Saturday, March 23, 2013

Twice (Questlove remix) - featuring The Roots, Robert Glasper and Solange

The song is good, the beat is good, but the star of the song is the syncopated, DJ Premier-like bell you hear throughout the song. It is slightly off beat, but right on time...

Sunday, March 17, 2013

I would like to say thank you to my main man jazzbrew, for assisting me with a question I've had for 23 f**king years. If you've ever seen Mo Better Blues (it was on HBO on Sunday afternoon, and it just so happens to be one of my favorite movies/soundtracks) you know there's a scene where Bleek is on the bridge alone with his trumpet. He had just called both of his ex-lovers, and neither one of them answered the phone (one was ignoring his call, and the other was getting thoroughly boned by Wesley Snipes' character). That song was NOT on the Mo Better Blues soundtrack, and for years (23 to be exact) I have wondered what that song was called, and how I could get my grubby hands on it.

I emailed jazzbrew on Sunday afternoon, and he gave me the answer, and the background story behind it, which is just the kind of answer I love and appreciate. Apparently the inclusion of this song is what helped Terence Blanchard win additional scoring gigs for Shelton "Spike" Lee. So thank you jazzbrew for your assistance. Unfortunately, this song is not available via itunes, but Amazon came through for me, and it will be in my collection soon enough. Here's the song:

Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Saturday, March 02, 2013

So Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle ended up doing an impromptu comedy set together earlier this week. After I got over my jealousy, and my fantasies of seeing both comedians in concert together, I started thinking. In the 50s and 60s, jazz musicians like Miles, Dizzy and Bird would collaborate all the time, it really wasn't a big deal--in fact I'm 100% sure they didn't do it for the fans, but they did it for themselves. How else do you know where you measure against the best, if you don't subject yourself to a face-to-face meeting (with the audience playing the role of fans/judges)? Or maybe the artists are big fans of their competition, and sharing the stage during the jam is a huge thrill for them. I hope this is a trend that doesn't die anytime soon. I love Chappelle and Rock. I loved it when the Roots and John Legend did an album together. I love PTI with Wilbon and Kornheiser, and I love movies with Pesci and DeNiro. Apparently I love rambling too.

More about the Rock/Chapelle show here