Some JuJu Music

Today we just wanted to share some fun King Sunny Ade Videos for your enjoyment. We promise this album is getting closer to release, and we're very excited about it!

King Sunny Ade North American Tour Cancelled

Since we had posted the information for the King Sunny Ade tour, we thought we better also let you know about the cancellation.

Here is the information from the L.A. Times:

King Sunny Adés spring tour of North America has been canceled for a combination of visa and personnel issues. After two members of the Nigerian Afro-beat band died last month in a car accident, the U.S. Embassy had been slow to approve visas for replacement members.

“At the same time,” according to a statement issued Monday by Adé’s representatives, “it became clear that the artist and the band had neither recovered from the impact of the tragedy, nor were they able to find consensus on how to move forward with normal touring.”

“As a result, [the tour] has been canceled until such a time as King Sunny Adé and his group have sufficiently regrouped and are ready to face the rigors of an International tour again,” the statement said.

But, don't forget we are going to be releasing an amazing new King Sunny Ade album very soon!

Rasaki Aladokun - The Master of the Talking Drum

Today we continue introducing those involved with the upcoming King Sunny Ade album, but this time we aren't introducing a guest artist, but rather someone who has played with King Sunny Ade for over twenty years!

Rasaki Aladokun


Rasaki Aladokun, Nigerian talking drum miracle artist with over twenty-five years of experience. He was a valued member of King Sunny Ade’s band for over twenty years. During that period Rasaki participated in the recording and release of over 50 albums and CDs.

Rasaki’s incredible energy and mastery of the talking drum has probably contributed to making King Sunny Ade what he has become in the music world. Rasaki is well traveled having performed in several musical engagements in Asia, Europe, the US, not to mention in several parts of Africa. Rasaki’s expertise has earned him the respect of music lovers all over the world. He has been a featured artist in the recordings of many notable musicians, among them, O.J. Ekemode, Stevie Wonder, and Babatunde Olatunji of Drums of Passion among others.





Also watch Video #1 and Video #3 on YouTube!

King Sunny Ade Engineer Phil Nicolo

Phil received a Bachelor of Science from Temple University in 1977. He and his brother Joe began their music careers as teenagers, fixing speakers at a nearby drive-in theater. In 1980, they founded Studio 4, a recording studio in Philadelphia. Individually and together as the Butcher Bros., they quickly established themselves as a force in all genres of music production, from rock to R&B, mainstream to cutting edge. Mr. Nicolo has attained the most coveted form of success in the music business: he has succeeded in every music genre he has tackled. His early rock credits include the Hooters, Nighthawks and Willie Nile. At the same time, he was creating music with Kriss Kross, Teddy Pendergrass and Taj Mahal. Mixes of Billy Joel's River of Dreams, the Rolling Stone's Love Is Strong, Aerosmith's Falling In Love and James Taylor's A Little More Time are all Mr. Nicolo's work. He co-produced and mixed Sting's When We Danced and re-mixed Message In A Bottle for the Police. Other credits include John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Amy Grant, Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), Santana, Pete Yorn, Luscious Jackson, Urge Overkill, the Pretenders, Jon Bon Jovi, and Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam.

In 1989, Ruffhouse Records was launched out of Studio 4 operations, and over the next ten years it moved more than 100 million units through Sony distribution. Responsible for the careers of Lauryn Hill, the Fugees, Cypress Hill, Kriss Kross and Wyclef Jean, Ruffhouse alone accounted for 12 of Columbia Records 39 Grammy nominations in 1997. In 1993 , Mr. Nicolo founded Master Voice, a mastering lab based in Conshohocken, PA. In 1994 He joined producer Rick Chertoff and Polygram Records. Rick's label Blue Gorilla had great success with Joan Osborn.

While maintaining a busy stable of multi-platinum artists, Mr. Nicolo has continued to work with cutting edge talent. He produced the critically acclaimed Train EP for Aware/Columbia. Phil has produced Hamell on Trial, the Mighty, Mighty Bosstones, Dishwalla, Fig Dish and Cibo Matto, a veritable who's who of cutting edge rock. His hard rock credits include Life of Agony, Dog Eat Dog, Urge Overkill,Boy Sets Fire and Anthrax. He mixed the Butthole Surfers Pepper, the Cults Gone/Coming Down and produced the Fugees Live Bootleg EP. Projects include mixes for John Lennon & Yoko Ono, remixes and live recordings with Depeche Mode, mixes for the band New Order, an EP for Columbia artist Pete Yorn, and a live recording of The Moby Area One tour featuring: Moby, Incubis, Nelly Furtado, Outkast and The Roots. A recient thrill was working with Bob Dylan on a track for the "North Country" film soundtrack, produced at his Studio 4 facility in Conshohocken.

Phil recorded a remake of Queen's "Under Pressure" with Keane for a BBC tribute CD . The band loved working with Phil and the sound of the new "A" room. Current projects include new releases from King Sunny Ade' and Schooly D.

He produced Rock School , a documentary soundtrack with the Students from Paul Greens School of Rock and various artists including Alice Cooper, Billy Idol, Jon Anderson (Yes), Ann Wilson (Heart), Ian Gillan, Marky Ramone, Dave Mustaine (Megadeath), and Stuart Copeland (The Police).

Phil is a national trustee of NARAS (the Grammy people) and is active in the community with various NARAS events. He has been nominated for 4 Grammy awards, and won for mixing and mastering The Spanish Harlem Orchestra . Phil is the proud recipient of the 2003 Lew Klein Alumni in the Media Award, placing him in the Temple University Communication Hall of Fame, where he teaches as an adjunct professor.

King Sunny Ade Guest Artist Damon Bennett

In our continuing quest to introduce everyone on this jam-packed upcoming release, today we wanted to introduce Damon Bennet. He plays keyboards and flute on the upcoming album!

DAMON BENNETT

Damon is one of the "New Millennium" MFSB members. He began his musical career sinign in the church choir. By age thirteen Damon achieved a useful proficiency as a keyboardist. He began working with the Roots Ahmir Thompson, and other musicians from the thriving "Neo-Soul" scene, like Jill Scott.

His primary influences are Quincy Jones, Gamble and Huff, Stravinsky, and John Coltrane. He has composed works for the Freedom Theater, the Prince Theater and Crossroads Theater. He lives and loves jazz, r&b and gospel styles of playing.

What Others Say About Wayne Horvitz

As we continue to go in-depth on the guests on the new King Sunny Ade album, we realize we could tell you all kinds of things, but one of the most telling ways to show you how great these guests are is to show you what others say about them!

WAYNE HORVITZ

SELCTED REVIEW EXCERPTS

 Joe Hill, 16 Actions for Orchestra, Voice and Soloist

“Joe Hill” is, in fact, a ravishingly beautiful work…

Paul de Barros  Seattle Times

Solos

Somehow, always, they resist the postmodern temptation to be too smart and too cute: they're not trying to impress you with how much they can reference.  These 14 pieces - including a few free improvisations, a traditional, a standard, and a Wayne Shorter tune - are mostly contemplative originals; one is particular, Ms. Holcomb's long form piece, " Before the Comet Comes," is staggeringly beautiful.

Ben Ratliff, New York Times

One of my favorite discs of 2004, Solos (Songlines), teems with solo piano pieces by Horvitz and Robin Holcomb that breathtakingly fuse the hermetic, astringent squiggles of Schoenberg's piano music with the lonesome sound of Shaker hymns.

Chris DeLaurenti, The Stranger (Seattle)

…they play like composers, giving every stroke a clear intent, informed by the tension and release of subtle harmonic and dynamic shifts.

Jazziz

..tunes like "Tired," with its' bittersweet and subtly melancholic feeling, are particularly compelling because one can feel Holcomb's more skewed approach subtly infect Horvitz's playing, while its clearer roots in the blues distinguish it as a Horvitz piece.

John Kelman, All About Jazz.com

Wayne Horvitz and Robin Holcomb - the legendary husband-and-wife team that has had such an impact on extemporaneous music since the early '80s - take turns improvising on this hour-long solo piano recording.... The music is generally sparse and contemplative, but not *too* sparse and contemplative.  It's a relaxed listen that touches on free jazz, polytonal hymnsong, traditional jazz (there's a nice version of "Stars Fell On Alabama",) and postmodern classicism, without really being any of those.

Carl Lumma, Keyboard Magazine

Simplicity of means doesn’t mean simple-minded.  Married pianists/composers Robin Holcomb and Wayne Horvitz shared a solo-piano album, Solos (Songlines), alternating tracks, mixing covers and originals, spontaneous improvisations and through-composed pieces, Holcomb favoring ambiguous tonalities and chord-cluster rumblings and Horvitz leaning toward blues and Wayne Shorter.  The complementary styles make for overall unity and perfect sequencing.

Jon Garelick, Boston Phoenix, December 24, 2004

Mylab

It's easy to tell how the pieces on Mylab (Terminus) began: as vamps and loops for jamming in the studio.  Yet it's impossible to guess where they’ll end up.   Mylab's core duo, the keyboardist Wayne Horvitz and the drummer Tucker Martine, refuse to settle into their own grooves; they add unlikely overdubs, dissolve the track's foundations and flesh out musical connotations from country fiddle to big-band saxophones.  Every free association yields a new treat.

Jon Pareles, New York Times 4/4/04

This is a brilliantly conceived and superbly produced debut album that indicates Martine and Horvitz’s musical future will be a major thrill.

PVV, Billboard Magazine 2/7/04

Talk about a sonic experiment gone horribly right, check out this supernatural melding of genres from Mylab.  All I know is that their debut album is the most imaginative collage of groove, melody, harmony, and texture I’ve heard in a long time.

Jude Gold, Guitar Player 2/04

... a dazzling sonic playground full of some wild rides.  Mylab stretches the art of sound collage into new frontiers.

Ned Wharton, NPR Weekend Edition Editor’s Picks 2/04

My big pick for next week is Seattle’s Mylab and their self-titled debut, a fantastic landscape of haunted pop-instrumentals from the duo of pianist Wayne Horvitz and producer Tucker Martine.  Like Morphine meets the Latin Playboys side-project of Los Lobos, this Terminus Records release is mastercraft sound architecture and worth searching out.

Positively Yeah Yeah Yeah (Ohio)

Filling a niche nobody (but them) knew existed, Tucker Martine and Wayne Horvitz have made a trippy instrumental album conversant with rock, jazz, bluegrass and the intangible music known as "ambient".  Sounds messy, right?  It is, but in a wonderful kind of way.  They’ve done a remarkable job pulling together disparate genres, creating a sound collage that makes sense.

Nick Marino, Atlanta Journal Constitution 2/17/04

They’ve concocted a thouroughly mind-bending, genre-obliterating disc just about equally emphasizing groove, melody, and pure sound.  But Mylab does not sound like a de-constructionist take on old-time music (a la Moby)... it is extremely intoxicating.

Eric Snider, Tampa Weekly Planet 2/04

Sweeter Than the Day

".... a great showcase for Horvitz's beautiful compositions, his really strange angular chord progressions."

Ned Wharton,  NPR's Weekend Edition

On piano, Horvitz is economical yet lyrical, never venturing far from the strong melodic hooks which characterize his compositions, but constantly working small suprises. An irresistible antidote to gray days.

The Wire UK

Horvitz' understanding of country, blues, folk and even singer-songwriter-type music is made quite plain on this CD. None of these elements are represented in an obvious way, and that's perhaps the main reason why this disc appeal so strongly. The strength of the music lies in Horvitz' beautifully crafted compositions. Like Monk and Herbie Nichols, Horvitz is able to create memorable and distinctive melody lines from seemingly disparate, even mundane, motifs and phrases.

Dave Wayne,  Jazz Weekly

 (Four stars) ****   ... this set probably subverts most UK-audience assumptions about Horvitz ... its' offbeat lyricism and trancelike guitar-blues atmosphere.  A real surprise.

John Fordham, The Guardian (London)

Elegant and subtle, these lovely compositions uncoil slowly enough that they’ll likely repay a lifetime of listening.

Alex Varty, The Georgia Straight (Vancouver BC)

Wayne Horvitz

The upcoming King Sunny Ade album has many great collaborators, and to relly appreciate that we want to introduce you to them all! So it is our pleasure to introduce musician/speaker/producer Wayne Horvitz. Mr. Horvitz worked with the keyboards on the recording as a producer.


Wayne Horvitz Short Biography

Wayne Horvitz is a composer, pianist, and electronic musician. He has performed extensively throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America. He has performed and collaborated withBill Frisell, Butch Morris, John Zorn, Robin Holcomb, Fred Frith, Julian Priester, Philip Wilson, Michael Shrieve, Bobby Previte, Marty Ehrlich, Skerik, William Parker, Ron Miles, Sara Schoenbeck, Peggy Lee, Steven Bernstein, Briggan Krauss, and Dylan van der Schyff among others. He has been commissioned by the NEA, Meet The Composer,Kronos String Quartet, Seattle Chamber Players, Mary Flagler Cary Trust, PGAFF, BAMand others. Collaborators include Paul Taylor, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Gus Van Sandt and Gordon Edelstein. He has produced CDs for Eddie Palmieri, Fontella Bass,Robin Holcomb and Bill Frisell among others. He is the 2001 recipient of the Seattle Artist Trust Fellowship, 2003 and 2006 recipient of the City of Seattle Office of Arts and Culture fellowship, 2002 recipient of the Rockefeller Map Grant for JOE HILL, 16 Actions for Chamber Orchestra, Voices and Improviser, and the 2008 NEA American Masterpieces grant forThese Hills of Glory for string quartet and improviser. Ensembles include The President,Pigpen, Zony Mash, The HMP Trio, The New York Composers Orchestra, The 4 Plus 1 Ensemble, Sweeter Than the Day and The Gravitas Quartet.

For more on Wayne Horvitz, visit http://www.waynehorvitz.net

Joe Doria

Monday we introduced you to Hammond Organist, Joe Doria, and as you know Mr. Doria will be performing as a guest artist on our upcoming King Sunny Ade release. So today we thought we would show you a little bit of what Joe can do. So, enjoy this video and get excited for the part he will play on this album!

King Sunny Ade Guest Artist Joe Doria

As we told you on Friday, the new King Sunny Ade album that we will be releasing here on Mesa/Bluemoon will feature many guest artists, so we want to introduce you to them here on the Mesa/Bluemoon blog!

First up is Joe Doria, Hammond organist.

"Raised in the Northwest, Hammond organist Joe Doria has been making big waves on the music scene and is the most sought after organist in the area.

Featured in numerous bands and CD's, Audiences are dazed with his ability to comp both the bass lines and the chordal structure of a song, while at the same time adding depth and dimension to every song he performs.
Joe learned from the Hammond greats of past and present with emphasis on his favorite - Jimmy Smith. It's clear to see that these studies are paying off. Crowds whoop and hollar along with the incredibly tasty grooves he lays down. People watch in amazement at his finger and pedal work. He is obviously at home and in touch with the Hammond, knowing the instrument and it's history so well as to make it sing in any situation.

Never limiting himself to one style and constantly working with new projects, Joe can be heard on many cd's and playing live in projects such as: Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet (on both Ropeadope and Hyena records), Arisawkadoria, DOS(e) with John Wicks, Skip Heller (Hyena Records), Chewy , The Drunken Masters, Jeff "Tain" Watts clinic, Swampdweller, The Living Daylights, Atma, The Stone Crazy Blues Band, American Idol winner "Blake Lewis", Michael Shrieve's "Spellbinder", with Farko Dosumov and Dave Carter in "Last Mile, and many more.

For more information on Joe Doria, visit his website at http://www.joedoriamusic.com

New King Sunny Ade Album

Today we just want to announce that we are going to be releasing a new album with King Sunny Ade. This is going to be a very, very exciting release filled with many guest artists! In the coming weeks we will be introducing you to those featured on this album. We hope this will help you to get excited about the release. Though excitement shouldn't be too difficult as this album will be two CDs, with seven songs including a remix, consisting of almost 110 minutes of music in long jams the real way Juju music should be heard. This is new, never before heard or recorded material!

In the meantime make sure you have our last King Sunny Ade release, Seven Degrees North!

An Introduction to Mesa/Bluemoon Recordings

Mesa/Bluemoon has re-entered the game with a wealth of experience, the pace setting agility of an indie label and the reach of major label distribution. This combination can’t be beat in these times of powerful change and the reinvention of the industry. At Mesa/Bluemoon, we are not stalled by these changes, but rather excited by the unlimited new opportunities. We believe that regardless of the way our audience gets their music, it’s still about the quality of the music – it’s still about the artist.

In the last twenty years Mesa/Bluemoon has been at the forefront of the popular genre of adult alternative music – worldbeat, jazz, contemporary jazz, and singer songwriter (with some pop and rock thrown in). We have received Grammy Awards and nominations, Gavin Awards and #1 Billboard hits. Our recordings include artists such as John Scofield, Dizzy Gillespie, Al DiMeola, King Sunny Ade, Gilberto Gil, Brian Culbertson, Rick Braun, Black Uhuru, Lalah Hathaway and Strunz & Farah.

Mesa/Bluemoon remains committed to offering the best adult alternative music. Look for a wide variety of releases to be announced each month on our site www.mesabluemoon.com/releases.

About the owner
George Nauful’s extensive and multi-faceted music business background encompasses senior positions at independent and major labels, as well as with leading distribution companies. This experience, coupled with his classical training as a musician, gives him an invaluable “big picture” perspective on the industry today, its evolution and, most importantly, its future.

Nauful’s career began when he ventured west to California in a station wagon with just a guitar, his two best friends and his dog in the early ’70s. He quickly became a Los Angeles studio musician/session player, writer and producer and was signed to Mercury Records. He appeared on stage with a number of well known artists of the day including, Dave Mason, Stevie Nicks, John Stewart, Charlie Daniels, Jerry Riopelle and the Doobie Brothers.

Nauful’s record business start was with administrative stints at Capitol Records and several indie labels, followed by a tenure overseeing import/export for Japan-based Eastern Pacific Sounds. His first executive position was as general manager for The PARAS Group, founded in the early ’80s as a marketing and distribution outfit specifically created to service independent labels. It was later purchased by Jem Distribution/Passport Records where Nauful held the position of General Manager. In 1989, Nauful and his business partner started Mesa/Bluemoon. Nauful holds a Business degree from The Citadel, and a degree in composition and arranging from the Southern California Conservatory of Music.