Rotimi and the Rainmakers

I've been working with all kinds of musicians lately. Whether it be composing small classical works, playing with jazz groups, or making beats (many will be posted soon). But one gig that has been a lot of fun and recently has been taking off is the work I do with an R&B cat named Rotimi. Rotimi is a Northwestern Student and talented R&B singer. Things have been going well for him lately, earlier this year he opened and performed with T.I. and worked with the Jabbawockeez. I started working with him in the fall and decided that we could link up and step up his live performances with a live band. So we picked out a couple of his tracks that I then arranged for a rhythm and horn section. After I found some interested musicians to play things took off from there. Last night we performed a set at a Northwestern University benefit for over 1,300 people.

You can catch a video of our performance here. I did a little singing on "No Diggity". Other songs during the performance included covers Kanye West's "Flashing Lights", Snoop Dogg's "Sexual Eruption", and T.I's "Live Your Life/Whatever You Like" and a slew of Rotimi originals arranged for the band.

The gigs continue with performances at Evanston's "Keg" on Thursday night (03/08/09) and future performances at Tommy Nevin's. I'm also writing some joints for Rotimi that will hopefully be recorded in the near future. As always, I'll post joints asap!

Like A Star--Remix

I promised some covers, so here they are:

Like A Star - Corinne Bailey Rae (Performed/Arranged by RossKennethMusic)



This is my latest complete song that I've banged out of my 5' x 5' dorm room (haha I should put up some pictures soon to show you all what I'm working with over here.) Anyways, I had my iTunes on shuffle the other day and this beautiful ballad by Corinne Bailey Rae came on, I hadn't heard it in a while but I felt like it was something that I could definitely work with. So I transcribed the harmony and started playing it on my rhodes while serenading my Miles Davis and Thelonuis Monk posters with the delicate melody. Initially I was trying to see how I could freak it into a dance joint; but after a couple of trials I found that its really just beautiful as a ballad. (Remnant of some of the dance-track-attempts can be heard during that ass smackin' outro) I hope you like my version... and if not, here's the original to enjoy: Like A Star

^dates

I apologize for the hiatus...

Schools been crazy here, but I've been busy with music so I'll give you some bullet points of what's to come:

-This past week I've been working on a number of beats that I hope will come together this weekend

-I've been working on another cover! Its been a while since I've done one, the last was about a year ago, when I re-made Stevie Wonder's solemn "They Won't Go When I Go". I'll post both covers as soon as I finish this new one, don't want to give it away yet.

-jazz jazz jazz jazz has also been what I've been up to lately. Lots of transcribing and arranging. Today I shedded Wayne Shorter tunes for two hours alone. I have gigs this Thursday and Monday, so I've been hectic with rehearsals. But I'll post some of the recordings as soon as I get them.

-I've also been working on arranging a big set for a band to play with Rotimi at this big battle of the bands coming up. Winner plays at mayfest, so we gotta bring it.

-I've been working on my keyboard chops a lot lately, just staying up to hours that I shouldn't and playing through ballads and gospel tunes, I'm finally starting to feel comfortable in a variety of keys, it definitely came in handy in this new cover I'm working on... but you'll hear that soon enough...

so I'm sorry to tease you like this, but all in good time.. stay tuned.

-Oh... and for those of you who didn't get the issue, I sneaked into this months issue of DOWNBEAT... "where's waldo?"

experimentin' with the ross-kenneth-solotet.

Its been too long, I know. I apologize. School gets crazy here in the tri-mester system... its like three weeks of fun and not doing that much work, and then BOOM. midterm this week. wow. Some of my friends haven't even gone back to school yet.

So, continuing with the last post... I had been eluding to how I had been checking out more industrial sounds in some of my new tracks... well I figured why not post them?

Let You Down



This track isn't fully done. I just did a quick couple takes on the vocals, and never really came up with an ending other than to let the beat build. I showed it to my friend Rotimi and he said he might want to check it out and sing on it. I dig the chorus to this one, reallllll catchy. My vocals are whatever on it right now, hopefully you can get the jist of it though.

PJ&B



This track was built of a sample of an Eddie Vedder composition for the "into the wild" soundtrack. PJ&B stands for (Pearl Jam and Beats). It was kinda my ode to my buds Alex and Dave that love Pearl Jam a lot more than they probably should. To be honest, this track was kind of a joke when I first made it, but it definitely led into that "Let You Down" track that I produced. It was when I started working a lot with effects and different kinds of synth sounds/moods. Oh, the creepy devil laugh... no idea. I was at home for two weeks alone. Shit gets crazy.

PEEPs.

Yall know what time is it...




Today, you need to check out: Flying Lotus

This west-coast cat's got music in his blood. The nephew of Alice Coltrane, wife to the late jazz legend John Coltrane, Flying Lotus is a hip-hop/experimental producer that takes his music and art seriously. My friend Ian told me about him on New Years Eve, and he showed me Lotus' Myspace. At the time, while slightly inebriated, the shit just sounded like noise/nonsense to me. The next day I re-visited the page and I felt like the music was onto something; so on a whim I bought Flying Lotus' latest: "Los Angeles" on iTunes. After listening through the album a couple times, I got hooked. I also purchased his: "Reset: EP" which has the track "Tea Leaf Dancer" on it. (Dope. you can check it on his Myspace)

I've been getting more and more into experimental/industrial sounds lately. I think that incorporating these kinds of styles/sounds into hip-hop and pop genres is really the future of the music. You can already hear the spread/addition of it in some popular tunes. Just listen to Beyonce's new Single Ladies. Not to get too off topic, but honestly; the first half of this song is just clapping and electronic/industrial noises. And what I think personally makes this song is the "chainsaw-like" synth on the repeat of the chorus. The songs dope, and when you think about why its dope, you can see its all about the sounds, the vibe that the sounds create, and especially the production and mastering of the track.

Working off this, as far as underground hip-hop goes, this cat Flying Lotus uses crazy sounds and recording techniques to create a unique style. Building upon the funky sequencing pioneered by J Dilla (hip-hop's Jesus in many minds) and incorporating his own quirky sequencing, Flying Lotus is definitely laying down a nice foundation for future hip-hop producers. Utilizing sounds that recal Space Indavers, Super Mario World and flying nerf footballs on elementary playgrounds, Lotus definitely has a liberal mind wired for fresh kinds of sounds that can be effectively incorporated into music.

Definitely check out the video on Flying Lotus in his myspace. Its interesting and goes more in-depth on his approach, background and inspirations.

eight OUCH! eights & hEARtBREAKs

Went to the hospital last night, got seven stitches to my FACE haha

Chicago's been getting a lot of snow lately, so some buds and I went out playing snow football in about a foot of fresh powder. About forty minutes into the game I'm getting a little tired of it so I figure, why not keep things interesting and go all-out eh!?

Immediately following that thought: I shoot the gap and go in for a backfield tackle and bring a kid to his fuckin' KNEEz. I'm lying face down in the snow all content with my testosterone-induced domination and next thing I know I get a white-out shot of pain to my left temple. (Which I believe came from someone's boot, although I still don't know for sure) Ouch. So I kinda woozilly get up and make my way back to the defensive side of the field. (word choice? woozle-what?) I stand there in a sort of daze for a play or two until someone goes, "hey dude? are you bleeding dude?... Shit dude... Yeah dude... you're bleeding dude... from like... your face dude." This makes sense. I mean, yeah it hurt and burned a bit, but I figured that it was just what it felt like to get knocked in the head, its not like it happens that often to me. It was like 20 degrees out? Its not like I could feel whether my ears were actually attached or... well...

Any-who, I go inside and yeah, there was a clear trail of blood running from the upper-left side of my head dripping off of my chin. The source was quickly identified as my upper left ear, which had been severed from my head about a centimeter in detachment. No idea how it happened, no one really remembers forcefully kicking or tearing my left ear from my head socket, but hey, I don't blame them, no big deal or anything. Its not like it costs money to fix those things or anything. Either way, I was in no condition or mood to interrogate. I was actually pretty calm about the whole thing, considering I probably would have kept sacking QB's had someone not brought to my attention that I was a "severely-bleeding-dude". Some brain-child had already gone to grab the house first-aid kit, and after a quick examination of the red box; it was clear that it didn't contain enough adhesives, gauze, sterilizers, thread, needles, novocaine, or morphine to re-connect my upper-left ear to my nig-noggin.

So from here it was pretty clear I needed to see the specialist for these kinds of things, which I had heard could be found at the local hospital. Thankfully my buds Steve and Marc decided to give up part of their Saturday night by taking me. Don't feel bad for them, they watched the Bulls game and cracked tasteless jokes in the waiting room, all amongst depressed sick-people.

This next paragraph is for any of you future doctors. Good things to talk about while applying stitches: How you went to Madison for your undergraduate degree; which had a really good pre-med program where you learned a lot about applying stitches well. Bad things to talk about while applying stitches: How you went to Madison for "undergrad", where you blacked-out at every Big Ten football game, and traveled to away games often missing days of crucial classes relevant to applying stitches well. Yeah, she did inject at least four shots of litacaine directly to the left side of my face, but she should have known I wasn't that fucked up. I'm curious to see how these bad boys come out when I take this wrap off. That's the last time I go drink at "Dah-Deuce" with pre-med buddies on weekdays.

Oh--the head wrap!?!? I look like I was discharged after battling in the trenches of Normandy. This is so that my ear heals correctly and I don't get cauliflower ear and end up looking like this beaut.

Anyway, my streak of unfortunate illness continues!!! (See: "YO! I be da illest illness!!!") They always make good war stories and I hear the chicks dig scars, but I am yet to have wreaked the benefits... Seriously... I've been trying since I got my appendix removed in 3rd grade and got a nasty scar in my left "lower-abdominal" region... you know... just below the belt... but not necessarily all the way, I'll show it to you sometime, if you play your cards right. (Ladies and gentlemen: Jeremy Piven on the congas, Derrick Hodge on the bass guitar)

A Million Dreams

Last night I finally finished a joint using this Chet Baker sample. I had been working on it since September...

heres: "A Million Dreams" (Chet)



I started building this track back in September when a friend got me the "Best of Chet Baker Sings" album. Initially I wasn't that hip to his voice, but after a while I started to dig is nasal-y tone and simple approach. I generally don't like jazz vocalists because I often feel like they do too much, but Chet Baker's vocal approach is very simple and bare so I started to dig it.

The sample comes from his "There Will Never Be Another You"--a common jazz standard. I had played the tune plenty of times but never heard the lyrics to it until hearing Chet. This past summer I implemented learning the lyrics of tunes to really help ingrain the melodies into my head/memory. I really like the second half of this tune, which lyrics go:

"There will be other lips that I may kiss,
but they won't thrill me like yours used to do.
Yes I may dream a million dreams, but how can they come true--
If there will never be another you?"

Definitely check out the original track if you can, I'm sure you can nab it on iTunes for 99c or whatever. I strongly suggest the whole album, its really accessible to both jazz and non-jazz heads.

Putting together the track was a mastering nightmare, the beat I initially had just clipped way too much and sounded like distorted wash, I kept on trying to makr it work but would always give up. After re-working the track at least 5 times this is what I came up with. I dig the live drum sound/feel that I ended up with. Punching out the drum fills was real fun. I hope you all catch the "dream sequence" cliche at the end of the track, I'm sorry, I had to. haha