Future Vintage is a radioshow dedicated to discovering both the history and the future of soul, funk, jazz, hiphop and house music. The show is presented by Melodee & Radna, together with various guest DJ's. Future Vintage broadcasts every two weeks in collaboration with Dutch public network VPRO 3voor12. On FutureVintage.net you'll find the best shows from our archive, new podcasts and news & views about the music we like to share with you.
With a daring campaign, the upcoming edition ofthe TodaysArt festival this weekend, focuses on different forms of conflict. “History shows that whenever people face many questions, conflict ensues. Not necessarily violent, but conflict nonetheless. It is like a chemical reaction: energy is unleashed, things boil and smoke, and out of this energy a new substance emerges.”
For two days the political capital The Hague is transformed into the international city of conflict, with art on interesting locations and a broad range of musicians performing. From the founders of house music in Chicago, Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk and Jesse Saunders, to Bomb Squad legend Hank Shocklee, female electronic producer Pursuit Grooves and uncompromising hiphop by Guilty Simpson.
As you might already know, Guilty has a new project with Madlib coming up, you can listen to the first single over here. Almost two years ago I had a little chat with him, mainly about his hometown Detroit, where the financial crisis already kicked in and casino’s took over the centre – providing jobs at the same time. Press play for more, the documentary I mention in the interview is Detroit, Comeback City (from 1998).
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
For more info on the programme of TodayArt, visit the website. Wether you’re a friend or foe, I hope to see you around in The Hague this weekend.
When the Gaslamp Killer plays, he seems to get so much into his music, he immediately grabs all the attention. That’s what he did in Trouw during the Viral Radio party with Brainfeeder affiliates Flying Lotus & Samiyam, and also during the 5daysoff festival the Gaslamp Killer was described as a ‘must see’ by Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant. It’s quite interesting how he recently (about 9 months ago) discovered dubstep, and before that played a bit more on the psychedelic tip. Now he plays an exiting mix of both.
To get a glimpse of what a GLK set looks like, see him in action at Barcelona’s Sonar festival here.
Just before he entered the Melkweg stage I had a little chat with him. Listen below and visit Viral Radio for more radiofun with the GLK.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
“We have a crib in the UK so we stay here all summer”, sprak een van de leden van het Hypnotic Brass Ensemble gisteren op het podium van Paradiso. Ja, nadat ze even verdwenen leken zijn de broers uit Chicago weer terug in het vizier en komt er nu eindelijk een volwaardig album uit via het Britse label Honest Jons. Hypnotic is niet bepaald een standaard brassband, maar vermengt hiphopinvloeden samen met de nog grotere invloed van hun vader, de jazz trompettist Phil Cohran, die ooit met Sun Ra speelde. De familie Cohran woonde in southside Chicago, waar alle zoons verplicht een blaasinstrument moesten leren spelen en op straat hun geld verdienden. In 2007 hoorde ik voor het eerst van Hypnotic en traden ze enkele malen op in Nederland (waaronder op het North Sea Jazz festival). Destijds deed Future Vintage twee uitgebreide interviews (eerst telefonisch, een paar maanden later in Paradiso). Mocht je die toen niet gehoord hebben, beluister ze dan nu alsnog. Op 1 augustus staat Hypnotic Brass Ensemble op het Raw Rhythm Festival.
Part 1 – June ‘07
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Part 2 – Dec ‘07
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Eigenlijk houdt Dâm-Funk van veel verschillende muziekstijlen, ‘but you gotta stand for something’. En dus is Dâm-Funk ambassadeur van de muziek waar hij het meeste van houdt; de funk en boogie uit begin en midden jaren ‘80. Muziek om op te dansen, maar wel ’sophisticated’. Muziek die nog niet werd geloopt, maar live ingespeeld. Prince, The Time, Slave, Rick James, Cameo. Dâm draait deze artiesten (en veel onbekendere) iedere maandagavond op zijn Funkmosphere feesten. Daarnaast produceert hij ook zelf ‘modern funk’, zijn debuut album komt later dit jaar uit op Stones Throw. Tijdens de Stones Throw tour sprak ik Dâm-Funk even in de kleedkamer. Hij was leuk en bescheiden. Genoeg is al in andere interviews gezegd, zoals het video interview op On Point. Misschien is de laatste minuut wel het meest relevant, ‘that’s how true I’m trying to keep it for y’all’.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
By Radna · February 15th, 2009, 22:22 · Interviews
Eerder dit jaar verraste Stones Throw ons met een nieuwe soul artiest, wiens stemgeluid deed denken aan Smokey Robinson, maar waarbij de productie toch anno 2009 klonk. Mayer Hawthorne, die opgroeide in Ann Arbor, was lokaal al bekend als DJ Haircut, maar heeft hiphop nu verruilt voor de soul waar zijn ouders naar luisterden. Gilles Peterson en Mark Ronson zijn al fan, en op 10 maart is Mayer Hawthorne in Amsterdam (Paradiso) als onderdeel van de Europese Stones Throw tour.
Beluister hier Maybe So, Maybe No van Mayer Hawthorne & The County (uit de show van Mark Ronson)
Ter introductie een kort interview met Mayer over zijn muzikale verleden en toekomstplannen:
The first time we heard of you was through the single Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out, but you were already making music under the name Haircut. What are the main differences between Haircut and Mayer Hawthorne and in what way do your musical alter ego’s apply to different parts of your character?
“I was joking with some friends yesterday about how Haircut can curse, but Mayer Hawthorne cannot. I think everyone has different characters that they play in life. I’ve been making hip-hop music as Haircut for years and when I created the Mayer Hawthorne alter ego it was just for fun, for my close friends and family. I never imagined I would be recording a full album or performing it live. I didn’t put much thought behind it until I signed to Stones Throw. ”
In what way is the music you make inspired by music your parents maybe listened to? Or songs you heard as a child? “I was very fortunate to have such musical parents. They would always be listening to records or playing and singing songs. They exposed me to all kinds of music – rock, folk, country, jazz – but it was the soul music that hit me the most. Growing up just West of Detroit, I definitely heard a lot of Motown, and then when I started digging for records I discovered so much incredible local soul. I’m extremely proud of the musical history of Detroit. It’s had a major impact on the music I make and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to represent that, and to introduce a new generation of people to that sound. ”
Ze loopt overdag voorzichtig met een felgkleurde wandelstok, maar op het podium, als ze haar glitter ensemble aanheeft, blijft de stok in de backstage en staat ze fier rechtop. In de hotellobby maakt ze grapjes met iedere musicus die ze tijdens haar lange zangcarriere heeft leren kennen. Ooit maakte ze haar debuut in het Appollo Theater in Harlem, in 1952. Later was ze de eerste vrouw op het Blue Note label. Ze is ook een vrouw met zelfspot. Toen een dronken barklant steeds weer haar liedje uit de Juke Box wilde horen, de eigenaar zei dat deze zangeres die avond op zou treden en de klant uitriep: Who’s this bitch, anyway? – toen besloot ze haar album maar gewoon zo te noemen.
Wij kennen haar meestal van twee nummers: California Soul en Woman of the Ghetto. Nu ze jaren later beelden terug zag van de rellen en het politiegeweld dat haar in 1969 inspireerde Woman of the Ghetto te schrijven, vindt ze het nummer nog gematigd. Maar dat was het in 1969 niet: “You may be sitting up there, in your ivory tower, 60 stories tall / I know that you may have checked out at least one ghetto, but I wonder have you lived there at all“. Er is een live versie van het nummer, waarin zie net iets anders humt. Die versie is gesampled in een jaren negentig hit van Blue Boy. Ze schrijft het nog maar eens op een papiertje, want haar geheugen laat haar soms in de steek en ‘het publiek wil nu altijd dat ik de live versie op de manier van die sample doe’.
Ze koopt weinig nieuwe muziek, maar koestert nog steeds haar vinyl collectie. Ze heeft een goed leven, toert de wereld rond en zit thuis het liefst dingen te bestellen van het Home Shopping Channel – al vindt haar man dat maar niets.
Zij is Marlena Shaw.
In 2007 sprak ik haar op het North Sea Jazzfestival, en nu staat Marlena Shaw op 4 februari in Paradiso. En voor de kenners: Finn Peters speelt ook in haar band. In de komende Future Vintage hoor je een kort interviewfragment en via dit blog geven we 2 x 2 kaarten weg voor het concert. Als je voor dinsdag antwoord geeft op deze vraag: “Welke award heeft Marlena Shaw de afgelopen week gewonnen?” Mail naar info@futurevintage.net.
The day after his legendary New Age show (which I unfortunetaly couldn’t make, being at the North Sea Jazz festival) James Pants went thriftstore shopping in Amsterdam and met for an interview afterwards. We had a tea near the canals, he tried to do a Dutch radiodrop that sounded German and we talked about his first album Welcome, how to avoid sounding retro and the beauty of bad recordings. Thanks Mark for the hook up!
James Pants will be performing in Amsterdam again on the 3rd of October, this time with full band, upstairs in Paradiso (accompanied by the Kindred Spirits soundsystem and DJ 1.1).
Don’t mind the big Lowdown and Lijn5 logo’s, this is just a nice impression of Jose James performing at KSpace/Amsterdam in May 2008. We have a longer audio version of this interview, where we talk more about the great John Coltrane songs he did, but we have to explore our archive deeper for that one – soon!
The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble has been featured a lot on Future Vintage. The story of seven brothers from Chicago, sons of jazz musician (and astronomer!) Phil Cohran who form a brass band and start to play on the streets is charming in many ways. It’s a story about family, about a hiphop generation that still seeks sounds from generations before and about making a name for yourself. Hypnotic might have started on the streets, they also did a show with Mos Def during the James Brown tribute night in the Apollo Theatre and toured trough Europe a few times (they basicly took over North Sea Jazz festival in 2007).
It was probably KC the Funkaholic who introduced me to Hypnotic, and after hearing War and seeing some Youtube footage I was sold. So I interviewed two of the brothers by phone, just before they came over for the first time, in july ‘07. Here’s 13 minutes of music and talk by Hudah & Cid about their history.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I used to read the Hypnotic blog now and then, but lately it’s quiet (they switched to a new blog, I prefer the old one). Still, I’m happy with my War and Sankofa records, and also with On The Beach – a record by Phil Cohran that got re-issued and I basicly discovered trough the music of his sons.
By Radna · September 7th, 2007, 12:53 · Interviews
On a sunny September afternoon in Amsterdam I met up with Carlos Niño, who had a show with the Dublab crew from LA that evening, and just released the second album of creative jazz ensemble Build An Ark, called Dawn. A central figure in the LA music scene Carlos Niño seems to be all about connecting people and bridging the gap between different generations. He works for instance with Daedelus, Flying Lotus and SA-RA but also with jazz vocalist Dwight Trible and multi-instrumentalist/composer Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. And he has a weekly radioshow for more then a decade now: Spaceways radio. Instead of talking about all his different projects, we kept it basic, and focused on his vision about the healing power of music.
Also listen to a mix Carlos recently did for the Faces Records podcast on Samurai.FM.
With a daring campaign, the upcoming edition of the TodaysArt festival this weekend, focuses on different forms of conflict. “History shows that whenever people face many questions, conflict ensues. Not necessarily violent, but conflict nonetheless. It is like a chemical reaction: energy is unleashed, things boil and smoke, and out of this energy a new substance emerges.” 
When the
Eerder dit jaar verraste 
The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble has been featured a lot on Future Vintage. The story of seven brothers from Chicago, sons of jazz musician (and astronomer!) 