Remembering singer/songwriter Eugene McDaniels on his birthday

Raising a glass to Eugene McDaniels with a discussion of his hit tune "Compared To What" performed by Les McCann and more. 

R.I.P. Reuben Wilson, 1935-2023

Sadly, it has been reported that Hammond hammering soul jazz great Reuben Wilson has passed away. He'll be greatly missed.

90s Nostalgia: A Tribe Called Quest, Leaders Of The New School, 1992

Here's Q-Tip performing Tribe's classic "Scenario" with LONS feat. Busta Rhymes on the Arsenio Hall Show back in 1992.

Midweek Mixdown: Chris Read spins Mr. Bongo hip hop 45 reissues

Check out Chris Read's mix assembled from Mr. Bongo's hip hop 45 reissues right here.

Here's the scoop from Mr. Bongo...

During our 30+ year history we have become well-known for championing a wide-range of musical genres, but for many people we will forever be associated with the golden age of hip hop and our Soho stores. The memories of the music and culture from that time are intertwined with the experience of being in that store (for customers and staff alike). Mr Bongo founder and MD, Dave Buttle, recalls that heady period in Mr Bongo history…

"It was a really exciting time. Soho was booming - full of media companies, record, stores, labels, and the place to go in London for your vinyl shopping needs. If you had an exclusive new hip hop release in store the word would spread and it would be a roadblock. We are talking the early Rawkus releases, Mos Def, Company Flow, then we had Dr Octagon, exclusive Lord Finesse bits from Japan."

Hip hop will always be in the DNA of Mr Bongo and a couple of years back we decided to channel that into a Mr Bongo Hip Hop 45 reissue series. Our ambition was to release the best and most in demand cuts from the 80’s and 90’s on 7" in original picture sleeves. It’s a collection of our personal favourites, Bongo store anthems and undeniable classics. We kicked the series off with A Tribe Called Quest ‘Scenario’ and we are about to hit release number 20 with the Egyptian Lover ‘Computer Love'. The series has featured artists such as Nas, Souls of Mischief, Ultramagnetic MC’s, Cypress Hill, Gang Starr, Black Sheep - to name a few. The response to these releases has been fantastic - the demand for these cuts is coming in from all around the world and we are very thankful for the support and love they are getting!

To celebrate reaching release number 20 in the series we thought now would be a good time to showcase the catalogue in full. We called in DJ Chris Read to put together an exclusive Mr Bongo Hip Hop 45’s mix. Chris is a long-time collaborator with Bongo, has a deep knowledge of hip hop, and is an incredible DJ. Perfect for this mix.

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"Every track featured in the Bongos Hip Hop 45s reissues series is a certified classic and a high proportion of these records featured heavily in my DJ sets during the 90s and beyond. It was a lot of fun not only to see these records again on 45, but also to revisit them in this mix.

In the years after I moved back to London in the early 2000s, a record shopping trip to Soho was a regular part of my Saturday routine and a visit to Mr Bongo's Berwick Street store was an essential stop on a circuit that took in stores including Record and Tape Exchange, Major Flavas, Scenario, Deal Real and many others. The space was small, the queue for the counter usually deep and the vibe was often hectic, but the atmosphere was electric. I have no idea how many hours I must have spent flicking through the racks or stood at the counter trying to get a glimpse of the latest arrivals up on the wall, but they were hours well spent, made all the better by the presence of some top class DJs serving from behind the counter.” – Chris Read

 

Roy Ayers joined by Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad for new album

Roy Ayers: Jazz Is Dead 0002 is slated for release by the Jazz Is Dead label on June 19th. Listen to "Synchronizaton Vibration" and Jazz Is Dead 001.  

Here's the scoop...
Timeless music exists as a piece of art that is perpetually in vogue; a creation of sound that never sours with future generations.  For Jazz Is Dead, a taste for timelessness is essential and our strength is based on presenting the unexpected.  With great pride, we announce a new album with Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Adrian Younge and the godfather of neo-soul: Roy Ayers Jazz Is Dead (JID) 002

With a career spanning nearly 60 years, he’s inspired a multitude of artists with his jazz-oriented R&B: a fusion of post-bop and soul that canonized his place in the world of music.  He’s one of the most sampled artists of all time, responsible for some of your favorite songs by A Tribe Called Quest, Mary J. Blige, Erykah Badu, Kendrick Lamar and more.  His formative years came in the ‘70s, with a slew of Polydor releases including He’s Coming, Vibrations and Everybody Loves the Sunshine.

The Los Angeles bred Ayers was raised near the epicenter of the west coast jazz scene, Central Avenue.  By day, a pleasant downtown for the segregated black middle class; by night, a dynamic multi-cultural thoroughfare of music, entertainment, and Black excellence.  At a time when Bebop was the new wave, musicians ranging from Lionel Hampton, Charlie Parker, and Ella Fitzgerald were frequent regulars.  With fast tempos, instrumental virtuosity and complex chord progressions, it was the younger generations answer to the oversaturated jazz of yesteryear. At the age of 5, Ayers attended a Lionel Hampton concert, where he was personally gifted a set of mallets by the legendary vibraphonist. “I was singing before the vibraphone but I was playing the piano because we had one at home…the piano really made me want to play the vibraphone.”  Ayers sought to become the next Hampton.

At 17, Ayers convinced his parents to buy him a $300 vibraphone, with the goal of one day becoming a professional musician.  As he progressed, he began performing with fledgling musicians like Bobby Hutcherson and Edwin Birdsong.  He also played with more established artists like Chico Hamilton, Teddy Edwards, Jack Wilson, Phineas Newborn and Gerald Wilson.  His persistence paid off and he found his niche as a touring vibraphonist for the flautist Herbie Mann.

Towards the end of his four-year tenure with Mann, he signed a deal with Polydor that would define his career.  Slowly, he began to forego some of his post-bop virtuosity for a prevalence in groove and R&B.   Unbeknownst to Ayers, he would create a catalog, ultimately serving as the predecessor to neo-soul.  This move was heavily influenced by his childhood friend and frequent co-producer, Edwin Birdsong.  During these formative years, Ayers found a new purpose and reached a wider audience with soulful iterations of jazz.  In ’76 he released “Searching,” and “Everybody Loves The Sunshine,” the latter serving as one of the most influential songs of his career.

“The song changed everything for me. It’s still the last song of my show. People always join in and it’s been sampled over 100 times, by everyone from Dr. Dre to Pharrell Williams,” stated Ayers.  His biggest hit was ironically recorded at night and the phrase just came to his head.  Roy chanted, “Feel what I feel, when I feel what I feel, what I’m feeling. Then I started thinking about summer imagery. Folks get down in the sunshine, folks get brown in the sunshine, just bees and things and flowers. It was so spontaneous. It felt wonderful and I knew exactly how I wanted it to sound: a mix of vibraphone, piano and a synthesizer.”

It's this simple blending of soul and jazz that revolutionized a sound of music for years to come.  Prior to recording Jazz Is Dead 002, he worked with Alicia Keys, Thundercat and Tyler The Creator.  When asked why he still continues to record music, he had one simple answer, “For the younger generation. That’s exactly why I do it, exactly for that reason.”

Soul Supreme updates A Tribe Called Quest classics

Amsterdam-based DJ/producer Soul Supreme offers his own perspective on Tribe's "Lyrics To Go" and "Check The Rhime" 

Jazz runs deep through the music of A Tribe Called Quest. Two new tracks by Amsterdam-based, Jerusalem-born keyboardist, DJ & producer Soul Supreme is in its own way a reflection of that. The tracks are homages to iconic hip-hop tracks “Check The Rhime” & “Lyrics To Go” from a jazz perspective.

“I want to take the listener on a trip to overlook tracks they know, but from a different perspective,” says Soul Supreme. “I try to go 'in and out' of the ATCQ tracks so the listener never knows what’s going to happen next. My overall goal is to give existing music my own twist. I don’t want to sound like a rehash of something listeners have heard before.”

But to Soul Supreme, that’s far from science. He doesn’t sit down with a pad & pen to think of ways to switch things up, it happens through improvisation. In that sense, it’s A Tribe Called Quest’s hip-hop he loves, but a jazz influence that prevails.

Soul Supreme’s versions of “Check The Rhime” and “Lyrics To Go” follow the line of his The Message / Umi Says 7” release on Chicago-based imprint Star Creature Universal Vibrations last year. That record featuring instrumental tributes to Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five and Mos Def was sold out in a matter of days.

Jazz guitarist Jack Wilkins' well-sampled Windows LP gets deluxe reissue treatment

Thank Judd Apatow's WeWantSounds for the reissue featuring "Red Clay" sampled by ATCQ & Chance The Rapper.

LINKS
From The Red Clay Soil: An Interview with Jack Wilkins

Khruangbin @ Danforth Music Hall, Thursday

Khruangbin have been known to rip through some hip hop jams on tour – check the clip from their Chicago show. 

Shawn Phillips @ Hugh's Room, Wednesday

Here's a well-sampled track from Shawn's 1977 Spaced album he won't be playing in Toronto. 

Happy 80th Birthday Donald Byrd!