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…
I took an overnight trip to Raleigh, NC in late December armed with just a change of clothes, a few toiletries, and my bass guitar. The mission: Play on a couple of joints for YahZarah’s new album The Ballad Of Purple St. James. Phonte picked me up from the airport, we made a couple of stops before heading right over to SoundPure Studios to meet up with Yahz and guitarist/engineer Chris Boerner. I had already done my homework on the joints, learned all the changes and nuances in hopes to knocking um out in a single take… Drummer Lil’ John Roberts walked in and was ready to work… BUT, first things first, we ordered some sammiches, ate, and we were finally ready to go. John cut his drum parts first and was ridiculously on-point – Hell, the brotha has already worked with a who’s who of kats, including regularly touring with the one and only, Janet Jackson. I was next up on the bass… A couple of takes later, it was knocked out.
Editing took place throughout most of the night and “Why Dontcha Call Me No More” was born…
01. Perfect Angel featuring YahZarah
Produced by Zo!
All Instruments by Zo!
Vocals by YahZarah
Vocals Recorded and Mixed By Phonte at the Peanut Gallery, Raleigh, NC
Music Recorded and Mixed by Zo! at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD
02. Nights Over Egypt featuring Carlitta Durand
Produced by Zo!
All Instruments by Zo!
Vocals by Carlitta Durand
Vocal Production by Phonte
Vocals Recorded and Mixed by Khrysis at Chopp Shopp Studios, Durham, NC
Music Recorded and Mixed by Zo! at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD
03. Crazy You featuring Sy Smith
Produced by Zo!
All Instruments by Zo!
Vocals by Sy Smith
Vocals Recorded and Mixed by Grant “G-Nick” Nicholas at Rumbo Studios, Winnteka, CA
Music Recorded and Mixed by Zo! at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD
04. Holding You, Loving You
Produced by Zo!
All Instruments by Zo!
Recorded and Mixed by Zo! at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD
05. My Flame featuring Phonte
Produced by Zo!
All Instruments by Zo!
Lead Vocals by Phonte
Background Vocals by Carlitta Durand
Vocals Recorded and Mixed by Khrysis at Chopp Shopp Studios, Durham, NC
Music Recorded and Mixed by Zo! at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD
06. Somethin’ Special featuring YahZarah
Produced by Zo!
All Instruments by Zo!
Lead Vocals by YahZarah
Background Vocals by Phonte
Handclaps and Fingersnaps by Phonte and YahZarah
Vocals Recorded and Mixed by Phonte at The Peanut Gallery, Raleigh, NC
Music Recorded and Mixed by Zo! at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD
07. Highways Of My Life (Parts I & II) featuring Darien Brockington
Produced by Zo!
All Instruments by Zo!
Electric and Acoustic Guitar by Omar Hunter-El
Vocals by Darien Brockington
Backing Vocals (Part II) by Phonte
Vocals Recorded and Mixed by Darien Brockington at Chopp Shopp Studios, Durham, NC and by Phonte at The Peanut Gallery, Raleigh, NC
Music Recorded and Mixed by Zo! at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD
…just visiting too: The Originals
01. Perfect Angel
Written by Stevie Wonder
Originally Performed by Minnie Riperton
From the Album “Perfect Angel” (Capitol Records, 1974)
02. Nights Over Egypt
Written by Cynthia Biggs and Dexter Wansel
Originally Performed by The Jones Girls
From the Album “Get As Much As You Can” (Philadelphia International Records, 1982)
03. Crazy You
Written and Originally Performed by Prince
From the Album “For You” (Warner Bros., 1978)
04. Holding You, Loving You
Written and Originally Performed by Don Blackman
From the Album “Blackman” (GRP Records, 1982)
05. My Flame
Written and Originally Performed by Bobby Caldwell
From the Album “What You Won’t Do For Love” (Sin-Drome, 1978)
06. Somethin’ Special
Written by Rod Temperton
Originally Performed by Quincy Jones; Lead Vocal by Patti Austin
From the Album “The Dude” (A&M, 1980)
07. Highways Of My Life (Parts I & II)
Written by Ernie Isley, Marvin Isley, Ronald Isley, O’Kelly Isley, Rudolph Isley, and Chris Jasper
Originally Performed by The Isley Brothers
From the Album “3+3” (T-Neck, 1973)
And finally y’all… My next release, …just visiting too will be available for $free.99 this coming Tuesday, November 3rd. First, I must give you a look at the cover art for the album…….
…just visiting too
features vocals from…
YahZarah, Phonte, Carlitta Durand, Darien Brockington and Sy Smith
I woke up this morning to the news that The Foreign Exchange will be playing a show out in San Francisco on Saturday, September 12th @ Yoshi’s. I hope to see my West Coast kats out there. Here are all of the details…
We will also be back in Los Angeles for TWO dates at the Roxy Theatre. Kats had so much fun playing the venue in June, we had to come back and do it TWICE. Click here for the details…
In addition to the August 8th date in Maryland this month (The Spirit Festival), there have also been stops added in Indianapolis, Cleveland, and Seattle. Here’s the info… Mark your calendars!
What’s the good word y’all? Well, I guess I’ll jump right into it. Now, y’all know that since I’ve been in the DC Area, I’ve been playing with a band called The ELs, right? And since November, we have been the touring band behind Phonte and Nicolay, collectively known as The Foreign Exchange, right? Well, ever since our very first show back in November, I have been asked the same question in EVERY city we have played in, it never fails…
“When are y’all gonna do a show in the D?!”
“Are y’all comin’ to the D anytime soon?”
Welp! That time has finally come. Next week on Thursday June 4th at the Charles H Wright Museum… Foreign Exchange will be in Detroit performing with vocalists YahZarah, Darien Brockington and us…The ELs providing the music. Y’all don’t understand how excited I am about having the opportunity to go back home and present this show that I have been talking about, showing pictures and YouTube clips of for over 6 months now. To my peoples at home –please spread the word to everyone. I wanna see a ton of familiar faces in the crowd!
This show will kick off a couple of other dates including a return to Chicago and our debut in Toronto and L.A. Here is a list of the schedule:
Thursday, June 4, 2009
The Foreign Exchange with Yahzarah, Darien Brockington, Zo! & The ELs
In the meantime, …just visiting too has just acquired vocal assistance in the form of Phonte and Carlitta Durand. The three of us just finished a new joint for the new SunStormalbum as well. Keep your ears open…
Aaaaaand, school is almost out and I will not be teaching in the summer…so it will be yet another productive (and peaceful) couple of months. I am also one class (and two standardized tests) away from a Master’s Degree! How ‘bout that?
As always, I’ll continue to keep you all updated as things come up. Thank you for listening and see y’all at the next show!
What’s the word y’all? First of all, I want to personally thank everyone for supporting and picking up the new Overdue Process album withAsylum 7. We have received a lotta love from the project and just want to say, “thank you!” The release party back home in Michigan was a complete success. It looked like a real life version of “This is Your Life” in that joint. I hadn’t rocked with theGorilla Funk Mob in about a year and a half, so that was crazy in and of itself. I have posted some pics from the release party as well as other shows here.
In live show news, most of you all know that I have been traveling with The Foreign Exchange in promotion of their new album Leave It All Behind. There have been new show dates added!!!
Who’s gonna step up and bring this show to Detroit?! And the West Coast?!
NEW ALBUM NEWS!!!
Zo! – SunStorm
Production for the new album titled, SunStorm is in full swing. The brotha Phonte sent me something for the album a couple weeks back, and let’s just say that my excitement for the project tripled. New joints coming, new joints coming, NEW JOINTS COMING!! SunStorm is coming together and I’m hyped y’all…
Oh and by the way, …just visiting too is almost complete. It will be released BEFORE SunStorm… How ‘bout that?!
New Year’s Day is the new release date for the new Zo! and Asylum 7 album Overdue Process. Yeah, we know it’s an awkward date because it’s not a Tuesday or whatever…But, uhhh…. we’re not signed, we can release an album whenever we want to! lol Nah for real, we wanted the opportunity to set the bar for the new year – I guess in clichéd terms, we want to be able to start the year off right musically. So the newest album, Zo! and Asylum 7 – Overdue Process, will be released on the 1st off January. Here is the cover art…
Reflections on Two-Thousand Eight
Ahhh (reflective sigh)…2008 has been an interesting year to say the least. I brought the year in while vacationing in Aruba and came right back home to work. There were two projects that were ready for completion. Me and Phonte decided one day to leak the cover art for the Zo! and Tigallo Love the 80’s album…aaaannnd many laughs later lol, the joint was released through Fat Beats on July 22nd and has damn near sold out since then. We even got love from The Rude Boys’ lead singer Joe Little (big props!) for re-working “Written All Over Your Face”. The first time any of the 80’s joints were performed live was here in D.C. at Busboys and Poets on September 22nd. Tay was the featured artist while The ELs provided the music. That night it was Omar on bass, Biscuit on drums, and myself ..s. The performance was so special that it landed us all on the road with The Foreign Exchangehitting NYC, DC and ATL…much more on this to come.
Teaching has been challenging this year (as it is every year), but I took the summer off and completed a TON of music and my students were invited BACK to perform at the University of Maryland in early October.
This year I have read books on kats ranging from Rick James, Faith Evans, Prince, and Miles Davis to Malcolm X, Fred Wesley, Grandmaster Flash, Charlie Parker, and the early days of hip hop.
I took part in completing THREE albums…one which will never see the light of day.
AND kept up my 4.0 GPA in graduate school. I lost a good friend of mine on November 3rd – respect due to Chris “Jax” Thurston, 1976-2008…
…The following day, I was fortunate enough to witness and be a part of this year’s historical election results (now the REAL work begins).
I, along with many of my people at home, have even managed to sit and watch the Lions win not a single GAME this season, LAWD!!…
…The Red Wings did their thing last season and won it all though… Congratulations!!
Oh yeah, I made it to my 30th year back in September! And the celebration was CRAZY…
Overall, 2008 has been another blessing and yet another step in the right direction toward musical growth. I have learned a ton in the last 12 months and I am looking very forward to new things to come in ’09…
Oh, by the way. 2009 will bring two albums…
…just visiting too (follow up to 2006’s …just visiting)
and
SunStorm (solo album featuring Phonte, Yahzarah, AB, and Sy Smith)
Maaan, when I tell y’all I had fun in Chicago this past Saturday… I MEAN it. My boy Damont got me from Midway at about noon and it was uphill from there….
We hit up Wishbone on Washington for some Shrimp and Grits, then hit up Dr. Wax to catch up with the brotha Duane Powell before the benefit show. By then, it was time to go to soundcheck where I met up with Eric Roberson, Cherisse Scott, Tiaybe, The Primeridians, and finally met YahZarah face-to-face after doing a joint with her back in April for the new Foreign Exchange album…..man what a talented group of kats. Then arrives my group of brothers from home, The Gorilla Funk Mob ready to rock. ….and can you say let’s meet up and play on no rehearsal? The DuSable Museum was a nice spot to play too, although I couldn’t see the crowd that well at all from the stage, but I certainly heard y’all and felt the support after the show w/those who approached me in the lobby with positive words. We played a 45 minute set of stuff from Freelance and one joint from Passion & Definition (“Open Invitation”). It was good to perform w/my kats Tate, G-Rock & Mikus…..ALWAYS having fun shedding out. The thing was……the Dr. Wax Benefit show was just the beginning. We headed over to the after party spot to see what was goin on. We got in to that joint and… …..well…… the joint was pretty… uhh, wack.
So kats gathered outside and all the sudden Cherisse busts out with, “I’ll cook….”
Then YahZarah says, “Yeah, I’ll make some peach cobbler and salmon cakes…!”
Wait a minute……what in the hell? Y’all just rocked your sets at the show and now y’all are about to cook?!? Maaaaan, it felt like college or som’n. So damn if we all didn’t chip in about $10 a piece so that they could go grocery shopping @ about 1:30am to cook for kats…….In the meantime, me and went back to he and his fiancée’s spot for a drink, then came back out to the REAL after party.
We got there and the brotha Shawn Wallace who played keys for the house band that night made us a drink and it was a straight laugh-a-thon from that point on. Macaroni and cheese was already sitting out in a tin looking so lovely…..so I decided to devour about 3 scoops worth. Next came the salmon cakes….ahyessir. I did end up going back for seconds. How about some Southern style potatoes by Cherisse? Goodness…. And to top it all off……the peach cobbler w/some vanilla ice cream, which ended up getting taken care of at about 5am. Man, man, MAN….Chicago sure knows how to treat a brotha……….
Pictures: (Top to bottom) – 1. Me and Damont, 2. Me and Eric Roberson, 3. Duane Powell, YahZarah and me, 4. Me and YahZarah while she cooks salmon cakes, 5. Me and Damont puttin a hurting on YahZarah’s peach cobbler at 5am.
Zo! 