One of my favorite musicians/bands is North Florida’s JJ Grey & Mofro. They were first MOFRO and now they go by JJ Grey & Mofro, but regardless I’ve been following since their first album, Blackwater. My sister played them for me and I fell deeply in love at first sound. I listened to that album on repeat for days and then went out bought my own copy and have bought every album since. I love the band’s vibe, mixing up Southern rock, straight up funk, and a raw groove. It’s just plain sexy.
JJ Grey is more than a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and soulful vocalist. He is a storyteller, a folk philosopher, and a cultural historian. He sings with such passion about the beauty of the simple things in life and his homeland, the country in Northern Florida, on the outskirts of Jacksonsville. If you are a fan of great music, go see them live – you will thank me later.
The title song from their second album, Lochloosa:
Many of JJ’s songs have a mystical quality, interweaving mysterious stories about relationships and people’s lives while connecting with the magic of the natural world. This is “Dewdrops,” from Orange Blossoms:
I was watching this amazing video below (the “United Nations Orchestra”) of master jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and a friend commented that because he lived until the age of 75, he didn’t get the same iconic status as Charlie Parker. We couldn’t see him as the true jazz prophet he actually was, because we saw him grow into an old man who wore bad suits! That made me laugh and also ponder this particular jazz icon.
I have to agree there is something about musicians who died tragically young that leave a mythic quality to their legacy. Dizzy Gillespie lived a long life, was married to the same woman his entire life until death, so there was no drama surrounding wild drug days or stories of womanizing as with many legendary musicians, just pure love of music.
Born John Birks Gillespie, he was nicknamed Dizzy because of his on-stage antics. Gillespie was in fact one of the most important and influential musicians of the 20th century. He was the creator of two extremely important movements in jazz – bebop and Afro-Cuban jazz. An important album seems to be Dizzy Gillespie’s Afro which features all the important compositions he made famous. He was a teacher to both Miles Davis and Arturo Sandoval, legends in their own right. Here is the United Nations Orchestra performance that is just pure magic featuring Gillespie’s famous (and one of my favorite songs of all times) composition, “A Night In Tunisia”:
Dizzy Gillespie spanned the generations…It’s just awe inspiring the people he worked with including Louis Armstrong:
Here is a 1982 performance of the Chano Pozo composition “Manteca” performed by Dizzy Dillespie’s “Dream” Band and features the trumpet legend having a good ole time.
Dizzy Gillespie including Stan Getz and Max Roach play “Bebop”:
This is a beautiful, performance by the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet “Tin Tin Deo” – sweet, stripped down melodic slow jazz….ahhh it’s like a five minute vacation:
This past weekend was full of musical and cultural inspiration as I journeyed through the land of my birth, Los Angeles. First up was DJ Moonbaby’s set at the Natural History Museum’s First Friday event near downtown Los Angeles. The DJ booth was set up in front of a replica of giant African elephants across the hall from the giant T-Rex. Moonbaby played her own eclectic mix of electronic groove a la Portishead and then some old school hip hop and funk. One of my favorites (you know I love that funk) was Rick James’ “Give It To Me Baby,” a classic late 70s/early 80s funk dance hit complete with the horns. Here’s a performance from the 1982 Grammy Awards show:
After that my friend and I headed west, meandering through downtown LA, Echo Park (the area I spent the first few years of my life), through memories in Hollywood to enjoy a late dinner at Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. This was the spot for grabbing a late night meal after a hard night of dancing or seeing a music show when I was a wild teenager. Their bar, the Kibitz Room, has its own place in the LA music history as many great musicians have jammed there after hours. Guns N Roses were just an unknown band playing there back in the 80s. After all these years, I finally took a closer look at the mural outside of Canter’s depicting the history of the Jewish community in Los Angeles. I happen to be a huge fan of LA murals and this one was quite moving. Here’s one of the scenes:
As we left Canter’s, my friend popped in Chavez Ravine by Ry Cooder, an album that tells a story of one segment of the Chicano community in Los Angeles by chronicling the history of a barrio that was destroyed to make way for Dodger’s Stadium. On this album, Cooder brings together many Mexican-American musicians including some of the guys from Los Lobos and the legendary Chicano musician and activist Lalo Guerrero. Here is one of my favorite tunes by Lalo from this album, “Chuchos Suaves”:
Here is Lalo doing his ode to the blues, “Muy Sabroso Blues”:
My mom and I went out to Malibu on Saturday to spend some time at the beach for mother’s day and we saw pro surfer, Laird Hamilton, when we were having lunch. He is a big wave surfing legend, known for doing what no human does, surfing these mega monster big waves:
Later on that same day, walking through the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, a cacophony of sounds greeted me as dozens of street performers lined the street. A band that really drew me in was a horn ensemble, playing haunting minor chord infused Eastern European folk tunes, the Petrovic Blasting Company:
Los Angeles has much more to offer than my tiny slice of life and I hope to bring you more future posts on the cultural and musical diversity and history of this mega-tropolis. Happy traveling…
Los Angeles native DJ Moonbaby (Angela Jollivette) has been exposing Angelenos to the finest of soul, jazz, r&b, hip-hop and electronic music since she was in grade school hiding her boombox under the desk.
Today she has her own inspirational soul/gospel radio show “Worry Free Wednesdays” on www.churchbeatradio.com, every Wednesday at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. (PST). She DJs out and about town and will be headlining the May 7th First Friday event at the Museum of Natural History in Los Angeles. If you’re in LA – don’t miss that! She introduced me to several artists including Esperanza Spalding, DJ LadybugMek, and The City Champs. Follow her on twitter: @djmoonbaby!
Rootnotemusic: What experience are you trying to bring to people when you’re DJing? You seem to cross sound boundaries and have a wide range of influences. Please give me a bit of the Moonbaby musical philosophy.
DJ Moonbaby: I just love good music. I don’t care what genre; my roots are deep in soul and jazz but I want to expose my audience to the unknown to expand their musical taste. I love when people come up to me and ask ‘what was that song you were just playing?’ I think I get more excited about being asked that question more than making them dance – because they’re engaged, thinking, and wanting to discover more!
I asked her to give me a sampling of the sounds we might hear on her weekly radio show or if we caught her at a live gig. Here is an exclusive Moonbaby mix starting out with the soul master, Stevie Wonder, with his reggae inspired “Master Blaster (Jammin’)” live from 1980:
“The blues tells a story. Every line of the blues has a meaning.” ~John Lee Hooker
Ali Farka Touré was born near Timbuktu in Mali, West Africa in 1939. He’s known for his electric guitar style which was his own unique blend of Malian folk styles and American blues. He had a hypnotic droning style often compared to John Lee Hooker, though I find him more similar to the style of North Mississippi bluesman Junior Kimbrough. Below I’ve included videos from both. The world lost Ali in 2006, but his spirit lives on through his music, musicians he influenced, and his son Vieux Farka Touré, who while carrying the seeds of his father’s music, is forging his own musical identity.
In an earlier post, “I live for the funk…” I featured one of my favorite James Brown songs, an instrumental track “Why Am I Treated So Bad.” To continue on that funk-jazz trip, I’m taking the road to Memphis, Tennessee! Another funk soul pioneer was Booker T and MGs, a band who mainly backed up soul artists on the Stax Record label in the 1960s, but had their own success especially with the highly recognizable “Green Onions.” Stax was responsible for some of the greatest music in the history of soul, including Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes.
In the following video clip, John Lennon’s jukebox was found with all kinds of American soul records, including some 45s of Booker T & The MGs. The guitarist of the band, Steve Cropper, talks about the Stax sound – a solid rhythm, holding a groove and getting people to move:
Having lived in Washington DC for five years, I love the unique mix of musical culture and history of that city as well as Maryland and Virginia: Shaw Neighborhood, Adams Morgan, Mt. Pleasant, U St. Cardoza, Takoma Park, Mt. Ranier, hip-hop, R&B, 9:30 Club, Black Cat, Blues Alley, spoken word poetry, salsa, Afro-beat, Bossa Nova, and punk rock just to name a few. The birthplace of Duke Ellington also has a thriving jazz movement. DC was the place I discovered Bluegrass; many nights I fell asleep listening to “Bluegrass overnight” on NPR. And of course the ubiquitous Go-go beat!
It is from this richness that Ladybug Mecca rose up, and later made the move to New York where she was part of Digable Planets, who had one of the most recognizable and influential songs of the 90s, “Rebirth of Slick (Cool like dat).” She later went on to release a solo album and guest spot on too many artists’ albums to name. In her latest creative incarnation, she’s working out her DJ skills, going by DJ LadybugMek.
Here’s a video of her rapping with another DC native (who I saw at the Black Cat by the way and he blew me away), Raheem DeVaughn:
Photo by Melanie Martinez (c) 2009 in Austin, Texas.
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