Nicolay is one half of The Foreign Exchange (the other half being Phonte of Little Brother). Anyway, Nicolay recently teamed up with “exploratory jazz trio” The Hot At Nights to recreate Nicolay’s City Lights Vol. 2: Shibuya album. The collaboration yielded an EP that can be downloaded for free over at Foreign Exchange Music.
A few weeks ago, Nicolay & The Hot At Nights hit the road throughout the south and midwest to recreate the EP in a live setting. Although the Louisville show was somewhat sparsely attended, the musicians knocked it out of the park and seemed to have a great time. I shot a few videos, which you can watch below. Thanks to the folks over at Soulbounce for the free tickets.
Nicolay w/ The Hot At Nights – Crossing 1/29/12 Louisville, KY @ The Rudyard Kipling:
Nicolay w/ The Hot At Nights – Rain In Ueno Park > Satellite 1/29/12 Louisville, KY @ The Rudyard Kipling:
The Hot At Nights – AC Slater 1/29/12 Louisville, KY @ The Rudyard Kipling:
Nicolay w/ The Hot At Nights – Wake Up In Another Life 1/29/12 Louisville, KY @ The Rudyard Kipling:
Last night I saw Lionel Loueke & his trio make sounds that were at times radiant, beautiful, and even mischievous, but always, in Herbie Hancock‘s characterization, fearless. As Mr. Loueke himself put it last night, “there is some joy on the stage.” In fact, the encore nearly brought tears to my eye.
Anyway, I tested out my new Tascam DR-2d recorder and pulled a pretty nice audio recording. You can listen to one track above, and the full recording can be found at dimeadozen.org. UPDATE: An even better recording than mine has become available: here.
Also, while I’m on the Lionel Loueke tip, I want to share the MP3’s of an impromptu Superjam at the 2005 Bonnaroo Music Festival that featured Herbie Hancock, Lionel Loueke, Pino Palladino, and Questlove. A few days after the performance, Questlove began posting the SBD MP3’s one by one to the okayplayer.com messageboards. I quickly scooped them up and I have gone back numerous times and enjoyed this 90 minute set of improvisation. The full download is here. BTW, Questlove is the one that named the tracks, but they are all improvisations.
D’Angelo is officially back after an 11 year hiatus. Today I bring you an exclusive: the first full audio recording from the 2012 European tour. Big thanks to the taper, nicnouille, for not only recording it, but for deciding to share it with the world.
The download is available in both MP3 and FLAC formats. (You’ll want to scroll down and click “Low Speed Download” in the grey box, wait for the 30 second count down, fill in the captcha code, hit “Submit” then look for “Start Downloading Now!” Meanwhile, try not to click any ads.) The FLAC is also available as a TORRENT.
D’angelo & The Testimony The Vanguard
January 29, 2012
Paris, France @ Le Zenith
internal mics > Olympus LS10
Recorded by nicnouille
01. Playa Playa
02. Feel Like Makin’ Love [Roberta Flack cover]
03. Ain’t That Easy [new song]
04. Devil’s Pie
05. Chicken Grease
06. The Line (intro) > The Root
07. The Charade [new song]
08. I’ve Been Watching You (Move Your Sexy Body) [Parliament cover]
09. Shit, Damn, Motherfucker (inc. bass & drum solo)
10. Solo medley: Brown Sugar (tease) > Jonz In My Bonz > Spanish Joint > Me and Those Dreamin’ Eyes of Mine > Cruisin’ > Higher > One Mo’Gin > Untitled (How Does It Feel)
11. Another Life [new song]
12. Sugah Daddy [new song]
13. Space Oddity [David Bowie cover]
14. Brown Sugar
D’Angelo – Vocals, Guitar, Yamaha CP70 electric piano The Testimony The Vanguard: Isaiah Sharkey – Guitar Jef Lee Johnson – Guitar EDIT: Cleo “Pookie” Sample – Keys (previously listed as Ray Angry on keys, but he apparently filled in for Pookie on only the first 2 tour dates) Pino Palladino – Bass Chris Dave – Drums Robert Lumzy – Percussion, Vocals Kendra Foster – Vocals Jermaine Holmes – Vocals Charles “Red” Middleton – Vocals
If you’re looking to stay up to date with all the videos and news regarding the current D’angelo tour, be sure to bookmark D’angelo Funk Connection and follow them on twitter @dangelofunk.