Wild Fiya Super Jam brings black rock to the New Orleans Jazz Fest late night scene

WildFiya

Fiyawerx Productions put on an array of impressive “super jams” during the 10 days and nights of debauchery known as the New Orleans Jazz Festival. One of them was a dark amalgam of black rock heroes led by a musician who has been a staple of the Jazz Fest late night scene for no less than 10 years: Eric McFadden.

The group also included funk rock legends Bernie Worrell and Blackbyrd McKnight of Parliament Funkadelic, Doug Wimbish and Corey Glover of Living Colour, and Norwood Fisher of Fishbone, along with Stephen Perkins of Janes Addiction on drums and Mike Dillon on vibes and percussion.

Wild Fiya 5/2/14 New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks (PART 1 of 5)
Funhouse > 1969 [Iggy & The Stooges covers]

Wild Fiya 5/2/14 New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks (PART 2 of 5)
1969 (continued)

Wild Fiya 5/2/14 New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks (PART 3 of 5)
Voodoo Child > Machine Gun [Jimi Hendrix covers]

Wild Fiya 5/2/14 New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks (PART 4 of 5)
Machine Gun [Jimi Hendrix cover] > I Wanna Know If It’s Good To You [Funkadelic cover]

Wild Fiya 5/2/14 New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks (PART 5 of 5)
Unknown Jam

AUDIO: Robert Glasper Experiment & Ledisi 4/26/14 Louisville, KY @ Louisville Palace

Robert Glasper Experiment - Louisville Palace

Robert Glasper Experiment
April 26, 2014
Louisville, KY @ Louisville Palace
internal mics > Tascam DR-2d > WAV > CD Wave Editor (tracking) > FLAC
Location: second row, right of center
Taped by FunkItBlog

TORRENT DOWNLOAD HERE

01. Intro
02. Cherish The Day [Sade cover] >
03. Get Lucky [Daft Punk cover]
04. Let It Ride
05. Lift Off
06. Bass solo > Lovely Day [Bill Withers cover]
07. banter
08. teases (Piano Man, ???, ???, ???, Time After Time)
09. Ah Yeah >
10. ??? >
11. Calls

Ledesi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ledesi
April 26, 2014
Louisville, KY @ Louisville Palace
internal mics > Tascam DR-2d > WAV > CD Wave Editor (tracking) > FLAC
Location: second row, right of center
Taped by FunkItBlog

TORRENT DOWNLOAD HERE

01. That Good Good
02. Rock With You
03. Bravo
song 4 is missing, batteries died
04. Acoustic Medley: Think Of You, Goin’ Thru Changes, Higher Than This, Stay Together
05. Anything
06. The Truth
07. Lose Control
08. Pieces of Me (cut short)
one song missing
09. Gonna Be Alright > (with Robert Glasper)
10. Alright (with Robert Glasper)
11. I Blame You

I’m not very familiar with Ledesi, mainly went to see Robert Glasper Experiment. She started out with a Beyonce-like bang with background dancers and all. Not what I expected but definitely entertaining. I can only imagine the record label pressures for her to cash in on this style of music. Throughout the course of the set I quickly realized that she has an amazing voice with amazing control, but she is also very humerous, a great performer, and full of old school soul.

Song 4 is missing because my batteries died, a shame since it was an old school soul number, probably from one of her older albums. I also stopped recording in the middle of Pieces of Me to conserve batteries, since I suspected Glasper would be coming out later and I didn’t want to miss that (his Rhodes was set up on stage and left empty during all of Ledesi‘s set). Glasper did come out for 15 minutes near the end, performing their collab, Gonna Be Alright (which is actually a rework of Glasper‘s composition FTB). Glasper stayed for the next song and an outro jam with the band.

Robert Glasper with Ledesi

AUDIO: Jose James & Kris Bowers 4/18/14 Boston, MA @ Sculler’s Jazz Club

While I happened to be in Boston last weekend to cheer my sister in law on in the marathon, I was also able to take the whole family to Sculler’s Jazz Club to catch Jose James, someone who has been on my must see list for quite some time now.

First we were treated to a great opening set by Jose’s keyboardist, Kris Bowers and his group who had recently released a very forwarding thinking jazz/fusion/stretch album. The highlight of the opening set for me was the opening part of their last tune in which Kris set the tone with a beautiful solo rendering of the melody on his Fender Rhodes piano. You can hear it at the bottom of this page.

Less than 15 minute later Jose James and band jumped on stage for a stunning 63 minute set that began with 5 songs from his new album, While You Were Sleeping, which comes out on Blue Note Records on June 10th.

Jose James - Sculler's Jazz Club

The 5 new songs, 3 which you can hear above, are definitely a new direction for Jose and are likely partly influenced by this new guitarist, Brad Williams. These were followed by Come To My Door, a beautiful cover of Simply Beautiful by Jose’s Blue Note label mate the Reverend Al Green, and Trouble.

The real highlight, though, was the 20 minute set closer. It began with Jose’s acapella remix/rendering of the Sam Cooke classic “A Change Is Gonna Come” before launching into Park Bench People (Jose’s tune, which is arranged around Freddie Hubbard‘s “Red Clay” groove). The band stretches way out and then Jose brings it back with a distorted interpolation of Nirvana‘s “Something In The Way” before reprising Sam Cooke acapella again. It was nothing short of stunning and you have to scroll up to the top of this page and press play to hear it!

My location in the front row, just right of center, made for a great recording from my Tascam DR-2d in my shirt pocket. And you can download FLAC’s of the entire show using the links below.

Jose James
April 18, 2014
Boston, MA @ Sculler’s Jazz Club
internal mics > Tascam DR-2d > WAV > CD Wave Editor (tracking) > FLAC
Location: front row, right of center
Taped by FunkItBlog

TORRENT DOWNLOAD HERE

01. Angel
02. U r the 1
03. While You Were Sleeping
04. Anywhere U Go
05. Bodhisattva
06. Come To My Door
07. Simply Beatiful [Al Green cover]
08. Trouble
09. Park Bench People (inc. A Change Is Gonna Come [Sam Cooke] & Something In The Way [Nirvana])

Jose James – vocals, guitar
Kris Bowers – keys
Solomon Dorsey – bass, Moog synthesizer, vocals
Brad Williams – guitar
Richard Spaven – drums

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Kris Bowers
April 18, 2014
Boston, MA @ Sculler’s Jazz Club
internal mics > Tascam DR-2d > WAV > CD Wave Editor (tracking) > FLAC
Location: front row, right of center
Taped by FunkItBlog

TORRENT DOWNLOAD HERE

01. Wake The Neighbors
02. Forget-Er
03. #TheProtester
04. Forever Spring

Kris Bowers – keys
Solomon Dorsey – bass, Moog synthesizer, vocals
Brad Williams – guitar
Justin Tyson – drums

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