Vanessa, Freeman, 4, Hero,

BY J.C. TRIPP

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

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

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

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

VF: Yeah, I’m very very happy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MV: What is it that makes him so unique?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MV: So, what’s coming up for you?

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

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

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

Vanessa Freeman Myspace

By Rose Parfitt

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nick Matthews and Gilles Peterson. ©2005 Alex Capodanno.

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

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

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

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

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

Strictly no reproduction without prior permission of the author.

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

San Francisco’s Brazilian Music Scene

Peter Nicholson reports on the Latin-Brazilian meltdown

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Om Records

Ubiquity Records

Elbo Room

Make Out Room

SF Carnival

Boozoo, Bajou, Dust, Broom

Boozoo Bajou Hit the Bayou

BY JOHN C. TRIPP

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mundovibes: Which is what you are all about.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Florian: Slower things come more natural out of us.

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

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

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

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

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

Florian: Of course

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

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

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

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

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

Florian: Yes, this was a very nice opportunity.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Boozoo Bajou Myspace

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

Jerome Derradji — Still Music

By John C. Tripp

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

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

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

MV: What types of music does Still Music represent?

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

MV: What is the label’s mission?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MV: What is your strategy for marketing and promotions?

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

MV: How important is digital downloading to the label?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Still Music Myspace

Baka, Beyond, Pygmies, Martin, Cradick, Hart

Baka Beyond — Rhythms of the Forest

By J.C. Tripp

Music has been a passage to many cultures for Su Hart and Baka Beyond’s leader, Martin Cradick. Sipping cafe con leche in a Cuban cafe on Manhattan’s upper west side, in town to promote their music, Cradick expels on the benefits of traveling as a musician. “If you’re traveling, then you’re a tourist. A lot of places people don’t understand what you’re doing because that’s just outside their comprehension. They couldn’t imaging just getting up and going around looking at places,” he said. “Whereas, as a musician you can turn up and play and you’re giving something to the people. And in virtually all cultures that’s an acceptable way to make a living. So, then you get accepted and can experience the culture from within.”

If crossing boundaries and uniting cultures is the basis of “world music” then Baka Beyond are its poster children. There is nothing quite like them, a melding of Northern European and West African musical traditions—a conglomeration of tribes, if you will. Their recordings piece together West African rhythms, Gaelic melodies, Breton Gypsy fiddle and the effervescent songs of their namesake, Cameroon’s Baka pygmies. Cradick and Hart, along with fiddle-maestro Paddy Le Mercier, form the core of Baka Beyond, with additional band members including master musicians Nii Tagoe, Seckou Keita, Pelembie and others.

Through all of their travels, Baka Beyond retain the spirit of the Baka people, with whom they are passionately attached. Cradick and Hart have been involved with the Baka since first traveling to Cameroon in 1992 and living amongst them in the forest, an experience which affected them profoundly. The adventure began with a BBC TV program on the Baka: “We were watching this program about the Baka, and what struck us was how central the music was to their lives,” explained Cradick in a soft Cornish accent. “At any moment it’s quite possible for all the Baka to sit down, start singing and playing music together. In England we really love just sitting around playing music, so to see this group of people where it was so central caught our fancy. We said, ‘we must go there.’”

As circumstances would have it, Cradick and Hart were destined to have their wish fulfilled. “A year after that program, I was running some percussion workshops and this guy came in with a very interesting drum that was from the Baka. He was an anthropologist and had lived near them. Suddenly we thought, ‘this could be reality’ and we soon discovered that the Rivers Museum of Anthropology in Oxford had a sponsorship for people to study pygmies. So, we wrote them saying ‘though we’re not anthropologists, we have experience as artists in communicating non-verbally. And they paid for us to go there on the first trip.”

This wasn’t the first time Cradick had crossed boundaries with his music. An accomplished guitarist and mandolin player, he’d been a member of the groundbreaking band Outback, which had done for the didgeridoo and Australia’s Aborigines, what they were about to do for Cameroon’s Bangombi (Baka Pygmies): give their culture and music a world stage. Outback’s two releases, Baka and Dance the Devil Away paved the way for Cradick’s future experiments.

Western Africa may have been a long way from London, but Cradick and Hart had their instruments and their music to connect with the Baka. The two went with little more than a tent, some instruments and recording equipment. They slept, ate and gathered as the Baka did and Cradick spent as many hours as possible playing with them, learning just how integrated the music is with their lives. “Sometimes they fish by building a dam and emptying out the river. There were some kids doing this, playing really. But when they’re emptying it with buckets, it’s totally in rhythm. And then you start hearing someone in the distance, singing along to the same rhythm. So, other people are singing along to it and all the activities in the camp are joined together. In a normal day, where there are people sitting around in a camp doing their jobs, they’ll almost subconsciously be doing it in rhythm, so that this music starts coming out of it. In playing music there’s always an element of telepathy and I’m sure they use music to enhance communication within the group,” said Hart. The rhythm of life, indeed.

But the music is fading, since the Baka, like most indigenous people, are threatened by outside forces beyond their control. The forests are being chopped down by logging operations, brought on by massive dept incurred by the Cameroonian government. “It’s changing rapidly. The forest is broken up and the intensity is going. That magic singing they do in the forest to make animals come so they’ve got food — they don’t do it anymore because of all the disturbance. As it breaks up, their whole knowledge and way of life is being dissipated,” explained Hart.

“The forest people’s situation is like the Aborigines. They had the land and lived in a natural way and then someone’s come in and taken it over. They have no land rights, even though they’ve lived in the forest before Cameroon was even a country. By law they’re not even allowed to chop down a tree or kill an animal, which has been their way of life for thousands of years,” said Hart.

But there is some hope, as futile as it may seem. Unlike many Western musicians who use indigenous recordings and samples in their music, Baka Beyond actually pay royalties to the Baka people. Their charity, “One Heart”, provides moneys and empowerment to the Baka. “The charity sends royalties back to them,” said Hart. “This helps them set up things to make their lives better. It’s made it possible to have the worst things in their lives changed – like not having identity cards. If you have a card then you’re a citizen, so now they can go into town without being arrested. What we’re trying to do with our charity is give them a choice, so they can have control over their lives.”

Their mission doesn’t stop there. Hart also runs a “Rainforest Workshop”, a one day multimedia session of music, dancing and performance that involves participants in the culture of the Baka. Working mainly with school children, the workshop engages and educates, and hopeful enlightens a future generation.

The spirit and sounds of the Baka have been an integral element of the music, but as the band’s title suggests, Baka Beyond is a continually evolving unit, embracing influences and musicians from Africa and Europe. And there’s a simple message in Baka Beyond’s music: everything is interconnected. “There is a sharing of simple things, each little thing given by somebody and it fits in,” explained Cradick. “Using that as the basis, you can bring in musicians from different places and it fits together. This is the Baka Way.”

Baka Beyond’s foray into world rhythms has resulted in several recordings, including 1998’s Sogo, a collaboration with Senegalese and Ghanian musicians. “Sogo” is a Ghanaian drum also called “the Lightening Pot” due to its use to call the lightening spirit in times of drought. For Sogo Cradick invited four musicians from West Africa and four musicians from the Celtic fringes of Europe to join Baka Beyond for an extensive tour. During this intensely creative time of playing together, new songs evolved that are a fusion of individual talents and traditions.

The departure of Joe Boyd from Hannibal Records brought to a close their relationship with the label and their most recent recording East to West is released on their own label, March Hare Music. It furthers Baka Beyond’s Celtic-African fusion, as well as their collaboration with the Baka. The opening track ‘Awaya Baka’, a song written by Baka guitarist Pelembie, features a chorus sung by Baka children recorded in the forest. The next song, ‘Braighe Locheil’, is a Scottish song sung in Gaelic augmented by Senegalese kora and Ghanaian balafon, while ‘Wandering Spirit’ is based on a dance that the Baka asked Cradick to take to the world seamlessly combined with an Irish slipjig.

In addition to East to West, Cradick and bandmates Nii Tagoe and Seckou Keita have formed a new project, EtE (translated: triangle in the Gha language) and released an album in that name. Tagoe is from a leading family of master drummers and dancers from Ghana. He originally came to Britain as principal dancer and drummer in the Adzido dance company. and has toured with Adrian Sherwood’s African Headcharge and runs the Frititi troupe. He has a deep knowledge of the diverse dance and rhythmic traditions of Ghana. Keita is a griot, descended from the founder and ruler of Mali, Sundiata Keita. Seckou is deeply influenced by his indigenous role as an historian, carrying his tradition in his songs. Mixing traditions, ancient and modern, from the U.K., Ghana and Senegal, EtE is an exciting extension of the Baka Beyond sound.

In this incredibly shrinking world, could Baka Beyond represent the future of “world” music? Their inspired collaboration has achieved both critical and commercial success with bowing to cheap cliches. And by channeling back some of the funds to the people from which the music is born – does this signal a new model for others to follow? For the future of the Baka pygmies and all indigenous people who’s cultures are threatened, let’s hope so.

Baka Beyond website

Baka Beyond Myspace