Roy Ayers live with Robert Glasper Experiment & Pete Rock

Roy Ayers, Peter Rock & The Robert Glasper Experiment – July 9, 2011 @ North Sea Jazz Festival – We Live In Brooklyn, Baby

This week I want to hip you to the Robert Glasper Experiment. This group has seamlessly melded jazz and hip hop like no one else. We’re talking about Robert Glasper on piano and fender rhodes, Chris “Daddy” Dave on drums, Derrick Hodge on bass and Casey Benjamin on sax and keytar/vocoder.

Roy Ayers is another artist that is known for melding genres by forever blurring the lines between jazz, funk and soul. So his pairing with the Robert Glasper Experiment at last summer’s North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands was only fitting.

It all started back in April of 2010 when Revive Music Group organized a Roy Ayers Tribute in Harlem that paired the Robert Glasper Experiment with legendary hip-hop producer and DJ, Pete Rock, and contemporary jazz vibraphonist, Stefon Harris. (Check All The Way Live’s exclusive audio recording.) It was also at this April 24, 2010 tribute show that Roy Ayers himself was presented with a Legends and Legacy Award and joined the group for a rendition of his hit, “Searching.” (See the videos here.)

The Roy Ayers Tribute was performed again by the Robert Glasper Experiment, Pete Rock & Stefon Harris on September 11, 2011 in Paris, France. At that show, Bilal joined the group for an expansive and mind-blowing version of “Everybody Loves The Sunshine”. (The full video is on youtube and mp3s are known to circulate of both this show and the Robert Glasper Trio‘s performance with Bilal from the next day.)

This brings us to July 9, 2011, when the Robert Glasper Experiment & Pete Rock threw it down again, this time at the North Sea Jazz Festival and with Roy Ayers receiving top billing. Here I present the full audio recording, 68 minutes long, mp3 format, sourced from the North Sea Jazz Festival web video stream: http://www.mediafire.com/?8fc9l3dsb4bxq3s. Also, part of the performance is available as a DVD download here.

Here is the full info to go along with that mp3:
Roy Ayers with Pete Rock & The Robert Glasper Experiment
July 9, 2011
Congo, Ahoy, Rotterdam, The Netherlands @ North Sea Jazz Festival
SBD > video webstream (unknown kbps) > Cool Edit Pro > WAV > MP3

01. unknown instrumental
Roy Ayers enters:
02. Everybody Loves The Sunshine
Pete Rock enters:
03. Don’t Stop The Feeling
04. We Live in Brooklyn, Baby
05. Pete Rock spins records
06. Don’t Stop The Feeling

Roy Ayers – vocals, vibraphone
Pete Rock – DJ
John Pressley – vocals & percussion
Raeford Gaskins – saxophone
Robert Glasper – piano
Derrick Hodge – bass
Chris Dave – drums
Casey Benjamin – saxophone & vocoder keytar

Bilal 8/12/11 Indianapolis @ Madame Walker Theatre (VIDEOS)

This post is a guest review by Leo Weekly’s Damien McPherson.

The Madame Walker Theater is showing its age. The room dates back to the 1920s, but since its renovation in the late 70s, it appears little has been done to modernize the space (though their website does mention fundraising attempts). It’s still a beautiful building, wedged into its intersection on the edge of downtown Indianapolis, and the missing “K” on the rooftop’s sign at least gives a bit of personality even in the face of sadness at urban decay from historical sites.

Maybe I was looking a bit too closely, but by the time Bilal hit the stage, he looked pissed off. The sound in the room wasn’t great, and the 935-seater was barely half-filled (we sat in the sparsely populated balcony so as to give you the astounding visuals accompanying these words). One of the keyboardist’s platforms wasn’t plugged into the mix, leaving out many of the songs’ electronic bleeps and bloops and leaving room for a roadie to hover at the side of stage laying cable, distracting to say the least. The guitar amp failed during an early solo, and it appeared the drummer was having a monitor issue. It wasn’t until almost halfway through the show, during “Sometimes”, that what approximated a smile crossed Bilal’s mouth and he looked comfortable. None of this took away from his vocal performance, mind you, as the man is a machine. His perfectly controlled vocal abandon is one of modern music’s marvels: soulful, jazzy, and church-infected. The guy could sing Nickelback songs and sound like a genius (don’t prove that, though, please).

Something To Hold On To, Make Me Over, Gotsta Be Cool, Lord Don’t Let It, For You, Reminisce (flipped with the J Dilla “The $” beat), Fast Lane, Sometimes:

The first half of his set was split between his debut, First Born Second, and his shelved-but-leaked followup “Love For Sale”. He seems perfectly at ease on stage with the audience’s familiarity with the material they shouldn’t know, and proves himself a bigger man than me. I’d play half of one of those songs, and the second I spot someone singing along, I’d probably stop the song and ask for ten bucks from the person. Glad he didn’t, though, ‘cause I didn’t have any cash on me, much as he deserved it. “Fast Lane”, the non-representative first single from his debut, finally got the arrangement it deserved outside of its Dr. Dre studio sheen.

“Sometimes” is always a wonder, the little song that could. It was never a single, but the crowd demands it and sings along as if it were a standard. The second half of the set is mostly from his latest, Airtight’s Revenge, and the crowd wasn’t as responsive (though this was definitely a ‘giving’ crowd, very loose and supportive) to this material. “Little Ones”, dedicated to his autistic son, was a definite highlight, the emotional connection to the song a tangible thing. He closed the main set with the incredible “All Matter”. While I’m partial to the arrangement on Robert Glasper’s Double Booked, here he worked magic on his Airtight version. This song easily takes permanent residence in my favorite songs of the last decade. Just listen/watch.

Levels > All Matter:

Beggars not being choosy, the crowd’s response at this point didn’t really require an encore. They seemed to give up their cheering rather quickly. Thankfully, Bilal’s show is built for an encore, as he hadn’t performed his biggest song yet or this tour’s epic closer. “Soul Sista” melted every woman in the room, as it’s done for a decade now, while the Led Zeppelin cover “Since I’ve Been Loving You” melted the walls. A great quickie road trip, another excellent Bilal show (my second of this album cycle), and here’s a near perfect visual representation to enjoy. -Damien McPherson

Since I’ve Been Loving You (Led Zeppelin cover):

Mos Def, Robert Glasper, & DJ Preservation 2/8/11 NYC @ The Blue Note

Mos Def, Robert Glasper, & DJ Preservation – Bedstuy Parade & Funeral March 2/8/11 NYC @ The Blue Note

Mos Def performed at the Blue Note in New York City last week with a unique lineup of Robert Glasper on keys and his regular DJ, DJ Preservation, on turntables, MPC, and live samples. Mos also had a drumkit set up which he played for most of the show while singing and rhyming. It’s not the first time that Mos has performed from behind a drumkit, but this performance produced plenty of J Dilla influenced improv and some interesting chilled out versions of Mos Def classics.

Luckily my good friend HighVoltage was on deck with mics rolling. He posts plenty of live hip hop, so be sure to check out his blog: http://www.itsallthewaylive.net/. (He recently posted a young jazz group’s [Stray Phrases] rendition of the entire Donuts album by J Dilla. Highly recommended.)

Keep in mind that all of the tracks I post on soundcloud can be downloaded by clicking the down arrow located right below the “info” button.

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