LARGE PRO is one of the most solid and sincere people i've ever met. he really knocks me out. i'm lucky to have met him and be able to call him a friend. this night at the root down nyc was a celebration of life. you can read more about my connection with the root down here. there's a lot of DUSK in this snippet because i miss him so much.
i believe this is the only night i ever even brought my camera to table 50 and had too much of a complex to even shoot. that's nelson george on the lens and me on the imovie.
i remember asking Large Pro about the flyer, what he wanted on it and he said bohannon stop & go:
i also remember he laced me with some vinyl that night - including this killer:
FAB 5 FREDDY was one of the first people I met when I moved to NYC but you can read more about that over at TONE's Format Mag column. this interview from that beautiful Sunday, April 17th in 2005 is imprinted on my mind/heart and i'm glad this excerpt is finally out and up. FFF!!!
photo: NELSON GEORGE and MILES DAVIS.
Saturday, November 27th, 2004...the first time i interviewed nelson for this i didn't record the sound (by mistake). nelson was gracious enough to grant me a second interview and whilst the energy in the second take was not as boombastic as the first interview the message remained the same. ASS POWER! Since the recording of this I've read Greil Marcus' MYSTERY TRAIN and not only is it a great piece on music, it's an amazing work on america. as always, thank you NDG.
NN
i think the first time i saw kool dj red alert in the flesh was at APT when he was negroclash's guest. prince language used to call me the unofficial negroclash mc but that night, i think it was a winter night...i was in awe of what i experienced, red alert played for six hours or so with one hand and two turntables. i believe all vinyl, this was pre-serato and holy moly.
another night, months later, also at apt, red was back...this time i mustered up the courage to introduce myself and see how he was doing. i asked about how he would describe djing...he said it was like painting and went on to talk about the canvas and colors. it was a great moment, sitting there...i think he was eating chicken wings.
when i started working at table 50 we got to have red play twice - both nights memorable, once with monk one and emskee - once with the root down...
somehow i had a chance to interview him and its imprint stays strong on me...i love listening to people's stories and here are some red shared with me thursday, january 20th, 2005.
after seeing beats, rhymes and life: the travels of a tribe called quest i was reminded of all these moments i've had, all the time i spent runnin through the trenches. part of me died with hip hop, if hip hop is alive i don't recognize it, and there are parts of me i can't recognize anymore either.
reminds me of movie night with jem cohen when ian mackaye talked about how punk has no meaning anymore - and i thought the same for hip hop....but the truth remains that it did keep my heart beating for just long enough...
It was Friday, July 7th, 2000 and I was deep into my hi8 guerrilla tactics, showing up at venues, not knowing anyone and trying to film? I think I wanted to capture every hip-hop act I loved on my lil hi8 and give it to the artist. At this time, venues were starting to get strict on the no filming policy and the Celebrity Theater was no exception so I decided I would make a little present for De La Soul, Common, Hi-Tek & Kweli, Biz Markie and Pharoahe Monch I started asking all the folks going in what they would say to them if they had a chance to meet the artists? Only one answer out of 500 stuck with me. Thankfully, I did meet Earl and Earl had a lot to say about America, Music, Parenting and Marriage. My adventures watching the wheels included meeting a lot of people behind the scenes that remain in my memory more than the wheels sometimes. The show was great, and Common would go on to do the same routine for ten years. Mos Def did not appear despite rumors to the contrary and I was really impressed by the large gaggle of white 15 year old girls who knew every De La song.
who knew my gramps was a little bit of a record collector? i didn't. when he saw the turntable set up in my lab his eyes lit up. he asked me if i had heard his command records yet, he told me how they used to be used to sell stereo systems back in the day. that hearing a command record being played on a system in a store is what prompted him to buy his own system and stay up all night listening to albums. it took him a while to get his hands on some command records but he got a few (see above). listening to these with him this week was pretty amazing, the arrangements!! wow. his eyes welled up when he told me about hearing walter huston's version of september song. pretty amazing to see a tough talking marine get so into this and share it. music baby. music.
a good combination, ppp & roy ayers in bed-stuy, brooklyn on july 21st, 2005. it was a hot day. i cried and laughed a lot and shook my camera all over the place too geeked out to do a good job, but nonetheless on a wetwindywinterspringahead night this warms me up a bit and helps me look forward to sunshine. everybody loves the sunshine.
*performance other peoples lives and styrofoam boots/it's all nice on ice
modest mouse qualifies for watching the wheels because it was the same night and place as z-trip's funky cornbread with tricky t & tige. regenerationtv had it up on their site in it's entirety for awhile and even though the sound is pretty challenging it works for me.
Their name is derived from a passage from the Virginia Woolf story "The Mark on the Wall" which reads, "I wish I could hit upon a pleasant track of thought, a track indirectly reflecting credit upon myself, for those are the pleasantest thoughts, and very frequent even in the minds of modest, mouse-coloured people, who believe genuinely that they dislike to hear their own praises." *from wiki
this could more aptly be called "glued to the wheel". i remember getting a call that said something like be at metropolis in 30 minutes. bring your camera. i did. radar is like a scientist to me. i knew him as an astrophysicist student or something at asu before i knew he was a dj. he, frankie and i would meet at the safeway parking lot and skate, skate, skate then watch kung-fu movies like "crippled masters".
one day he showed me his laboratory and started scratching on the turntables. i remember it scaring me a bit. he asked me if i wanted to try. i said no thanks. i guess that's what it means to be awed.
radar's done a lot to establish the turntable as instrument with his live looping, scratch notation, turntable for concerto, etc.
on tuesday, december 4th, 2008 i played records at broke ass stuart's book party and saw kelli rudick perform and she did some amazing live looping that made me cry it was so incredible for me to see a woman do it. and so, so well, with a multitude of instruments.
here is five hours of footage condensed to eight minutes and twenty seconds. request: a del & madlib musical collaboration and dance-off. i didn't do too much watching the wheels this night with blood of abraham, blackalicious and del performing but obviously there would be no show without the DJs of the evening: tricky t, dj rick, chief xcel & jesse.
*The flyer says T3 performing on the patio?? This was the first show I got in trouble for filming. The beginning of the end. It was Mixmaster Mike's birthday and Rahzel sang "Happy Birthday" to him.
*Mixmaster Mike, DJ JS-1, Z-Trip & Radar play together. Rahzel on the mic.
*Rahzel from The Roots performing an all ages show in Tempe, Arizona. Some Boyz II Men & Art of Noise.
*Rahzel from The Roots performing an all ages show in Tempe, Arizona. Some IronMan & 39th Chamber.
LARGE PRO is one of the most solid and sincere people i've ever met. he really knocks me out. i'm lucky to have met him and be able to call him a friend. this night at the root down nyc was a celebration of life. you can read more about my connection with the root down here. there's a lot of DUSK in this snippet because i miss him so much.
