This is a second trailer for the documentary I am scoring… Undeniable – The Story of The Independent Soul Music Movement. Not much to say here that the trailer doesn’t cover… Runnit!!
This is a second trailer for the documentary I am scoring… Undeniable – The Story of The Independent Soul Music Movement. Not much to say here that the trailer doesn’t cover… Runnit!!
I’m honored to have been selected to score a new documentary that is currently in production entitled Undeniable – The Story of The Independent Soul Music Movement. The film’s director and producer, John Jointer contacted me a few months ago to ask me about being a part of the project, to which I was completely down to do. He said that he would be at our Indianapolis show (back in October) to sit down with Carmen Rodgers and I for interviews and to get some show footage. He then asked me if I would be interested in scoring the film as well. Hell YEAH I’d be interested! So there you have it… Between the Vegas Documentary, doing the music for the second season of Black Dynamite – The Animated Series and now this project, I’m really happy with the expansion to television and film. The new year has gotten off to a pretty wonderful start…
With Jesse Boykins III
& The Beauty Created
Saturday, June 1, 2013
The Shrine
2109 S. Wabash | Chicago, IL 60616 | (312) 753-5700
8p | 21+
BUY TICKETS
7. SunStorm (feat. YahZarah)
I started teaching back in the summer of 2006 and the first summer that I took off wasn’t until 2008. I was so damn excited about having an entire summer to myself that as soon as I got home from the school on the last day, I went to work in the studio. The FIRST joint that I put together wound up being the music for the title track of this album… “SunStorm.” Once again, the drums were done first and they resulted from me being in such a happy ass mood, I can’t really describe it any other way. The drum pattern made this music what it wound up becoming. The feeling that I got from it was one of ‘freedom’ and ‘fun’. With that being said, I distinctively remember figuring out a synth bassline that was very busy while keeping the fun and free elements in that music. And just like 95% of the music that I make, I played that synth bassline part all the way through the entire song. I think that when you actually play all the way through your piece, you are able to capture MUCH more of a feeling than that of a looped track. I don’t think that the bassline should hit the same way in the first 8 bars of the song as it does coming out of the first hook, for example. The second half is what put it over the top… I made sure to send it to Phonte as soon as I was finished. He hit me with a text back, “I’ma MURK this joint!!” He was originally going to keep this one for himself… but ended up sitting on it after writing about 50 different things to it and not feeling satisfied with anything – I understand that pain FULLY (wait ’til you read the “This Could Be the Night” story).
Enter YahZarah… Now, I’m gonna tell y’all this right now. This is as straight up as it gets. When it comes to vocalists… Not female vocalists… When it comes to VOCALISTS. YahZarah is the best vocalist that I know, personally. She’s just absolutely unfair. Plus, the fact that she’s sitting a lotta people DOWN live makes her a threat to a lotta folks …..and I love her to death! Phonte and I talked about having her cut the song because…hell, it seemed like a perfect fit. She ended up gettin up with Phonte and recording her vocals and I’ll just say this… When Phonte sent it to me, we knew we had something – not just with the song, but with the entire album. This was the song that made us kinda look at each other like, “This is gonna be something crazy.” It was STRONG and perfect as the title track. And let me just say that my favorite part of this song comes during the second hook at about 3:55 when Yahz hits the, “WHOOOOO!!!!!” I get goosebumps EVERY TIME I hear that.. Why?! Because that is raw emotion displayed in a recording and to have captured that is priceless to me. Also, when someone busts out with ‘WHOOO!!’ that means something was so good that NO other adjectives worked in that space… It’s just a great moment that was captured and I’m glad it happened on my album. …Oh and for the record, YahZarah recorded her vocals sitting down. That’s a bad woman….
The second half of the song where Phonte comes in was actually supposed to have a few kats on it. It was gonna be Phonte, Jesse Boykins III, Darien Brockington, and another favorite vocalist of mine Ab. But sometimes, you listen to a song that if it is changed, no matter what the change is it probably will not work like that original take. That was the case here. The original take felt so good and came off so correctly that it was not changed. Darien did however complete the final two lines AND you can hear Jesse’s adlibs over top of “You can lay me down…”
8. If I Could Tell You No (feat. Jesse Boykins III)
This was actually the only joint on the album that Phonte and I worked on together from scratch. Back in November 2008 when The Foreign Exchange first started touring Leave It All Behind, we did a date in D.C. Anytime kats are in town, we normally take advantage of that time and get in the studio to do SOMETHING… It doesn’t matte if it’s a full song, a demo, a couple of ideas… Something is getting done. This time around, he told me he had an idea to do a jazzy joint, which I was all for because I hadn’t done anything like that yet. So, I loaded up a new Pro Tools session, set the mic up for Phonte, sat down at the keys, programmed some ‘dummy drums’ just for tempo and arrangement’s sake and we got to work. The demo version is actually rather entertaining. There’s a part where I went to a change before he was expecting me to do so and right in the middle of singing the melody he says, “Awwww man, you fucked me up!” LMAO!!! Classic material right there. The chords from the demo are basically the same as the finished product, the arrangement is different, but you could tell what direction the song was headed into. We actually held off moving on the joint for awhile… No reason in particular, we just didn’t get to it.
Finally, Phonte was hittin me up saying that he had gotten in contact with Jesse Boykins III and needed me to record a music reference so that he could reference the vocals for Jesse to sing… So I sent him the song with the same dummy drum track from the original demo, but I relaid the piano and bass parts for a more ‘official’ reference (the piano part I recorded for that particular reference actually lived long enough to see the final cut). When he sent me the vocals back, I was like, “WOW.” It was kinda of the same feeling I got when he first sent me vocals back for our “Africa” remake for the 80’s album because again before my very eyes, I saw Phonte expand as an artist. I mean, dude was doing jazz riffs! The hell? It sounded great… And we ALMOST kept Phonte on the joint. But the feel that we wanted for the song was a smoother sounding voice and delivery. So we passed the song on to Jesse and he hurt that joint! It was EXACTLY what was needed… His tone and voice fit the music perfectly – and for his version I finally re-recorded some live drums, which remained on the final cut. With Jesse’s singing and the addition of trumpet player Stan Graham, the feel of the music placed me in a classy jazz club circa the 1940s, where folks thought it looked cool to smoke cigarettes and once this song came on, people began to “make eyes at one another ‘cross the room.” It was a well designed curveball for the album and something that I haven’t seen done on a project of mine. Overall, it was great to have everything come together as beautifully as it did…
Zo!
SunStorm
PURCHASE ALBUM
01. Greater Than The Sun featuring Phonte
Produced by Zo! for Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music (BMI)
Written by Phonte Coleman for Daddy’s New Bowtie (ASCAP)
Vocals recorded and mixed by Khrysis
All Instruments by Zo!
Mixed by Zo!
Recorded at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD and the Chopp Shopp, Durham, NC
02. Greatest Weapon Of All Time featuring Sy Smith
Produced by Zo! for Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music (BMI)
Written by Sy Smith for Sybersong Publishing (ASCAP)
Vocals Arranged and Produced by Sy Smith
Vocals Recorded and Mixed by Grant Nochols
All Instruments by Zo!
Mixed by Zo!
Recorded at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD and Rumbo Studios, Winnetka, CA
03. Say How You Feel featuring Phonte & Carlitta Durand
Produced by Zo! for Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music (BMI)
Written by Phonte Coleman for Daddy’s New Bowtie (ASCAP) and Carlitta Durand for Durand Music Group (ASCAP)
Vocals by Phonte & Carlitta Durand
All Instruments by Zo!
Recorded and Mixed by Zo! at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD
04. For Leslie
Produced by Zo! for Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music (BMI)
All Instruments by Zo!
Flute by Claudia Hayden
Recorded and Mixed by Zo! at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD
05. Be Your Man featuring Darien Brockington
Produced by Zo! for Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music (BMI)
Written by Darien Brockington for Neidar Music Group (ASCAP) and Phonte Coleman for Daddy’s New Bowtie (ASCAP)
Vocals by Darien Brockington
Background Vocals by Phonte
All Instruments by Zo!
Guitar Solo by Chris Boerner
Mixed by Zo!
Recorded at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD and The Peanut Gallery, Raleigh, NC
06. Free Your Mind featuring Lady Alma
Produced by Zo! for Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music (BMI)
Written by A-Drenaline for Sopo Publishing (ASCAP)
Vocals by Lady Alma
Background Vocals by The Lady Alma Choral Ensemble (Lady Alma & Preston Branch)
Vocals Recorded by Roscoe “Plug-In”Murphy
All Instruments by Zo!
Mixed by Focus…
Recorded at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD and WHODUNIT Studios, Philadelphia, PA
07. SunStorm featuring YahZarah
Produced by Zo! for Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music (BMI)
Written by Phonte Coleman for Daddy’s New Bowtie (ASCAP) and YahZarah for She’s A Ladybug (ASCAP)
Vocals by YahZarah
Additional Vocals by Phonte, Darien Brockington & Jesse Boykins III
Vocals Recorded and Mixed by Phonte
All Instruments by Zo!
Mixed by Zo!
Recorded at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD and The Peanut Gallery, Raleigh, NC
08. If I Could Tell You No featuring Jesse Boykins III
Produced by Zo! and Phonte for Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music/+FE Music LLC
Written by Phonte Coleman for Daddy’s New Bowtie (ASCAP)
Vocals by Jesse Boykins III
All Instruments by Zo!
Trumpet by Stan Graham
Mixed by Zo!
Recorded at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD and The Peanut Gallery, Raleigh, NC
09. This Could Be The Night featuring Eric Roberson, Darien Brockington & Rapper Big Pooh
Produced by Zo! for Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music (BMI)
Written by Eric Roberson for Blue Erro Soul/EMI Music Publishing (ASCAP), Darien Brockington for Neidar Music Group (ASCAP), Thomas Jones for Big Pooh Music (ASCAP) & Phonte Coleman for Daddy’s New Bowtie (ASCAP)
Vocals by Eric Roberson, Darien Brockington & Rapper Big Pooh
Jive Talk by Scorpeze of Windimoto
Vocals Recorded and Mixed by Phonte
All Instruments by Zo!
Mixed by Zo!
Recorded at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD and The Peanut Gallery, Raleigh, NC
10. Flight Of The Blackbyrd featuring Phonte
Produced by Zo! and Phonte for Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music/+FE Music LLC
Written by Phonte Coleman for Daddy’s New Bowtie (ASCAP)
Vocals by Phonte
Vocals Recorded and Mixed by Phonte
All Instruments by Zo!
Trumpet by Stan Graham
Mixed by Zo!
Recorded at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD and The Peanut Gallery, Raleigh, NC
11. All Is Well With Love featuring Chantae Cann
Produced by Zo! and Phonte for Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music/+FE Music LLC
Written by Phonte Coleman for Daddy’s New Bowtie (ASCAP)
Vocals by Chantae Cann
Keys, Bass Guitar, and Cabasa by Zo!
Flugelhorn by Al Strong IV
Flute by Tim Smith
Trombone by Andrew Kleindienst
Congas and Wind Chimes by Brevan Hampden
Maracas and Additional Percussion by El Tigallo
Acoustic Guitar by Omar Hunter-El
Wood and Skins by “Biscuit” Bynum
Vocals Recorded and Mixed by Phonte
Mixed by Zo!
Recorded at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD and The Peanut Gallery, Raleigh, NC
12. MakeLuv2Me featuring Monica Blaire
Produced by Zo! for Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music (BMI)
Written by B. White for Vera’s Daughter (ASCAP)
Vocals by Monica Blaire
Vocals Recorded and Mixed by Shaphan “Maestro” Williams
All Instruments by Zo!
Mixed by Zo!
Recorded at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD and Silent Riot Studios, Oak Park, MI
Mastered by Soiree Records
© 2010 Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive, LLC/+FE Music, LLC
Well people…. Here are the OFFICIAL cover art, tracklisting and details about the album. I. AM. EXCITED…..!!!!!!!!
“SunStorm” is the latest album from Detroit-area born, DC-area based producer/multi-instrumentalist Zo!
Best known for his 2008 collaboration with Phonte on the cult classic “Zo and Tigallo Love the 80’s” as well as his work on The Foreign Exchange’s Grammy-nominated LP, “Leave It All Behind,” ‘SunStorm” is an extensive 12-track set that shows the ever-expanding range and depth of Zo! and the entire Foreign Exchange Music family.
Indie soul siren and American Idol vocalist Sy Smith serves up a slice of 70’s soul on the breezy “Greatest Weapon Of All Time,” and Lady Alma, a Philly veteran and stalwart of the UK house scene, takes it to the dance floor on the frenetic “Free Your Mind.” The album’s lead single, “This Could Be The Night,” features Darien Brockington, Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Eric Roberson, and Rapper Big Pooh of Little Brother over a thumping two-step groove specifically intended for the ‘steppers’ of Zo’s native Detroit. Another highlight is the Phonte-assisted “Flight Of The Blackbyrd,” Zo’s heartfelt homage to the 70’s jazz/funk fusion of The Mizell Bros. and George Duke.
Tracklisting
01. Greater Than The Sun feat. Phonte
02. Greatest Weapon Of All Time feat. Sy Smith
03. Say How You Feel feat. Carlitta Durand & Phonte
04. For Leslie
05. Be Your Man feat. Darien Brockington
06. Free Your Mind feat. Lady Alma
07. SunStorm feat. YahZarah
08. If I Could Tell You No feat. Jesse Boykins III
09. This Could Be The Night feat. Eric Roberson, Darien Brockington & Rapper Big Pooh
10. Flight Of The Blackbyrd feat. Phonte
11. All Is Well With Love feat. Chantae Cann
12. Make Luv 2 Me feat. Monica Blaire
I’m working hard y’all… A couple more mixes, tweaks, additions, and listens to go to make my new baby SunStorm complete. I have a completion deadline of next week and a release date of… July 27, 2010.
Even more exciting for me is the number of talented artists who took time out of their busy schedules and bring forth some top shelf performances to the album. I mean, these kats came through as if they were recording for their OWN albums… I can’t even begin to speak on how blessed I am – I just hope that I was able to inspire them with my creations as they do with their vocal abilities.
Now, exactly who are these artists you ask? ….Well, some of my favorite vocalists, including: Sy Smith, Eric Roberson, YahZarah, Darien Brockington, Lady Alma, Monica Blaire, Jesse Boykins III, Carlitta Durand, my brotha Phonte and a special appearance by Rapper Big Pooh. Hell, it’s a treat for me as a music fan to see all of this talent on one album, much less the fact that it is my own…. Be prepared… (I’m having to tell myself the same thing) July the 27th will be a huge day and I’m looking forward to sharing the music and celebrating with you all…