And we’re live! Our sixth release! The Du-Rites Pressure pre-order begins today: pre-order your copy of the 10″ vinyl here on Bandcamp – and enjoy a taste of our “music video”!
This song (“The Squeeze”) is downloadable today with purchase. Vinyl ships in 2-3 weeks. Dig.
Kool & the Gang’s “Electric Frog” has freaked me out since I found the Music is the Message album in a used record shop in Queens when I was 12. It’s my favorite LP of all time, in part because of this uniquely funky song. Also, “Funky” George Brown has always been my favorite drummer. I used the Moises app to solo the bass, guitar, flutes and the “Frog” synth sound to play along to it.
I was privileged to talk to the late, great Ronald “Khalis” Bell about this song once. The band was experimenting with the ARP Soloist synthesizer, which had just come out when the album was being recorded in early 1972. Keyboardist Ricky West would run it through a wah wah pedal and that’s how that sound came about. Ronald and D.T. Thomas (who transitioned early this month) played those great flute parts. It was a longer jam and tape edited down. The human feel / push and pull – the synth drags in parts which only makes it funkier – means I really had to rely on my years of listening to it over and over to lock in with all its quirks. Another nod to my favorite band of all time and huge piece of my musical education, albeit a lesser known one in the band’s catalog. This and “Joanna” being by the same band a decade apart is as stark a contrast you’ll hear as a testament to K&TG versatility. Thank you K&TG for a lifetime of music education.
I was a guest on “The Questions,” a hip-hop trivia show, last week. Interspersed with the trivia questions are anecdotes about session drumming, career change, The Du-Rites and being sampled by Madlib, along with many other things. I scored 9 out of 15, which is 60% and a sign that my elephant’s memory is getting more selective as I get older! It was live this past Thursday but here’s the archive: Enjoy it here on YouTube!
Here’s the Concussion Percussion Promo. Enjoy this collage of all things drums & concussions. Video by J Nota (ReDefinition Records). Vinyl out now in very limited supply here. Once I’m out, I’m out! Enjoy.
Kool and the Gang have been my music lessons since grade school. “Pneumonia” is one of my favorites – I first heard it as a 13-year-old self-taught bass player and it was the first time I’d run into an odd/shifting time signature. It tripped me up to play along to it until I played it for an older bassist and he explained what was going on. A decade ago when I took up drums (mainly inspired by K&TG drummer Funky George Brown), it was one of the first tunes I tried to learn once I got basic grooves down.
I recorded this video on Friday as a tribute to the song and the band (and George); I’d planned to post it one of these days. Then yesterday it was announced that founding member and saxophonist Dennis “DT” Thomas has passed away. A tremendous loss (along with the late, great Ronald “Khalis” Bell last year), but this music has done so much for me and so many people. It literally raised us. I’m just having fun playing along to a song that’s been a part of my education since I was 13, but on a wider scale a sincere thank you to Kool, George and the late great Ronald Bell and Dennis “DT” Thomas. Also to the band’s late guitarist, Claydes Smith, who wrote the song, and all members of the band past and present.
Not big on drum covers but last week I recorded some James Black-inspired drum grooves for multi-instrumentalist Dan Ubick – right as I discovered the MOISES app. The app can separate instruments on any song so I was able to solo the drums to study James Black’s language much more clearly. Holy smokes. He’s always been a favorite of mine (all New Orleans drummers are) but the hand-foot combos and syncopation are in a class by themselves. He’s truly impossible to emulate, but I’ve been entrenched in James Black drumming all week and decided to use the app to mute the original drums and put my own spin on the groove from my favorite Eddie Bo tune (with Black originally on drums). Just having some fun grooving out and studying the greats.
B.T. Express week comes to a close with my own take on one of my favorite B.T. grooves, “Energy Level,” originally played by my brotha Leslie Ming. Struggled with this beat till I met him and he showed me the minute details to make it groove (and make it my own. – for which I’d end up playing on a Du-Rites cut called “Bocho’s Groove”). A lesson from the architect himself. Brother Ming Mon, thanks for letting me tag along on your gigs and watch you throw down over the years. I was a pest of an understudy who probably asked too many questions. And salute B.T. Express always. Read my interview with B.T. on Wax Poetics here.
The Dr. who delivered me (Coolidge Abel-Bay) was the financial backer for 70s funk bands B.T. Express & Brass Construction. I discovered both bands in my mom’s record collection when I was 10, so between the connection with my birth and what I heard on those records, B.T. and BC were instrumental in me pursing music. I’m proud to present a feature/interview I did for with B.T. Express!
Meeting B.T. drummer Leslie Ming entirely by a 1 in 1,000 chance in 2014 and soaking up all I could from him as a learning drummer was as crazy a full circle coincidence as anything I’ve lived. (A long story I’ve told on here and will tell again one day.) Years later he brought me along to a Super Bowl party hosted by B.T. co-founder and bassist Jamal Risbrook, where I met both him and his saxophonist brother, Bill, the leader of the band and it eventually led to this interview/feature. 30+ years of studying this band and a random encounter on a street in Queens. Life be like that sometimes! Thanks Monk One for setting this up. Thanks also to Brass Construction’s Randy Muller for lending his stories from doing string arrangements for BT for the piece. (This was totally a Dr. Abel-Bay/childhood funk band reunion). And finally, I’d like to thank Naylon D. Mitchell for providing amazing never seen before behind the scenes studio photos of the band (including Kashif in the early stages of his career as a keyboardist). Enjoy!
New music today! The Du-Rites back at it. Aptly titled “The Sun” (featuring Elson Nascimento of Sun Ra Arkestra) and it’s been hot as a MF out all week. How this track came about was pretty wild in that we not only rocked with a member of Sun Ra Arkestra by accident but it was recorded on Sun Ra’s 107th birthday (May 22).
If you want a laugh, here’s a brief promo about how everything came together and a look into Pablo and I being the Hatfields & McCoys when it comes to writing songs.
A dirty, ornery funk (digital) single for ya as a teaser for our Pressure EP in the fall. Enjoy!
