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

==============================================================

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

Dumpstaphunk closes out the 2011 Bear Creek Music Festival with guests & unusual covers

Dumpstaphunk
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Live Oak, FL @ Bear Creek Music Festival
Part 1 of 2: Deeper (w/ Skerik), Put It In The Dumpsta, Liar [The Meters cover], Heart Shaped Box [Nirvana cover]

Dumpstaphunk
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Live Oak, FL @ Bear Creek Music Festival
Part 2 of 2: Blueswave (w/ Skerik), Africa/New Orleans (w/ George Porter Jr) > reggae improv (w/ George Porter Jr & Pee Wee Ellis), Fame [David Bowie cover], Water [Graham Central Station cover] (w/ Ryan Zoidis, Rashawn Ross, Sam Kininger, Jonathan Lloyd & Skerik)

VIDEO: Canon Vixia HF21 by RLBayers
AUDIO: LiveMusicNola‘s mix (32 channel multi-track using all channels from the stage)
AUDIO (on first 3 songs): Sony ECM-MS908C (front row on video camera) + LiveMusicNola‘s mix (32 channel multi-track using all channels from the stage)

Dumpstaphunk
Ivan Neville: keys, vocals
Tony Hall: bass, guitar, vocals
Ian Neville: guitar
Nick Daniels: bass, vocals
Nikki Glaspie: drums

Guests:
Skerik – sax
George Porter Jr – bass, vocals
Pee Wee Ellis – sax
The Shady Horns (Ryan Zoidis on sax, Rashawn Ross on trumpet, Sam Kininger on sax)
Jonathan Lloyd – trombone

Dumpstaphunk
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Live Oak, FL @ Bear Creek Music Festival
Encore: Meanwhile (w/ Louis Cato) [Filmed by Sewell Film Productions for the Bear Creek Music Festival 2011 Video Archives]

The Robert Glasper Experiment & Bilal @ Chicago’s Double Door – March 10, 2012

Last weekend I had the pleasure of finally witnessing The Robert Glasper Experiment do their thing. Although drummer Chris “Daddy” Dave wasn’t on this tour, replacement Mark Colenburg more than held his own. (As I knew he would after I saw him play with The Robert Glasper Trio last month in St. Louis. Don’t miss my audio recording of that here.)

On this chilly Chicago night, special guest Bilal joined the Experiment for 3 tunes: the David Bowie cover, Letter To Hermione, the J Dilla produced Reminisce, and his seminal piece, All Matter. On top of that, the Experiment played for well over 2 hours without a break. One of the highlights for me was Glasper repeatedly teasing Radiohead‘s Everything In Its Right Place during this 6 minute piano solo, which led into All Matter. I ended up shooting 48 minutes of footage using my video camera, external microphone and monopod. Check it out below:

The Robert Glasper Experiment
March 10, 2012 – Chicago, IL @ Double Door
Butterfly (Herbie Hancock & The Headhunters cover):

The Robert Glasper Experiment
March 10, 2012 – Chicago, IL @ Double Door
Lift Off (inc. drum solos):

The Robert Glasper Experiment & Bilal
March 10, 2012 – Chicago, IL @ Double Door
Reminisce:

The Robert Glasper Experiment & Bilal
March 10, 2012 – Chicago, IL @ Double Door
Piano solo (inc. Everything In Its Right Place teases) > All Matter:

The Robert Glasper Experiment & Bilal
March 10, 2012 – Chicago, IL @ Double Door
All Matter (continued):

The Robert Glasper Experiment:
Robert Glasper: keys
Casey Benjamin: saxophones, keytar, vocoder, keys
Derrick Hodge: bass
Mark Colenburg: drums
+ special guest Bilal: vocals

Full setlist: A Love Supreme (John Coltrane cover), A Tear To A Smile (Roy Ayers cover), Butterfly (Herbie Hancock & The Headhunters cover), Letter To Hermione (David Bowie cover) (with Bilal), Lift Off (inc. drum solos), Bass solo > Say Yes (Floetry cover), Cherish The Day (Sade cover), Reminisce (with Bilal), Piano solo (w/ Everything In It’s Right Place teases) > All Matter (with Bilal), Ah Yeah > Drum solo > Smells Like Teen Spirit

If you made it this far, then you’re probably interested in the other Robert Glasper recordings I’ve been posting lately:
(1) these 3/20/12 Experiment Chicago videos
(2) 2/27/12 Experiment WNYC radio session audio here
(3) Experiment with Roy Ayers & Pete Rock @ North Sea Jazz Fest last year here
and
(4) there are 2 other goodies, but you’ll have to search my facebook page for it (hint: March 3rd).

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