notes from a native sun

i am lax in my updates… so i’ll stab along in my hop skip jump kinda style of communicating that often frustr8s my friends… cause i’m kinda all over the place… a lil scatterbrained!! …. drm (aaron- bastard jazz records) was here in late february… a number of guest spots at my dj situations, with the hi-lite being monday (2 mondays ago) at the flat for the rebel crew release party of bastard boots 2 … hot!!… mister e, suma, drm, and myself held it down… and aaron had just way too much fun… was that the night we ended up @ tapatia and he imagined himself @ riuchy’s (or how-ever you spell that 1)??… both late nite mexican restaurants, one offering a bit more “flavor” (i use that term loosely, and i don’t mean “food” flavor)… but i digress… anyway, we had a blast, as usual… tried to get some production work done, but his hours of operations/sleeping don’t jive with mine… so while i was up, he was snoring and vice versa (i don’t snore… for the record)…. but i digr…ehh… he took my music with him to get pressed on acetate (for all lay-(wo)-men: that’s the master from which vinyl records get pressed… his trusted acetate/engineer guy in brooklyn turns out to be none other that: tim xavier aka turbo tim, who is a dear personal friend and fellow dj/producer from houston… so i am in good hands!!.. small world…
i get the dubplates back this week and then the acetate gets forwarded to dallas for pressing… its been a long time coming… it’ll be my first official release… sure, “hello” on swedish brandy, and “ten” on the scion cd… but this is the first 12″ single, leading up to the full-length… may do another single before… perhaps…the vinyl will carry 3 tracks, one remix by presto (which is hot!) and the cd version will have “hello” and “ten” as bonus tracks…
so now its around the clock to make sure i make my self-imposed release date of april 17th…. but before that i will play sxsw and through my long long time good friend and kpft colleague, matt sonzala aka mad matt i was able to score an official booking @ sxsw on march 14th (wed) and then on saturday will play at a giant step party…. wow!!… it was 11 years ago (ny, 1996) that i first played giant step with groove collective and jtq, which started long friendships with nappy (who, btw plays on “hello”), nickodemus, jonathan maron (bassist extraordinaire for groove collective et al) and many others… playing with el pollo de jorge (chicken george to most!) and j boogie (boogie plays the following monday the 19th @ the flat)… kraak and smaak open up… they’re from holland and for those of you keeping score… that’s the place of my birth… so i get to freak some folks out and speak some dutch!!… gek he!?! (that’s dutch for “crazy, right!?”.. but then again you should never translate colloquial slang literally!!) but i digress… gotta run.. will try to be more dilligent bout updating…

Simone Serrutella aka BIG BANG runs a label in London for which he has recorded a new album “Way In jazz”… beautiful instrumentation, good quality music… stuff that is reminiscent of the music I would look for to play on Soular Grooves. he is originally from Bologna, Italy and has relocated to London, while he still does summer beach parties in Italy.

Alright, so he landed at 8:30pm on Monday for his guest gig @ The Flat. We grabbed some Vietnamese food @ Van Loc before heading to The Flat. It started a bity lighter than normal, primarily because alot of folks had partied for Halloween on Saturday AND there were parties happening the night after (Tue Oct 31). By midnight, though the vibe was just right. Simone played a very energetic set of mostly quality Brazilian and Latin grooves. The crowd moved a bit off and on and then I closed it out @ 1:30 with a Rocksteady Reggae set. Those who attended were satisfied, as far as I could tell.

When we had breakfast the next morning, Simone conveyed that the Houston and Chicago gigs were the best of his tour so far. His next stop was LA for Halloween night.

Another wonderful opportunity to expand the network of dj/producers. We talked about the different scenes in London, NY, Tokyo, and how it can be tough to manage a career of dj-ing and producing the underground styles of music that we produce. Simone has been @ it for about 10 years. I’m just getting my feet wet in the production arena. I am very encouraged though.

After I dropped him off, it was time to set up for the Halloween party @ Gravitas. Simone will be back to the US in December and we may be able to set something up for December the 14th (?)

Presto came through to do a couple of guest spots @ The Flat and Onion Creek to promote his new lp MAGIC (Concrete Grooves). It had rained the night before (Sunday the 15th) with a heap of flooding to follow. This affected the turnout at The Flat, just a bit, but the folks that were there were enthusiastic enough to make it a succesful night.

The album is dope with some hip hop and some instrumentals, vintage Presto-style. Over the weekend Presto also made an appearance at the radio show (Soular Grooves, KPFT 90.1) to promote the album.

He also collected the audio files to Monday Drive, my latest composition, in order to do a remix for the ep, which hopefully will be ready for release later on this year on Alt Take Records out of Dallas (Hydroponic Sound System’s label)

Last nite was an awesome experience @ The Flat, once again (check the pics in our Galleries). Aloe Blacc, Stones Throw Recording Artist, blessed the mic, while EL Dopa (LA) and I held it down on the turntables (mixes soon to be posted @ www.soulargrooves.com/podcasts). The crowd was all into it, dancing and just having a great time.

Today, we got up, had lunch and then had enough time to check out The Rothko Chapel, a hidden treasure in Houston. We wanted to check the De Menil Collection, as well, but ran out of time.

Had some time to talk with Aloe and El Dopa about expressions through music. Aloe reflected on how its more rewarding to make music “for atonement” more than just pure club “entertainment.” In the end we need to reflect our innertruths, I chimed in, while El Dopa waxed about his ability to express himself through playing bass, which he just recently picked up, playing in a live band in LA. All this was inspired by our visit to Rothko, ofcourse, but I think we would’ve eventually gotten to the subject.

The night before, as we had dinner before the show, we reflected and discussed our respective stages of lives and how that affects our respective stands regarding relationships with the opposite sex. All private info, ofcourse, but it just showed how having spent some time in Austin (@ SWXSW) and here in Houston (w El Dopa, last year) has developed a bond between, where we are comfortable talking about some intimate common topics re: music and relationships.

That energy I think translated well into a wonderful Monday night performance, where everything fell in place and nothing but positive energy was exchanged between us and the Houston folks who came out to support.

Aloe may return soon as he’s promoting a beautiful album (on Stones Throw), which will see a Summer 2006 release. We’ll at least talk to him on the air through a phone interview. And since, El Dopa doubles as a Marketing Rep/ Facilitator for The Scion shows, he’ll undoubtedly travel through the area again. Great friends, I hope to work with again soon!

Got to do a better job of this…. January was a month of celebration: the birthday month!… January also saw two good shows @ The Flat: DRM & JUGOE from Bastard Jazz and HYDROPONIC SOUND SYSTEM from Dallas. Both parties offered networking opportunities since we’re all spinning and producing similar musical styles. JUGOE (from Cleveland) brought about 100 of his own tracks on a laptop and did a mix (using his own trx exclusively) at ONION CREEK on the 4th of January, which blew me away. Good Stuff!

Tonight is NICKODEMUS. Got up early this morning to prep for tonights show. Getting the right records together… the equipment set-up… so that NICK, friends, & I can have some early dinner and talk about upcoming opportunities for production. He’s working on a remix for Thievery Corporation… gave me a lil preview over the weekend. Very nice!

Speaking of the weekend… made it to THE MFA for the last Basquiat show which featured GRAND MASTER FLASH… missed the MASTER, because I had pledge drive duties @ SOULAR GROOVES, KPFT 90.1 (11pm). The place was packed, energy great and I understand they turned away a few thousands, while inside they estimated anouther 5,000 witnessed the event!

saw the basquiat exhibit yesterday @ the mfa. wednesdays being my night off (i had to do some work during the day), i try to step out once in a while to decompress. my good friend shiben and i were trying to put it all in perspective. basquiat’s work ofcourse is amazing and can be delved into from different angles. while allowing others to do that and just enjoying the works in the moment, so to speak, i wondered out loud to shiben whether basquiat’s hype (and i use that term in a factual, not deragatory context) today, would stand up for generations to come. the mfa and many others (critics, writers) have made concerted efforts to link his work with hip hop because of the obvious connection with grafiti and street sensibility. i just wonder if that stands up over time.

so, after the mfa, we linked up with another friend, qsim, and proceeded to celebrate a rather succesful week. a good night for some clean, barhopping fun. on monday for instance, the flat enjoyed its best monday so far, the energy, crowd, atmosphere was top notch, and… oh yeah, any roddick was there for about 3 hours getting his “rock steady monday” on. on tuesday i submitted the two tracks due to swedish brandy and was given a tentative release date of spring 2006 for the 4 song ep.

jumping back to basquiat, had an opportunity to hang with paul d. miller aka dj spooky (in town for the basquiat opening performance) and claudia solis (mfa). we talked a bit at his book signing for “rhythm science” and then checked out the menil, after visiting the book store (@ the menil) to pick up “behind the beat.” quick blurb re: “behind the beat”- its a photo essay about producers (like madlib, premier, young einstein, among many others) and their home studios. very inspirational.
it was a “quick” hour, but we managed to “freestyle” about music production techniques, the mythical “digital divide” in the third world, and reggae. spooky is doing a mixed cd project commissioned by trojan records, the legendary jamaican reggae label. he offered a preview. its dope, nuff said.

The compilation on Swedish Brandy is out and includes “Hello”… Its a really nice package… I received 2 copies… Gotta go over to Soundwaves, Cactus, and Sound Exchange to make sure that they order this cd, so that I can promote it properly….

My heart is smiling!

So my car’s in the shop and I’m tooling around with my buddy Jonas’ pimped out truck, which has superbass… good for the reggae compilation he’s rockin in there right now… you can actually drive around and get a back massage at the same time cuz the bass comes through the seats. The dash and the seats are maroon carpeted… it’s just THE Pimp Truck!…

I’m setting all this up, because as I’m finishing up my gig @ The Alden, Johnny Love (don’t ask… it’s how he introduced himself) comes in with some “associates,” which included two ladies who are here stranded from MS (due to Katrina) and obviously are in the mood to have some fun and forget their worries of what might be happening back home.

Anyway they invite me to have some after hours fun with them, but don’t know where to go, so ofcourse I got the hook up for where to go (can’t mention the place for obvious reasons,…and no it’s not Houston spelled backwards).

Things are hopping in the spot, pleasantries are exchanged, and just the usual socializing, flirting, and more… that, until a patron decides that after some drama (which would take too long to explain), she has had enough and pull the fire alarm…

Time to go to Bibas and have “breakfast”…. The MS “guests”, well they sent Johnny Love on his way and raced over to exchange phone numbers with me, before they took off to Deer Park!?…. I think it was Jonas’ Pimped out truck that has them intrigued and perhaps they want to go for another ride some time soon… Too bad, ’cause I’m hoping to get back into the Subaru…. perhaps Jonas can oblige them with a “sightseeing tour”…. Besides, these late hours are killing my productivity… gonna have to start going to bed @ 4am instead of 5.

to be continued…

I get a lot of questions about when the release is due on Swedish Brandy and about when I’ll do more mixed cds. The EP is still being worked on. I am getting really close to finishing the 4th track: “Sure”… just some tweaking the bassline, the intro and then to the studio to mix it.

I’m also waiting for vocals to be added to “Ten.” I inivited Ron Fountainberry (The Incredible Moses Leroy) to do the vocals. He lives in LA and so he a bit less accessible than the local artists.

Once that’s done it will then be up to Swedish Brandy to determine the release date.

In the meantime Swedish Brandy will release “Hello” on a compilation which is due out this month (September 2005). I should be getting copies soon.

After the releases are out, I’ll concentrate on doing another Soular Grooves mix cd. In the meantime, I’m in discussion with The Alden (boutique hotel chain) to do a mix for them. This is in a very preliminary stage, so we’ll see what happens in the next few weeks. We’re concentrating on doing the grand opening of The Alden (1117 Prairie) on Thursday September 15.

So far in 4 weeks, the best Monday we’ve had. Nappy ripped it on the tables. I had a blast as well. The energy in the room was remarkable. I had several people tell me one minute that they were leaving only to look up an hour later and they’re still there…

My camera went out, but Derek came through with his and took some pics. Now, I just need to track him down and make sure that he e-mails me copies.

Mondays are back!