ON CUE: The Bass Mint Bros Represent with "Sketches of a Neighborhood"

ALBUM: Sketches of a Neighborhood
ARTIST: The Bass Mint Bros
LABEL: Liberation/ Midnight Groove Records
WEB: http://www.myspace.com/thebassmintbros
RELEASE: 5/1/2008

I received a small package in the mail that now makes me even more anxious for warm weather to get here. A promo copy of the new CD arrived in my mailbox. Mwalim, the band's producer, had offered to e-mail me the tracks, but after hearing the rough tracks several months ago, I wanted the first place I heard the finished album was my car stereo.

One again, The Bass Mint Bros didn't disappoint. During my long car ride to Philly, I plugged the CD in when I reached the Mass Pike and listened to it in loop for the rest of the trip. To put it in simple terms, this album is banging!!! Possibly one of the best jazz albums to be released this year and one of the most refreshing jazz records to be released in years. From the thoughtful bass intro to "Awakened by a Noon Day Sun" to the haunting fade out on "Valley Park Groove" this album takes on the form of a visit from an old friend that you hate to see leave.

This mostly instrumental album is packed with tasty jazz organ, gut-bucket, solid acoustic and electric bass solos, and blazing guitar riffs; deftly merging jazz, funk, soul, progressive rock and dance music, not only on one album, but in some cases, in one song ("Awakened by a Noon Day Sun" and "2 Cheese Slices & A Drink" in particular). While the band's bio credits such influences as Jimmy Smith, Herbie Hancock, and the Funk Bros (legendary Classic Motown era studio band), all of which are apparent in their sound, I also hear traces of Pink Floyd, Santana, Led Zeppelin, and YES in this musical journey.

A concept album is a rare treat in these days of disconnected, multi-producer, cookie cutter albums and bands. Here, Mwalim, the bands primary composer, organist, and producer offers an album that depicts a day in the life of an underground musician, starting with waking up at noon, to a stroll through his neighborhood, to his gig at The Black Door, to the after party with that special young lady. Also particularly of note is the cut "A Store Front Bible Study" which vacillates between good old churchy praise and worship styled organ playing to funk, to progressive house music in the blink of an eye. Along with the solid jazz performance on the album is some serious hip-hop styled production with lots of low end thump and growl to give the subwoofers a work-out.

The release date of this project is May 1, 2008, with a listening party scheduled for The Milky way Lounge in Jamaica Plains, MA. You know I'll be there. You can also find samples of this project on their myspace page as well as reverbnation.com, gather.com, mp3.com, and ilike.com.

I can't wait for the warm days of late spring and summer so that I can bump this album with my car windows open!

BUZZING: Andre N. Jones Returns with Character Assasination

Andre N. Jones a.k.a, Drizzod brought a unique blend of spoken-word, jazz, soul and hip-hop to the table with his first release, "Verbal Light." The fluid and insightful album of gospel oriented poetry to audiences beyond the spoken-word scene of his native Philadelphia.

His use of vocal harmony and interplay on "Pass Me Not" and "Come Ye Disconsolate" and effective use of samples on "Bread" and "Musical Landscapes" takes this CD to a new dimension, beyond the average spoken-word CD where music simply serves as a mask for lack of delivery by the artist. On Jones' effort we find the actual element of composition.

On his follow-up, "Character Assassination" demonstrating a more seasoned and sophisticated approach to his studio efforts. To hear and purchase Jones' recordings visit Andre N. Jones on CDBaby.com.

BUZZING: Serious Organ Grinding By The Bass Mint Bros.

Artist: THE BASS MINT BROS.
Genre: Acid Jazz/ Break-beat/ House
Album: Forthcoming
Label: LIBERATION
Producer: Mwalim
There's a certain privilege to being an underground music reviewer. You often get to hear some of the best stuff before it's released. Such is the case when I bumped into a musician/ producer named Mwalim at Biff's Lounge in Boston last week (Masonic Grand Lodge Session+ bumping music = lots of single, eager women... even for a non-Mason... but I digress). He slipped my a home-burn CD of some music that he's been producing with a band up the street. He handed me the IBM CD-R with the info handwritten in Sharpie, with a wink and disappeared into the crowd (He has a tendency to do that).

The Bass Mint Bros. When I first heard Mwalim say the name, I of course thought it was "The Basement Bros." However, aside from the curious spelling and knowing the groups producer, what I got should bring about a renaissance of the hard-bop and groove era of the late 1960's and early 1970's has been revisited and refurbished with this fresh, original experiment by the multi-talented hands of Mwalim and his two collaborators, Barry Hughes and Yusef Bey. As the rough mix CD of this group has been living in a loop pattern in my car's stereo for the last week and a half, I figured I should speak on them now, only anxiously awaiting the finished product.

According to their website, The Bass Mint Bros. are a trio based out of Roxbury, Massachusetts and each have lengthy resumes of doing session, club, and tour work as musicians, arrangers, and producers.

After leaving the lounge, while driving home I decided to pop the CD into the car stereo. The track just kind of crept up on me out of no where and BLAM! I was instantly hooked. Rarely does an instrumental jazz record have your head bobbing like a dance or hip-hop track would, but this group does it here! Hip-hop styled production crosses with straight-ahead, solid jazz musicianship on this project, a rare find indeed. I'm not sure if this should be placed under jazz, acid-jazz, or break-beat as it seems to qualify for all categories.

The basic structure of The Bass Mint Bros. seems to be a trio: organ, bass and drums, with a few ambient keyboard, guitar and piano tracks thrown in for seasoning. The solid, bass-heavy tracks remind me of hip-hop instrumentals without the monotony. Either way, any rapper worth their microphones should be lining up to drop lyrics over these beats, as the three cuts I heard ("Awakened by the Noon Day Sun," "The Corner Store," and "2 Cheese Slices & A Drink.") are truly sample-worthy efforts. The forthcoming album/ mixtape "Sketches Of A Neighborhood" is due out in Spring of 2008. The group has a myspace page up, www.myspace.com/thebassmintbros. featuring "The Corner Store" and a free download of a cut called "Let Me Tease It A Little". More to come!!!

ON CUE: Ge F Clan

Interesting blend of fusion and ambient jazz. Largely the work of Swiss, jazz musician/ composer, Gerard Ferini, this music requires a serious isten for it to be fully appreciated. "Please Don't" would make a wonderful spy film soundtrack. "Roses" is equally ambient and good warm-up music for an evening at the lounge. "Master Slow" is my personal favorite track from the offerings. For more of a listen, please go to http://www.myspace.com/gefclan

ON CUE: "Away From You" & "New Lease On Lloyd" by Rad Andy

Acoustic Rock/ jazz group Rad Andy comes with a nice, ambient coffeehouse groove kinda project with their album "Enjoy Responsively." The sample cut, "Away From You" is a very nice folksy, jazzy, bluesy meld complete with mandolin solos! While this is not a cut that would pull folks out on the dance floor, it is a pleasant one to listen to on the way to the club. The vocals are quirky but fitting of the tunes and definitely worth the listen. The other sample cut, "New Lease On Lloyd" is a nice tight little groove, bringing to mind an acoustic version of early Funkadelic cuts. In all, if you're a fan of Combustible Edison, you'll love these guys. I'm a C.E. fan, so here you go!

To hear the track as well as buy their album. Check out the Rad Andy website.

ON CUE: "New Life Aggressive" by Uhswaad

Title: New Life Aggressive (single)
Artist: Uhswaad
Label: Level One

This new track by Boston based Progressive House artist Uhswaad carries the mixed bag of being a new contribution to the underground house music scene, complete with a nostalgia for classic progressive house, particularly the Boston scene of the 1990s, where clubs like Club M, The Hub Club, and The Loft brought the noise. Now Boston's house scene has dwindled to one, outstanding monthly meeting called Soul Revival... but I digress. Uhswaad really brings it with this track. The energies and textures allow one to close their eyes and drift into the ambient landscape of the arrangement. To hear it for yourself, visit Uhswaad on myspace.

FROM MY SHELF: Kurtis Blow Presents The History of Rap

Title: Kurtis Blow Presents The History of Rap, Vol. 1
Artist: Various
Label: Rhino
Year: 1997

Yeah, this is what's up. It's one thing to know what all of the old-school rap records and battle tapes sound like; it's another entirely to understand the relatively obscure jazz funk (or is it funk jazz?) recordings that were on the shelves and in the crates of most of the hip-hop pioneers. Okay, let me back track. I'm getting most of this second hand. When my brother moved out of our families apartment, I inherited an old Emerson stereo phonograph with a cassette play and a bunch of his old records. Some of these old records had been our parents records, that he sort of appropriated. This was my introduction to the battle tape, really roughly recorded tapes of live hip-hop shows recorded right off the sound system. Here, Kurtis Blow (Arguably rap music's first sex symbol) assembles a basic sampling of the cuts that would later appear as the djs... and eventually samplers contribution to a hip-hop classic. Here, the original band recordings of such classics as Scorpio, Apache, and Let's Dance to the Drummer's Beat can be heard. Another nice one to have in the car.