Soul music is timeless, but if there was one decade when it defined the times that would be the seventies. The style was born in the mid-sixties at a time when its creators were struggling to establish their place in American society. Sam Cooke, Lou Rawls, Solomon Burke, Curtis, Otis, Smokey, Marvin, James, Sly and Bobby Womack among countless others, sketched out a blueprint for a new, modern Black music that would soon sweep the nation from Harlem’s 125th street to rural Virginia’s Tobacco Road and as far as Watt’s 103rd street. Ironically, it took some Brits and Bob Dylan’s endorsement to hip whitestream America to what they were missing out on in their own blackyard. As the sixties turned into the seventies, and all but the Panthers deferred their dreams of racial revolution, soul music matured and flourished as if all the hopes, dreams, anger and disappointment of a generation of young Blacks found expression in the music of Stevie, Curtis, Marvin and Minnie.
We almost lost Detroit, but from this and many other cities’ ashes emerged a beautiful and bold music – a more personal, and therefore universal, expression – that evolved into one of the most dominant culture expressions of the decade. By the dawn of the seventies, soul music was mainstreaming with the crossover success of artists like Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers, Marvin Gaye, Isaac Hayes, Minnie Riperton, Al Green and Michael Jackson. Just about everyone was getting in on the new trend of socially conscious lyrics, fatback drums and stop-on-a-dime horn sections. The popular and critical response to this music blew open the doors for a whole family of styles. Soul music was appropriated and incorporated into just about every other genre imaginable: soul-jazz, soul-rock, psychedelic soul, latin soul, and blue-eyed soul are just a few of the more popular hybrids.
And then there’s Funk. Like Metal is to Rock ‘n Roll, Funk is an extreme manifestation of Soul music that emerged in the late sixties and early seventies from the bold rhythmic experiments of Soul music’s pioneers like James, Sly, Curtis & Stevie. Soul music was the foundation and Funk was the attitude, the secret spice to get the people moving and it was applied liberally to songs by new and established artists alike. Some musicians, like Parliament-Funkadelic founder George Clinton, started their careers in the sixties singing Soul, but after Sly and James took their music to faster, funkier and blacker places, they followed headlong into uncharted funkmospheres, further expanding the sonic, social and sexual boundaries of Soul music. Herbie and his Headhunters, Donald Byrd, Roy Ayers to name but a few respected jazz musicians were helpless against this powerful new sound, giving us jazz-funk.
Sadly, America’s soul obsession wouldn’t last forever. Like a salesperson that didn’t understand its product or consumer, the music industry forced the soul into extinction by forcing it into platform boogie shoes and a rigid 4-4 dance beat. Some survived, but most artists’ careers tanked or they were forced to radically change their game. Forty years later, soul music is more popular than it’s been for decades with new talent and audiences gravitating to its sincere sentiment, heartfelt harmonies, and bad-ass beats.
ArtDontSleep will bring over two dozen timeless tunes and hi-fi highlights from 1970-1979 to life for one night only with That 70s Soul featuring Seu Jorge, Zap Mama, Alice Russell, Spacek, Coco O. (Quadron) and others. An all-star cast of musicians, including legends Ndugu Chancler and Derf Reklaw along with future legend Kamasi Washington, lead by multi-instrumentalist and arranger/composer Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, will breathe new life into these seventies soul masterpieces. These are many of the same creative and fearless musicians and promoters that brought you the recent East Side Story Show as well as the 2009 Timeless series featuring the music of J. Dilla, Mulatu Astake and Arthur Verocai.
On this special night some of the under-sung musical heroes that are still alive and with us today, like Leon Ware, James Gadson and others be honored through their music and presence.
Leon Ware is best known for the songs he’s written, Marvin Gaye’s “I Want You”, Quincy Jones or Average White Band’s “If I Ever Lose This Heaven” or Minnie Riperton’s “Inside My Love”, though he has no fewer than ten albums recorded under his own name for Motown, Elektra and most recently for the revived Stax record label. His sophisticated and sensual style of soul helped to define the influential quiet storm style.
James Gadson is a living legend behind a drum kit. He’s played behind everyone from Bill Withers and Charles Wright and the 103rd Street Band to Justin Timberlake and Norah Jones, with Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin and countless others along the way. Far from a one-trick pony, he’s also written, produced and sang on hundreds of records from the Doo-Wop era to the present day.
Celebrating the music of:
Al Green, Bill Withers, Bob James, Curtis Mayfield, Donny Hathaway, Eugene McDaniels, Gil Scott-Heron, Isaac Hayes, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Minnie Riperton, Roy Ayers, Shuggie Otis, Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder & More.
Performances by: The Miguel Atwood-Ferguson Ensemble:
Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Ndugu Chancler, Derf Reklaw, Kamasi Washington, Brandon Coleman, Evan Francis, Philip Dizack, Sam Gendel, Elizabeth Lea, Marcel Camargo, Gabe Noel, Destani Wolf, I Ced, Joey Dosik, Jimetta Rose, Codany Holiday, Novena Carmel & More.
Featuring Special Guests: Seu Jorge
Zap Mama
Alice Russell
Spacek
Coco O. (Quadron)
Guests of Honor: Leon Ware, James Gadson, & More
Hosted By: Garth Trinidad
DJ Sets by: Quest Love (The Roots)
&
The Umoja Sound System (Daz, Jun, Destroyer & Monalisa)
Promotional Partners:
KCRW, LA Weekly, Wax Poetics, Fusicology
Sunday 12/16/2012 :: 6pm :: 21 + Wiser
The Mayan Theatre: 1038 South Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA., 90015, 213) 746-4674
Presale Tickets: www.ArtDontSleep.com
25$ Early Bird | 30$ Pre Sale | 35$ Day of Show
Roy Ayers was born in Los Angeles, California and grew up in a musical family. At the age of five, Lionel Hampton gave him his first pair of mallets, which led to the vibraphone being his trademark sound for decades. The area of Los Angeles that Ayers grew up in, now known as “South Central”, but then known as “South Park”, was the epicenter of the Southern California Black Music Scene. The schools Roy attended (Wadsworth Elementary, Nevins Middle School, and Thomas Jefferson High School) were all close to the famed Central Avenue, Los Angeles’ equivalent of Harlem’s Lenox Avenue and Chicago’s State Street.
Ayers was responsible for the highly regarded soundtrack to Jack Hill’s 1973 blaxploitation film Coffy, which starred Pam Grier. He later moved from a jazz-funk sound to R&B, as seen on Mystic Voyage, which featured the songs “Evolution” and the underground disco hit “Brother Green (The Disco King)”, as well as the title track from his 1976 album Everybody Loves the Sunshine.
In 1977, Ayers produced an album by the group RAMP, Come Into Knowledge, commonly and mistakenly thought to stand for “Roy Ayers Music Project”. That Fall, he had his biggest hit with “Running Away”. In 1980, Ayers released Music Of Many Colors with the Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti.
Since then, Roy Ayers has toured the world, many times over, released numerous records and had dozens of life changing collaborations. Roy also made a hug impact in the world of Hip-Hop and RnB. Many people have sampled him and covered him. Erykah Badu, Mary J. Blidge, Mos-Def, Digable Planets, DJ Shadow, Nas, Madlib, Ice Cube, Public Enemy, Common, The Pharcyde, Pete Rock, Jill Scott and many many more.
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Pete Rock, “Soul Brother No. 1.” Rose to prominence in the early 1990s as one half of the critically acclaimed group Pete Rock & CL Smooth. After the duo went their separate ways, Rock continued with a solo career that has garnered him worldwide respect. Along with groups such as Stetsasonic, A Tribe Called Quest, The Roots and Gang Starr, Nas and Notorious B.I.G., Talib Kweli and the late J Dilla, Rock played a major role in the merging of elements from jazz into hip hop music (also known as jazz rap). He is widely recognized as one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time, and is often mentioned alongside DJ Premier and RZA as one of the mainstays of 1990s East Coast hip hop production.
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Stephen Bruner is Thundercat and Thundercat is the dominant bassist rising within the ranks of R&B, rock, hip-hop, jazz, electronic, and beyond. The mystique behind the man named for his favorite cartoon seemingly hides an introspective, ambitious, and fearless young artist whose solo debut album is finally emerging in front of the vast catalog of experience he has amassed in collaboration with the likes of Erykah Badu, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Shafiq Husayn, Suicidal Tendencies, Stanley Clarke, and Flying Lotus, his closest partner and head of the Brainfeeder movement. Stephen is joined by a serious cast of jazz monsters!
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J.Rocc: One of the original turntablists, J. Rocc founded the Beat Junkies in 1992 with Melo-D and Rhettmatic, but has done just as much on his own as in a group setting. He began DJing in the mid-’80s with a California group named PSK. Soon after forming, the Beat Junkies became a seminal force in the rise of instrumental hip-hop, including core member Babu plus future stars Shortkut and D-Styles.
In addition to numerous mixtapes and his own production for Stones Throw releases, J. Rocc has been the DJ for Madlib’s live shows since the early 2000′s, was the 3rd member of Jaylib (Madlib & J Dilla) during the group’s live events, and collaborated with Madlib on Beat Konducta Vol. 5-6: A Tribute to J Dilla.
Save the date: Thursday, October 20th Mochilla & Hit+Run present “MOCHILLA REMIXED” at the Townhouse Gallery in Venice. Some of our favorite visual artists have flipped the classic Mochilla logo, originally designed by Stephen Serrato – check out Augustine Kofie’s version (included). On opening night, these logo remixes will be on display alongside iconic photographs by Mochilla founders B+ and Coleman. Each has selected specia…l photo selects from their vast collection for this exhibition that runs from October 20th-November 12th.
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•Participating Mochilla Logo Remix Artists:
Aaron De La Cruz
Abcnt
Alfred Hawkins
Augustine Kofie
Brent Rollins
Cody Hudson
Eric Coleman
Ernesto Yerena
Patrick Martinez
Retna
Ritzy Periwinkle
Stephen Serrato
+more TBA
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Also running alongside the show will be a pop-up shop with our recent releases and a few classic selects. Keep an eye out for some very special limited edition Mochilla gear that will only be available the night of the show. Don’t miss the opening night after party next door at the Del Monte Speakeasy with surprise guests! We’ll be celebrating our recent Timeless Remixed project on our “Feito Em Casa” Mixes.
• 7pm-10pm* Art Exhibition : Townhouse Gallery
• 10pm-2am* After Party: (Two Doors East) Del Monte Speakeasy
I’ve been to the Music Box several times but never have I witnessed such a grand set up of sound:
Perfectly vertically-aligned bass amps making the stage look like it was elegantly lowered, and of course creating that deep PureFilth sound that the Brainfeeder Crew is known for. I walked into the melodic sounds of Teebs transitioning into Samiyam‘s classic rapbeats and sneak peaks off his upcoming Sam Baker’s Album to be released on Brainfeeder.
Gaslamp Killer’s set was magnificent, weaving through classics, samples and original productions. Austin Peralta and Thundercat’s duet set was like a flight through the cosmos preparing the audience for Flying Lotus’ stellar performance.
They joined him on stage with Carla Azar from Autolux on drums, playing both unreleased and highly anticipated joints like “Do The Astro Plane”. The Brainfeeder LA show was a symphony of beats and visuals that continued throughout the night and Fusicology was there to witness it.
