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Originally posted @ www.urbalt.ning.com
Hola, Loved Ones!
The King is dead and won't be leaving the building anytime soon.
If you’ve been following URB ALT or MuthaWit over the last 3 years you know that the URB ALT Festival is generally the last event on the last weekend of the BAMcafe Live music series. We love batting cleanup at BAM cause it allows us and them to let it all hang out with no inhibitions. "It’s now or never" as Elvis said in song. Ah, but what about that other King?
On Thursday June 25 we had a late MuthaWit gathering at Sweatshop Rehearsal and Recording Studios. When we walked into the main studio we were greeted by the marvelous singer/songwriter/performer Moon. I’ve been waiting to meet this firebrand in the flesh for some time now and was happy to hear that she had arrived in from DC ready to perform in the URB ALT Festival. Surprisingly, when I entered the room she looked very somber…the exact opposite of what I would have expected. I caught her eye and she immediately said “Michael Jackson is dead.” I was pretty taken aback by the idea as we hugged awkwardly but happily. After more and more music mates entered the room Michael Jackson’s status was the subject on everyone’s lips. Eventually his death was confirmed and the tragedy impacted the rehearsal but not necessarily in a negative way. I think if anything we were all forced to reflect on Michael’s huge influence on the majority of American lives. The brother has established a legacy of soulful innovation that people will be dissecting for years to come. His impact as a cultural force is only being realized and acknowledged now that he has transitioned.
Michael's solo career exploded at the same juncture where black artists were aggressively exploring the terrain leading into the land of CROSSOVER music(oooooh, such a frightening ideal). The moment at hand signaled the end of raw funk as the dominant force on black radio and the ascendance of sometimes saccharine pop infused soul/r&b. It's almost quaint to recall the heated conversations around if Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson, the Pointer Sisters or even early Whitney Houston were black enough or even worse TRYING to be white. As fate would have it Michael Jackson was the only one who would thrive on the contradictions of black artists consciously elbowing their way back into a part of the record business that artists like Ray Charles, Little Richard and Sam Cooke originated for the most part. Well, throw Prince in the mix too, on the real. Indeed, Michael's actual appearance became a physical manifestation and lightning rod for the perils and fortunes due those who successfully ran the gauntlet of crossover. As a Vitiligoian being he raised questions about gender, race, equality, sexuality and age that are still in need of basic answers. Every new cosmetic event pushed Michael further into the realm of the macabre and fantasy so much to the point that with his passing last week my cousins young children finally realized that Michael Jackson was a REAL person and not a character of fiction ala Ronald McDonald or Donald Duck or Donald Trump. LOL Michael transcended crossover to the land of popular passover and struck many a messianic pose in the process. Hence "Jacko" was forged and the cute kid from Motown Records with the preternatural understanding of adult emotions was never to be heard from again.
I won’t pretend to have liked a full album of his music after “Off the Wall”
or even much of his music after the musical megastorm that was “Thriller” but a collection of his singles “Human Nature,” “Smooth Criminal,” “Billie Jean,” and “They Don’t Really Care About Us” among others never cease to amaze me in their songcraft and fearlessness when challenging the pop form. It’s easy to forget how fresh those songs sounded when they were first released because they are so thoroughly integrated into the global social fabric. And, please, don’t mention what Michael’s vision did to push the music video form forward. Contemporary video directors are still regurgitating many of the motifs introduced in videos such as “Beat It” and “Black or White.”
“Smooth Criminal” is my favorite Michael Jackson music video of all time. It’s a genius distillation of successful ideas from his earlier videos with Michael dancing as if he is being jerked angrily by the chain linking Cotton Club gangsters to African’s stocked and bound together in the bow of a slaveship navigating the middle passage . The short sequence I call the “Bembe” section(5:25-6:40) is still without peer and MJ at his strange best.
I think that ultimately Michael Jackson’s legacy as an auteur shines even more in the visual world than the sonic(I’ll receive argument there and I can’t say I will play the contrarian). Despite the protestations of the media vanguard he organically earned/took/received/invented the title “King of Pop.” Writers may have thumbed their nose at the idea but the world public knew what was up. Having grown up in the business Michael was very aware of the need to own his business as well as to codify his own image and broadcast it unfiltered. He may not be the greatest entertainer the world has ever seen(give it a rest media) anymore than that other MJ is the greatest basketball player. The fact that he is easily ONE of the best, however, cannot be disputed by any reasonable person. I’ll miss, Michael…once these dadgum cable networks stop digging him up for their ratings. R.I.P. It Up, Dude. May your bones find rest not provided the Elephant Man’s.
Anyways, this get together at the Sweatshop was the first time I actually saw/heard Moon sing. So much power and presence coming out of a lil ol’ body. LOL Shanti Om and Moon were both slated to do their take on a song I wrote a couple years ago called “Hair Merci.” Both of the ladies are powerful singers so their interpretations on the 26(Shanti) and 27(Moon) had me very excited to observe the differences in their delivery and artistry. After the rehearsal a small group of us called ourselves traveling to see Femi Kuti’s show at Prospect Park in Brooklyn but as NYC life would have it we got a bit tangled up on the trains and missed the show. Everyone was pretty exhausted from the continuous walking and severe moodiness began to set in. Nothing worse than tired hungry mughs late at night in an unfamiliar city. LOL A very dark comedy of separation anxieties went down with us all ultimately rendezvousing early in the morning at my apartment in Harlem. I went online to listen nostalgically to some Michael Jackson music with sleep eventually calling and me answering thankfully!
So, on June 26 we played the third night of the URB ALT Festival at BAMcafe. I think for the most part that MuthaWit is a very energetic musical outfit. One of my desires is to engage artists in the URB ALT Festival who can match that energy. Not necessarily in a jumping all over the stage way but with an intense presence and raw honesty. The 26th saw MuthaWit Orchestra sharing the bill with AuntKeKe and Paris Suit Yourself.
AuntKeKe opened the show with an aggressive barrage of digital beats, cabaret tinged wails and modern art/street dance movements. She and her partner, Milton, first introduced their work to URB ALT audiences at last years URB ALT @ CMJ Music Marathon event. I was always intrigued about the possibility of presenting them at BAM where the sound and light show is a lot more high-end. They took full advantage of the venue by introducing a couple new songs(to my ears) and one of my favorites(“Without U”). AuntKeKe has a wonderfully supple voice that she pushes even further through ambitious effects processing. I was in green room on the 3rd floor of the venue at one point during her performance. Out of nowhere AuntKeKe let out a scream that drew several artists in the room to the spot where I was looking down on her show. They all asked in various ways “Who is that?” My response was a simple “AuntKeKe” as the sound continued to consume the attention of everyone in the room.
Next up was Paris Suit Yourself. I’ve been telling mughs about this group for about 2 years now. They are a wacko conglomeration of a sometimes stocking-headed dreadlocked lead singer/trumpeter from Paris(Nigerian family), high-water pants wearing guitarist/keyboardist/singer from Berlin, Amazonian pierced bassist/singer from Paris and a furiously tattooed drummer from Arkansas. LOL That always cracks me up to say the “Arkansas” part cause it’s so incongruent. What an incandescently strange brew Paris Suit Yourself is as they let all of their contradictions out in a rush of keyboard electronics, guitar distortion, rumbling bass, multi-lingual vocal outburts and puppet limbed movements. They performed with such fury that the show ended with much of the audience out of their seats and lead singer Luvinsky standing on a stage monitor screaming commands and lyrics into the mic. It was high theater and well worth the wait to get to see these cats do their thing. They were pure N-R-G and very much in keeping with the Berlin electronic underground but with a Southern Rock/Marching Band backbeat. Hope to have them back at an URB ALT one day soon…perhaps overseas? RAWK!
As is often the case MuthaWit closed out the June 26th date. Before the show started I talked with the crew to tell them I wanted to do something in homage to Michael Jackson. We bumped a couple songs around and finally decided to do “Billie Jean.” After working our way into the set and ending “Wind” Martell began playing the bassline to “Billie Jean” and the audience instantly recognized it. Sidebar: I can very seldom hear or see what the audience is doing during MuthaWit shows(thanks for the blinding lights, Tim LOL) so most of my impressions come from looking back at video or from an audience member telling me in detail what went down. Nevertheless, the audience was pretty excited to hear Michael’s song run through the MuthaWit prism. Y’all can hear a bit of it in the video on the site. Forgive the parts where I go flat or forget the lyrics. You know they say that it’s the thought that counts. LOL
One of the highlights for the evening was Shanti’s emotional rendering of “Hair Merci.” She actually demoed the song in studio for me back in the last century and it’s amazing to see how much she has grown as a singer and performer in that time. I used to tell her that when her theater background met onstage with her desire to be a musical performer she would have arrived. She’s there now, y’all. This particular show pretty much progressed/deteriorated into a final dance fest and sing along of “2 Fisted God” where Moon, Waberi and a couple of unknown audience members came up to got their groove on.
Just when I didn’t think things could get any more ragged Cameron, MuthaWit violinist, suddenly dropped his instrument and rushed out onto the dance floor. He displayed original moves that could only be replicated by walking across burning coals with electric shock cables connected to his fingertips while taking a snake charming class in Sub Saharan Africa. Cameron’s dancing was totally unexpected but a glorious sight to see. You gotta love it ‘cause dude was totally committed. I am always ecstatic to see someone overtaken by the music and the moment. That is Church and RAWK n roll. Yeah, it was a very good night.
What made things even cooler is the fact that we didn’t have to remove any of our gear because we would be playing BAMcafe the next night too. COOL! :-) Check the next blog for the recollect on the Grand Finale and such.
Thanks for reading this far folks. We’re almost home!
Love,
Boston
12:49 PM
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