Goodbye Laura V!

Sorry I haven't updated, I have been having some difficulty pulling together a new post, but trust me a lot of good stuff is coming. 

Just wanted to let everyone know I'm going to be djing Laura V's going-away party at Ashley's Bar in Long Beach this Friday night. Come buy Laura a pitcher. No cover, and I'm spinning until they tell me to stop. 

"

	Ashley's Bar
	1731 E 4th St.
	Long Beach, CA   $3.25 well drinks $3.00 domestics $2.50 pabst pints cheap pitchers!!!

                        "

People & Love

Johnny Lytle - People & Love (Milestone, 1972) 
Johnny Lytle was straight up a baaaad (as in cool) vibe player, this guy was able to really groove and get a lot of energy from an instrument that usually often sounds stuck in the land of bad 60's feel-good soundtracks. He was a player who often eluded fame, but not because of his lack of talent and this record really showcases his full abilities as both musician and songwriter. The record is from 1972 and electric instruments were beginning to show up in jazz bands - fusion was still in its baby steps, but this is is less a fusion record than a funky jazz record that makes wide use of its acoustic instruments with the added power of the keyboard and electric bass.

Bridge into the New Age

Azar Lawrence - Bridge into the New Age (Prestige, 1974)
As you can tell by the cover, this is not your typical coffee shop jazz record. Azar Lawrence is best known for his work with McCoy Tyner and Miles Davis, but his records as a leader were just as powerful and innovative. Bridge into the New Age is the first of three records the sax player recorded for Prestige and I feel it's his most dynamic and interesting to listen to as a whole. His other records get more recognition because of their inclination towards a jazz-dance feel, but this record shows a young player (he was 21 when this record was recorded) taking in the history of jazz and updating it into a time period focused on Afro-centrism, peace and love. 

En Vivo Desde El Otro Lado

Grooves Grooves No. 2: En Vivo Desde El Otro Lado

Latin America is united in its struggle against oppression, whether it is inflicted by foreign powers or from a minority military regime. In the US we are taught as school children that the slaves sang gospels and spirituals and that is where the Blues come from. For most of the Americas the musical influence brought over from Africa (another location of mass oppression) was more grounded in percussion, the cajón being a popular instrument in Cuba and Peru as when under suspicion the instrument returned to its original function as a crate. Hand claps, makeshift drums and group singing have led countless generations to stomp their feet and dance, for a brief moment forgetting the unmentionable daily struggle. Through the dialogue of music and dance, a deeply spiritual experience, groups unified and broke their chains, built their own schools, and taught their own history. Imagine the atmosphere in the back room of a Haitian slave house the night before the revolution, Toussaint L'Ouverture droppin knowledge, sharing strength and love. 

Akwid + Clorofila: FREE at the Echo

Just wanted to announce this last minute FREE show going on this Saturday at the Echo. The show is being put on by VotoLatino in order to celebrate the Latina/o community's participation in the census.

La Mara Tomaza

So, I have this thing that when I find new music, I HAVE to do hours of research and find out everything I can about it. This translates to a new blog entry! Thinking about my workload tomorrow, I should definitely be asleep, but why should I sleep when I could be listening to El Hijo De La Cumbia? 

El Hijo De La Cumbia is a young Argentine producer/DJ who commands prolific knowledge over the vast extent of cumbia regardless of time or geography (cumbia sounds different in every region and have obviously evolved over time). He is dubbed the "Son of Cumbia," and this moniker suits him well as he is the product of hundreds of generations of cumbia before him, but his take on modern cumbia will make him the Father of nueva cumbia, or cumbia new roots. Cumbia has a deep regional characteristic, for example in Colombia the style is strictly percussion and vocals and sometimes accordion, and in his present day Argentina cumbia is of the light-hearted and somewhat goofy villera style. He is able to break away from the norms of cumbia and incorporates elements of instrumental hiphop, dub and dancehall, with a heavy amount of cumbia samples. The end product is nueva-cumbia, a high energy, psychedelic dance groove with lots of spaced-out accordion and obligatory cuts of cumbieros of yesteryear shouting in glee.

Independance Cha-Cha

ParisDjs.com in a recent podcast mix focusing on contemporary African music, state that "Africa is the future" and while I believe this is an undeniable truth, the future wont sound like a Fela Kuti record released in 1975, but rather closer to the music that artsists like Baloji are making today. Unlike many of the artists included in the ParisDJs mix, Baloji is not using the same formula of blaring horn sections, thundering congas and chicken-scratch guitars as his vehicle, but rather using the influence of African music of the last 60+ years to guide his politically charged rapping into the future where Africa is king.