John Tripp Creative

Author: Editor

  • Giant Step Summer Events NYC: Thievery Corporation, Summer Stage, Seun Kuti & More

    click images for more info.

    Thievery Corporation w/ Raphael Saadiq, Dam-Funk and Master Blazter on Friday, June 24th at Williamsburg Waterfront, BK NYLee Fields and the Expressions, Fitz and the Tantrums, KING, and DJ Rich Medina on Saturday, June 25th at SummerStage Central Park NY NY

    Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 on Tour July 13-30

     

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  • Jazz-Funk Legends the Headhunters Release “Platinum”

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

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

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  • Junior Boys Release “It’s All True”

    Free song at end of article

    Junior Boys. Photo illustration by John C. Tripp.

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

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

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

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  • Superhuman Happiness Release “Needles & Pins” 7-inch, Appear on Red Hot + Rio 2

    Brooklyn-based Superhuman Happiness has just released a new digital single/7-inch for the song “Needles & Pins.” Superhuman Happiness was founded by tenor saxophonist Stuart Bogie — who’s appeared recently on albums by Gomez, Sam Roberts and Lykke Li and who is a member of Iron & Wine and Antibalas.

    In addition to this new track and an EP in the works, Superhuman Happiness collaborated with Cults on the song “Um Canto de Afoxe para o Bloco do Ile,” which will be on the forthcoming Red Hot + Rio 2 compilation.

    Listen

  • Portishead DJ Andy Smith Releases “Document 4” Mixtape Exclusively on Mixcloud.

    DJ Andy Smith releases his Document 4 mixtape exclusively on Mixcloud. Once slated for release by Universal Records, Document 4 is the last chapter of the Portishead DJ’s stunning Document mixtape series, blending the very best soul, funk, and hip hop as only he can. After a long time gathering dust on his hard-drive Andy’s made it available for everybody to listen to for free at Mixcloud.
    Here’s what Andy has to say about it: “Document 4 was delivered to Universal Records in 2008 but never released. All plans were in place for a double pack of Document 1 with Document 4 to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the first Document mix CD, but I think they were more interested in shifting Amy Winehouse CDs at the end of the day so it was shelved. I’m pretty sure this will be the last Document mix as I can’t put new and old music together as there just isn’t enough new stuff that passes the ‘Andy Smith’ filter nowadays… Enjoy the last Document mix for free. Thanks for your support since 1998 and for all who saw me as a DJ in my own right rather than ‘that DJ from Portishead’!”
    And remember, Mixcloud is now available on the iPhone, meaning you can listen to Document 4 and thousands of other radio shows on-the-go!
    Links:
     

  • What’s The Big Idea?

    Scion’s upcoming show at their LA Gallery, “The Big Idea” features a world-class selection of illustrators, art directors, graphic designers and more.

    For this show the artists were given the following brief: Design a billboard that illustrates your interpretation of “The Big Idea” – the term coined by George Lois – one of the advertising world’s great art-directors.

  • Helado Negro Turns Dance Music Inside Out on “Canta Lechuza”

    Helado Negro translates as “black ice cream” and Canta Lechuza means “sing owl.” Rightly so—like the wise ol’ owl, like Davey Crockett and the Jersey Devil, Canta Lechuza is a thing born of woodsy zones.

    In November of last year Roberto left Brooklyn for a month-long artist residence in rural Connecticut. From his piny retreat, Roberto awoke each morning to the dead-quiet of the forest. He got up, showered, put on a kettle, fixed a cup of black tea, then sat in the woods, om-ing out into the almighty (and very scenic) Void. Staring straight ahead, he centered himself for the recording hours to come. When the tea was gone he went back inside to get warm and began the workday. It was no stress, no pressure; a great cosmic calm presiding. He was in a benevolent place where nothing moved, where all was quiet and subtle. The result is Canta Lechuza—a majestically pretty electronic pop record; easygoing and beautifully mellow, but each piece danceable, each part a dance party.

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  • American and Cuban Jazz Meet on “Ninety Miles” Documentary

    Stefon Harris, David Sanchez & Christian Scott will perform at their album release party at S.O.B.’s in NYC on June 21.

    Opening Tuesday, June 21 – S.O.B.’s, NYC – Win Tickets

    Hear ‘Ninety Miles’ In Its Entirety

    All distance is relative, especially where geopolitical borders and ideologies are involved. We speak one language, they speak another. We follow our system, they follow theirs. When we focus on the differences, a relatively short stretch of land or water starts to look like a yawning chasm. But when we look at each other as individuals and focus on the similarities, that “chasm” is actually a very short distance. Less than a hundred miles.

    Musicians – especially jazz musicians, whose craft is in many ways an improvised form of communication – understand this principle inherently, perhaps better than any politician or diplomat could ever hope to. Vibraphonist Stefon Harris, saxophonist David Sánchez and trumpeter Christian Scott cross that divide in Ninety Miles.

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  • Dojo Cuts Funk It Up Australian Style (Free Song)

    /With a self-titled debut album and two 45s out now on RK, Australian heavy funk unit DOJO CUTS is in no need of an introduction here. Though hard at work on various side projects (many players of the group are also members of afro-funk combo THE LIBERATORS, and vocalist Roxie Ray has been guesting on albums by artists such as raw funk outfit THE UNDERBELLY and Ray Lugo’s L.E.S. EXPRESS), the band has also been busy in the studio to record tracks for their second full-length, now complete and expected to drop on RK in the Winter. If soul is your goal, then the new Dojo Cuts album will definitely work for you.

    But that’s not all this hard-working band has been up to. While in the studio, Dojo Cuts also took the opportunity to record a super tight and completely new version of “You Make Lovin’ Real Easy” from the debut full-length.

    We are therefore delighted to offer fans of the group this exclusive new version in FREE DOWNLOAD by clicking HERE.

    And if you like what you hear, remember to join the Dojo Cuts fan page on facebook: facebook.com/dojocutsfunk and follow the band on twitter: twitter.com/DojoCuts and keep an eye out for the new album coming soon!

     

  • Rediscovering the Malian Jazz of Sorry Bamba

    Sorry Bamba

    Sorry Bamba was born in 1938 in Mopti — “The Venice of Mali” — a city whose setting at the confluence of the Niger and Bani rivers made it a true cultural crossroads. This diversity sparked an unsinkable curiosity and passion for learning that characterizes Sorry’s career to this day.

    Sorry Bamba’s father was a noble, and a veteran of the Emperor Samory Touré’s army. In Mali’s caste-based society, this meant that he was forbidden to play music, an art reserved exclusively for griots. However, after being orphaned at a very young age, he turned to music for solace, particularly a six-holed flute that kept him busy day and night.

    It was in 1957 that Sorry formed his first band, Group Goumbé, named after a dance craze from the Ivory Coast. Consisting of little more than some percussion instruments and a trumpet, Group Goumbé became popular with the young people of Mopti, publicizing their performances in a small van equipped with a loudspeaker.

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