Notable Productions

I am so proud to see my friend Akua drop the first Single of her latest 2024 album.

We had so much fun recording her vocals and some Grand piano and Fender Rhodes for this new record. I can't wait for you all to hear and feel it roll all over you. It's all about love and it is extraordinary. Wow! The strings and horns are luscious! Akua is a supreme force of nature. You can dive deep into these lyrics...the heart, the wordplay, the references and multiple meanings. Akua brought forth so much love and soul as these poems flowed through her. It was a pleasure to capture these performances. They will stand the test of time.

"This is a Brilliant record for its amazing Jazz, Hip-hop, and its voice. There is nothing I like better than helping make records that speak truth to power and this one is a shining star on all accounts." Daniel Cantor

Here is what Downbeat said besides giving it 5 stars." *****

Terri Lyne Carrington never has shied away from discussions of social justice. And in addition to featuring voices like civil rights activist and author Angela Davis on several projects, Carrington initiated Berklee College of Music’s Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice in 2018. But hardly anything she’s done previously can prepare listeners for Waiting Game, a two-disc masterstroke on par with Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 hip-hop classic, To Pimp A ButterÙy, or better yet, Carrie Mae Weems’ 2016 multimedia production, Grace Notes: ReÙections for Now.

Waiting Game (http://j.mp/36MUQPp) absorbs a lot of the Black Lives Matter movement’s simmering fury—as well as the #MeToo movement—and converts it into artistic fuel, as she also addresses homophobia and the genocide of Native Americans. Similar to Weems, Carrington excels at articulating piled-up, conÙicting emotions and the mental fatigue induced by the insistent bombardment of social ills. Her keen focus on songbased compositions during the album’s Ørst half helps shape thematic clarity, as does the scintillating rapport she’s struck with her band, Social Science.

A foreboding heaviness permeates the album’s Ørst disc, as if to convey an unending series of social injustices and the stress of being caught in that cycle. The somber “Trapped In The American Dream” sets the tone as Carrington’s martial beats, pianist Aaron Parks’ repetitive riff, and guitarist Matthew Stevens and vocalist Debo Ray’s howling chorus provide a dirge over which Kassa Overall raps about a canopy of horrors. Inside the interrelated obstacles discussed here is police brutality, particularly against people of color. Carrington, though, puts that into sharper focus during “Bells (Ring Loudly)” on which Ray sings from the perspective of a grieving mother after her child’s been killed by the police. The tempo quickens to a Crescent City bounce on the biting “Pray The Gay Away,” a mocking rebuke of gospel singer Kim Burrell’s 2016 homophobic rant. Underneath the Middle Eastern-Ùavored melody and Nicholas Payton’s lacerating trumpet solo, one hears the antidote—“pray the hate away.”

Carrington dedicates Waiting Game’s second disc to “Dreams And Desperate Measures,” a wondrous four-part orchestral suite that begins with a gossamer arrangement of haunting woodwinds, melancholy strings, a pensive guitar, piano and bass, all in dialogue. The extended improvisation gradually evolves into an undulating groove, propelled by Esperanza Spalding’s elastic bass ostinato.

https://downbeat.com/reviews/detail/waiting-game
12/1/2020

DownBeat Reviews

After receiving a Doris Duke Artist Award, Carrington concludes another triumphant year by releasing an utterly ambitious project, a recording that could be the best jazz album of the year.

It is here! The CD’s have arrived and we are warming up at the crystal ballroom for the release party!

This soon-to-be-released multi-song effort was captured with a live band all in one room. Everyone played together and there are no overdubs. Many of my old students and previous Notable workforce are staff at the Record Co so the planning and setup were easy and fruitful. My thanks go to the Record Co. staff and the great student players who grace this recording. Audrey's songs are lovely melodic jewels that explore falling in love in creative ways. The arrangements and musicians were all guided and encouraged very musically by the deft touch of Rodney Alejandro, who just this Fall took on the role of department chair of the Songwriting Department at Berklee College of Music. We will miss Bonnie Hayes but look forward to Rodney's new direction and vision. After seeing him Produce this record, I can see the department is in excellent hands. It was a great project to be mixing this summer! It was a blast to collaborate with these two talented musicians and fellow peers from the Songwriting department.

When these songs get released, I will update this entry with Links, more pictures, and recording details.

In 2012 and 2015 Dan hosted Omar Offendum's visits to the Berklee campus for classes on Lyric Writing, Production for Songwriters, A class on Middle-East relations, and my production and recording classes. His visit sparked a number of students to think about their own Artist Identities as Songwriters and Performers. Omar and I took a break at a local persian restaurant and shared Baba Ganoush and Hummus with the Arabic Student Union. We worked on his music at Notable Productions and in the Berklee studios. He appeared at Cafe 939, and in the Steve Heck room for an intimate look at some of his writing and Poetry. I got to interview him for the BIRN and talk about his influences and life.

Omar is truly a great man and a unique artist. Check him out on this one take live "Crying Shame" during my Advanced Production for the Songwriter class. He is tearing it up and leaving no student and listener dry-eyed. Check out his improv at the end of this crazy good performance of his song where he lists the tragic Syrian refugee numbers... Years after, this still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand at attention. It provoked my work on another Syrian Refugee song for relief. That's another story. We were all so lucky to have the cameraman from WGBH and PRI right there to capture the footage to take the class recording and sync it for broadcast. We later went to the WGBH/PRI Studios where my friend Marco Werman interviewed him for "The World". See picture

Syrian-American MC/Beatmaker - born in Saudi Arabia, raised in Washington DC, and now a Californian resident.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0345350

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