The Sounds of VTech

THE 11TH ANNUAL EAGLE ROCK MUSIC FESTIVAL

Far-out international sounds on the DUBLAB “future roots” STAGE….

Cumbias, jazz from the hills to the flatlands of LA, the crackling of rare records brought to LA from Central America or the Middle East and heard in family collections….

The “future roots” Stage, curated by the Los Angeles based non-profit collective DUBLAB as part of their the week-long 10th Anniversary Exploration series around the city, merges the sounds of global Los Angeles and presents them as evidence that— in a city like ours— the world and its eras are at our back door, found in the cultural makeup of its residents, and blended anew in every corner of Los Angeles. DUBLAB is devoted to the growth of positive music, arts and culture from around the world that crosses genres, defies classification and bridges eras. Broadcasting independently since 1999, what started as a web radio collective has grown to producing events at institutions like the Getty and the Natural History Museum, creating alliances with like-minded artists, and giving back to the community by participating in free festivals like the ERMF!

4:00-4:45pm Julia Holter 
One of dublab’s favorite songwriter/composer/sound artists guides us to into the deep with live ethereal sounds incorporating avant-garde instrumentation, vocals, and poetics.

4:45-5:45pm - Nanny Cantaloupe 
This DUBLAB / KXLU dj will share vibrant sounds from the global, post-modern primitive outernational universe. Cantaloupe is sure to shift your consciousness several degrees for the better.

5:45-6:15pm- Bali and Beyond 
Inspired by the cultures of Indonesia, Bali & Beyond features a variety of Gamelan, including sacred ritual pieces and secular music of the royal court, performed on bronze metallophones, gongs, and gong chimes, directed by Maria Bodmann and Cliff De Arment. Bali & Beyond perform Courtesy of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the Recording Industries’ Music Performance Fund through the assistance of the Professional Musicians Union Local 47.

6:15-7:15pm- The Gaslamp Killer 
GLK, the Mount Washington based DUBLAB collective dj and Low End Theory resident, will blend the hardest and most fuzz-filled 60s and 70s psych from the Middle East, backed by mystic dancers.

7:15-8:00pm- Michael White Quintet 
An organic jazz quintet led by violinist Michael White with jazz vocalist Leisei Chen that creates a timeless, ageless, clean and borderless Los Angeles jazz fusion sound incorporating originals, classics, bossa nova, and spontaneous improvisation. White is a groundbreaking composer, educator and violinist who has played with legends such as Alice Coltrane, Sun Ra and Pharoah Sanders, while Chen is a vocalist trained in the US and her native Japan.

8:00-9:00pm- Mas Exitos 
Tracing the connections between music made on two continents from the Andes of Peru to the Eastside of L.A., which finds its biweekly home at the Verdugo Bar in Glassell Park and has been featured nationally on NPR.

9:00-9:45pm- Buyepongo 
This Los Angeles County-based crew of young musicians dedicated to preserving cumbia and Colombian vallenato culture by embodying the music and echoes passed down through their families—from Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Ecuador, and Los Angeles— and playing those sounds vibrantly, channeling cultural history on the streets and to the people of the LA.

10:00-11:00pm- Dub Club Echodelic Sound System 
This heavy crew will close out the evening with many eras of Jamaican music, joined by MC Jah Faith and special guest Ranking Joe, a reggae legend who will be toasting over the Echodelic DJ selections in a authentic rub-a-dub style to ‘nice up the dance!’

Emceed by Carlos Nino, DUBLAB founding DJ and host of KPFK’s Spaceways Radio

4-11pm / Free / All Ages

THE STREETS OF EAGLE ROCK
Colorado Boulevard between Eagle Rock and Caspar
centerartseaglerock.org

We’re ending our week here at VTech and Mochilla on a positive note. Our good friend and supporter over at BBC-Radio1 Gilles Peterson has given us some big love. We’re a part of the All Winners Show of 2009. This list represents the hottest music from the first four months of this year and we couldn’t be prouder of Carlos Nino and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson for “Fall in Love” which was performed during the Suite for Ma Dukes, Timeless Series.  Also making an appearance are Quantic and Mulatu.

Congratulations to everyone on the list.

Please click here: Gilles Peterson/BBC Radio 1 to hear his broadcast of the show

All Winners 2009 Part 1

2:00

LD – Traumatic Times (Hyperdub)
Kafka – The Kafka Anthem (Mighty Highness Records)
Miguel Atwood Ferguson & Carlos Niño - Fall In Love (Mochilla) **
Sa Ra – Cosmic Ball (Ubiquity)
Jam Da Silva – Dia Santo (3014)
Elmore Judd – Staring (Test)
Oumou Sangare - Lyo Djeli (World Circuit)
Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics – Mensequo (Strut)
Beirut – The Akara (Ba Da Bing)
Jimi Tenor & Kabu Kabu – Global Party (Sahko)
Jack Penate - Today’s Tonight (XL)
Nacho Patrol – African Space Program (Kindred Spirits Electronic)
Quantic And His Combo Barbaro – The Dreaming Mind Part 1 (Tru Thoughts)
Mos Def – Quiet Dog (Downtown)
Jay Electronica – Candyman (Test)
Bullion – Time For Us All To Love (One Handed)
Mayer Hawthorne – Maybe So Maybe No (Stones Throw)
Alice Russell – Let Us Be Loving (Little Poppet)
Sound Species Ft Ahu – Can We Call It Love? (CDR)
Theophilus London – Cold Pillow (Test)

3.00

Foreign Exchange – Take Off The Blues (Fat Beats)
Jonathan Jeremiah – It Doesn’t Bother Me (Island)
Elan Mehler - New Breed (Brownswood)
The Long Lost – Amiss (Ninja Tune)
Rasmus Faber – Never Figure Out (Victor)
Mocky – Jinti (Crammed Discs)
Hudson Mohawke – Monde (Warp)
General Elektriks - Cottons Of Inertia (Discograph)
Harry Whitaker – Come See Through My Eyes (Smalls)
Doom – Gazillion Ear (Thom York Remix) (Lex)
Dobie – The New Madness (Brownswood)
DOP – Romeo (Blanche Neige)
Martyn – Elden Street (3024)
Manuel Tur – Patchworks (Freerange)
Manuel Tur – Stay (Freerange)
Floating Point – Like This (Eglo)
Chaz Jankel - Glad To Know You (Todd Terje Re-edit) (Tirk)
Phlash & Friends – Do It Up (Archive)
Toddla T – Better (1965) 

VTech and Mochilla offer you a brief glimpse back at the first two events of the Timeless Series.

On February 1st, 2009, VTech and Mochilla started the Timeless composer/arranger series off with a bang. Timeless I: Mulatu Astatke.

Mulatu Astatke, Ethiopian musician and arranger, father of the Ethio-jazz sound, performed to a sold out crowd at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex with special guests, Bennie Maupin, Azar Lawrence and Phil Ranelin.

Musically trained in London, New York and Boston, Astatke became the first African student at the Berklee College of Music. From there he worked with jazz artists such as Duke Ellington and brought back Jazz to his native Ethiopia. 

Already beloved for his Ethio-jazz sound, Mulatu has continued his work in different realms of the music world. He continues to work on the modernization of traditional Ethiopian instruments, served as an Abramowitz Artist-in-residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and  produces songs for many artists from East Africa. In 2005, Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers brought Mulatu Astatke’s music to a new level of sheer appreciation, solely using Mulatu’s music in his film.

On his signature instrument, the vibraphone, Mulatu’s sound reverberated throughout the crowd.

On Sunday, February 22nd, 2009, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Carlos Nino, brought J.Dilla to the stage in a fitting tribute, Timeless II: Suite For Ma Dukes.

“The concert is a celebration of J Dilla’s life, what he loved and what inspired him. It is a show of support, appreciation and love for his incredible mother Maureen Yancey, whom I recently had the sincere pleasure of meeting and sitting down with. It is very exciting for everyone, there is a real crisp freshness pervading everything on all levels. This is celebrating the infinite possibilities always before us.” - Miguel Atwood-Ferguson

J Dilla, born James Dewitt Yancey, is regarded by many of his peers as one of the greatest hip hop producers. Coming on to the scene in the early 90’s, by 1995, he became the go to man for many of hip hop’s elite. Working with such artists as Madlib, Pete Rock, Common, Busta Rhymes, Mos Def, Pharrell, 9th Wonder, A Tribe Called Quest, The Pharcyde, Kanye West, Karriem Riggins, Questlove, and more. 

Though Dilla passed February 10th, 2006, due to complications stemming from Lupus and blood disease TTP, those who knew and loved him continue to keep his music alive. 

Timeless II: Suite For Ma Dukes  brought the sold out audience  at the Luckman Fine Arts Plaza to their feet as the power of Dilla’s music, love, and energy  overwhelmed their very senses. It was indeed a magical evening. 

“If you listen closely to the music, the possibilities are endless…”   –Ma Dukes (February 22nd, 2009)
 
Those who were fortunate enough to attend Suite For Ma Dukes, the second installment of Timeless, a four-part series honoring the legacy of renowned composers, experienced an evening filled with spellbinding sights and sounds.

Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and his 40 piece orchestra roused the audience to its feet during the evening with his re-creation of J Dilla’s best known works.

Surprise guests took their place upon the stage throughout the night, including Common, Talib Kweli, Posdnous from De la Soul, Bilal, Amp Fiddler, Dweli and many more to pay tribute, not only to Dilla’s musical influence left upon the world, but his mother, Ma Dukes. Small in stature, Ma Dukes is a true inspiration, a towering beacon of spirit, love and music.

Common, Illa J, and Ma Dukes

Amp Fiddler, Diana Moreira, Bilal, Shafiq of Sa-Ra

A cello was also brought out during the second half of the evening to honor Dilla and represent his early musical development as an artist that lead to his unending passion for music.

A Cello For Dilla

The powerful performance and sheer energy from the musicians and singers elevated the audience at the Luckman Fine Arts Plaza to a new level of musical appreciation. Emotions were high, the applauses, loud. The air was electrified with everyone on the edge of their seats anticipating the highs and lows of arranger/conductor Atwood-Ferguson’s stirring movements. There was no doubt that body, heart and soul were one. For Ma Dukes this event was “another way for your soul to soar through music”.

“..for the audience that the series is aiming at, for the sheer level of creative challenge that Atwood-Ferguson and Carlos Niño rose to make this music work, to the sheer amount of love reverberating through the room last night…this was something that went beyond the music in honoring and celebrating Dilla”
-Oliver Wang, Soul Sides

It’s been a week and a day, not that I’m counting, since the Timeless #2: A Suite for Ma Dukes.  I’ve found it hard to write about the weekend, the rehearsal, the show for that matter.  I was sitting on B+’s couch, again, late last Friday night as we did our final decompress from the heavier than norm week that was behind us.  We were both still in a state of awe about what transpired, trying wrap my head around the things that unfurled along the way.  Walking into rehearsal straight from Burbank and seeing Dukes for the first time in a year and half. Seeing Miguel work his magic and feeling it like I’ve never seen, his months, hell, years of prep leading him to this moment.  The playful glee in the smiles of the musicians making up the amazing ensemble as they practiced what was definitely a bit outside their comfort zone - and KILLING it. Looking around the room: Pas from De La Soul, Bilal, my man Shafiq, Mochilla crew shooting everything…Nino posted next to dukes, me right behind her….soaking it in, being quiet. Holding hands, crying, laughing, smiling, bouncing…..it was all there. Drew of course handling biz, Bekka handling Drew…..It was different than #1…smoother…more like watching an opera.

Cut to Sunday before the show, backstage was buzzing. Ma Dukes brilliant in white, biggest grin I have ever seen, feeling the moment and ready to take care of all of us, if you know here you know what I am saying.  So much love that night in Luckman on both sides of the stage.  Karriem Riggins, Thundercat, so many friends and fam in the seats and on stage.  J. Rocc and House Shoes rocked the 1’s and 2’s as only they can, knowing Dilla so well for so long.  Miguel’s 1st time conducting, and for all of you that were there, it was nothing short of unbelievable.  5 standing ovations, encore and finale took us past the drop dead time, and the Luckman is Union….needless to say everyone was feeling the moment. I had the pleasure of sitting with Dukes during the show. At one point I hit Dru ” what time should I bring Dukes back?” ‘10:15′….So i leaned over and let her know we would need to get her on stage for “Stakes is High” et al…at which point she said ” Oh no, they have every one they need, they are full”….we secured the largest stage in LA for a reason….” No way Mom, we’re going…”

As i took her back stage we ran into Talib Kweli, surprise…around stage right we run into the whole crew, surprise….Oh No, Alchemist, Frank, MED, Rhettmatic…all the fam….from that point on you can imagine.  We’ll put up another video of the encore shortly, we thought Hoc n Pucky was the essence  you really needed to see right away.

All 4 of these shows are special, unique and close to our hearts. This show was complex on many levels, and allowed a lot of amazing people take their own gifts to another level, and we are grateful to have been there to witness it and to be supporting them.  Los Angeles, again, than you for your support.  Our special guests who came in from all over the country, Thank You. Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Carlos Nino- congrats!.Mochilla, Artdontsleep and the entire crew, killing the game and get some rest. J Dilla: We miss you. Ma Dukes: we love you.

a quick video of Ma Dukes on stage with Common and Illa J during the show: