Author Archives: Dulani Wallace

Funk band Galactic has an uncanny ability to create a musical canvas that could lend itself to other styles of music.

This technique is very casual as you watch them play. One moment, a band member or guest commandeers a horn, and then he or she is prone to transition to jazz vocals or staccato rap verses. It’s a natural movement intrinsic to the New Orleans band. And they were generous to the crowd last Thursday night at the 9:30 Club.

There was a royal, luminescent “G” that sat high above the bands. So, by time Galactic began their set it almost glistened a little brighter than for their opener. Trombonist Corey Henry from Rebirth Brass Band led the wild, riffy, musical unrest with the arm of a marksman. This young man was able to bend a note into taffy. He hardly broke a sweat as he went into a spiritual possession, articulating notes at the speed of greased lightning. The comfort level in the crowd was convivial and worldly. Henry channeled the mastery of James Brown’s session trombonist, Fred Wesley.

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Galactic’s playful blend of acid, jazz fusion, and New Orleans Dixieland is getting a revival here in D.C. Its founding members Robert Mercurio and Jeff Raines, from the District, will bring the parade to the 9:30 Club this Thursday, February 23rd, and we have a pair of tickets for you to win. Joining their musical procession will be Corey Glover (of Living Colour) and Corey Henry of the Rebirth Brass Band.

Originally a band of eight, Galactic surreptitiously inked their namesake into a new portal of N’awlins neo-jazz artists in the early ’90s. Though they’ve been categorized as contemporary jazz players, Galactic applies intricate time signatures to traditional Southern music.

Then they effectively blend skiffle motifs (an early blend of horns, folk, and country) to stylized hip-hop rhythms. All these ingredients come together to form harmonious equal parts smooth and rugged, like gator-skinned boots.

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At the beginning of 2012, he took the name Yasiin Bey. But his bent toward social consciousness stays true to the grammatical modifier we “most definitely” know him as, Mos Def. The actor and emcee will appear onstage Monday, February 20th, at the 9:30 Club.

Mos Def comes from a pedigree of politically aware lyrical artists originating out of Golden Era of Hip-Hop. In New York, where the art form took shape, there were rappers that quickly shot to the mainstream (Beastie Boys, Kid ‘n Play). And then there emerged a sub-culture of artists that rejected the “rapper identity.” These artists became sort of a side effect of the pop celebrity that record labels took ease with marketing.

Instead of the glittery, commercialized oeuvre groomed for wider audiences, emcees including Def took to Afrocentricity and racial injustice for subject matter. Like forebears Public Enemy, Mos Def’s lyrics spoke of the consequences of violence as opposed to the act itself.

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The Mothership emerged ever so gloriously Tuesday night at the 9:30 Club. George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, the pioneering psychedelic funk collective, played to a diverse crowd ranging from college-age Funkensteins to grey-haired devotees.

The scene was sexy, uninhibited, and orgiastic. When the music started, it didn’t stop. Since the Collective’s inception in the late ’60s, Clinton and his bandmates have forged a camaraderie whose impact is part of the roots of popular music. At 70 years old, Clinton is living, breathing, musical history.

What stood out the most when Clinton first appeared on stage was that there were no multi-colored stream dreadlocks. He banished his ‘do in exchange for a slick double-breasted suit. The horn and rhythm sections joined forces to form an imminent groove. They were warming the crowd up, and we were going with it. Then the bass, drums, and keyboards took us to the land where few ensembles dare to go together. The journey began.

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Fort Knox Recording’s Liftoff, the band I touted as gatekeepers to the glo-fi movement, is featured today as part of Listen Local First’s DC Local Music Day. The band is a collaboration of Steven Albert, Steve and Johnna Raskin (of Speedy Consuela), and Thievery Corporation’s Rob Myers. They create rich sounds that are reminiscent of Saint Etienne, Calexico, Portishead, and Ennio Morrione. That’s why Listen Local First honors them.

Listen Local First is a musical initiative responsible for DC Local Music Day. The monthly event, which starts today, February 8th, will showcase Liftoff’s dreamy sets along with the music of seven local artists at participating businesses. On Facebook, you can find more on how this new model inks a harmonious treaty between commerce and the arts here in DC.

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George Clinton is the alpha and omega of funk music. From New Jersey by way of North Carolina, Clinton began his music career in the 1950s, while working at a barbershop in Newark, New Jersey.

In his career, he cultivated two sounds (doo-wop and funk), then married them into its own subgenre. Originally with the Parliaments, Clinton dropped the “s” and conceived a rock group called Funkadelic.

In the 1970s, Funkadelic’s music was the sign of the times, a blend of bluesy-rock motifs with psychedelic effects.

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On the eve of Black History Month, the Kennedy Center announced a partnership with singer-songwriter John Legend on a campaign called What’s Going On… NOW, a national arts and digital media initiative. It is designed to draw and engage youth while contemporaneously commemorating the 40th anniversary of Marvin Gaye’s groundbreaking album What’s Going On.

The framework of What’s Going On… NOW operates similar to YouTube. It allows its users to share their stories through sound, images, music and video. To whet users’ inspiration, they are given exposition on selected themes, such as veterans issues, addiction, and social change; then they can generate, upload, and distribute their content for others to see.

What’s Going On… NOW has a wealth of information, such as historical facts, interviews and soundbites of Gaye’s album. The singer and the Kennedy Center have created a new path and solid voice for young multimedia producers. They’ll showcase the best of this youth-produced media online and at the Kennedy Center during a celebration in May featuring Legend, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, and the National Symphony Orchestra.

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The release party is on, and Liftoff will debut songs from their premiere album Sunday Morning Airplay. Tomorrow, January 19th, at the Black Cat, Liftoff will make sweet love to your ears and take you to a parallel universe. Helping the band usher their debut performance will be Fort Knox Five and Thunderball, each performing live DJ sets.

Through its own unique sound, Airplay is part of this melodic stream of consciousness that recalls music of the cinematic Old West and ’60s dream-pop music. Imagine an overture with suites dedicated to Ennio Morricone and the Cocteau Twins: that’s your Sunday Morning Airplay.

Airplay is study in chillwave; the sound effects play like vocals themselves. Released by Fort Knox Recordings, Airplay is so singular in its style, it may already be creating an infrastructure of new sounds to adopt. It’s both chill like the revolving earth and rampant like strings on forte.

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The African Diaspora lives in the Peruvian musical collective Novalima. For over ten years, the Latin fusion group has added electronica, dub, and Afrobeat in a sound they made their own. Their latest release, Karimba, released by ESL Music, is lush with nostalgic Latin rhythms that come full circle to a new generation. “Mamaye,” a strutty funk-samba tune, and “Guayabo,” a dark and sexy romp with Latin rock motifs, are standouts on the album.

Novalima will join Thievery Corporation as they play three shows (January 11, 12, and 13) at the 9:30 Club. Answer the question after the interview for a chance to win a pair of tickets for the Thursday night show (1/12).

Ramon Perez-Prieto, one of Novalima’s founders, chatted with us about their origins, latest work, and superhero themes.

How did you make Novalima happen since each of you are based in different parts of the world?

Our drive was to keep on making music together even if distance would be a barrier. The four of us had been making music in Lima together and in different bands for ten years already. In the year 2000, when we were dispersed around the world, technology had already made a big step for music production, and you could build up a home studio, which we did, and was a key point for the project. Until 2003, we were recording in four different studios and blending tracks, sending them on burnt CDs through FedEx. No FTPs or web tools in those days! Percussions would be done in Lima and the rest all over the globe.

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Bio Ritmo is the first and last word in a salsa fusion. They’ve spent two decades modifying a sound that transcends salsa music. It’s a little Nuyorican. It’s a little bomba. It’s a little calypso. It’s a little samba.

On December 30, Bio Ritmo will ordain all these sounds live at the Black Cat.

On the Electric Cowbell Records label, Bio Ritmo is delighted to see the release of La Verdad, the band’s first 12’’ vinyl release. Marlysse Simmons, the band’s pianist and contributing writer, gave me the lowdown on the post-salsa movement, the qualitative distinctions of Latin music, and the bright future of the vinyl medium.

Ms. Simmons came on board Bio Ritmo nearly a decade ago. “We’re based out of Richmond, Virginia. The last 10 years of [the band] is the band line-up today. Since 2002, when I joined and Rei Alvarez – the founder – rejoined, we’ve become a core group and the mission of our band is salsa music, but not its attachment to any scene. Instead, we take the beats and rhythms and incorporate different forms.”

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The Yellow Dubmarine is no gimmick. The band is a fusion reggae troupe that covers Beatles songs. They started out as a jam band, so they have a deft approach at making each arrangement work.

This past Saturday night, at the State Theater in Falls Church, Virginia, the Yellow Dubmarine bridged generations with their hip approach to reggae music (or approach to Beatles pop, depending on how you see it). With the release of their album Abbey Dub, the hearsay was evident. The band of eight prefaced their show with a fearless, calypso-driven rendition of “Taxman.” The groove, originally written by George Harrison, set the tone for the evening. Spectators got up from their seats in the raised table seating area and moved to the music.

Watching the young men of the Dubmarine brought to mind the days when John, Paul, George, Stuart Sutcliffe, and Pete Best cultivated their performance skills in Hamburg in the early ’60s. The Dubmariners’ youthful energy is so well-harnessed, they hardly ever miss their mark. Their shyness in between songs is excusable, since their M.O. is to get out there and delight people with the music.

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Oral history isn’t just a reflection of social movement, it’s a science. And that set the tone for an evening highlighted by the many rhythms of Cheick Hamala Diabate. Last Friday night, at the Rock and Roll Hotel, we got a dose of traditional West African music with a funk chaser.

Before the griot entered the stage, Eighteenth Street Lounge residents the Sol Power All-Stars displayed some spicy Afro-Latin grooves that got the soul stirring. Their energetic mix of afrobeat, cumbia, merengue, and salsa almost becomes a genre of its own. The world music lovers of H Street were just getting taste of the delight to come.

Diabate is a man of small physical stature, but his presence is as great as the Malian empire once was. He entered the stage with another West African man in traditional garb with a deep-toned ngoma drum, accompanying the acoustic drummer. The dancer, a young woman in African garb, rotated her hip in a mechanical, other-worldly fashion. Like a graceful gazelle, she kept rhythm with her tambourine as she danced, never missing a beat. The young men on saxophone, guitar, and bass guitar held their own with the legendary singer.

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Yellow Dubmarine is nowhere near a Beatles mashup. It’s an elegant tribute to Paul, John, George, and Ringo with a Caribbean undercurrent. Their album Abbey Dub takes you through the various subgenres of reggae (dub, dancehall, ragga, fusion) with lyrical guidance from McCartney and Lennon. Abbey Dub keeps the heart and soul of 17 Beatles songs, but simultaneously adds a roots reggae edge to it.

I had an opportunity to chat with Aaron Glaser, one of the vocalists and bassist for the band. He’s a charming young man and a seasoned performer not unlike Zeebo and Rootz of See-I, with whom the Beatles tribute band will be performing alongside at the State Theatre this Saturday.

Yellow Dubmarine – Something

How did you guys get started?

It’s actually kind of a cool story. We started a project in the summer of 2007. It was just for fun. What got us going is a tragic event. A friend of all of ours passed away, and we put on a memorial concert for her with a bunch of other bands. Originally, the Yellow Dubmarine was four members, a rhythm section. We decided to participate heavily in the event, and we played our first show that night. We thought the music was perfect that night because of how well all the Beatles songs speak to important themes of life. We played “Let it Be.” And obviously that one hits on all levels. And the reggae twist was nice because we wanted the night to be fun. We wanted it to be a celebration of her life, rather than a dark sad evening.

After that, the night went well. And we just kept playing shows. We grew. We got a horn section. Started playing bigger shows. Thing just grew naturally from there.

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