NOVEMBER 2013 ISSUE
A sneaky peak of just some of what is in the November 2013 issue
Gyptian
Gyptian’s latest album is Sex, Love And Reggae. It’s his fourth album in total and the first since Hold You splashed him all over urban radio in America. Finding a follow-up has proven difficult, except he’s taken a major step forward on this new set, which has more of an R&B feel than any of its predecessors.
The first thing we notice is that it’s unashamedly aimed at young females, which is a surprise considering that his breakthrough hit was called Serious Times. The success of Hold You has changed the ratio of his female to male fans out of all recognition, and yet Sex, Love And Reggae is still one of the most progressive reggae albums we’ll hear all year.
“We were just thinking out of the basket, because I want everybody to be listening to my music – not only Jamaicans or Jamaicans that are in different countries,” he says. “I want it to reach every corner in this world. I want to reach everybody, everywhere musically… ”
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Merky Ace
Grime’s already full of crossover dreamers, so it’s refreshing to see someone stick to the genre in its underground form. South Londoner Merky Ace doesn’t just want to stick to grime’s original script himself, he wants his peers to do the same. The title of new album Play Your Position is a call for more grime MCs to stick to their bread and butter, not to get side-tracked by the allure of a mainstream embrace.
“I reckon everyone just needs to stick to what they got their fanbase for in the first place,” says the Lewisham MC on the phone from his home. “I see people around me who are not playing their position, they’re not doing what they’re meant to. They’re not doing their job – that’s the simplest way to put it.
“But it’s also about artists who don’t wanna do things, people that don’t want to be involved, who are not pulling their weight. It’s a very open statement really, for anyone who it applies to.”
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Tony Momrelle
When he’s not dropping vocals onto the next Incognito album or heading to the airport on Bluey’s latest foray to far flung shores, Tony Momrelle is likely making unexpected trips to Austria to record a feature slot with the Lungau Big Band, or running Reel People Records with Oli Lazarus, or sitting on Sade’s travel bus alongside Stuart Matthewman and Andrew Hale, trying to come up with material for a solo project of his own. There’s been no real need to make an album of his own.
In fact, if you think on it, with life about as sweet as it can be when you’re probably the most in-demand support and lead soul voice [with built-in Hathaway-like tone] in London and have been for years, you’ve got to wonder why on earth Tony Momrelle would want to go and complicate matters by putting out solo stuff. Does he want to go and ruin it all, for Chrissakes?
“You know what?” he responds, “I love interviews where people cut to the chase!”
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Marc Cary
System. Principle. Method.
These are all terms that crop up time and again when improvising musicians discuss the question of how, in a very practical, concrete way, do they make certain notes fit together to form interesting chords or create a specific rhythmic feel through their handling of time. Pianist-keyboardist Marc Cary is, however, interested in the why as well as the how, and he has a serious point to make in the process.
“The rules give you a sense of responsibility not to expose everything at one time,” he tells me from his home in New York via skype. “What doesn’t happen in jazz a lot of times – unless there’s an informed and thoughtful improviser – is that people don’t think about developing the journey, showing you the full spectrum. They wanna show you everything as soon as they pull the horn out. Well, rules keep you from doing that.”
Four Directions, the superb new album by Focus Trio, Cary’s working band that features double bassist Rahsaan Carter and drummer Sameer Gupta, is a good example of how players can reach expressive heights without falling into a trap of self-indulgence… ”
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