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that is truly genuine, open, unselfishly raw and unconditionally unyielding. Submit to Kindness, and let the superficial pass you. It’s all been quite a journey for Banks, whose current jet-set lifestyle belies her hardscrabble beginnings: Her father died when she was 2, and she was raised in Harlem by her mother. It’s all been quite a journey for Banks, whose current jet-set lifestyle. The 20-year-old New Yorker has proven to be one of music’s most intriguing new shape-shifters since she started posting songs and videos online a few years ago. That‘s what‘s up.
ew artists today have the capacity to leave their listeners both feeling fulfilled and wanting more. The debut album from musical act Kindness (aka Adam Bainbridge), World, You Need A Change Of Mind, takes a romantic stab at putting us bitter, disconnected social-media addicts back into affection rehab, and on the road to real intimacy recovery. Inspired by ‚70s disco and dance music by Niles Rodgers, Giorgio Moroder and Afrika Bambaataa, what‘s remarkable about Kindness is his willingness to share his unconventional romantic jour- Hank ney with music. This CEO album evidences a relationship
Angelos
“My father bought me one.“
Miles Davis : the legend, the myth
interview
The technical and emotional brilliance of the trumpet played by Miles Davis has made him one of the most provocative influences in modern jazz. We spent two days with Miles not long ago in his rather unusual five-story home, a converted Russian Orthodox Church on West 77th Street near the Hudson River in New York City. Miles was between gigs at the time and we accompanied him on his restless daily home routine, asking questions at propitious moments while he worked out in his basement gymnasium, made veal chops Italian style for his family, took telephone calls from fellow musicians, his lawyer and stockbroker, gave boxing lessons.
Miles: You want to know how I started playing trumpet? My father bought me one, and I studied the trumpet. And everybody I heard that I liked, I picked up things from.
different people. Right? Yes. But Dizzy‘s playing underwent certain changes. Or perhaps evolution is a better word. He doesn‘t play now the same way he played in his earlier years.
It was when the Billy Eckstine band came to St. Louis that you first got together with Bird and Diz, wasn‘t it? Why? I‘d heard ’em on records. But I was playing like that, anyway. You got to understand, man. See white folks always think that you have to have a label on everything—you know what I mean? Well, I don‘t, necessarily. That‘s how you‘re spelling everything when you say: „You heard Diz“. But two guys can do the same thing, and still won‘t see each other. So it was happening, like I say. It actually happened in Kansas City. If you listen to Charlie Parker, he sounds like Ben Webster, you know. Dizzy doesn‘t sound like Charlie Parker; they‘re two
Well, on some of the early records he sounded something like Roy Eldridge. Then the critics were wrong, man. But you couldn‘t hear the things that developed later in his playing at that time. Maybe there was nothing to develop. Right? At a certain point his playing sort of found a new direction, I suppose. I don‘t hold it against Dizzy, you know,
but if a guy wants to play a certain way, you work towards that. If he stops—he‘s full of crap, you know. I mean, I wouldn‘t do it, for no money, or for no place in the white man‘s world. Not just to make money, because then you don‘t have anything. You don‘t have as much money as whoever you‘re trying to ape; that‘s making money by being commercial. Then you don‘t have anything to give the world; so you‘re not important. You might as well be dead. That‘s the way it goes. I mean, guys should keep on doing it right, no matter what it is. If you sacrifice your art because of some woman, or some man, or for some colour, or for some wealth, you can‘t be trusted. I mean that goes for anybody. I‘m not putting Dizzy down or anybody else, you know. But I think they should just keep on, no matter what happens. You‘ve always believed in playing exactly the way you wanted to at all times? Course. I want to see if I can do it. There was the period when you seemed to be using the mute quite a lot.
like „All Of You“ and „Bye Bye Blackbird“, when you played with the mute close to the mike, you had what came to be known as the Miles Davis sound. I got it from Dizzy. I don‘t remember hearing that sound from Dizzy. Listen to `Ko Ko“. But, you see, all my ideas of a tone come from listening to trumpet players who play round—with no tag on the end of the tone. I would never try and play like Harry James, because I don‘t like his tone—for me. It‘s too sort of creamy, I suppose. What you call creamy and what I call creamy may be two different things. It‘s just white. You know what I mean? He has what we black trumpet players call a white sound. But it‘s for white music. Do all white players have a white sound? Well, no—there‘s still something that isn‘t there, you know. I can tell a white trumpet player, just listening to a record. There‘ll be something he‘ll do that‘ll let me know that he‘s white.
I use it if I want to play something, here and there. Not because some peo- It‘s like listening to somebody‘s ple said to me : „Miles, you sound good accent, is it? with a mute.“ I know it sounds good, else I wouldn‘t pick it up. Right. I can hear a grey singer that‘s trying to sing coloured—I don‘t mean On a lot of the records that black, I mean coloured—and all of were very successful, tracks a sudden, like, he‘ll say „mother“ and
his „er“ won‘t get that true sound. Tom Jones is funny to me, man. I mean, he really tries to ape Ray Charles and Sammy Davis, you know. Yes, but he‘s making a success of it. Well, see, he‘s nice–looking; he looks good doing it. I mean, if I was him, I‘d do the same thing. If I was only thinking about making money. What did you think of Chet Baker? I liked Chet. But white guys play a certain way, man. They lean on notes, you know, when they set a rhythm. I used to enjoy all the white bands when I was a kid listening to the radio.
that had two sticks of reefer, you know—because they‘re black, and with a white girl or something. Now you get a white kid with two sticks of reefer, they‘ll throw it away—and let him off. I mean, it‘s those producers and record companies the way they sell things helps with a lot of prejudice. It builds a white image. Like, jazz is an Uncle Tom word. They should stop using that word for selling. I told George Wein the other day that he should stop using it. But is there any substitute word?
Just music, man. We might play anything out there. It gets back to you asking me how I learned how to play But the record companies, they take a trumpet. I mean, you hear correct music and label it—like, they say fingering and all that crap. But when „rock“. Because the white singers can‘t you sell one side. . . White people can sound like James Brown, they call handle a horn and other white people him „soul“. They‘ve been doing that want to see ’em, with their long hair for years. That‘s the prejudice crap. and all that—okay. But also sell the So you get rock groups that are white, black man, so he can appreciate his that are actually prejudiced. They say black brothers. „freedom“, but they only mean freedom for themselves. Look at John Wayne. He‘s a sad so– and–so outside movies. You know, the And I see all those white producers— way he thinks. You can get somebody trying to make young films. But they other than Sidney [Poitier] building don‘t understand that scene. They up the spade guys d groovin‘ them mess them white kids up; the kids girls. All the white men want to make don‘t know whether to fuck or ride. Or love to all them pretty black girls. get high. I see ’em getting high most of You know—they‘re always looking. the time. When white people get high, they say: I mean, you can have it in movies „It‘s all right for me.“ There‘s so the guys can see the girls and the a lot of guys in jail, man, for ten years girls can see the guys so they can like
their own people—since it‘s such a sin to make love to a white. But that‘s the way they sell it, the record companies and the movies. Nevertheless, though, some of the record producers do have a certain amount of integrity and try to promote the best in music. A guy might start out with good intentions, you know, and when he comes to—selling it, he goes to somebody else. The sales department sells that stuff. The beautiful albums you did with Gil Evans—there‘s an artistic endeavour. Everybody knows that. Whoever was responsible for the production was doing something worthwhile.
I mean, Gil and I might do something, you and I might do something, but when it gets to the sales department, they say : „The young white kids have the most money“, which isn‘t necessarily true. So they say the white kids buy dope because they have too much money. Well, how come there‘s so many Spanish people and Negroes in jail for dope? It doesn‘t balance, man, no matter what you say. I have to play the way I want to play, because that‘s the only way I can feel like something, you know. I feel like crap, man, out there. If I would go to a war or something, I don‘t have anything at home. If I go out, I might have to fight. I got shot at six times, I mean, that‘s all on account of a white man, even if indirectly, trying to make a Negro have as much money as he has. He shoots at me—a black man, you know. But it doesn‘t do any good, because you can‘t change no white man. I‘d rather die than to be so sad.
The first time it came out, it had In America, the home of jazz, it a white woman with a little boy on the seems to be treated with concover. tempt, almost. It didn‘t get that sleeve in Britain.
As I said, we don‘t even use that word jazz. It‘s an Uncle Tom expression.
The reason you didn‘t was because I told ’em to take it off. There‘s some sad things happen, man. I‘m 43 and before I die I want to see somebody get something. I can make all the money I‘m never going to need. That‘s not important; I was doing that when I was ten, selling papers. I mean, that‘s easy—just to make money. But the other part needs straightening out.
But initially it was just a way of describing improvisation. Americans don‘t like any form of art, man. All they like to do is make money. They don‘t like me, Sammy Davis, or anybody else. They don‘t like nothing. They just like Sammy because he can make ’em a lot of money.
Well, they like to go out and be entertained by you and Sammy. I mean, it makes me sick when I see a white man sitting there smiling at me being entertaining, man. When I know what he‘s gonna do after he gets through. You know, when you see that thing on their face, like: „Entertain me.“ You know what I mean? Even the black guy that‘s trying to be white—even he can have that crap on his face. I‘m there because I know how to play music better than most musicians. I mean, my conception is considered by musicians to be top, you know. And I know it; that‘s the reason I‘m there. Those people should know that, that I‘m not out there grinning, Tomming. I‘m out there doing the best that I can, My lip is cut and I‘m still playing. I‘m not trying to be cute. I know how I look. I‘m not messing around with nobody‘s woman. If I want a woman I go get her—you know what I mean? So I‘m just there performing. I‘m straight. Actually, I think, old–fashioned, you know. I‘m just straight.
But me and the guys I grew up with, we used to sit and listen to music, and we didn‘t care who was playing or what colour you were. I heard Buddy Rich—damn, he could play! Gene Krupa, you know. All them musicians came down and jammed with us. If they couldn‘t play, whether they were white or coloured, man, made no difference. It was either good or bad. Well, that should be the only criterion. That‘s the way you judge a car, man, when you start it up. It‘s just the same thing. I mean, I drive a Ferrari—not to be cute, but because I dig it. I‘d rather drive a ten–year–old Ferrari than one of them new things—they don‘t go. The movement for playing complete freedom—is this part of a reaction against these attitudes?
No, it‘s just something that happens, man. We started doing that when we started leaving the piano out. Remember when we‘d take the piano But at least a proportion of the out and you could never tell where audience is as sincere as you are. anything was? You could just kinda fool around. Now piano players are People who like music, man, they just getting so they can kind of feel seem to like all types. And they don‘t you, you know. But your reflexes and care whether you‘re black or white ears have to be with it, to take you you know, the real music–lover. But through. No matter what tempo those people sitting over there, they care. it is, you have to just feel it right. I can let Dave [Holland] play sometimes—you hear loud applause; that‘s But there has to be a lot of symall from white people. I know they‘re pathy between the musicians gonna do it. It‘s like it‘s a boxing match. to bring it off.
Of course. Sometimes it doesn‘t happen, because maybe a guy‘s wife‘ll come in, you know, and his ego will catch him. If everybody‘s completely just straight—without any old ladies over here, a fourth of whisky over there; if it‘s balanced right, it‘ll come off. It has to be. But when you get egos involved with playing free, you can‘t do it. However free you get, though, it‘s based on a given form, isn‘t it? Oh, you have some kind of form. You have to start somewhere. I mean, otherwise we‘d all be living outdoors. You have walls and stuff, but you still come in a room and act kinda free. There‘s a framework, but it‘s just—we don‘t want to overdo it, you know. It‘s
hard to balance. Sometimes you don‘t even know if people like it or not. Can‘t you gauge it from the audience reaction you get? Well, I never really listen to that, you know.
Samples Collection: Herbie Hancock
The use of sampling is controversial leg Experimental musicians who pioneered 1940s to the 1960s sometimes did not in mission from the subjects of their field r copyright owners before constructing a of these samples. Since 60s, Herbie Han lots of great music, which was then sam artists. There are some of them.
gally and musically. d the technique in the nform or receive perrecordings or from a musical piece out ncock has created mpled by many
And I got a termination letter from the group. Me leaving the group was because of no support from the indie company, the same reason J Dilla left. Clearly, part of that is the label‘s fault. Sometimes, electives that are put in charge over you can come up with ways to divide you. In my opinion, I was never respected. I never had a say. H e r b i e H a n c o ck C o m e Running to Me S u n l i g h t 1 9 7 7
S l u m V i l l a g e Get Dis Money Fa nt a s t i c Vo l u m e 1 2 0 0 0
Herbie Hancock C h a m e l e o n Head Hunters 1 9 7 3
The album generated significant controversy stemming from Dan Quayle‘s public criticism after a youth in Texas shot a state trooper and his defense attorney claimed he was influenced by 2Pacalypse Now and its strong theme of police brutality. Quayle made the statement, „There‘s no reason for a record like this to be released. It has no place in our society.“
2 P a c Wo rd s o f W i s d o m 2Pacalypse Now 1 9 9 1
HerbieHancock J e s s i c a Fat Albert Rotunda 1 9 6 9 M o b b D e e p Shook Ones Part II TheInfamous 1 9 9 5 It is rumored that before the groups initial career beginnings, Prodigy was at the age of fifteen when he was featured on the classic movie soundtrack Boyz In The Hood in a track call Too Young. In June 1991, when Havoc and Prodigy were at the age of seventeen they released their debut album as they self-titled, Juvenile Hell which was promoted.
Her Tra The Sat 1
Q u a s i m o t o M a i n g i r l The Further Adventures of Lord Quas 2 0 0 5
rbie Hancock ining Day Spook Who by the Door 9 7 3
Early depictions of Quasimoto were taken from the movie Fantastic Planet, specifically the leashed Oms who wore red masks with protruding snouts resembling skinny hippopotamus during the first „de-om“.
Herbie Hancock Jo a n n a‘s T h e m e D e a t h W i s h :Orig i n a l S o u n d t ra c k R e c o r d i n g 1 9 7 4
A t m o s p h e r e H e a r t Headshots: S e 7 e n 2 0 0 5
It contained two singles, „Trying To Find A Balance“ and „National Disgrace“, both of which had music videos that received airplay on MTV2 and other stations, garnering Atmosphere more attention and success than previous releases. The album had one guest appearance from label mate Brother Ali and was entirely produced by Ant. Several songs on Seven‘s Travels contain lyrics pertaining to relationship problems, alcohol, and depression. The single, „Trying To Find A Balance“ was also featured on the video game.
Herbie Hancock Wate r m e l o n M a n Head Hunters 1 9 7 3
Shaquille O‘Neal I Hate 2 Brag S h a q D i e s e l 1 9 9 3
Thats a lil‘ curious. The album, which featured production from Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Def Jef, Erick Sermon, K-Cut and Meech Wells, became a surprising success, reaching 25 on the Billboard 200 and eventually reaching platinum status on March 21, 1994 for shipping of one million copies. My man. Let‘s play some ball. What‘s up. Nada. Ball so hard motherfuckers wanna find me. No one knows what is means but it‘s provocative.
Live session: James Carter Carter‘s tribute to the memory of Billie Holiday weaves lyrical melodies around his own trademark enthusiasm. His desire to build upon what our jazz ancestors laid down for us has matured. Instead of far-out creations that few could understand and that many would bicker with, the 34-year-old saxophone sensation serves up an accessible program that reaches, nevertheless, into the 21st century. Stereo saxophones and deepthroated clarinets surround themes that recall the uniqueness of Lady Day. Her deep, inner strengths, her don’t-quit attitude, and her remarkable perseverance all show up in the musical arrangements that James Carter has adopted for his debut on Columbia. John Hicks, Peter Washington and Victor Lewis support the saxophonist hand in glove. The strings add a considerable dimension. Carter wails and moans with the spirit that has driven jazz and blues for at least a century. On “I’m in a Low Down Groove,” he captures the blues essence with dueling saxophone voices (through multi-tracking). His baritone voice comes through loud and clear. Lady Day would love what Carter has done with “Strange Fruit.” As if churning from a huge opera house, he portrays all the images that the song’s lyrics relate. Miche Braden, singing with a helpless perspective of the horror that has been going on, remains distant and emotional. He interprets well. For this track, Carter lets loose the fiery cannons that he’s been carrying with him since his arrival on the jazz scene ten years ago.
Billy Strayhorn’s “Flower” is presented as a lovely baritone saxophone ballad with strings. “Indian Summer” brings more of the same lush, Lady Day swing with Carter on soprano. He returns to the baritone for “More Than You Know,” which rolls out as yet another lush ballad in tribute. Highly recommended, Carter’s first new album in three years honors the past and blazes a trail for the future. Track Listing: Gloria; Sunset; (I Wonder) Where Our Love Has Gone; I Personnel: James Carter- tenor saxophone, F mezzo saxophone, contrabass clarinet, bass clarinet, baritone saxophone, soprano saxophone; John Hicks- piano; Peter Washington- bass; Victor Lewis- drums; Sandy Park, Sharon Yamada, Lisa Kim, Myung Hi Kim, Ann Kim, Sarah Kim- violin; Robert Rinehart, Tom Rosenthal- viola; Elizabeth Dyson, Sarah Seiver, Bruce Wang, Mina Smith, Jeanne LeBlanc, Eileen Moon- cello; Erik Charlston- vibraphone, wind machine; Erik Ralske, Phil Myers- French horn; Jeff Nelson- bass trombone; Miche Braden vocals on.
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