Ibrahim Malouf
Born in Beirut in 1980, Ibrahim Maalouf is currently a popular instrumentalist in the French music scene and one of the most recognized internationally. His genre-crossing work has led him to fill Istanbul’s Volkswagen Arena, sell out the Lincoln Jazz Center in New York, or perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and travel to over 40 countries around the world.
In 2016, he became the first jazz musician in history to fill France’s largest concert hall, the Paris Bercy Arena, selling out 8 months in advance for a historic show. “The virtuoso” according to The New York Times, has received 2 “Victoires du Jazz”, 2 “Victoires de la Musique” (making him the first and only instrumentalist to be awarded in the history of this ceremony), an “Echo Jazz” in Germany, a “César for Best Film Music”, a “Prix Lumières” for Best Film Music, as well as honorary awards of Knight of the Order of Merit and Knight of Arts and Letters.
As a teenager, Ibrahim was already winning major international classical music competitions and starting a solo career. In the 2000s, he became essential in pop, jazz as well as the “World” music scene. Sting, Salif Keita, Amadou & Mariam, Tryo, Matthieu Chédid, Lhasa de Sela, and many artists of very diverse styles call on him.
Between 2007 and 2023, Ibrahim produced, composed, arranged, and directed more than 20 albums for himself and other artists. He also composed more than 10 symphonic pieces and twenty movie scores.
In 2017, Quincy Jones Productions became his representative in the United States, and his North American career took off anew. The American Media’s reviews of his album “Queen of Sheba” – in a duet with the Beninese singer Angélique Kidjo – are rapturous. “The most interesting album of the year” according to the legendary magazine Spin, “Without a doubt one of the most important world music albums of the year” according to Glide Magazine, another leading American music magazine.
In 2022, Ibrahim composed the soundtrack for “Reste un peu” by Gad Elmaleh. One of the greatest French directors, Claude Lelouch, offered him to compose the music for his 51st feature film.
Meanwhile, Ibrahim has never stopped expressing his love for the trumpet and improvisation. In 2022, he relaunched after 17 years of absence, and with the support of the Ministry of Culture, the Maurice André International Trumpet Competition, thus putting the name of the man who was his father’s teacher and a true mentor, at the center of French cultural media interest.
In 2021, Ibrahim released a book entitled “Petite philosophie de l’improvisation” and initiated “Improbox”, a radio program on TSF Jazz that highlights the importance and place of improvisation in all professions. He sees himself as an activist for the reintegration of improvisation into musical learning as well as national education.
Ibrahim Maalouf is an artist who is committed. He was present alongside Sting during the reopening of The Bataclan, as well as the funeral of Tignous, one of the cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo, and composed a tribute song in tribute to the victims of the 2015 attacks, sung by Louane, written by his uncle Amin Maalouf, and performed with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.
On July 15, 2021, Ibrahim performed a personalized version of La Marseillaise in front of 6 million viewers and 500,000 people gathered on the Champs de Mars. He also stays close to his country of origin, Lebanon. In 2020, he organized a major fundraising concert at the Olympia, broadcasted on France 2 and all Lebanese television channels to help Lebanon after the explosion at the port of Beirut. Donations exceeded 2 million euros.
O Terno
O Terno's presents fourth album arrives three years after 'Melhor do Que Parece' and is the first to feature guest appearances in its tracks. At a time when albums are sliced single by single in multiple releases, O Terno releases a unique work in thematic unit that needs to be perceived from various perspectives. “<atrás data-preserve-html-node="true"/além>” is a work to be listened to carefully, read as a book, watched as a movie and looked at as a painting.
As much as a release, this text serves to put into words the artistic dimension that the group from São Paulo reached in their fourth album, with more refined and grandiose orchestral arrangements than in previous works, reaching a music that runs everywhere. That is, it surpasses expected and known boundaries, be it jazz, indie, MPB, classical music or rock.
Thus, the sound becomes universal, within the full spectrum of pop's possibilities, with production, arrangement, mixing and, of course, composition under the signature of Tim Bernardes.
Let's start with the sound. While the first album, "66" (2012), showed a lot of O Terno dressed in sixties' pantsuits, the second one - "O Terno" (2014) - traced a more psychedelic curve - and the following work, "Melhor do Que Parece” (from 2016), touched Tropicalismo and MPB. In “<atrás data-preserve-html-node="true"/além>" orchestration, refined arrangements, brass and strings often make the trio sound more like a support group than a protagonist. Music itself 'speaks louder’ than Tim Bernardes' guitar and vocals, Guilherme d'Almeida's bass and / or Biel Basile's drums.
"It's an attempt to expand and not get stuck with a formula. Something like the ’n’ in the equation“, says Tim. The concept of openness and creative freedom begins with the cover, with a touch of concrete poetry in the geometric aspect linked to art, the conceptual white creating a boundless horizon and the three spheres in primary colors representing three paths that unite - their sum solving the equation.
The division of the band's name in three reinforces the concept, in which “O”(’the’) symbolizes the individual, the subject; “Ter” (‘have’) refers to the 'baggage' you carry, and “No”(in) to the situation: where you are, where to go and where you came from.
"It brings this character of assimilated references - and not premeditation - to the making (of the album)," suggests the singer and songwriter.
Nate Smith
Nate Smith is a drummer, composer, & producer from Chesapeake, Virginia. His visceral, instinctive, and deep-rooted style of drumming has led to three GRAMMY® nominations and work with esteemed artists, including: Pat Metheny, Dave Holland, Brittany Howar’d, Van Hunt, The Fearless Flyers, Norah Jones, and Somi. Smith fuses his original compositions with an eclectic mix of music, including everything from jazz to R&B to hip-hop to pop. His latest album, Kinfolk 2: See The Birds (released September 2021 on Edition Records) is the highly- anticipated follow up to his 2017 GRAMMY® Award-nominated album, Kinfolk: Postcards From Everywhere. In recent years, Smith’s viral videos have been viewed by millions of people, underscoring his popularity as one of the most influential drummers of his generation.
This will be Nate’s second time performing live at Jazz Is Dead and we can’t wait to see what he brings to the stage this time around!
Emmet Cohen
Multifaceted American jazz pianist and composer Emmet Cohen is one of his generation's pivotal figures in music and the related arts. Leader of the Emmet Cohen Trio and creator of the Masters Legacy Series, he is an internationally acclaimed jazz artist, a dedicated educator, the winner of the 2019 American Pianists Awards, and a finalist in the 2011 Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition. Cohen headlines regularly at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Village Vanguard, and Birdland, and has appeared at the Newport, Monterey, and North Sea jazz festivals. His artistry has taken him to venues and festivals in over 30 countries. Cohen's entrepreneurial energies led to his developing "Live From Emmet's Place," a live-streamed "Harlem rent party" that unites a worldwide audience via tens of millions of internet views.
“When Cohen is in full flight, with Poole slamming the kit around the room behind him, he reminds me of Ahmad Jamal: not the genteel Jamal you hear on record, but the wall-banging, holy-shit Jamal I saw in concert a few years ago, who rolled across the keyboard like a thunderstorm.” — PHIL FREEMAN, STEREOGUM
Mulatu Astatke
TICKETS GO ON SALE TUESDAY, MARCH 19TH AT 10A.
Mulatu Astatke (born 1943) is an Ethiopian musician and arranger best known as the father of Ethio-jazz. Born in the western Ethiopian city of Jimma, Mulatu trained in London, New York City, and Boston where he combined his jazz and Latin music interests with traditional Ethiopian music and became the first African student to enroll at Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music from where he received an honourary degree in 2012. Astatke led his band while playing vibraphone and conga drums—instruments that he introduced into Ethiopian popular music— other percussion instruments, keyboards and organ. His albums focus primarily on instrumental music, and Astatke appears on all three known albums of instrumentals that were released during Ethiopia’s Golden ’70s. He collaborated with many notable artists in both countries, arranging and playing on recordings by Mahmoud Ahmed, and appearing as a special guest with Duke Ellington during a tour of Ethiopia in 1973. His Western audience expanded even further when the 2005 Jim Jarmusch film Broken Flowers featured seven of Astatke’s songs. Hip hop artists have also sampled Astatke’s songs extensively, for example in the works of Nas, Damian Marley, Kanye West, Cut Chemist, and Knaan. He toured with US band Either/ Orchestra in 2006 and in 2008 recorded an album with the Heliocentrics and completed a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship at Harvard University, where he worked on modernizations of traditional Ethiopian instruments and premiered a portion of a new opera, The Yared Opera.
Cortex
There is hardly any comparison for the first time one hears the legendary French Jazz-Funk band, Cortex. Like tearing a sports car down the Côte d'Azur, their crisp bass lines and seductive piano stabs conjure fantasies of playful hedonism, sun-drenched luxury, and escape. Among the numerous European groups that absorbed American Funk and Jazz influences during the 1970s, few are as celebrated, or as mysterious. Over the years, their music has made its way to global audiences through Hip-Hop. As it stands, Cortex is one of the most sampled artists from France, appearing in tracks from Tyler The Creator, Flying Lotus, Conway The Machine, and most notably MF DOOM & Madlib. Join Jazz Is Dead as we welcome the iconic group back to US and Canada. Listen to their holy grail album TROUPEAU BLEU here.
There is little information available online about Cortex’s elusive founding member, Alain Mion. Born in Casablanca shortly after World War II, Mion was raised in Paris. By the late 1960s, he had formed his own trio, and was regularly gigging in Parisian nightclubs, as well as sitting in with visiting Americans such as Hank Mobley and Philly Joe Jones. In 1974, Mion founded Cortex with drummer Alain Gandolfini, and recruited talented session musicians, as well the singer Mirelle Dalbray to round out the group. Their first two albums, Troupeau Bleu and Vol. 2, brought them great attention across Europe from TV and radio stations and remain their most well-known works.
Today, their impact among instrumental acts remains stronger than ever. Groups like High Pulp, Hiatus Kaiyote, and many others are descended from the group’s psychedelic blend of Funk and Jazz. Though they were only briefly active, the music of Cortex shaped tastes and for future generations while remaining an impenetrable mystery. Now, as they make their way to American soil, join us in what is sure to be one of Jazz Is Dead’s most unforgettable concerts.
GHOST-NOTE
GHOST-NOTE IS AN EXPLOSION OF SOUND. HEADED BY SNARKY PUPPY’S MULTI-GRAMMY–WINNING PERCUSSION DUO OF ROBERT “SPUT” SEARIGHT AND NATE WERTH, FEATURING AN EXPANSIVE ROSTER OF NEXT-LEVEL MUSICIANS — REPRESENTING MEMBERS OF PRINCE, SNOOP DOGG, ERYKAH BADU, HERBIE HANCOCK, KENDRICK LAMAR, MARCUS MILLER, TOTO, JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, AND MORE—THE BAND IS PUSHING FUNK MUSIC INTO THE FUTURE, BUILDING ON THE PIONEERING FOUNDATIONS LAID OUT BY THE LIKES OF JAMES BROWN AND SLY & THE FAMILY STONE AND INFUSING THEIR FRESH TAKE WITH AFROBEAT, HIP-HOP, PSYCHEDELIA, WORLD FOLKLORE, AND MORE.
WITH THE RELEASE OF 2018’S SWAGISM, GHOST-NOTE MADE THEIR MISSION CLEAR. THE ALBUM PUT RHYTHM AT THE FOREFRONT, WITH IRRESISTIBLE, HEAVY-HITTING BEATS UNDERLYING THE GROUP’S WILD, RICH MUSIC. FEATURING NUMEROUS GUEST COLLABORATORS, INCLUDING KAMASI WASHINGTON, KARL DENSON, BOBBY SPARKS, NIGEL HALL, TAZ, AND OTHERS, SWAGISM SHOWCASED THE BAND’S STUNNING ABILITY TO MELD AND AMPLIFY SOUNDS, ULTIMATELY ADDING TO GHOST-NOTE’S SHARP, COMPLEX COLLABORATIONS.
THE BAND EASILY TRANSLATES THIS ADVENTUROUSNESS IN A LIVE SETTING. GHOST-NOTE’S LIVE PERFORMANCES ARE BOLD AND IN YOUR FACE, WITH THE GROUP OFFERING UP NONE OF THE TIGHT-LACED PRETENSES FREQUENTLY ASSOCIATED WITH THE BAND’S JAZZ ROOTS. FOCUSED ON CREATING SEDUCTIVE DANCEABLE GROOVES AND A CONTAGIOUS FEEL-GOOD ENERGY, EACH SHOW IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO LET LOOSE AND CONNECT, FOR BOTH FANS AND THE MUSICIANS ALIKE.
AFTER FORMING IN 2015, GHOST-NOTE HAS ALREADY TAKEN THE WORLD BY STORM. THE GROUP’S TWO STUDIO ALBUMS—2018’S SWAGISM AND 2015’S FORTIFIED—HAVE EARNED CRITICAL ACCLAIM AND POPULAR SUCCESS AROUND THE GLOBE, WITH BOTH ALBUMS HITTING THE #1 SPOT ON THE ITUNES JAZZ CHARTS. FURTHERMORE, THE EVER-GROWING FAMILY OF MUSICIANS HAS MOUNTED SUCCESSFUL HEADLINING TOURS IN THE UNITED STATES, EUROPE, AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, CANADA, AND JAPAN AND PERFORMED AT HIGH-PROFILE INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVALS AND EVENTS ACROSS THE GLOBE.
THEIR NEXT ALBUM WILL BE OUT IN 2024, AND THEY WILL BE TOURING TO SUPPORT THE RELEASE.
Sister Nancy
MUST BE AGE 21+ FOR ADMISSION.
There is no wrong time to play 'Bam Bam.' Every summer belongs to 'Bam Bam.'... A perfect song. The New Yorker In the words of her iconic 1982 single Bam Bam, Sister Nancy is one inna three million, an artist whose talents truly come from creation. Regarded as the first female star in the male-dominated world of Jamaican dancehall, Sister Nancy continues to blaze new trails 35 years after the release of her first and only album. Recently recognized by Pitchfork as The Best Dancehall Song of All-Time, Bam Bam has been sampled, quoted and referenced in tracks by Lauryn Hill, Wiz Khalifa, Too Short, Kanye West and Jay-Z.
Born Ophlin Russell, Nancy grew up in Kingston, Jamaica Papine district, in a large family that included dancehall pioneeR&Brigadier Jerry. Her familial ties afforded her an opportunity granted few, if any, Jamaican girls at the time: To deejay (or chat) songs on sound Systems, the local DJ crews that form the backbone of dancehall culture. After learning of her talents from artist General Echo, Winston Riley of Kingston storied Techniques Records label brought her into the studio to record her first single, Papa Dean, in 1979. Returning to the studio to complete what would be her first and only album, One Two, in 1982, Nancy lent her voice to a haunting, minimalist version of Riley Stalag riddim, a popular instrumental track voiced by countless artists since 1973. Co-opting a lyrical refrain (Bam bam bi lam, bam bam, what a bam bam) from Toots the Maytals identically-named 1966 hit, Nancy created an anth of female powerment, repurposing the skepticism she encountered as the lone woman on the sound syst circuit into a supremely-confident mission statement. One Two, the title cut from her album, would become her signature hit in Jamaica, leading to international tours and collaborations with dancehall then-reigning king, Yellowman. Little heard at the time of its release, Bam Bam would find its audience in New York, first in the city Caribbean Diaspora and then in hip-hop.
In the early 1990s, it was sampled by golden-era rap acts Main Source and Pete Rock CL Smooth, and r ixed into a hip-hop version by legendary radio DJ Stretch Armstrong. It wasnt until Nancy herself relocated to New Jersey, where she would take a job as a bank accountant, later in the decade that she became aware of her song and her own iconic stateside status. Hype Williams 1998 film Belly c ented Nancy place in the pop culture canon, in an unforgettable scene in which Bam Bam soundtracks the movements of the stunning Jamaican feme fatale, Chiquita. That same year, Lauryn Hill echoed Nancy Bam Bam chorus on Lost Ones, from her Grammy-winning and career-defining album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, passing Nancy patois inflections on to a new generation of listeners. Since then, the samples, covers and plac ents including a 2014 Reebok TV campaign featuring model Miranda Kerr have become ever more frequent. In 2016, Nancy received the ultimate co-sign, or at least some really great exposure, when Kanye West used Bam Bam prominently on Famous, arguably the most controversial song and video of his always-provocative career. The New Yorkers Carrie Battan went so far as to dub Bam Bam the Song of the Summer for 2016, describing it as a perfect song and a reggae classic that only grows more lustrous with age.
Irreversible Entanglements
Tickets go on sale Friday, May 3rd!
Irreversible Entanglements (IE) is a free-jazz quintet with an experimental punk mentality, that consists of poet/vocalist Camae Ayewa (often known as Moor Mother), bassist Luke Stewart, trumpeter Aquiles Navarro, saxophonist Keir Neuringer, and drummer Tcheser Holmes.
It is a community band playing deeply improvised, rhythm music full of love and social commitment. IE came together spontaneously, organically, in April of 2015 at "Musicians Against Police Brutality," a day of protest sound and discussion in Brooklyn. All were artists and activists of varying degrees: Philadelphia-based Ayewa and Neuringer, and D.C.-based Stewart as veterans of the Mid-Atlantic noisehardcore-experimental scene, while Holmes and Navarro as recent New England Conservatory grads Each of the studio albums that followed — 2020's Who Sent You? and 2021's Open The Gates — developed this legend further.
In 2023, IE signed to the fabled Impulse! Records, and released its most accomplished work to date, Protect Your Light, on September 8, 2023, primarily recorded at New Jersey's historic Van Gelder Studios. It features eight examples of how IE's collaborative composition strategies and Ayewa's in-communion verses result in some of the most potent music being made in the third decade of the 21st century, music with communal light and love at its heart. Get to that love on time — don't force history to guide you.
Gyedu-Blay Ambolley 2024 Tour
For the first time in the US, Gyedu Blay Ambolley will be performing his 1975 debut album Simigwa in its entirety! Bringing his 8 piece band from Ghana, they will perform the pioneering masterpiece.
Gyedu Blay Ambolley is a musical luminary hailing from Ghana, West Africa, with a staggering 29 albums under his belt. Known affectionately as the "Simigwa Do Man,” Ambolley’s musical journey began in the vibrant port city of Sekondi-Takoradi, in the Western Region of Ghana. His early fascination with music blossomed into a lifelong passion. From mastering his father’s flute at the tender age of eight, to honing his guitar skills under the mentorship of “Uncle Bonku”, Sammy Lartey and Ebo Taylor, Ambolley’s musical odyssey has been nothing short of extraordinary. This all led to Ambolley becoming a musical life force and exploding on the scene in 1973 with a jazzy highlife sound called 'SIMIGWA-DO'. His name has become synonymous with Simigwa music and dance.
Coming of age amidst the zenith of Ghana’s highlife era, Ambolley emerged as a pivotal figure in its evolution, lending his talents to esteemed bands such as Houghas Extraordinaires, Meridians Of Tema and Ghana Broadcasting Band. It was during this time that he caught the attention of his compatriot and friend, Ebo Taylor, who recruited Ambolley to be a member of the Uhuru Dance Band. This all lead to a transformative journey to Nigeria in 1973, where they shared the stage with the legendary Fela Kuti at his renowned Shrine venue.
1975 Debut Album Simigwa:
Gyedu Blay Ambolley’s groundbreaking debut solo album, released in 1975, stands as a cornerstone of Ghanaian music history - with one of the most iconic album covers! Simigwa stands as Ambolley’s magnum opus, a masterpiece fusing together the rich tapestry of highlife, afrobeat, folk and funk. The album is a true testament to Ambolley’s unparalleled artistry written and produced in collaboration with the legend Ebo Taylor.
Ambolley not only embraces his musical roots but also pioneers the fusion of Ghanaian highlife with soul and funk influences from across the Atlantic. With Simigwa, Ambolley seized the opportunity to showcase his own musical prowess and embark on a journey of experimentation. A main inspiration for this album was the work of the mighty Mr. James Brown, something that is evident from the rhythm section, horns, vocal stabs and percussion breaks throughout the record.
Takuya Kuroda
TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY 4/26/24 @ 10A MT.
A highly-respected trumpeter born in Kobe, Japan, Takuya Kuroda is a forward-thinking musician that has developed a unique hybrid sound, blending soulful jazz, funk, post-bop, fusion and hip hop music.
After following the footsteps of his trombonist brother playing in big bands, he relocated to New York to study jazz & contemporary music at The New School in Union Square; a course he graduated from in the mid- noughties. It was here that Takuya met vocalist José James, with whom he worked on the ‘Blackmagic’ and ‘No Beginning No End’ projects.
Following graduation, Takuya established himself further in the NYC jazz scene, performing with the likes of Akoya Afrobeat and in recent years with DJ Premier’s BADDER band (also including acclaimed bass player, Brady Watt). Premier said “The BADDER Band project was put together by my manager, and an agent I’ve known since the beginning of my Gang Starr career. He said, ‘What if you put a band together that revolved around a trumpet player from Japan named Takuya Kuroda? He’s got a hip-hop perspective and respect in the jazz field…”
Takuya Kuroda is already incredibly prolific, releasing five albums in the past decade and fortifying a solid reputation in the global jazz scene. 2011 saw the release of Takuya’s independently-produced debut album, ‘Edge’, followed by ‘Bitter and High’ the following year and ‘Six Aces’ on P-Vine in 2013. Takuya was signed to the legendary Blue Note Records in 2014 for his album ‘Rising Son’, as well as appearing on their 2019 cover versions project, ‘Blue Note Voyage’. He released his 5th album ‘Zigzagger’ on Concord in 2016, which also featured Antibalas on a reimagining of the Donald Byrd classic ‘Think Twice’.
Late Summer 2020, Takuya Kuroda returns with his sixth album ‘Fly Moon Die Soon’. In his words, “this album is about the irony between the greatness of nature and the beautiful obsceneness of humanity. Melodies and grooves fly back and forth from being spiritual to being vulgar.”
Mizell Brothers
At a night at The Ford in Los Angeles, a stellar lineup awaits, featuring jazz luminaries like Gary Bartz and members of the Blackbyrds alongside rising talents Melanie Charles and Katalyst. Among the esteemed performers gracing the stage is Larry Mizell, one half of the legendary Mizell brothers who reshaped the landscape of jazz-funk with their innovative productions under Sky High Productions. Hailing from Englewood, New Jersey, Larry and Alphonso “Fonce” Mizell embarked on a musical journey rooted in their adolescence, eventually leaving an indelible mark on the music industry with their fusion of jazz and R&B. From their early days mimicking horn lines to their collaborations with Motown and jazz icons like Donald Byrd, the Mizell brothers' influence continues to resonate, shaping the soundscape of contemporary music and earning them a well-deserved place among the pantheon of musical innovators.
The Mizell brothers, Larry and Alphonso “Fonce” Mizell, are iconic figures who revolutionized jazz-funk with their innovative productions under Sky High Productions. Together the duo produced tracks for Bobbi Humphrey, Donald Byrd, Johnny Hammond, The Jackson 5, Edwin Starr, Gary Bartz, Mary Wells, A Taste of Honey and more.
Born and raised in Englewood, New Jersey, their musical journey began in their adolescence, mimicking horn lines from their parents' records and eventually forming the jazz-harmony quartet the Vanlords during their time at Howard University. After graduating, Larry worked briefly as an engineer while Fonce and their friend Freddie Perren made their mark in Los Angeles, eventually joining Motown as staff songwriters. Their collaboration with Motown, including writing and producing hits for the Jackson 5, propelled them to fame. However, disillusioned with Motown's constraints, they ventured into jazz with Donald Byrd, releasing groundbreaking albums like "Black Byrd" and "Street Lady," which defined their signature fusion of jazz and R&B. Throughout the 1970s, they continued to produce influential works across genres, leaving an enduring legacy in music. Despite a hiatus in the 1980s, their productions remain influential, particularly in hip-hop, and their contributions were celebrated with a compilation release by Blue Note Records in 2005.
JOSÉ JAMES PRESENTS 1978
TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY MARCH 29TH @ 7AM!
José James – the forward-looking, genre-defying Jazz singer for the hip-hop generation – has done it again. “1978” (his 12th studio album since 2008’s “The Dreamer”) announces an instant classic, combining James’ deep love of jazz and hip-hop with songwriting and production nods to R&B heroes Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson and Leon Ware.
“I had a writing session with Leon Ware back in 2009 in LA at his house in Marina Del Rey. He rolled one and we talked for hours about jazz, Motown and Marvin. At one point in the middle of working on a song he said ‘you remind me of me.’ That stayed with me. Of course I asked him a million questions because ‘I Want You’ is my all-time favorite album. I wanted 1978 to feel like he and J Dilla made an album for me.”
Produced by James and featuring an all-star ensemble including Grammy nominees Pedrito Martinez (Camilla Cabello, Eric Clapton), Marcus Machado (Daniel Ceasar, Pharoahe Monch) and David Ginyard (Solange, Blood Orange), “1978” pulsates with the socially conscious feel-good vibes of Marvin Gaye, Prince and Stevie Wonder. James also skillfully explores the boundaries of Black music beyond his own backyard, featuring Brazillian rising star and recent Latin Grammy nominee Xenia França as well as the Congolese-Belgian rapper/filmmaker Baloji.
JAZZ ESTÁ MORTO: Celebrating 80 Years of MARCOS VALLE
Marcos Valle is the Renaissance man of Brazilian pop, a singer/songwriter/producer who has straddled the music world from the early days of the bossa nova craze well into the fusion-soaked sound of '80s MPB and into the 21st century. His second album, 1965's O Compositor e o Cantor, is widely considered among the era's most important. Its hit single, "Samba de Verão," is one of the most covered songs in Brazilian music history.
Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1943, Valle studied classical music as a child but listened to many different types of music, especially jazz. He began writing songs with his brother Paulo Sérgio; Marcos was the tune writer, Paulo the lyricist. In the early '60s, and after Tamba Triohad a hit with his "Sonho de Maria," Valle was named Brazil's Leading Composer of the Year at the age of 19. A recording contract soon followed, and in 1964 he released his first album, Samba Demais, for EMI Brazil. A tour with Sergio Mendes & Brasil '65 the following year got him his first show business connections in America (via Merv Griffin), and in 1966, Walter Wanderley took Valle's song "So Nice (Summer Samba)" into the U.S. Top 40. Valle soon earned his own American contract, and in 1967, Warner Bros. released the instrumentals album Braziliance! One year later, his Verve debut, Samba '68, became a Brazilian classic thanks to simple, infectious pop songs like "Batucada," "Chup, Chup, I Got Away," and "Crickets Sing for Anamaria" (all of which featured spot-on harmony vocals by his wife Anamaria).
Despite the incredible promise revealed by Samba '68, it was his last American album to date. That same year, the Brazilian-only Viola Enluarada became a big hit in South America, thanks in part to the title track (with vocals by a young Milton Nascimento). The rock & roll era that had already influenced tropicalistas like Os Mutantes, Caetano Veloso, and Gilberto Gil soon began inspiring Valle as well. With albums like the irresistible 1971 classic Garra, he moved away from native Brazilian forms like the bossa nova and samba and into a rock-influenced sound that played up groove-heavy bass and smooth funk even while courting his amazing melodic sense.
During the late '80s, the rare-groove craze centered in London resurrected and relentlessly compiled dozens of crucial, overlooked tracks from the '60s and '70s, including Valle's "Crickets Sing for Anamaria." In 1995, the British Mr. Bongo label released a two-volume series (The Essential Marcos Valle) dedicated to his work. One year later, Valle appeared on the jam session compilation Friends from Rio, and in 1998 he returned with a new album, Nova Bossa Nova. In 2018 Far Outremastered and reissued Nova Bossa Nova in a 20th anniversary edition. In June of 2019 at age 76, Valle released Sempre for Far Out. Its sound was a retro mix of boogie, disco, cosmic samba, and smooth jazz-funk grafted onto socially conscious lyrics that recalled the lyric style of his progressive early-'70s recordings. Guests on the date included Azymuth's bassist Alex Malheiros, trumpeter Jesse Sadoc, and percussionist Armando Marcal.
Valle returned to the studio almost immediately and released Cinzento in March of 2020 for Deck in Brazil and Light in the Attic in the U.S. It featured collaborations with Moreno Veloso ("Redescobrir"), Bem Gil ("Protect Yourself"), Kassin ("Distant Places"), Zélia Duncan ("Rastros Raros"), Domênico Lancelotti ("Pelo Sim, Pelo Não"), and rapper Emicid on the title track. Also appearing that spring, this time from English label Far Out, was a 2020 reissue of Valle's 1972 soundtrack Fly Cruzeiro, for which he was backed by Brazilian jazz-funk fusion trio Azymuth (who took their name from one of his songs) in a set that mixed bossa, samba, synth-driven funk, and jazz fusion.
In 2019, Valle and his wife, singer Patricia Alvi, traveled to Los Angeles to work with Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad for their Jazz Is Dead label project. Though Valle had lived and worked there decades earlier, he had never recorded his own music. Using his catalog as a production guide, collaborators encouraged an album of new songs that crisscrossed his career-long obsessions with samba, bossa, MPB, and psychedelic funk. Valle arrived with a briefcase full of original material; he composed even more on the spot in the recording studio. Using vintage instruments and keyboards, the sessions plotted a 21st century overview of Valle's musical evolution. It included a duet with Alvi on the breezy "Viajando por Aí." In keeping with the Jazz Is Dead label's cataloging aesthetic, the set was titled Marcos Valle JID 003, and issued in August of 2020. A 2021 single saw Valle collaborating with Ivan Lins and Joyce on the gentle "Casa Que Era Minha." ~ John Bush
Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio
DELVON LAMARR ORGAN TRIO—or as it is sometimes referred to, DLO3—specializes in the lost art of “feel-good music.” The precise sequence of music chosen by Delvon is unique in itself, as he creates an experience for each show based on the vibe and feel of that audience. This includes the 1960s organ jazz stylings of Jimmy Smith and Baby Face Willette, a tweak of the snappy soul strut of Booker T. & The M.G.’s, and The Meters. It teases you with Motown, Stax Records, Blues, and many other styles that may surprise you. It’s a concoction that goes straight to your heart and soul, leaving you emotionally connected on a whole new level.
The band features organist Delvon Lamarr, a self-taught virtuosic musician with perfect pitch who taught himself jazz and has effortlessly been able to play many instruments. The trio is formed by collecting a unique blend of guitarists and drummers worldwide. They leave you with a feeling of wonder caused by seeing something surprisingly beautiful and unforgettable for their fans at every show.
DLO3 was formed from the ground up by Delvon’s wife and manager, Amy Novo, together they created feel-good music to heal the world. The trio started from humble beginnings in 2015 and has since released several Billboard charting albums and toured the world to sold-out venues. Today, the power couple has taken the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio beyond their wildest dreams through her tireless work ethic and his bottomless talent.
The trio started from humble beginnings in 2015, but since then has released several Billboard charting albums and toured the world to sold-out venues. Not to mention, Congratulations to Delvon Lamarr on being named the Rising Star Critics Choice for Organist of the Year! Check out the 70th Annual Downbeat Critics Poll.
CÉU
Recorded in the USA, the album features musical production by the artist, Pupillo, and Adrian Younge.
Céu discovered herself as a songwriter during a season in the Lower East Side of New York. In the early 2000s, influenced by the performances of black and Puerto Rican MCs on the neighborhood's streets, the budding interpreter was seized by an extreme freedom to express herself through her own music. This boldness is evident in her debut album, "Céu" (2005), a record nominated for both the Grammy Awards and the Latin Grammy Awards, featured on various charts worldwide and on Billboard, becoming one of the best-selling Brazilian albums in the history of the United States. This audacity continues to guide her unique transnational journey, acclaimed with renowned awards and, no less importantly, recognition from audiences who deeply resonate with her.
In 2023, Céu returned to the USA, this time to the West Coast, where she conceived "Novela" (Urban Jungle/ONErpm), her sixth album of unreleased songs in her career, set to be released on digital platforms on April 26th. Recorded at Linear Labs Studio in Los Angeles, the production is signed by the São Paulo-born artist, the musician and producer from Pernambuco, Pupillo – former drummer of Nação Zumbi, co-responsible for "Tropix" (2016) and "APKÁ!" (2019), both by Céu, winners of three Latin Grammy Awards, and a producer for Gal Costa and Erasmo Carlos - and by the American multi-instrumentalist and arranger Adrian Younge, owner of Linear Labs, known for albums such as "Something About April" (2011), and for projects with Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, The Delfonics, and Wu Tang Clan, as well as co-directing the multimedia initiative Jazz Is Dead.
As is customary in Adrian's work, the album was captured live, without the technological gadgets of today. Recorded on tape, in a dynamic moment that demands total presence. An old-fashioned approach that harkens back to the beginnings of character-forming record recordings. Interestingly, a futuristic experience that, according to Céu, requires a lot of emotional intelligence and no artificiality. "Nothing vintage," she assures. In the studio, the band consisted of Pupillo (on percussion, programming, and drums), Younge (on keyboards, guitar, bass - in "Reescreve" -, arrangements, and conducting strings and winds), and Lucas Martins (on bass - in virtually all tracks -, guitar, and co-authorship of three of the 12 tracks on the album).
"Dawned in your lucky color/ Chant your mantra and go/ Singing/ Living is for the brave," says the lyrics of "Raiou," which opens "Novela." American MC and songwriter, LadyBug Mecca, from Digable Planets, whose parents are Brazilian, shares vocals with Céu. In "Gerando na alta," it's the turn of anaiis, a Franco-Senegalese singer and songwriter, based in London, England, to exchange impressions about sisterhood. Loren Oden and Jensine Benitez, singers from the USA, feature on "Into my Novela," a collaboration between Céu and Lucas Martins, the informal title track of the album, which talks about the teledrama of everyday life, where there are no TV cameras recording actions, nor predefined scripts. "I am the protagonist of my Novela/ So good, yeah baby/ I want to learn how you want me/ To love you."
There are other significant characters in the plot. Frankie Reyes, an American DJ and producer of Puerto Rican descent, contributes to the harmony of the track "Buá Buá," where Céu, the owner of the melody and lyrics, says: "Cry all the tears that one day/ You refused to cry/ Cry because you recognize/ That you won't find one of these." Hervé Salters, a French artist and leader of General Elektriks, co-producer of "Tropix," appears on "High na Cachú," whose verses by Céu say: "Cold sweet water makes me reborn/ While the stone calls me back to sit/ Retaining all the heat it kept from the sun/ I settle like a flower pollinating." Marcos Valle, a national treasure from Rio de Janeiro, co-wrote "Reescreve" with the São Paulo-born artist, which, at the end of the affectionate session, questions the perspective of colonizers in Brazilian history textbooks. "What was there/ I never believed in/ Every page I read/ Just made me more sleepy/ Since the peoples who were silenced/ The embers came to burn/ The truth comes to light/ It's too much material to work with." Before that, "Corpo e colo," the only track by third parties, is the result of the encounter between Nando Reis and Kleber Lucas. Recently, on social media, the award-winning gospel artist and pastor of Igreja Batista Soul, in Rio, celebrated the fact. "Another beauty coming. Beautiful partnership I made with my bro Nando Reis. I just received a preview of him singing and I am simply ecstatic," he said.
In "Novela," ancient technologies, healing, creaminess, bolero, polished stars, echoes of soul music, things of the earth, rap, and whispers to guides emerge. Throughout the record, there is a reaffirmation of the author's fearlessness, committed to her time, in the complexity and beauty of creative work. Always keeping the diversity of Brazilian music on the horizon. Stay tuned for exciting scenes from the next chapters.
Ebo Taylor & Pat Thomas
Immerse yourself in a night of rich musical heritage and cross-cultural rhythms at The Ford, featuring the 88 year old legendary Ghanaian guitarist, composer, and producer Ebo Taylor and Pat Thomas. With a career spanning over half a century, Taylor's influence on African music is undeniable, from his early days with highlife bands like the Stargazers to collaborations with Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. Pat Thomas is a Ghanaian vocalist and songwriter famed for his work in the highlife bands of Ebo and his own recordings of Afrobeat and Afro-pop
Taylor's innovative blend of traditional Ghanaian music with jazz, funk, and Afrobeat creates a signature sound showcased in albums like "Ebo Taylor & the Pelikans" and "Tower Nyame." Experience the evolution of Taylor's musical journey, from his pioneering horn arrangements to his timeless classics like "Heaven," as he takes the audience on a soul-stirring exploration of African rhythms and melodies. This special evening at The Ford celebrates Taylor's enduring legacy and contributions to the global music scene, promising an unforgettable fusion of sounds and cultures.
Ebo Taylor Bio
Born in 1936, Ghanaian guitarist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and producer Ebo Taylor has been a vital presence in African music for more than half-a-century. During the early '60s, he was active in the influential highlife bands the Stargazers and the Broadway Dance Band whose singles were mainstays on national radio. In 1962 he took his Black Star Highlife Band to London and collaborated with other African musicians who were also in Britain at the time, including Fela Kuti. Back in Ghana, he worked as an influential producer, crafting recordings for Pat Thomas (his future collaborator) and C.K. Mann, among many others. During the '70s, his own musical projects combined traditional Ghanaian music with Afro-beat, jazz, and funk, creating a trademark sound as evidenced by the albums Ebo Taylor & the Pelikans (1976) and Twer Nyame (1978). In the '80s, albums such as Conflict Nkru! and Hitsville Re-Visited (co-billed to Thomas) by his Uhuru-Yenzu band delivered a rawer, more immediate sound. Over the next two decades, Taylor was a noted producer, arranger, and composer, working with Thomas, Mann, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, Kofi Yankson, and dozens of others. He returned to performing live in the early 21st century after hip-hop producers began sampling his work. Soundways Records released the compilation Ghana Special. In 2010, Strut Records released Love and Death, his first internationally distributed album, followed by a series of catalog reissues and all-new recordings including 2018's Yen Ara.
Taylor was born in Ghana and grew up on the sounds of the wartime big bands. His father nudged him into music, by encouraging his son to learn to play the family organ. He caught the music bug and began studying guitar in school, coming under the sway of the emergent highlife movement. He would soon lead his first group, an eight-piece band named the Stargazers. In 1962, he departed his native Ghana for London to study at the London Eric Gilder School of Music. He explored jazz, funk, and soul alongside fellow student Fela Kuti and future Osibisa bandmembers Teddy Osei and Sol Amarfio. They indulged in endless jam sessions in jazz clubs off Oxford Street, after which Fela would often join Taylor in his flat in Willesden Junction. They would listen to jazz records for hours, analyzing the structure and chord progressions of Miles Davis and Charlie Parker. During his time abroad, Taylor founded the Black Star Highlife Band, which showcased one of his greatest contributions to highlife: His jazz-inspired horn arrangements.
After returning to Ghana, Taylor became an in-house arranger and producer for labels like Essiebons, working with other leading Ghanaian stars including Mann and Thomas. He was paid to write for them, play guitar on sessions, and supervise recordings. From the '70s through the '80s, Taylor cut a host of his own solo albums that offered idiosyncratic but very popular fusions of traditional Ghanaian sounds, Afrobeat, jazz, soul, and funk on albums such as My Love and Music, Twer Nyame, and Me Kra Tsie. His single "Heaven" from this period stands among the most revered Ghanaian Afrobeat tunes of the era. Taylor formed Uhuru-Yenzu in 1980 and released the albums Conflict Nkru! Nsamanfo: People's Highlife, Vol. 1, and Hitsville Re-Visited (the latter co-billed to Thomas). After the album Pat Thomas & Ebo Taylor in 1984, the guitarist stopped recording and touring and focused instead on producing, arranging, and composing for dozens of other artists.
In 2008, Taylor met the Berlin-based musicians of the Berlin Afrobeat Academy, including saxophonist Ben Abarbanel-Wolff. A year later, Usher sampled "Heaven" for his hit "She Don’t Know" (feat. Ludacris). In 2010, Taylor teamed with Berlin Afrobeat Academy for Love and Death on Strut Records, his first internationally distributed album. It offered re-recordings of his highlife and Afrobeat hits. Its success prompted Strut to issue the stellar retrospective Life Stories: Highlife & Afrobeat Classics 1973-1980 in the spring of 2011. In 2012, a third Strutalbum, the deeply personal Appia Kwa Bridge, appeared and showed that at 76, Taylor was still intensely creative and forceful, mixing traditional Fante songs and chants with children's rhymes and personal matters into his own sharp vision of highlife.
That record marked the beginning of a popular renaissance for Taylor around the world. Early singles and other tracks appeared on several compilations over the next few years, and in 2015, his rarest album, Ebo Taylor & the Pelikans, got the grand reissue treatment. His early hit, the Ghana funk anthem "Come Along," made DJ playlists globally. In February 2016, at age 80, he opened the MOGO Festival's Nights with Music Greats. The gig proved to be a precursor for the deluxe reissue of his 1975 album, My Love and Music, on Mr. Bongo. In 2018, Taylor issued the album Yen Ara that saw him translating various strains of Fante music through contemporary Ghanaian highlife and experimenting with new rhythmic forms through horn-dominated compositions. At age 82, he supported it with a world tour. The following year, Mr. Bongo reissued Hitsville Re-Visited in May, while BBE Music released the Palaver album in September, that contained five unissued tracks from a (previously unknown) lost 1980 session. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi
Pat Thomas Bio
Pat Thomas is a Ghanaian vocalist and songwriter famed for his work in the highlife bands of Ebo Taylor and his own recordings of Afrobeat and Afro-pop.
Born in Agona, in the Ashanti region, Thomas had music almost literally in his DNA, his father was a music theory instructor and his mother a bandleader. In the 1970s, he moved to Accra to join Ebo Taylor's legendary highlife band The Blue Monks; their residency at the Tip Toe Night Club is an important part of modern Ghanaian cultural history. In the later years he moved to the Ivory Coast and produced various records in Afro-beat, Afro-Latin sounds and reggae melded to funky African disco.
In 1982, he moved to London, U.K and recorded Hitsville Revisited with Taylor and the guitarist's band, Uhuru Yenzu. Thomas's first hit outside Africa was 'Asanteman' in 1985. He followed it with Highlife Greats Mbrepa a year later. In June 2015, the U.K. label Strut released his first recording in over a decade. Dubbed Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band, it was recorded in Accra. It placed the singer in the company of a band assembled by multi-instrumentalist Kwame Yeboah and saxophonist Ben Abarbanel-Wolff. Other musicians included drummer Tony Allen, Noble Kings' bassist Ralph Karikari, and a host of younger players including Thomas' daughter Nanaaya, a celebrated vocalist in her own right.
TAkuya Koruda
A highly-respected trumpeter born in Kobe, Japan, Takuya Kuroda is a forward-thinking musician that has developed a unique hybrid sound, blending soulful jazz, funk, post-bop, fusion and hip hop music.
After following the footsteps of his trombonist brother playing in big bands, he relocated to New York to study jazz & contemporary music at The New School in Union Square; a course he graduated from in the mid- noughties. It was here that Takuya met vocalist José James, with whom he worked on the ‘Blackmagic’ and ‘No Beginning No End’ projects.
Following graduation, Takuya established himself further in the NYC jazz scene, performing with the likes of Akoya Afrobeat and in recent years with DJ Premier’s BADDER band (also including acclaimed bass player, Brady Watt). Premier said “The BADDER Band project was put together by my manager, and an agent I’ve known since the beginning of my Gang Starr career. He said, ‘What if you put a band together that revolved around a trumpet player from Japan named Takuya Kuroda? He’s got a hip-hop perspective and respect in the jazz field…”
Takuya Kuroda is already incredibly prolific, releasing five albums in the past decade and fortifying a solid reputation in the global jazz scene. 2011 saw the release of Takuya’s independently-produced debut album, ‘Edge’, followed by ‘Bitter and High’ the following year and ‘Six Aces’ on P-Vine in 2013. Takuya was signed to the legendary Blue Note Records in 2014 for his album ‘Rising Son’, as well as appearing on their 2019 cover versions project, ‘Blue Note Voyage’. He released his 5th album ‘Zigzagger’ on Concord in 2016, which also featured Antibalas on a reimagining of the Donald Byrd classic ‘Think Twice’.
Late Summer 2020, Takuya Kuroda returns with his sixth album ‘Fly Moon Die Soon’. In his words, “this album is about the irony between the greatness of nature and the beautiful obsceneness of humanity. Melodies and grooves fly back and forth from being spiritual to being vulgar.”
BALTHVS
BALTHVS, the Bogota, Colombia based psychedelic funk trio was formed in the countryside while the group waited out the 2020 pandemic. The band was escaping the city during uncertain times and according to Balthazar Aguirre “we wanted the music to meld with the peaceful environment surrounding us at that moment”. AlongsideAguirre (Guitar, Vocals) the band consists of Johanna Mercuriana (Bass, Vocals), and Santiago Lizcano (Drums, Vocals).
Their genre-defying sound blends Cumbia, Surf Rock, funk and Turkish musical influences. The music is comprised of lyrics in English, Spanish and plenty of instrumentals that meld mysticism and psychedelics. “Colombia is very psychedelic, there's plenty of availability and a lot of traditional medicine involving entheogens and plant medicine around.” The result is a captivating sonic tapestry that transcends conventional boundaries, captivating listeners with its multifaceted influences.
Known for their dynamic and electrifying live performances, BALTHVS has become synonymous with energetic shows and captivating improvisations. Since their inception, the band has embarked on a prolific creative journey, releasing an impressive catalog featuring over 34 singles and 3 full-length albums. Their music has resonated globally, amassing over 6.8 million streams worldwide, establishing BALTHVS as a formidable presence in the music industry.
While BALTHVS has conquered their home turf, gracing the stage at Colombia's largest music festival, Rock al Parque, they have also taken their infectious sound to international audiences. With three performances at SXSW in Austin, TX, a successful USA tour, and a triumphant inaugural Europe tour in 2024, the band is poised for even greater heights with a new full length LP set to release on Mixto Records in the fall. Eager to continue their sonic exploration, BALTHVS is set to enchant audiences worldwide with their innovative and boundary-pushing approach to music.
BASSEKOU KOUYATE & NGONI BA
TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20TH.
Bassekou Kouyate was born in Garana, a small and multi-ethnic village 60 km from Segou located at the banks of the Niger river. He is descended from a long line of griots on both sides.
In the mid eighties Bassekou started playing the traditional sumu circuit, which soon put him in touch with another extraordinary musician such as the kora player Toumani Diabate. At the end of the 1980s, Bassekou became a founding member of Toumani Diabate’s Symmetric Orchestra, which then included among others a young Habib Koite as lead singer. It was the Symmetric Trio that brought Bassekou to Europe for the first time to play at the festival in Dranouter in Belgium in 1990.
Later that same year, Bassekou made his first trip to the USA, where he met the African American blues musician, Taj Mahal.
In the mid 1990s Bassekou married Amy Sacko, a fine griot singer originally from northwest Mali. As a couple, they produced a number of popular cassettes and were in constant demand on the wedding circuit and on Mali television, where Amy was nicknamed “the Tina Turner of Mali”.
In 2005 Bassekou was invited by Mali’s “desert bluesman” Ali Farka Touré to play on his album ‘Savane’ and to join Ali on stage for his final tour in the summer of 2005. In the same year Bassekou decided to create his band Ngoni ba. a quartet of different sized ngonis. It was a novel idea, but it was also very old – the rulers of precolonial Segu sometimes had bands of up to 30 or 40 ngoni players, all playing together.
Since than Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni ba have toured the world playing 100rds of shows from NY Central Park to the Royal Albert Hall in London, from Roskilde to Glastonbury.
Lately he performed with Africa Express and charged stages with musicians like Sir Paul McCartney, John Paul Jones, Damon Albarn and many more.
Blue Note 85th Anniversary
Jazz Is Dead is proud to come together with the legendary Blue Note Records to celebrate the label’s 85thAnniversary! The Finest in Jazz Since 1939, Blue Note Records is the most respected and longest-running jazz label in the world.
Jazz Is Dead will be hosting The Blue Note Quintet, a group brought together to honor the label’s rich history, on this west-coast tour. Gerald Clayton leads the band as Musical Director and Pianist: “Gerald Clayton is one of the most accomplished, distinctive, and innovative pianists performing today” says Don Was, the label’s President. Rounding out the group is vibraphonist Joel Ross, saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, drummer Kendrick Scott, and bassist Matt Brewer.
Pianist and band leader Gerald Clayton is a six-time Grammy Award nominee. Collaborating over the years with such distinctive artists as Diana Krall, Roy Hargrove, Dianne Reeves, Terence Blanchard, John Scofield, Terri Lyne Carrington, and legendary band leader Charles Lloyd. Clayton currently serves as Director of Next Generation Jazz Orchestra following service as Musical Director for Monterey Jazz Festival On Tour.
Joel Ross, vibraphonist-composer, continues refining an expression that’s true to his sound and his generation. In 2019, he issued his anticipated Blue Note debut, Edison Award-winning record KingMaker, to eruptive critical acclaim.
The music of saxophonist-composer Immanuel Wilkins is filled with empathy and conviction, bonding arcs of melody and lamentation to pluming gestures of space and breath. Listeners were introduced to this riveting sound with his acclaimed debut album Omega, which was named the #1 Jazz Album of 2020 by The New York Times. s.
Drummer Kendrick Scott has toured with Herbie Hancock, Charles Lloyd, The Crusaders, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Kurt Elling, and Terence Blanchard.
Bassist Matt Brewer has traveled the world playing in the bands of Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Greg Osby, Steve Coleman, Dave Binney, Ben Wendel, Aaron Parks, Vijay Iyer among many others.
BUTCHER BROWN
Miles Davis once quipped, “I’ll play it first and tell you what it is later.” Butcher Brown has released forward-thinking and expansive hybrids of jazz and hip-hop since 2013. Today, they have an apt descriptor for their songs: solar music. Drawing inspiration from every sound under the sun, the Richmond, VA band adds elements of funk, soul, and rock to their foundational mix. The result is a Southern-leaning, sometimes psychedelic fusion that feels fresh yet familiar. Simultaneously working within and defying genre conventions, Butcher Brown is a jazz festival mainstay that could tour with Tyler, the Creator as easily as Khruangbin.
“We get daps from the jazz cats, the rap scene, the indie scene, and everyone else,” says drummer Corey Fonville. Every Butcher Brown album, show, and improvisational leap therein stems from the synergy, vision, and inexhaustible musical curiosity of him and his bandmates: producer/multi-instrumentalist DJ Harrison; bassist/composer Andrew Randazzo; trumpeter/saxophonist/MC Marcus “Tennishu” Tenney; and guitarist Morgan Burrs.
AJA MONET
Surrealist blues poet and community organizer aja monet has announced her debut album when the poems do what they do. As previewed by the recently released piece “the devil you know,” and the newly shared “castaway,” the album’s thematic origins center around Black resistance, love, and the inexhaustible quest for joy. She is joined on her journey by a potent roster of esteemed musicians, including Chief Xian aTunde AdjuahFKA Christian Scott (trumpet), Samora Pinderhughes (piano), Elena Pinderhughes (flute), Luques Curtis (bass), Weedie Braimah (percussion), and Marcus Gilmore (drums). Featuring additional vocals by bluesman Lonnie Holley, soul singer Eryn Allen Kane, DJ & host Novena Carmel and more. The songs throughout are insistent and unrelenting, with some reminiscent of jazz club virtuosity and melee while others act as a healing balm in gilead, moving like that of the call to intercessory prayer. The album is a potent demonstration of her indefatigable commitment to speak, her poems manifesting as a work of gravity that move constantly between origin and outcome, allowing them to exist in converse.
As a community organizer, poet, and teacher aja monet moves between mediums, each one an element to her writing. Organizing and activism manifest as part of a process toward liberation, with the poems, the music, and the art serving as the scribe of the time. Building off oratorical traditions, aja is the conduit for her predecessors to channel through. At any given time you’ll find the revolutionary spirit of Audre Lorde and the Last Poets, you’ll feel June Jordan, Amiri Baraka, Jayne Cortez and even the expressive ephemerality of a passing blue note. She has been a poet since youth, “I started writing when I was 8 or 9 — [but] I think I was a poet before I wrote my first poem.” She cut her teeth within the walls of the legendary Nuyorican Poets Café, where she won the title of Grand Slam Champion in 2007 at age 19, making her the youngest Grand Slam Champion in the venue’s history. After graduating from Sarah Lawrence College and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and living briefly in Paris, aja co-edited Chorus: A Literary Mixtape alongside poet-actor-director Saul Williams and published her first full length book of poetry called My Mother was A Freedom Fighter with Haymarket Books.
On when the poems do what they do aja monet appears as a woman of letters and storm, her poems do not roar in pentameter – but rather in storm surge because, “Who’s got time for poems when the world is on fire?!.” aja monet is a griot, a storyteller, a chronicler, and your grandmother telling you about her first love all at once. These aren’t poems for poets, but poems for everyone. When you reach the end of this album, you are left with a similar feeling you get when heartbroken, the gravity of barrelling back down to earth, sopping wet with tears, out of breath, overcome with love, despair, hope, and all too aware that all of this, is over far too soon. When the poems do what they do, they do absolutely everything.
Theon Cross & Jamael Dean
TICKETS GO ON SALE FRIDAY AUGUST 11TH!
Theon Cross is one of those rare musicians whose vision has redefined their instrument. His unique approach to the tuba has expanded the instrument’s sonic possibilities in revolutionary fashion, restoring it to a long-forgotten prominence as a crucial part of the contemporary jazz ensemble. Through his combination of technical mastery, studio smarts, deep musical knowledge and expansive vision, the power and originality of Theon’s playing has reinvented the tuba’s place in modern music.
His most recent album, Intra-I (meaning ‘Within Self’) released in 2021 synthesizes the diversity of his musical art and experience to deliver an essential message to a world gripped by tribulation. Across ten sonically divergent and bass-rich tracks, Intra-I explores themes of self-reliance, origins, identity and more. Since its release he has contributed a version of Monk’s Epistrophy for Blue Note Re:Imagined II, been a core part of Miles Davis channeling collective London Brew and featured on Matthew Herbert’s single The Horse Has A Voice. He has also released his first 7” single Wings b/w a version of Aswad’s Back to Africa.
He completed his first tour of North America in October 2022 with a combination of headline shows and supports for Makaya McCraven. This year will see him play multiple live dates in solo, duo and band configurations across the UK, Europe, North and South America.
Pianist and producer Jamael Dean is a harmonically sophisticated pianist with a bent toward expansive, boundary-pushing jazz and hip-hop. A gifted player since his teens, he emerged in the 2010s in Los Angeles, playing with Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, and his grandfather, drummer Donald Dean, before issuing his 2019 Stones Throw debut, Black Space Tapes.
Born in 1998 in Bakersfield, California, Dean was introduced to music at a young age and initially started out on violin while in the third grade. At age nine, he was given a keyboard and soon began teaching himself how to play by ear. Under the guidance of Les McCann and Yusef Lateef drummer Donald Dean, he became interested in jazz and spent much of his adolescence mentoring and playing gigs with the elder Dean. His talent also caught the attention of players on the greater Los Angeles jazz scene, including saxophonist Kamasi Washington and bassist/singer Thundercat; both of whom took him on tour while he was still in high school. He began expanding his interests, crafting electronic beats on his computer and merging jazz, funk, and hip-hop. Following high school, he enrolled as a Jazz Performance major at the New School in New York City. In 2019, he released his debut album, the genre-bending Black Space Tapes on Stones Throw.
SoHo House Chicago: Brain Jackson & Adrian Younge
Excited to be coming back to the great city of #Chicago, with Brian Jacksonand Adrian Younge in partnership with our friends at Stone Island, Victory Journal & Soho House Chicago.
If you're a #SoHoHouse member, be sure to arrive early for the discussion between #AdrianYounge & #BrianJackson. Following the discussion Brian & his trio will be performing for an intimate audience followed by an Adrian Younge DJ set.
This an invite only event and tickets are extremely limited. Hope to see you there!
Jazz Is Dead Summit: São Paulo
Summit is the highest point in a mountain…the apex. For our first event in São Paulo, we felt it wasn’t enough to simply do a concert or a dj night. We wanted to reach the highest point of musical inspiration. So we called our friends and collaborators, the maestros and their contemporary peers and a dozen of our favorite dj’s and have created the Jazz Is Dead Summit: São Paulo. On September 24, 2023, Jazz Is Dead celebrates the countless pioneers of the culture with live discussions, Djs, art and more. Special guests will help us understand the trans-national connections between samba, jazz, funk and hip hop. Brazilian music is an alchemy of cultural expression, creating one of the richest sources of music in the world. With its African roots, it serves as a melting pot of spirit and rhythm, influencing all forms of music around the globe.
“Summit” é o ponto mais alto de uma montanha… o ápice. Para o nosso primeiro evento em São Paulo, sentimos que não bastava simplesmente fazer um show ou uma noite de festa. Queríamos atingir o ponto mais alto da inspiração musical. Então chamamos nossos amigos e colaboradores, os maestros e seus pares contemporâneos, e uma dezena de nossos DJs favoritos para criar o Jazz Is Dead Summit: São Paulo. A música brasileira é uma alquimia de expressão cultural, criando uma das mais ricas fontes musicais do mundo. Com as suas raízes africanas, serve como um caldeirão de espírito e ritmo, influenciando todas as formas de música em todo o mundo. No dia 24 de setembro de 2023, Jazz Is Dead celebra os inúmeros pioneiros da cultura com uma série de conversas ao vivo, discotecagens, arte e muito mais. Convidados especiais nos ajudarão a compreender as conexões transnacionais entre samba, jazz, funk e hip hop. As conversas serão seguidas por alguns DJs que melhor manifestarão essa síntese cultural em mais de 5 horas de festa.
AGENDAR
12:00 - ABERTURA
Produtos e Galeria
GROUND FLOOR:
13:00 - Negro é Lindo: Carlos Dafé, Dom Salvador, Hyldon, Osvaldo Pereira, Bid
15:00: O Som Da Bahia: Antonio Carlos e Jocafi, Russo Passapusso, Roberto Barreto
16:00: Homenagem ao Ivan “Mamão” Conti: Alex Malheiros, Kiko Continentino, DJ Nuts, Kassin and Mario Caldato
17:00: Alquimia Geracional: Céu, Emicida, Marcos Valle, Marcus Preto, Pupillo
20:00 Ricardo Pereira
21:20 Mary G
22:40 DJ Nyack
FIRST FLOOR
18:30 Marcelhino Da Lua
20:00 Julia Weck
21:00 Jorge de Peixi
22:00 Daniel Tamenpi
23:00 DJ Hum
ROOF TOP
14:30 Ricardo Pereira
16:30 DJ PG
18:30 DJ Nuts
20:00 Cecyza
21:00 Adrian Younge
Adrian Younge
Adrian Younge is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist, composer, and orchestrator who has produced for entertainment greats such as Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar and Wu Tang Clan.
Younge owns and operates Linear Labs, a recording studio and label. Linear Labs reflects his dedication to the art of analog recording, utilizing analog tape and live instrumentation exclusively. Under the label, he’s produced projects for artists such as Ghostface Killah, Souls of Mischief, and The Delfonics.
In 2019, Younge, Muhammad, Andrew Lojero and Adam Block created Jazz Is Dead (JID): a multimedia company specializing in the production of live concerts, studio albums, television and film. JID concerts have earned an ever-growing fanbase through national and international tours. Under the label, Younge and Muhammad have produced albums with their musical heroes including luminaires such as Roy Ayers, Lonnie Liston Smith, Gary Bartz, Jean Carne, Marcos Valle and Tony Allen.
Adrian Younge é um multi-instrumentista, compositor e orquestrador autodidata que produziu para grandes nomes do entretenimento como Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar e Wu Tang Clan.
Younge possui e opera o Linear Labs, um estúdio de gravação e gravadora. Linear Labs reflete sua dedicação à arte da gravação analógica, utilizando exclusivamente fita analógica e instrumentação ao vivo. Sob o selo, ele produziu projetos para artistas como Ghostface Killah, Souls of Mischief e The Delfonics.
Em 2019, Younge, Muhammad, Andrew Lojero e Adam Block criaram Jazz Is Dead (JID): empresa multimídia especializada na produção de shows ao vivo, álbuns de estúdio, televisão e cinema. Os shows do JID conquistaram uma base de fãs cada vez maior por meio de turnês nacionais e internacionais. Sob o selo, Younge e Muhammad produziram álbuns com seus heróis musicais, incluindo luminares como Roy Ayers, Lonnie Liston Smith, Gary Bartz, Jean Carne, Marcos Valle e Tony Allen.
Antonio Carlos e Jocafi
The Brazilian duo began their artistic career in 1969, in Salvador, Bahia when they entered the song "Catendê" in the "V Festival de Música Popular Brasileira”. The following year, the duo participated with the same song in a festival in the Northeast.
In 1971 Maria Creuza recorded "Catendê" with great success. In the same year, the duo participated in the "VI Festival Internacional da Canção" with the composition "Desacato", ranking second.
Soon after, the duo signed a contract with RCA, successfully releasing the LP "Mudei de Ideia", which included the tracks "Desacato" and "Você Abusou”. Scored various film & television projects as they continued to write and release music.
“Voce Abusou” became an international success, especially in France, whose version started to be called "Fais comme l'oiseau", written by Michel Fugain, became an anthem of French Socialist Party. The French composer signed as the author of the song and the duo had to go to court, winning the case, but part of the French people believe that the composition is authored by Michel. The same song also has versions in Spanish and Japanese, in addition to recordings by Célia Cruz, Sérgio Mendez and Stevie Wonder.
A dupla brasileira iniciou sua carreira artística em 1969, em Salvador, Bahia, quando inscreveu a música "Catendê" no "V Festival de Música Popular Brasileira". No ano seguinte, a dupla participou com a mesma música em um festival no Nordeste.
Em 1971 Maria Creuza gravou "Catendê" com grande sucesso. No mesmo ano, a dupla participou do “VI Festival Internacional da Canção” com a composição “Desacato”, ficando em segundo lugar.
Logo depois, a dupla assinou contrato com a RCA, lançando com sucesso o LP "Mudei de Ideia", que incluía as faixas "Desacato" e "Você Abusou". Marcaram vários projetos de cinema e televisão enquanto continuavam a escrever e lançar músicas.
“Voce Abusou” tornou-se um sucesso internacional, especialmente na França, cuja versão passou a se chamar “Fais comme l'oiseau”, escrita por Michel Fugain, tornou-se um hino do Partido Socialista Francês. O compositor francês assinou como autor da música e a dupla teve que recorrer à Justiça, ganhando a ação, mas parte do povo francês acredita que a composição é de autoria de Michel. A mesma música também conta com versões em espanhol e japonês, além de gravações de Célia Cruz, Sérgio Mendez e Stevie Wonder.
Azymuth
No band represents Brazilian jazz post bossa nova better than Azymuth. The trio (with occassional augmentations) blazed a bold new trail that stripped the elemental strains of Música Popular Brasileira (MPB) to their core: Samba, Jazz, and Rock. Yet, the achievements of Azymuth cannot be contained by the albums they released together as Azymuth (previously spelled: Azimüth) as individually and collectively they provided the backdrop to a good percentage of MPB as session players from the early seventies through the mid-eighties. Erasmo Carlos, Rita Lee, Jorge Ben, Hyldon, Tim Maia and many more major (and minor) stars of Brazilian popular music requested these studio ringers to contribute to countless recording sessions.
During the eighties, this forward-looking trio pioneered a modern, adventurous Brazilian jazz sound that came to maturity at the same time that Brazil (and the world) retreated to a rock-centric musical highground as the seventies ended and New Wave and Punk took off. Azymuth’s contributions to Brazilian jazz and global, futuristic funk has been undervalued for far too long. Surviving the passing of their founding member and keyboard wizard, José Roberto Bertrami, Ivan “Mamão” Conti and Alex Malheiros continue the trailblazing forty-plus-year tradition of innovative Brazilian jazz funk with their “relatively” younger, new synthesizer samurai: Kiko Continentinho.
The world was saddened to learn of the passing of drummer Ivan "Mamão" Conti on April 17, 2023. Remaining members Alex Malheiros and Kiko Continetino continue to push the boundaries of their beloved samba internationally, but always with a heavy dose of jazz, as Mamão explained: “our roots as a Brazilian band are principally samba with jazz and rock.”
Nenhuma banda representa melhor o jazz brasileiro pós-bossa nova do que o Azymuth. O trio (com acréscimos ocasionais) abriu um novo caminho ousado que despojou as notas elementares da Música Popular Brasileira (MPB) em sua essência: Samba, Jazz e Rock. No entanto, as conquistas do Azymuth não podem ser contidas pelos álbuns que lançaram juntos como Azymuth (anteriormente escrito: Azimüth), pois individual e coletivamente eles forneceram o pano de fundo para uma boa porcentagem da MPB como músicos de sessão desde o início dos anos setenta até meados dos anos oitenta. Erasmo Carlos, Rita Lee, Jorge Ben, Hyldon, Tim Maia e muitas outras grandes (e menores) estrelas da música popular brasileira solicitaram que esses músicos de estúdio contribuíssem em inúmeras sessões de gravação.
Durante a década de 1980, esse trio inovador foi pioneiro em um som de jazz brasileiro moderno e aventureiro que atingiu a maturidade ao mesmo tempo em que o Brasil (e o mundo) recuava para um cenário musical centrado no rock quando os anos 1970 terminaram e a New Wave e o Punk se consolidaram. desligado. As contribuições de Azymuth para o jazz brasileiro e para o funk global e futurista têm sido subvalorizadas há muito tempo. Sobrevivendo ao falecimento de seu membro fundador e mago do teclado, José Roberto Bertrami, Ivan “Mamão” Conti e Alex Malheiros continuam a tradição pioneira de mais de quarenta anos do inovador jazz funk brasileiro com seu novo samurai de sintetizador “relativamente” mais jovem: Kiko Continentinho .
O mundo ficou triste ao saber do falecimento do baterista Ivan "Mamão" Conti em 17 de abril de 2023. Os membros restantes Alex Malheiros e Kiko Continetino continuam a expandir os limites de seu querido samba internacionalmente, mas sempre com uma forte dose de jazz, como Mamão explicou: “nossas raízes como banda brasileira são principalmente o samba com jazz e rock”.
BaianaSystem
Founded in Bahia in 2007, BaianaSystem was created with the idea of wedding the sound of the trio electrico to the Jamaican sound system aesthetic as well as the rainbow of styles and rhythms associated with both Bahia and Kingston. The musical project dedicated to expanding the sonic palette of the Bahian (electric) guitar via the exploration of, and dialogue with, other musical forms. The instrument was created in Salvador-Bahia during the 1940s and directly responsible for the trio eletrico genre (a big, moving sound system). BaianaSystem compose fluid, progressive tunes that wed psychedelic samba to dubwise reggae, ijexá and ska rhythms, and jam band improv to other Afro-Latin genres such as MPB, frevo, Afrobeat, dancehall, cumbia, afaje, chula, cabula, electronica, and pagoda.
BaianaSystem made their live debut on national festival stages. Behind the singing of Russo Passapusso are founding guitarist Robertinho Barreto, bassist/producer Seko Marcello, and percussionist/drummer Filipe Cartaxo.
Fundado na Bahia em 2007, o BaianaSystem foi criado com a ideia de casar a sonoridade do trio elétrico com a estética do sound system jamaicano e também com o arco-íris de estilos e ritmos associados tanto à Bahia quanto a Kingston. O projeto musical que se dedica a ampliar a paleta sonora da guitarra (elétrica) baiana por meio da exploração e do diálogo com outras formas musicais. O instrumento foi criado em Salvador-Bahia na década de 1940 e responsável direto pelo gênero trio elétrico (um grande sistema de som em movimento). O BaianaSystem compõe músicas fluidas e progressivas que unem o samba psicodélico aos ritmos dubwise de reggae, ijexá e ska, e a improvisação de jam band com outros gêneros afro-latinos, como MPB, frevo, Afrobeat, dancehall, cumbia, afaje, chula, cabula, eletrônica e pagode.
BaianaSystem fez sua estreia ao vivo nos palcos de festivais nacionais. Por trás da voz de Russo Passapusso estão o guitarrista fundador Robertinho Barreto, o baixista/produtor Seko Marcello e o percussionista/baterista Filipe Cartaxo.
Carlos Dafé
One of the greatest representatives of Brazilian soul music, Carlos Dafé has been recorded by such artists as Tânia Maria ("A Cruz") and Nana Caymmi ("Passarela"), in addition to his solo career (registered in six albums from 1977 to 1997).
His epithet "The Prince of Soul" was created by Nelson Motta, for being alongside Tim Maia, Wilson Simonal, Hyldon, Cassiano, Don Salvador & Grupo Abolição, Banda Black Rio, Jorge Benjor and Tony Tornado, one of the shapers and sedimenters of the soul music genre in Brazil.
Carlos Dafé had his first model as musician in the figure of his father, who taught him several instruments and introduced him to choro and samba traditions. In the '60s, Dafé exercised his vocal possibilities as a crooner in São Paulo and Rio's nightclubs.
His first solo album came in 1977 (Pra Que Vou Recordar). Influenced by Tim Maia and Cassiano, the Carioca (from Vila Isabel) Carlos Dafé developed his soul music tinge, first reflected in his 1978's Venha Matar Saudades, where he was backed by the Banda Black Rio.
Um dos maiores representantes da soul music brasileira, Carlos Dafé já foi gravado por artistas como Tânia Maria ("A Cruz") e Nana Caymmi ("Passarela"), além de sua carreira solo (registrada em seis discos de 1977 a 1997).
Seu epíteto “O Príncipe do Soul” foi criado por Nelson Motta, por estar ao lado de Tim Maia, Wilson Simonal, Hyldon, Cassiano, Don Salvador & Grupo Abolição, Banda Black Rio, Jorge Benjor e Tony Tornado, um dos formadores e sedimentadores do o gênero soul music no Brasil.
Carlos Dafé teve seu primeiro modelo de músico na figura de seu pai, que lhe ensinou diversos instrumentos e o apresentou às tradições do choro e do samba. Na década de 60, Dafé exerceu suas possibilidades vocais como crooner em casas noturnas paulistas e cariocas.
Seu primeiro disco solo veio em 1977 (Pra Que Vou Recordar). Influenciado por Tim Maia e Cassiano, o carioca (de Vila Isabel) Carlos Dafé desenvolveu seu tom soul music, refletido pela primeira vez em Venha Matar Saudades, de 1978, onde foi acompanhado pela Banda Black Rio.
Céu
Around the time of her 2005 debut, Céu proved to one of the more internationally appealing singers to break out of Brazil. Her winning both Latin Grammy and Grammy nominations for Best New Artist and garnered interest across Europe, North America, and Asia. Her delivery style weds iconic Brazilian phrasing and nuance with her airy, slightly smoky alto; it is married to a highly original mix that seamlessly juxtaposes post-tropicalia samba, valsa, choro, soul, reggae, hip-hop, and jazz.
She was born Maria do Céu Whitaker Poças in São Paulo; however, she bills herself as simply Céu. Growing up in a musical family, she learned at an early age to appreciate renowned Brazilian composers such as Heitor Villa-Lobos, Ernesto Nazareth, and Orlando Silva. Rather than go to college, she studied music, including theory as well as the violão, a nylon-stringed guitar native to Brazil.
At 18, Céu relocated to New York City for a time where she encountered many new influences, including old-school jazz singers such as Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, as well as contemporary R&B singers such as Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu. While in New York City, she befriended Antonio Pinto, a fellow Brazilian musician best known for composing the award-winning score to the film City of God (2002).
After moving back to Brazil and fronting a couple groups, Céu recorded her debut album, a self-titled release produced largely by Beto Villares, with the aid of Pinto. Céu's debut landed at the top of the World Albums Charts and inside the top half of the Top 200. The set earned a Latin Grammy nomination in 2006 for Best New Artist.
Na época de sua estreia em 2005, Céu provou ser uma das cantoras mais atraentes internacionalmente a sair do Brasil. Ela ganhou indicações ao Grammy Latino e ao Grammy de Melhor Artista Revelação e atraiu interesse em toda a Europa, América do Norte e Ásia. Seu estilo de entrega combina frases e nuances brasileiras icônicas com seu contralto arejado e levemente esfumaçado; é casado com uma mistura altamente original que justapõe perfeitamente samba pós-tropical, valsa, choro, soul, reggae, hip-hop e jazz.
Nasceu Maria do Céu Whitaker Poças em São Paulo; no entanto, ela se autodenomina simplesmente Céu. Crescendo em uma família musical, aprendeu desde cedo a apreciar renomados compositores brasileiros como Heitor Villa-Lobos, Ernesto Nazareth e Orlando Silva. Em vez de ir para a faculdade, ela estudou música, inclusive teoria e violão, um violão de cordas de náilon nativo do Brasil.
Aos 18 anos, Céu mudou-se para Nova Iorque onde encontrou muitas influências novas, incluindo cantoras de jazz da velha guarda, como Billie Holiday e Ella Fitzgerald, bem como cantoras de R&B contemporâneas, como Lauryn Hill e Erykah Badu. Enquanto estava em Nova York, ela fez amizade com Antonio Pinto, também músico brasileiro mais conhecido por compor a trilha sonora premiada do filme Cidade de Deus (2002).
Depois de voltar ao Brasil e liderar alguns grupos, Céu gravou seu primeiro álbum, autointitulado, produzido em grande parte por Beto Villares, com a ajuda de Pinto. A estreia de Céu ficou no topo do World Albums Charts e na metade superior do Top 200. O conjunto ganhou uma indicação ao Grammy Latino em 2006 de Melhor Artista Revelação.
DJ Nutz
DJ Nuts, aka Rodrigo Teixeira, is arguably the best-known Brazilian DJ internationally, a turntable champion, Brazilian record connoisseur, and the beatmaker who helped integrate classic Brazilian samples into modern Brazilian hip-hop. He helped the Mochilla crew bring together the iconic Brazilian drummers for the groundbreaking documentary Brasilintime, and Gilles Peterson calls him his favorite Brazilian DJ. As a teenager, he participated in the formative years of the Brazilian hip-hop scene that produced Brazil’s first hip-hop royalty, like Racionais MCs and Marcelo D2; the latter he’s performed with since the late ’90s as his tour DJ. His 2004 mix CD Cultura Cópia set the bar for excavating Brazil’s funkiest and dustiest crates. Though he’s yet to drop his own original music, he’ll soon release his first joint album with one of Brazil’s most legendary percussionists and producers, the late Hélcio Milito (of Tamba Trio fame), a multigenerational collaboration between beatmakers.
DJ Nuts, também conhecido como Rodrigo Teixeira, é indiscutivelmente o DJ brasileiro mais conhecido internacionalmente, um campeão de toca-discos, conhecedor de discos brasileiros e o beatmaker que ajudou a integrar samples clássicos brasileiros ao moderno hip-hop brasileiro. Ele ajudou a equipe do Mochilla a reunir os icônicos bateristas brasileiros para o documentário inovador Brasilintime, e Gilles Peterson o chama de seu DJ brasileiro favorito. Ainda adolescente, participou dos anos de formação da cena hip-hop brasileira que produziu a primeira realeza do hip-hop no Brasil, como Racionais MCs e Marcelo D2; este último com quem ele toca desde o final dos anos 90 como DJ da turnê. Seu mix CD Cultura Cópia de 2004 estabeleceu o padrão para escavar as caixas mais descoladas e empoeiradas do Brasil. Embora ele ainda não tenha lançado sua própria música original, ele lançará em breve seu primeiro álbum conjunto com um dos percussionistas e produtores mais lendários do Brasil, o falecido Hélcio Milito (famoso pelo Tamba Trio), uma colaboração multigeracional entre beatmakers.
Dom Salvador
Dom Salvador, stage name of Salvador da Silva Filho (born 1938 in Rio Claro, São Paulo), is considered by international historians as a pioneer in not just the music but a new understanding of blackness in Brazil and using it as a form of cultural power. Salvador is a Brazilian jazz and MPB pianist most notable for his Rio 65 Trio that featured the Brazilian jazz drummer Edison Machado and bassist Sergio Barrozo.
His music mixes elements of samba, soul, jazz and MPB. His music and his lyrics, which often addressed race issues, paved the way for future generations of Brazilian musicians and producers by setting the basis for the creation of new sounds and trends in Brazilian music.
He also did tours of Europe with musicians like Sylvia Telles. In May 1976, he recorded his one and only American jazz album, My Family, for Muse Records in New York City.
Over his long career, he has performed with musicians like Rubens Bassini, Jorge Ben, Elza Soares and Elis Regina, to name a few. In later life he formed a trio. He currently holds residency in Brooklyn, New York, at the River Cafe, and has done so since 1977.
Dom Salvador, nome artístico de Salvador da Silva Filho (nascido em 1938 em Rio Claro, São Paulo), é considerado pelos historiadores internacionais como um pioneiro não apenas na música, mas em uma nova compreensão da negritude no Brasil e em usá-la como forma de expressão cultural. poder. Salvador é um pianista brasileiro de jazz e MPB que se destaca por seu Rio 65 Trio que contou com a participação do baterista de jazz brasileiro Edison Machado e do baixista Sergio Barrozo.
Sua música mistura elementos de samba, soul, jazz e MPB. Sua música e suas letras, que muitas vezes abordavam questões raciais, abriram caminho para futuras gerações de músicos e produtores brasileiros, estabelecendo as bases para a criação de novos sons e tendências na música brasileira.
Também fez turnês pela Europa com músicos como Sylvia Telles. Em maio de 1976, ele gravou seu primeiro e único álbum de jazz americano, My Family, pela Muse Records em Nova York.
Ao longo de sua longa carreira, já se apresentou com músicos como Rubens Bassini, Jorge Ben, Elza Soares e Elis Regina, entre outros. Mais tarde na vida ele formou um trio. Atualmente ele reside no Brooklyn, Nova York, no River Cafe, desde 1977.
Hyldon
Producer, guitarist, composer and singer Hyldon was one of the bearers of the torch of soul music in Brazil, coming after Tim Maia, Cassiano, and Gerson King Combo. A former partner of Maia's and member of Cassiano's band, Hyldon had his first hit in 1975 with the ballad "Na Rua, na Chuva, na Fazenda," included on his first LP of the same name.
Having worked with music since the age of 14, he was an instrumentalist early in his career, becoming a composer and producer as he matured. After some ostracism, Hyldon left soul music and devoted himself to children's music. He's enjoyed a resurgence with the rediscovery of his songs by newer artists and post-retake cinema. Contemporary bands like Kid Abelha and Jota Quest have been renovating an interest of the newer generations in Hyldon's work through their re-recordings of "Na Rua, na Chuva, na Fazenda" and "As Dores do Mundo."
His best known songs are the aforementioned "Na Rua, na Chuva, na Fazenda (Casinha de Sapê)", "As Dores do Mundo", "Na Sombra de uma Árvore", "Acontecimento" and "Velho Camarada", in partnership with with Tim Maia and Fábio. Along with the Tim Maia and Cassiano, he is considered one of the precursors of Brazilian black music.
O produtor, violonista, compositor e cantor Hyldon foi um dos portadores da tocha da soul music no Brasil, vindo depois de Tim Maia, Cassiano e Gerson King Combo. Ex-parceiro de Maia e integrante da banda de Cassiano, Hyldon fez seu primeiro sucesso em 1975 com a balada "Na Rua, na Chuva, na Fazenda", incluída em seu primeiro LP homônimo.
Trabalhando com música desde os 14 anos, foi instrumentista no início da carreira, tornando-se compositor e produtor à medida que amadureceu. Após algum ostracismo, Hyldon deixou a soul music e se dedicou à música infantil. Ele ressurgiu com a redescoberta de suas canções por artistas mais recentes e pelo cinema pós-retomada. Bandas contemporâneas como Kid Abelha e Jota Quest vêm renovando o interesse das novas gerações pelo trabalho de Hyldon através das regravações de "Na Rua, na Chuva, na Fazenda" e "As Dores do Mundo".
Suas canções mais conhecidas são as já citadas "Na Rua, na Chuva, na Fazenda (Casinha de Sapê)", "As Dores do Mundo", "Na Sombra de uma Árvore", "Acontecimento" e "Velho Camarada", em parceria com Tim Maia e Fábio. Ao lado de Tim Maia e Cassiano, é considerado um dos precursores da música negra brasileira.
Kassin
Alexandre Kassin is a leading Brazilian music producer, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. While he is best known outside his home country for his membership in the group +2 with Moreno Veloso and Domenico Lancellotti, he was a seasoned veteran before the trio formed. He is also the composer of the soundtrack for the anime series Michiko to Hatchin. His studio activity during the 21st century has been prolific in his roles as a producer and a sideman.
Kassin spent his youth in Zona Sul (the southern district of Rio), soaking up not only the sounds of Brazil, but the rock, pop, and dance music of Latin America. He joined the funky punk rock band Acabou La Tequila, who were notorious in the independent Carioca scene of the '90s for their chaotic, incendiary live shows. Their self-titled debut offering from 1996 has since become a bona fide Brazilian classic. Eight years later, after intense touring and activity, they issued their (final) sophomore outing, O Som Da Moda. During his tenure with Acabou La Tequila, Kassin began to establish himself as a producer as well as a go-to session player.
In 2000, under the stage name Monaural, he composed the score for the smash indie film Casa. That same year, he, Veloso, and Lancellotti formed +2, and recorded the hit album Music Typewriter as Moreno + 2, which he produced and played on. The set also featured a number of guests, including Daniel Jobim and João Donato. He also helmed the sessions for Natiruts' Verbalize and Los Hermanos' Ventura, and played on Marisa Montes' Memórias Crônicas e Declarações de Amor. These outings signaled Kassin's arrival as an in-demand talent.
Alexandre Kassin é um importante produtor musical, cantor, compositor e multi-instrumentista brasileiro. Embora seja mais conhecido fora de seu país por ter participado do grupo +2 com Moreno Veloso e Domenico Lancellotti, ele era um veterano experiente antes da formação do trio. Ele também é o compositor da trilha sonora da série de anime Michiko to Hatchin. Sua atividade de estúdio durante o século 21 foi prolífica em seus papéis como produtor e acompanhante.
Kassin passou sua juventude na Zona Sul (zona sul do Rio), absorvendo não apenas os sons do Brasil, mas também o rock, o pop e a dance music da América Latina. Ele se juntou à banda funky de punk rock Acabou La Tequila, que ficou famosa na cena independente carioca dos anos 90 por seus shows ao vivo caóticos e incendiários. Sua oferta de estreia autointitulada de 1996 se tornou um verdadeiro clássico brasileiro. Oito anos depois, após intensa turnê e atividade, eles lançaram seu (último) lançamento do segundo ano, O Som Da Moda. Durante sua gestão com Acabou La Tequila, Kassin começou a se estabelecer como produtor e também como músico de estúdio.
Em 2000, sob o nome artístico de Monaural, compôs a trilha sonora do grande filme independente Casa. Nesse mesmo ano, ele, Veloso e Lancellotti formaram o +2, e gravaram o hit Music Typewriter como Moreno + 2, que ele produziu e tocou. O set também contou com diversos convidados, entre eles Daniel Jobim e João Donato. Também dirigiu as sessões de Verbalize, de Natiruts, e Ventura, de Los Hermanos, e tocou em Memórias Crônicas e Declarações de Amor, de Marisa Montes. Essas saídas sinalizaram a chegada de Kassin como um talento requisitado.
Marcos Valle
Throughout his astounding six decade career, infiltrating pop, bossa nova, samba, delicate psychedelia, jazz and funk, Marcos Valle has consistently shown a dogged determination to transcend the traditions and structures of bossa nova, whilst never veering away from the movement’s inherent, fundamental spirit. To some extent, his epithet ‘the original Rio beach boy’ is a handy one: it reflects the origin and character of his often sun-soaked sound, but expounding his importance in the lineage of Brazilian music, he is more discerningly known as ‘the renaissance man of Brazilian pop’. He is indeed one the very greatest and most important composers, arrangers, writers and performers in Brazil.
Having initially made a name for himself alongside the second wave of bossa nova’s pioneers in the mid ’60s, just as bossa nova was beginning to catch on outside of Brazil, Valle toured and lived in the US alongside his then-wife and Anamaria (the one the crickets sing for) and the also recently emigrated Sergio Mendes, in an embryonic version of what would later become Brasil ’66. The Vietnam War loomed and the threat of being drafted saw Valle return briskly to Brazil, where by this point, the unsettled political climate created by the oppressive military dictatorship, made the beautiful, sunny, carefree bossas of romance and flowers – the kind Marcos was writing in the early-mid ’60s – seem somewhat puerile.
Having been brought up in a wealthy family on Rio’s picturesque beaches, Valle and his lyricist brother Paulo Sergio Valle had previously steered clear of socially and politically conscious lyrics. Towards the end of the ’60s and into the early ’70s however, Valle moved towards a more mature and introspective writing approach. This was also the point at which he began integrating rock, soul and pop into his compositions, moving him far beyond the label of a bossa nova artist.
Ao longo de sua impressionante carreira de seis décadas, infiltrando-se no pop, na bossa nova, no samba, na psicodelia delicada, no jazz e no funk, Marcos Valle demonstrou consistentemente uma determinação obstinada em transcender as tradições e estruturas da bossa nova, embora nunca afastando-se do espírito inerente e fundamental do movimento. Até certo ponto, seu epíteto de “o garoto praiano original do Rio” é útil: reflete a origem e o caráter de seu som muitas vezes ensolarado, mas expondo sua importância na linhagem da música brasileira, ele é mais conhecido como “ o homem renascentista do pop brasileiro'. Ele é de fato um dos maiores e mais importantes compositores, arranjadores, escritores e intérpretes do Brasil.
Tendo inicialmente feito seu nome ao lado da segunda onda de pioneiros da bossa nova em meados dos anos 60, quando a bossa nova estava começando a se popularizar fora do Brasil, Valle viajou e morou nos EUA ao lado sua então esposa e Anamaria (para quem cantam os grilos) e o também recém-emigrado Sergio Mendes, numa versão embrionária do que mais tarde viria a ser o Brasil '66. A Guerra do Vietnã se aproximava e a ameaça de ser convocado fez com que Valle retornasse rapidamente ao Brasil, onde, a essa altura, o clima político instável criado pela opressiva ditadura militar fez com que as lindas, ensolaradas e despreocupadas bossas de romance e flores - do tipo que Marcos era escrevendo no início dos anos 60 – parece um tanto pueril.
Tendo sido criado em uma família rica nas pitorescas praias do Rio, Valle e seu irmão letrista Paulo Sergio Valle já haviam evitado letras social e politicamente conscientes. No entanto, no final dos anos 60 e início dos anos 70, Valle adotou uma abordagem de escrita mais madura e introspectiva. Foi também nesse ponto que ele começou a integrar rock, soul e pop em suas composições, levando-o muito além do rótulo de artista da bossa nova.
Marcus Preto
Brazilian journalist, curator, producer and art director.
Just as it happened in journalism, the roles of music producer and artistic director also came "by accident". Visiting Tom Zé's house on a weekly basis in order to collect testimonials for a biography, he found the musician downcast with the repercussion, on social networks, of the voiceover made by the musician for a Coca-Cola commercial. It was cancel culture starting to manifest itself in the country. Preto suggested that Tom Zé use the insults posted by haters on Facebook to create music. "Then you'll have to help me", replied the tropicalist master. Thus was born the EP Tribunal do Feicebuqui (2013), recorded with Emicida, O Terno, Troupe Chá de Boldo and Filarmônica de Pasárgada.
At the end of 2013, he began acting as artistic director for Gal Costa, a role he held for nine years, until the singer's death. For Gal, he produced six shows, three studio albums and three live recordings. In 2015, he received the APCA Trophy for Best Production and Artistic Direction, in the Popular Music category, for Estratosférica (2015), an album of new songs by the Bahian singer.
He also designed works by artists such as Erasmo Carlos, Silva Nando Reis, Alaíde Costa, Bala Quero, Paulo Miklos, Juliana Linhares, Marcia Castro, Almério, Lia de Itamaracá and the band Scalene, among others. For the albums "O Futuro Pertence à... Jovem Guarda", by Erasmo, and "Sim Sim Sim", by Bala Escolha, he was awarded the Grammy twice in 2022. For the show "Tudo É Amor - Almério Canta Cazuza", he received the trophy for Best Direction in Music at the Janeiro de Grandes Espeçous award. In 2023, he received two trophies at the Brazilian Music Award for the albums "O Futuro Pertence à... Jovem Guarda", by Erasmo Carlos, and "O que Meus Calos Diz Sobre Mim", by Alaíde Costa.
Jornalista, curador, produtor e diretor de arte brasileiro.
Assim como aconteceu no jornalismo, os papéis dos o produtor musical e o diretor artístico também vieram “por acidente”. Visitando semanalmente a casa de Tom Zé com o objetivo de colher depoimentos para uma biografia, encontrou o músico abatido com a repercussão, nas redes sociais, da locução feita pelo músico para um comercial da Coca-Cola. Foi a cultura do cancelamento que começou a se manifestar no país. Preto sugeriu que Tom Zé usasse os insultos postados por haters no Facebook para criar música. “Então você terá que me ajudar”, respondeu o mestre tropicalista. Assim nasceu o EP Tribunal do Feicebuqui (2013), gravado com Emicida, O Terno, Trupe Chá de Boldo e Filarmônica de Pasárgada.
No final de 2013, ele começou a atuar como diretor artístico de Gal Costa, função que ocupou durante nove anos, até a morte da cantora. Para Gal, produziu seis shows, três álbuns de estúdio e três gravações ao vivo. Em 2015, recebeu o Troféu APCA de Melhor Produção e Direção Artística, na categoria Música Popular, por Estratosférica (2015), álbum de músicas inéditas do cantor baiano.
Ele também desenhou obras de artistas como Erasmo Carlos , Silva Nando Reis, Alaíde Costa, Bala Quero, Paulo Miklos, Juliana Linhares, Marcia Castro, Almério, Lia de Itamaracá e a banda Scalene, entre outros. Pelos álbuns "O Futuro Pertence à... Jovem Guarda", de Erasmo, e "Sim Sim Sim", da Bala Escolha, foi premiado duas vezes com o Grammy em 2022. Pelo show "Tudo É Amor - Almério Canta Cazuza" , recebeu o troféu de Melhor Direção Musical no prêmio Janeiro de Grandes Espeçous. Em 2023, recebeu dois troféus no Prêmio da Música Brasileira pelos álbuns "O Futuro Pertence à... Jovem Guarda", de Erasmo Carlos, e "O que Meus Calos Diz Sobre Mim", de Alaíde Costa.
Mario Caldato
Mario Caldato Jr., also known as Mario C., is a Brazilian-born record producer and studio engineer best known for his work with Beastie Boys, Jack Johnson in the US, Marcelo D2 and Seu Jorge in Brazil.
In 1986, Caldato met DJ Matt Dike at Los Angeles nightclub Power Tools. At Dike's request, Caldato built a recording studio in Dike's apartment, where he engineered and co-produced Tone Loc and Young MC's hit singles and albums. In 1988, Caldato began his long-term professional association with Beastie Boys when he engineered their second album, Paul's Boutique. He co-produced their albums Check Your Head, Ill Communication and Hello Nasty.
Through his association with the Beastie Boys, Caldato also produced DJ Hurricane's first album, The Hurra. With Adam Horovitz, he produced two albums for the hardcore punk band D.F.L.. Caldato also toured extensively worldwide with Beastie Boys during Check Your Head and Ill Communication, and mixed their live sound.
Caldato has also worked with such artists as Money Mark, Jack Johnson, Beck, Björk, Blur, Cibo Matto, The Cult, Day One, Los Lobos, John Lee Hooker, Manu Chao, Molotov, Super Furry Animals, Gruff Rhys, The John Butler Trio, Yoko Ono, and One Day as a Lion.
Mario Caldato Jr., também conhecido como Mario C., é um produtor musical e engenheiro de estúdio nascido no Brasil, mais conhecido por seu trabalho com Beastie Boys, Jack Johnson nos EUA, Marcelo D2 e Seu Jorge. no brasil.
Em 1986, Caldato conheceu o DJ Matt Dike na boate Power Tools de Los Angeles. A pedido de Dike, Caldato construiu um estúdio de gravação no apartamento de Dike, onde projetou e co-produziu os singles e álbuns de sucesso de Tone Loc e Young MC. Em 1988, Caldato iniciou sua associação profissional de longo prazo com os Beastie Boys quando projetou seu segundo álbum, Paul's Boutique. Ele co-produziu seus álbuns Check Your Head, Ill Communication e Hello Nasty.
Através de sua associação com os Beastie Boys, Caldato também produziu o primeiro álbum do DJ Hurricane, The Hurra. Com Adam Horovitz, ele produziu dois álbuns para a banda de hardcore punk D.F.L.. Caldato também fez extensas turnês pelo mundo com Beastie Boys durante Check Your Head e Ill Communication, e mixou seu som ao vivo.
Caldato também trabalhou com artistas como Money Mark, Jack Johnson, Beck, Björk, Blur, Cibo Matto, The Cult, Day One, Los Lobos, John Lee Hooker, Manu Chao, Molotov, Super Animais peludos, Gruff Rhys, The John Butler Trio, Yoko Ono e Um dia como leão.
Osvaldo Pereira
At 89 years old, Osvaldo Pereira is considered the first DJ in Brazil. Born in the town of Muzambinho in Minas Gerais, Pereira has lived in the northern part of the capital of São Paulo for 73 years. Pioneer in disco in the country and with mastery and care, Osvaldo chose each song to stir up and brighten the dances he participates in.
His career as a disc jockey began in the early 1950s, when he was already an electronics technician and played at weddings, birthday parties and neighborhood parties. Music has always been present in his life, since, even as a child, the DJ remembers how music and the radio were important to him and his mother in their daily lives. At the age of 12, he went to live in São Paulo with some family members and the city's socio-cultural and musical background greatly influenced his education.
Along the way, he worked at a radio shop downtown, where he repaired and assembled sound equipment. He was also part of the Philco assembly line as a repairman, foreman and supervisor. In addition, he studied at a distance (through correspondence) at a large communication school in the United States, which helped him to create the mixing techniques that made him the most requested party entertainer of the time.
Aos 89 anos, Osvaldo Pereira é considerado o primeiro DJ do Brasil. Natural de Muzambinho, em Minas Gerais, Pereira mora na zona norte da capital paulista há 73 anos. Pioneiro na discoteca no país e com maestria e cuidado, Osvaldo escolheu cada música para agitar e alegrar as danças das quais participa.
Sua carreira como disc jockey começou no início Década de 1950, quando já era técnico em eletrônica e tocava em casamentos, festas de aniversário e festas de bairro. A música sempre esteve presente em sua vida, pois, desde criança, o DJ lembra como a música e o rádio eram importantes para ele e sua mãe no dia a dia. Aos 12 anos foi morar em São Paulo com alguns familiares e a formação sociocultural e musical da cidade influenciou muito sua formação.
Ao longo do caminho, ele trabalhou em uma loja de rádios centro da cidade, onde consertou e montou equipamentos de som. Também integrou a linha de montagem da Philco como reparador, encarregado e supervisor. Além disso, estudou a distância (por correspondência) em uma grande escola de comunicação dos Estados Unidos, o que o ajudou a criar as técnicas de mixagem que o tornaram o animador de festas mais requisitado da época.
Pupillo
Pupillo is a Brazilian bassist and drummer known from his work with Nação Zumbi, one of Brazil's most popular rock bands. Throughout his career he has worked with some of the most important artists in Brazil including Nação Zumbi, Gal Costa, Céu, Marisa Monte, Otto, Nando Reis, Seu Jorge and more.
His work as a percussionist and producer on Céu's album TROPIX won him a Latin Grammy. He is also involved in 'Sonantes', a São Paulo based musical collective featuring the vocal talents of Céu in collaboration with Pupillo and Dengue (guitarist of Nação Zumbi), as well as Rica Amabis from Instituto and Gui Amabis.
Pupillo é um baixista e baterista brasileiro conhecido por seu trabalho com a Nação Zumbi, uma das bandas de rock mais populares do Brasil. Ao longo de sua carreira trabalhou com alguns dos artistas mais importantes do Brasil, incluindo Nação Zumbi, Gal Costa, Céu, Marisa Monte, Otto, Nando Reis, Seu Jorge e muito mais.
Seu trabalho como percussionista e produtor do álbum TROPIX, de Céu, lhe rendeu um Grammy Latino. Também está envolvido no 'Sonantes', coletivo musical paulista que conta com os talentos vocais de Céu em colaboração com Pupillo e Dengue (guitarrista da Nação Zumbi), além de Rica Amabis do Instituto e Gui Amabis.
Samantha Schmütz
Samantha Schmütz is a Brazilian singer, actress and ccomedian. Her passion for music comes from her father who taught her about the great Brazilian composers from an early age. Best known in Brazil for her work in film and television show as the popular television show "Vai Que Cola", Samantha feels most at home of the stage:
"The stage is my favorite place. There I feel free, powerful, welcomed... exposed, seen, vunerable, and at the same time a heroine."
Samantha Schmütz é uma cantora, atriz e comediante brasileira. Sua paixão pela música vem de seu pai que desde cedo lhe ensinou sobre os grandes compositores brasileiros. Mais conhecida no Brasil por seu trabalho no cinema e em programas de televisão como o popular programa de televisão "Vai Que Cola", Samantha se sente mais à vontade nos palcos:
"O palco é meu lugar preferido. Lá me sinto livre, poderosa, acolhida... exposta, vista, vulnerável e ao mesmo tempo uma heroína."
Kamaal WilliAms
TICKETS GO ON SALE THURSDAY, MAY 18TH.
We are excited to announce Kamaal Williams will be back on the Jazz Is Dead stage Thursday September 14th, 2023. If you were lucky enough to see him at the last go round, then you know this is a show you will not want to miss.
Kamaal Williams, alias of genius Henry Wu, is a jazz producer and DJ who conquered the London jazz scene in 2016 together with Yussef Dayes. In 2018, he unpacked his first solo record The Return, which opened the door to an international career. In addition to his passion for jazz, he loves making forays into electronica and founded his own Black Focus Records. Put on your best dancing shoes, because Kamaal Williams knows how to get everyone on board with the delicious beats and funky bass lines of his latest album.
Emicida
“When the black Brazilian rapper Emicida imagines his country’s whitewashed history, he sees a textbook missing a succession of key pages.
In his songs and on stage, the São Paulo-born musician tries to correct that skewed telling, remembering the lives and times of black Brazilian academics, artists and activists in the hope of changing Brazil’s future.
“If we’d been told about this story and these [black] contributions at school, we’d have a radically different sense of who we are – and this would have produced a far better society than the one we’ve got today,” the 35-year-old artist said, quoting the famous saying that those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Emicida, real name Leandro Roque de Oliveira, has been making music for more than a decade, recording three albums and building a reputation as one of Brazil’s top hip-hop MCs. In the past 12 months he has also emerged as one of the country’s most influential cultural figures.” - The Guardian
RONNIE FOSTER
Ronnie Foster first caught the Foster first caught the ear of Blue Note co-founder Francis Wolff in 1970 when he made his first-ever recording as a sideman on jazz guitar legend Grant Green’s searingly funky Blue Note LP, Alive!. A few months later, Ronnie was officially signed to the prestigious label making him the next in an illustrious lineage of Hammond B3 organ artisans the label had presented which included the legendary Jimmy Smith, Larry Young, and Dr. Lonnie Smith. His music has been sampled by hip hop artists such as A Tribe Called Quest, Kendrick Lamar, Madlib, J.Cole and more.
ARTHUR VEROCAI US TOUR
In August 2023, ArtDontSleep presents Jazz Está Morto celebrates the genius of Arthur Verocai with a 30 piece orchestra and Special Guests bringing to life his self titled, 1973, debut album on Verocai’s first ever US Tour. This album has been sampled by MF Doom, Ludacris & Common, Little Brother, Action Bronson, Curren$y and countless others and is a staple amongst hip hop producers from every era. "I could listen to the album everyday for the rest of my life" - Madlib. This will be a once in a life time moment with one of the greatest Brazilian Arranger/Composers to ever walk the face of the earth. "A true master conductor. Just as incredible live as recorded" - MF DOOM
GARRETT SARACHO “EN MEDIO” LIVE
This Summer, Jazz Is Dead and Grand Performances present Los Angeles' unsung Chicano Jazz Legend, Garrett Saracho, in celebration of the 50 year anniversary of his 1973 masterpiece, En Medio, This will be the first time this album has ever been performed live in its entirety, one night only at Grand Performances.
ISAIAH COLLIER & THE CHOSEN FEW
Twenty-five-year-old Isaiah Collier is a musical virtuoso in the truest sense of the phrase. He began playing saxophone at age 11, and his intuitive proficiency earned him attention early on. Ever since, his band Isaiah Collier and The Chosen Few has been turning ears.
JOYCE & TUTTY MORENO
Joyce Moreno is like the Joni Mitchell of Brazil, a singular, multi-talented paragon of feminine musical energy. Unapologetically independent, Joyce is a masterful guitar player, angelic vocalist and inspired composer who’s blazed her own musical trail since her start in the music business in the sixties as an outspoken singer-songwriter. Since her rediscovery by Gilles Peterson and other British DJs in the nineties, her reputation as a performer and recording artist has only grown. Despite her singular talents, she’s always surrounded herself with talented musical partners such as Vinicius de Moraes, (ex-husband) Nelson Angelo, Naná Vasconcelos, Claus Ogerman, her forever musical and life partner Tutty Moreno and, of course, João Donato.
Don’t ask for footnotes, but Brazil has more phenomenal drummers per-capita than any other country in the world, and Tutty Moreno is at the top of the list of best drummers that country has to offer. Unlike the above two cariocas (Rio natives), Tutty Moreno is from Salvador, Bahia where most of Africa’s involuntary immigrants first landed during Brazil’s slave trade. Exposed from an early age to the rhythms of mother Africa, Tutty absorbed the fluid and sacred rhythms and has been translating them into the modern idiom of Brazilian pop music for over five decades being the go-to drummer for Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Jards Macalé, Maria Bethania and his wife since the late seventies, Joyce Moreno.
HERMETO PASCOAL TOUR
Few musicians have ever reach the stature of Hermeto Pascoal. A true maestro and a cultural icon, he represents the highest level of musical evolution; as a multi-instrumentalist, as a composer and as an arranger.
Hermeto is a Brazilian legend. He has worked with the greatest of the greats, such as: Milton Nascimento, Tim Maia, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil and countless others. He first gained public attention in 1971 after performing and recording with Miles Davis on the Live/Evil album, of which Miles said, “Hermeto is one of the most important musicians on the planet.” There is good reason (beyond his Gandalf-like appearance) why he is known as "O Bruxo" (the Wizard). Long before Miles, he was performing and collabing with the likes of Edu Lobo and Elis Regina. Later collaborations involved fellow Brazilian musicians Airto Moreira and Flora Purim. From the late 1970s onward, he has mostly led his own groups, playing at many prestigious venues, such as the Montruex Jazz Festival in 1979.
Pascoal often makes music with unconventional objects such as teapots, children's toys, and animals, as well as keyboards, button accordions, melodica, saxophones, guitars, flutes, voices, various brass and folkloric instruments. He uses nature as a basis for his compositions, as in his Música da Lagoa, in which the musicians burble water and play flutes while immersed in a lagoon: a Brazilian television broadcast from 1999 showed him soloing at one point by singing into a cup with his mouth partially submerged in water. Folk music from rural Brazil is another important influence in his work.
JIMETTA ROSE & THE VOICES OF CREATION & LADY BLACKBYRD
The Voices of Creation are a community-based choir led by vocalist, songwriter, arranger, producer and main stay of the Los Angeles scene, Jimetta Rose. Made up of a multi-generational group of singers backed by some of the city’s finest musicians, their music marries hip strains of gospel with layers of jazz, soul and funk.
Lady Blackbird is the talent, and the force-of-nature that Gilles Peterson has dubbed “the Grace Jones of jazz” – an accolade reinforced by the remixes of recent single ‘Collage’ by jazz and house heavyweights Bruise, Greg Foat and KDA.
They will share the Jazz Is Dead stage on 5/3/23.
HOTEL SAN CLAUDIO
Mark de Clive-Lowe (MdCL), links up with Melanie Charles and Shigeto on Hotel San Claudio, a collaborative LP of spiritual jazz, live deconstructed beats, including a three-track set of Pharoah Sanders reinterpretations.
IN STORE DISCUSSION WITH HENRY FRANKLIN, GARRETT SARACHO & KATALYST
We are excited to be hosting Henry “The Skipper” Franklin, Garrett Saracho and Katalyst for an in store discussion about ‘70s jazz in Los Angeles!
