Me’shell Ndegeocello: BUILT BY MEANRED

Canonized, marginalized or just scrutinized, Meshell Ndegeocello has given up trying to explain herself. After 20 years this fierce bassist, prolific songwriter, and authentic musical force continues to bring powerful music to the stage.

A bass player above all else, Meshell brings her signature warm, fat, and melodic groove to everything she does. With that, she has earned critical acclaim, the unfailing respect of fellow players, songwriters and composers, and the dedication of her diverse, unclassifiable fans.

Meshell has released 8 albums since 1993, including her most recent: Devil’s Halo (Oct. 2009). She was one of the first artists signed to Madonna’s Maverick Records, which released her first 5 albums.

Meshell has played on albums by The Rolling Stones, John Mellencamp, Madonna, Santana, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Guru’s Jazzmatazz, Chaka Khan, Indigo Girls, Ledisi, Alanis Morissette, Joan Osborne, Basement Jaxx, Soulive, Gilles Peterson, Joshua Redman Elastic Band and Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe among many others

On Saturday, August 7th, she is coming to LPR for a special, intimate, downtown performance.

Scribe fell in love with music at an early age and never fell out. Inspired by Public Enemy and The Pharcyde (among others), in the golden age of hip-hop, he started collecting records. Hip-hop (along with the dancehall reggae and acid jazz of that time), led him back in time to soul, funk, disco, r&b, roots reggae and jazz, and would later grow into a musical repertoire spanning afrobeat, house, broken-beat, latin, and his beloved 80's pop childhood roots.

Before he got his first set of 1200s, Scribe taught himself how to mix on live radio at WOBC FM at Oberlin College, where he then began to cut his teeth as a dj at house parties and campus events, eventually opening for A Tribe Called Quest in front of 3,000 people. It was the historic first show on their groundbreaking Low End Theory Tour. Back in NYC after college, Scribe dabbled in hip-hop production under the guidance of Russell Simmons' RUSH Producers Management, and deejayed part-time, opening major concerts for A Tribe Called Quest again, and Digable Planets.

Fast forward to present and DJ Scribe has been spinning full-time since 2002. In that time, he has developed numerous notable and acclaimed residencies in NYC: Love Revolution at Joe's Pub, a freeform soul night that often featured Tortured Soul playing live, and guest djs such as E-Man, Carol C. of Si*Sé, Will "Quantic" Holland, Qool DJ Marv, and Ian Friday; Tag, in partnership with Wax Poetics Magazine, whose unique format featured Scribe alternating every other record all night with such legends as Yam Who?, Kool DJ Red Alert, Justin Strauss, Jazzy Nice, Prince Language and Rich Medina; Stone Soup in conjunction with BBE Records; Soulnado, at the world-famous Knitting Factory, a joint effort with DJ Busquelo, fusing the headsnapping broken beat drum tracks of London's underground CO-OP scene with classic dancefloor jazz (another UK staple) played live and fully improvised by rotating top-notch instrumentalists; and one of the most respected parties at Miami's annual Winter Music Conference since 2006: the Raw Fusion Miami party, which has featured the best of the best djs, Spinna, Karizma, Simbad, Daz-I-Kue, Benji B, Phil Asher, Mad Mats, Freddie Cruger aka Red Astaire, Karl Injex, and many more. Raw Fusion is a 12-years-running party in Stockholm, Sweden, founded by Mad Mats. In 2008, Scribe, with partner OP!, founded a series of Raw Fusion NYC parties at one of NYC's top dj venues, APT, which featured guest djs such as Simbad, Daz, 7 Samurai, Probe DMS, and live performances by Muhsinah, Kissey Asplund, Taylor McFerrin, TK Wonder, Zaki Ibrahim, Stephanie McKay, Daru, Erik Rico, Cecilia Stalin, and Ivana Santilli.

In May 2009, Scribe founded I Love Vinyl, featuring the "Dream Team", six resident djs playing every party together. Ge-Ology, OP!, The Twilite Tone, Amir, Jon Oliver, and himself. The first party, at Le Poisson Rouge's Gallery Bar, was packed and jumping, and they have been ever since. In conjunction with the party, Scribe started a vinyl appreciation page on Facebook which attracted 10,000 fans in 10 days (now nearing 25K+). In March 2010, I Love Vinyl: On the B-Side, the Brooklyn arm of the party, debuted at the fantastic green venue Brooklyn Bowl. A few months later, the I Love Vinyl Dream Team made an even bigger Brooklyn Debut, at the season opener of Prospect Park's Celebrate Brooklyn free summer concert series, where they headlined a gala afterparty for the Norah Jones concert.

In addition to creating his own parties, Scribe has shared the marquee at live music venues like the Highline Ballroom, Le Poisson Rouge, SOB's and Joe's Pub with Little Dragon, Antibalas, Chin Chin, Roy Ayers, Me'Shell Ndegeocello, Omar, Dwele, Les Nubians, Stephanie McKay, Floetry, Alice Smith, and others; moved the crowd all over Western and Eastern Europe; and traveled extensively within the US and Canada, including multiple appearances at the annual Candela Art and Music Festival in Puerto Rico, Miami's Winter Music Conference, and the Detroit Electronic Music Festival.

Scribe has also done extensive studio work with DJ Spinna, including mixing remixes he did for Michael Jackson and Shaun Escoffery, and The Beyond Real Experience Vol.2 album for Spinna's Beyond Real label; as well as producing and mixing much of Tortured Soul frontman Christian Urich's soul project Cooly's Hot Box's album Take It, on Dome records, including the UK classic "Make Me Happy".

DJ Scribe spins dynamic sets from the heart, ranging from deep soul to dancefloor killers, acoustic jazz to glitch-hop and techno. But a list of genres can't accurately describe his style, because for Scribe it's all about the right feeling. And that's exactly what it is, the right feeling. Coming to a dancefloor near you.


Q and A with I Love Vinyl Party founder, DJ Scribe

Since his formidable emergence on the music scene in the late 90s, jazz pianist Jason Moran has proven more than his brilliance as a performer. The Blue Note Records recording artist has established himself as a risk-taker and innovator of new directions for jazz as a whole.

In almost every category that matters – improvisation, composition, group concept, repertoire, technique and experimentation – Moran, and his group The Bandwagon – with bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits – have challenged the status quo, and earned the reputation as “the future of jazz.”

Frequently influenced by the wider world of art as his muse, Moran has found inspiration in edgy 20th century painters like Jean-Michel Basquiat (check out “JAMO Meets SAMO” from Soundtrack to Human Motion, as well as his ongoing series of “Gangsterism” compositions); Egon Schiele (whose painting “Facing Left” provided the eponymous title to Moran’s second album); and Robert Rauschenberg, whose chaotic refinement inspired Moran’s third album Black Stars, featuring the legendary Sam Rivers.

Moran is currently preparing for the release of TEN, his 10th anniversary album with The Bandwagon, on June 22, 2010. The trailblazing trio has proven to be one of the most enduring and creative piano trios in jazz today. TEN represents their most assured and focused album to date.

Moran’s debut recording as a leader, Soundtrack to Human Motion, was released in 1999 to great critical praise. Ben Ratliff of The New York Times named it the best album of the year and the Jazz Journalists Association awarded it “Best Debut Recording.” The following year, Facing Left, established The Bandwagon trio with bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits, and prompted JazzTimes Magazine to declare the album "an instant classic." Moran augmented the trio for his third Blue Note release, Black Stars, adding avant-garde icon Sam Rivers, who plays saxophone, flute and piano on the recording. Gary Giddins of the Village Voice exclaimed, "Black Stars is possibly a Blue Note benchmark, definitely one of 2000’s outstanding discs."

In 2002, Moran released his universally acclaimed solo piano disc Modernistic, prompting the Cork (Ireland) Jazz Festival to award him the 2002 Guinness Rising Star Award. Preeminent jazz critic Gary Giddins proclaimed it “a benchmark achievement and a profound illustration of his capacity to combine classicism and maverick innovation.”

2003’s release The Bandwagon, culled from the trio’s six-day stint at New York’s Village Vanguard, earned the team of Moran-Mateen-Waits a title as “the best new rhythm section in jazz! —NY Times.” The Jazz Journalists Association awarded Moran with the “Up-n-Coming Jazz Musician” of 2003. Moran topped The Downbeat Critics Poll in three categories in 2003 and 2004 – Rising Star Jazz Artist, Rising Star Pianist, Rising Star Composer.

In 2005, his blues homage, Same Mother was released. This same year he received the first ever Playboy Jazz Artist of the Year award. Artist in Residence debuted in 2006 and showcased Moran’s signature brilliance with ambitious undertakings. In the span of one year, Moran accepted and recorded three separate commissions from three pre-eminent and very diverse American arts institutions: The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Dia Art Foundation, and Jazz at Lincoln Center.

In 2007, Moran was commissioned to create IN MY MIND: Monk at Town Hall, 1959, the critically-acclaimed multi-media performance investigating Thelonious Monk’s famous recording, Monk at Town Hall. IN MY MIND examines Monk’s process of creating this seminal concert using audio of conversations with Monk and the arranger Hal Overton.

This personal experience has been transformed into a feature documentary entitled IN MY MIND by director Gary Hawkins. The film premiered at the 13th Annual Full Frame Documentary Festival, and will have a special screening with the New York Public Library in April as part of the Jazz Loft Project exhibition.

Not surprising, the legendary Monk had a pivotal role in influencing young Moran to become a jazz musician. In 1981, at the age of six, the Houston native began studying the piano, but longed to quit until he first heard the sounds of Monk, an experience that established an early role model in Moran’s creative development. Moran later honed his musical education at New York’s Manhattan School of Music.

Music education still plays a central role in Moran’s life. He is on the piano faculty at Manhattan School of Music. He has been lecturer/instructor at Yale University, Dartmouth University, University of Pennsylvania, Eastman School of Music, The Kennedy Center, The New School, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Banff Center for The Arts, Denmarks’ Vallekilde Jazz Camp, Skidmore and Stanford Jazz Workshop.

A musician of diverse cultural interests, Moran is a connoisseur of modern furniture design who now exclusively performs in a chair specially built for him by the Danish designer Susanne Forsgreen. He is also a devotee of the painter Jean Michel Basquiat whose work continues to fuel his “Gangsterism...” series of compositions first heard on his debut’s instant classic “Gangsterism on Canvas.” That series reappears twice on Same Mother's opening and closing numbers, “Gangsterism on the Rise” and “Gangsterism on the Set,” which correlate stride and dissonance.

Moran has performed and/or recorded with artists Cassandra Wilson, Wayne Shorter, Charles Lloyd, Dave Holland, Marian McPartland, Don Byron, Joe Lovano, Greg Osby, Steve Coleman, Von Freeman, Andrew Hill (duo), Uri Caine (duo), Bunky Green, Sam Rivers, Lee Konitz, Paul Motian, Chris Potter, Jenny Scheinman, Christian McBride, and Stefon Harris.

His ongoing visionary collaborations in the art world have brought him additional fans and respect. Moran’s music is in the collections of both the MOMA and Whitney Museum of American Art. He scored a ballet for renowned Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet, as well as scoring video works for contemporary American artists Glenn Ligon and Kara Walker. Moran also has worked with pivotal visual/performance artists Joan Jonas and Adrian Piper. A future collaboration with Grammy-nominated neo-soul artist Meshell Ndegeocello – a dance party centered on the music of Fats Waller - will premiere in 2011.

Moran lives in New York City with his wife, mezzo soprano Alicia Hall Moran, and their twin toddlers.