Keeping the Roots Growing: A Conversation with Kassa Overall

Here is a fun exercise for a reader’s consideration. Consider these two quotes: “[It is] just a bunch of notes thrown together without melody or soul—hardly what I’d call music” and “[It’s] not music… [it] doesn’t require musicianship….” What genre of music are they referring to? Here is a hint- the music grew organically through […]

Review: Roy Ayers, Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad’s ‘Roy Ayers JID 002’

Humanity has a longstanding fascination with incorporating the latest technological developments into music. This interest is perhaps most evident in the history of sampling. In the 1940s, Pierre Schaeffer started producing sonic collages by splicing and manipulating sound recordings. His works formed the base of an experimental form known as musique concrète, an avant-garde progenitor […]