects and distortions for a truly, avant-garde musical experience that is more urban than traditional. The mostly instrumental music stems from the double bass, balafon, vibraphone, kora, and drums.  Vocals on the forthcoming album ‘Skyscrapers & Deities’ ,occur on ‘Haiti’ by Anthony Joseph. Famed kora maestro, Ballake Sissoko, adds his personal touches throughout with crystalline results.

Till next time….

Email us: streetnoise_show@hotmail.com

Our next air-date will be October 14th, 4pm - 6pm PST & in the U.K. 12am - 2am.

Listen on -  My House -Your House radio network - http://myhouseyourhouse.net/

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This week marks the release of Grace Jones’s 2008 release “Hurricane”, re worked dub wise on Wall of Sound records

I think many people were wondering why in “A View To A Kill” James Bond was  kissing a man. Grace Jones played the androgynous villainess May Day whom according to the writers was ‘the product of a Nazi genetic breeding experiment which gave children great strength and intelligence at the expense of making them psychopathic’. Assuming that engineering a race of angry, superhuman black people was top of the Nazi agenda, it was as plausible a backstory for unearthly diva Jones as any other. That is until 22 years later, on 2008’s electro-rock extravaganza “Hurricane”, when Jones set the record straight.

Scattered between emasculating fare like the title track and “Corporate Cannibal” - self-referential tributes to an omnivorous libido and Gracey’s mad royalty – the autobiographical “William’s Blood” and “This Is” depicted a childhood of religious repression and strong females role models to account for Jones’ hell-raising liberation in New York’s disco scene.

So if any brave soul was to dub-deconstruct “Hurricane”, thus rendering her hallowed origin story a marginal presence, to succeed it might take 007 himself. Or failing that, royalty to equal Jones’ queenly pedigree. Handy then that producer Ivor Guest is by title the forth Viscount of Wimbourne, and also lover to “the original Lady Gaga” - arguably a more manhood-shrinking prospect than all the crotch-aimed lasers under the sun!

How he takes his Martini is irrelevant - Guest goes at his paramour with all the prowess of a 60-year old Italian gigolo. Deftly he contorts Hurricane’s nine tracks (including “Well Well  Well Dub” that we played on the show) into fresh articles which nevertheless serve to expand on the narrative/sonic ideas driving the originals.

Included are the regulars fellow Jamaican aces Sly & Robbie the backbone of Jones’s  signature sound. Similarly there’s “William’s Dub” (from “William’s Blood”) which retains its predecessor’s rhythm but transforms the vaulting gospel into a heaving liquid - the bass region dark and rich as if the creeping ooze of Jones’ warrior blood.

Many of the treatments even improve on the source material. Most of Hurricane Jones spent letting us know who’s boss; demanding your complete attention with crawling menace pitched somewhere between Massive Attack and the The Rocky Horror Picture Show. However, midway through Hurricane she dropped the mecha-shagging schtick for earnestness, and a more homely aesthetic to suit, light years from New York’s seedy neon fantasia. There was a New Age bent and an adherence to the Winnie Mandela-esque model for female empowerment. She like, really cared, man. She is woman. It’s these tracks, amongst the most ordinary on Hurricane, that benefit most from the trippy dub atmospherics. It works both ways, however, with Jones’ more formidable moments on Hurricane sedated and beautified to their detriment. ‘Grace Jones doesn’t do “ambient”, darling’ you can imagine her saying. The title track, formerly dripping with purpose, is listless and inert without the strings or Jones’ vocals at the wheel, while the previously monumental “Devil In My Life” isn’t quite so devilish after Guest is done with it.

Regardlessly - totalling 19 tracks, including bonus original “Hell Dub”, “Hurricane Dub” makes excellent dollar-sense if you missed Hurricane the first time around. For longtime fans, a dubbed-out Grace Jones begets an exotic retelling of her myth, like painting a Sherman tank in water colours - sure it’s pretty, but under those runny dub brush-strokes is hidden a killing machine!

Till next time….

Email us: streetnoise_show@hotmail.com

Our next air-date  will be September 16th, 4pm - 6pm PST & in the U.K. 12am - 2am.

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This week I decided in dig inside of the crates and play some classics and rarities as well as highlight some new releases, but in general I would say this week’s show has more of a funky soul vibe, I guess I was just ‘feelin it!

Our first track “Boogie” is the creation of Bruno “Patchworks” Hovart, as a self-taught musician and typical teenager, started playing guitar, bass and keyboards at age 15, covering James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and Cream in his bedroom and, later in college bands. His first releases are in the mid 90s, with deep house and disco live bands and various electronic projects. He quickly envelops and shows very special skills for vintage disco/funk productions with a contemporary flavor.

This gifted boy’s been working with artists such as Amp Fiddler, Archie Shepp, Mr Day, Paul Randolph… and for many recording labels such as I Still Music (USA), Favorite Recordings (France), Infracom (Germany), Further Out (UK)

Uptown Funk Empire is an exciting and ambitious project, worthy of its name. While the first album is simply called “The Empire Strikes Back”, it’s no joke… Forget the whole revival thing, this sounds like an actual rebirth of the real funky stuff. Bruno ” Patchworks” Hovart plays bass, keyboards, computers… handling with love all composition, programming, arrangements, vocals…

With brilliant vocal  by silky Juan Rozoff, Brit-Soul legend Noel Mc Koy at his best, high-voltage divas Ange & Janice… and the funky soul brother Bruno “Patchworks” Hovart himself on the mic… it’s pure funkiness !

Talkin’ about soul with Aloe Blacc Mayer Hawthorne has to be one of my Nu Soul favs right now, he has a new album coming out, Chromeo’s distinctive sounds works superbly as the remix “A Long Time”, brilliance!

Sofi Hellborg is something of an explorer. When she was  twenty she left her beloved Skåne in Sweden for Cameroon and fell in love with the African countryside. After a couple of hot months in Africa she continued her travel to London where she stayed for almost a year to play in the afro English band Orchestra Jazira. Sofi have played with many of the most interesting African artists, for example Mory Kante, Wasis Diop, Willy Nfor and as featured on the track we played “Bring It Through” with Tony Allen, the legendary Afro beat drummer of Fela Kuti´s Africa 70. Just listen to those amazing and distinctive drum patterns!

Streetnoise! favorites Blundetto are joined on “Voices” by this years rising star Hindi Zahara. At thirty, Hindi Zahra is neither a reality show wonder nor the umpteenth shooting star fizzing across the firmament of vocal jazz. Music is the story of her life, a family affair.

The story of a Berber girl born in Morocco. Her father was in the army and her mother a housewife, occasional actress and singer of village repute. Among her uncles were musicians, into the post-psychedelic Moroccan scene of the time. She grew up to the sound of divas half raï and châabi, like Cheikha Rimitti, and the great Egyptian Oum Khalsoum a cross between traditional Berber music and desert rock’n’roll, with the blues of the great Malian Ali Farka Touré and the sensual folk music of Ismaël Lo. All this before she set out across the Mediterranean to join her father in Paris. She left school and got her first job at 18 in the Louvre. “This was my meeting with art. As a child, I was contemplative, in touch with nature. The paintings gave me the same sensations.” The Dutch masters were soothing, as music had always been. “Sound has always fueled my imagination.” Her dreams were soon to materialize. At night she worked secretly on melancholic lyrics and wrote melodies for years. “When it comes to music I’m prepared to work long and hard.

A fan of “the Afro-American groove”  she singles out Aretha Franklin, James Brown, 2Pac, and Tribe Called Quest she learned her chops doing backing vocals on hip-hop flavored soul before embarking on her solo career. “I soon got fed up with the machines and loops, but what I took away from that experience was the understanding of what I really wanted to do.” Starting in 2005, the self-taught composer was soon etching in the contours of the music that would reflect her personality, turning out some fifty songs in just one year.

Fink, a pure product of the Ninja Tune “chilled electro” stable, encouraged her to take her time, and fine-tune her songbook. For two years she honed her set, developing a trademark difference in style: bucolic on the edges, tinted with nocturnal blues, with ideas running through fingers and voice. Her first album has a playing time of 40 minutes and contains eleven songs, just what it takes and no more. The production and arrangements are her own, end-to-end, and already have the patina of maturity: a pared down sophisticated lady mood. “I write a lyric; I play a riff, I record the guitars and the rhythm parts. Then I fit the words.” With style in her piano and ideas in her style, Hindi Zahra chisels away at her own original groove, a finely crafted soundtrack of soul-folk-jazz ballads and south Moroccan roots, on the cusp of black culture.

Till next time….

Email us: streetnoise_show@hotmail.com

Our next air-date  will be September 2nd, 4pm - 6pm PST & in the U.K. 12am - 2am.

Listen on -  My House -Your House radio network - http://myhouseyourhouse.net/

or I -Tunes radio under electronica : My House -Your House.

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