Zo! on Kev Brown's new album - "Random Joints"

Yes y'all... I (on the piano) along with my man Dre King (wurlitzer) were both featured on Kev's new digitally released "Random Joints" EP on the album's closing track "Lord Help Me". Support this brotha... VERY consistent output.

Kev Brown - "Random Joints" EP

The Foreign Exchange in SF on Sept. 12th and TWO nights in LA, Sept. 13th & 14th

I woke up this morning to the news that The Foreign Exchange will be playing a show out in San Francisco on Saturday, September 12th @ Yoshi's. I hope to see my West Coast kats out there. Here are all of the details...

We will also be back in Los Angeles for TWO dates at the Roxy Theatre. Kats had so much fun playing the venue in June, we had to come back and do it TWICE. Click here for the details...

In the Studio... Vol. 1

New Foreign Exchange Dates Announced (Indianapolis, Cleveland, Seattle, and LA)

In addition to the August 8th date in Maryland this month (The Spirit Festival), there have also been stops added in Indianapolis, Cleveland, and Seattle. Here's the info... Mark your calendars!

The Foreign Exchange @ The Athenaeum, Indianapolis IN
Saturday, August 15th, 2009

The Foreign Exchange @ Grog Shop, Cleveland OH
Sunday, August 16th, 2009

The Foreign Exchange @ Nectar Lounge, Seattle WA
Thursday, September 15, 2009

ALSO

The Foreign Exchange in Los Angeles
Sunday and Monday September 13 & 14, 2009
Venue: The Roxy Theatre

Carlitta Durand & Zo! To Release Projects On Official Foreign Exchange Music Imprint

Normally, I don't wake up in a very good mood... But this morning, let me present some good news to you. I'll let you read it directly from the Foreign Exchange Newsletter that went out yesterday...

Second of all, it is our great honor and pleasure to announce that Zo! and Carlitta Durand are now OFFICIAL artists on our Foreign Exchange Music imprint. *throws confetti*

Nic and I had always talked about the possibility of taking our partnership to the next level (I hate the word "label"), much like Jazzanova did with Sonar Kollektiv and how Jam and Lewis did with Flyte Tyme (for all my old heads out there...). When we decided to move full-speed ahead and form a production company, it seemed only right that our first artists would be two people we've been working with all along.

Zo! and Carlitta are much more than artists; they are family. Zo's album "Sunstorm" will drop early next year, and Carlitta Durand's as yet untitled debut will come afterwards. I feel that Nic and I have set the bar pretty high with the level of quality and craftsmanship in our FE releases, and I have no doubt that Zo and Carlitta's music will meet, if not surpass, that same standard. We treat their records with the same amount of love and detail as we do our own, and hopefully
upon listening, you'll agree.

Be sure to send Zo! and Carlitta your love and well-wishes via their twitter and/or myspace pages.

Zo! (MySpace) (Twitter)
Carlitta Durand (MySpace) (Twitter)

Zo! on the new Nicolay album City Lights Vol. 2: Shibuya

Earlier today, the press release for Nicolay's new album City Lights Vol. 2: Shibuya was made public, which included the tracklisting and cover artwork. I appear on two of the joints with keyboard solos ("Crossing" and "Wake Up In Another Life")... Check the write-up....

Nicolay - City Lights Vol. 2: Shibuya (09.15.09)

Shibuya is the new project from the creative mind of NICOLAY, better known as one half of THE FOREIGN EXCHANGE. The group (which includes rapper/singer Phonte) and their sophomore album Leave It All Behind (TFE/Hard Boiled; Oct. 2008), continues to gain momentum as the duo and their extended family of singers and musicians are currently touring the United States and Canada. Nicolay and Phonte's countless performances together have added a new level of sophistication to their musical output, resulting in what they consider to be one of their most ambitious projects yet.

The idea for Shibuya, the second installment in Nicolay's City Lights series, was conceived after Nicolay's first visit to Tokyo in November 2006. The experience proved to be life changing for Nicolay, who has studied Japanese culture for most of his adult life. "This amazing place and all of its sounds and colors immediately filled up my senses," he says. "I felt reinvigorated."

Once back home, he started to write and record music with a new-found sense of freedom, laying the groundwork for the albums Time:Line and Leave It All Behind as well a third album; a deeply personal homage to the Tokyo district of Shibuya that illustrates both the grandeur of Japan's age-old heritage ("Meiji Shrine, "Rain In Ueno Park", "The Inner Garden") as well as the hectic city life of one of the world's busiest metropolitan areas ("Crossing", "Satellite", "Bullet Train"). Where City Lights Volume 1 was primarily instrumental, on Shibuya the instrumental pieces are book-ended by several vocal songs written by Phonte and performed by Durham, North Carolina vocalist CARLITTA DURAND, who previously collaborated with Phonte on LITTLE BROTHER's Getback album (ABB 2007). Also appearing is Foreign Exchange liveband-mate ZO!, who adds his virtuoso keyboard solos to two songs.

"It truly is like stepping into a different world", says Nicolay about his trip to the city. "What fascinated me most about Shibuya was the co-existence of 'old' and 'new' in seemingly perfect harmony. The most advanced technologies and innovations exist next to traditions that are rooted in thousands of years of civilization." The album's musical foundation mirrors this hybrid of different ages, combining influences from '70s jazz, rock and fusion with broken beat, downtempo and electronica to form the lush, genre-bending sound that has become Nicolay's trademark.

Tracklisting

01 Lose Your Way feat. Carlitta Durand
02 Shibuya Station
03 Crossing
04 Rain In Ueno Park
05 Satellite
06 Saturday Night feat. Carlitta Durand
07 A Ride Under The Neon Moon
08 Omotesando
09 Meiji Shrine
10 Shadow Dancing
11 The Inner Garden
12 Bullet Train
13 Wake Up In Another Life
14 Departure
15 Shibuya Epilogue feat. Carlitta Durand

RT @Syberspace: "Having lots of fun in the studio right now! I feel like I haven't recorded in ages! Track is by @Zo3hree5ive, hope he digs."

(with Sy @ Bohemian Caverns (D.C.) - 03.27.08)

One of my favorite vocalists, Sy Smith is now in the studio with one of my joints for the ...just visiting too album. Judging by the way she has already laced the hell outta the SunStorm album, I think we'll all be in for a treat. So what I'M gonna do in the meantime is fill up my wine glass with Shiraz and sip till I get the joint back… Can’t WAIT!!

D.C. Dilla Tribute @ Liv... Starring Ma Dukes Yancey, Illa J & Phife Dawg (from 07.08.09)

This past Wednesday we had a tribute concert and fundraiser honoring the memory of the late GREAT Jay Dee a/k/a James "J. Dilla" Yancey at Club Liv in Washington D.C. Those headlining the bill included his younger brother John "Illa J" Yancey, longtime collaborator and former A Tribe Called Quest member Phife Dawg, and Dilla's mother Maureen "Ma Dukes" Yancey.

This was actually the 4th event done in D.C. in honor of Dilla and the first that I have been a part of. The band for the night...

Jon Laine - Drums
Dennis Turner - Bass
Brock Smith - Guitar
Nila Kay - Guitar
Dre King - Keys
Zo! - Keys

Alison Carney & J-Hill - Vocals

The results? Honoring the music of Dilla Dawg, raising money for the Lupus Foundation, and providing some good live music and a damn good time...

Here are some video clips shot from that night... I'll add more as I find them.

Highlight Video

Phife Dawg performing "Check Tha Rhime"

(me and Phife Dawg after the show)

Zo! featured on Friday FaveCast (FFC)

Huge shouts to my man Fave outta Houston, TX for featuring me on his website and podcast for this week. He put together a helluva playlist for this week's edition and included our interview toward the end of the podcast itself.

Check the link for the write-up and cast and interview...

Fave says:

In this edition the heat and good music increase exponentially from familiar favorites and incredible newcomers to the game. Nod your head to the best in soul and progressive hip hop from across the land and the pond.

The health tip / update deals with the mental / emotional / spiritual issues that attack our physical bodies.

As we quench our thirst for quality tunes, get ready to chop it up with one of the rising musical stars of the new millennium. He’s a dynamic instrumentalist (the piano is his primary weapon of choice) and works with some of the FFC’s most coveted artists. Zo! checks in and breaks down the current state of the industry, taking the stage with the Foreign Exchange and what’s coming soon from his creative mind.

Get a cool washcloth, a glass of ice water and press play. The weekend doesn’t officially begin until the FFC gets in. . .

Enjoy yourself. . .

Click here to download.

~The Playlist~

C17 – Moving Violation Tribute (instrumental)
M64 – Rhythm of the Drum Sa-Ra – Love Czar
?uestlove/Foreign Exchange/Zo!/Carlitta Durand – Purple Flip
Self Scientific – Love Bird (instrumental)
Donnie – Cloud Nince [DJ Spinna Remix]
De La Soul – View
Psymun – Ain’t No Sunshine (instrumental)
Shawn Stockman – If You Were a Boy
Carmen Rodgers – Dream
Otis & Shugg – Journey
Garcia’s Grooves – I Can’t Help It (instrumental)
Atjazz – Before feat. Clara Hill
Zo! & Asylum 7 – Overdue Process
Zo! – 4 Dilla (instrumental)
Nicolay – Rhodes (instrumental)
Foreign Exchange – If She Breaks Your Heart feat. Yahzarah
Zo! & Tigallo – I’m Only Human
Zo! & Asylum 7 – Rigorous (instrumental)
Nicolay – Coltrane (instrumental)
Fave – Another Love Song (instrumental)
9th Wonder – Everybody Loves the Sunshine (instrumental)
G.C. – Off the Wall Tribute (instrumental)

?uestlove Talks About the "Purple Flip" joint...

As y'all may know from the last post, the brotha Ahmir Thompson a/k/a ?uestlove, the drummer from the Legendary Roots Crew programmed the drums on the "Purple Flip" joint that was leaked yesterday. Well here is what he had to say about the song itself...

?uest Speaks on "Purple Flip."

?uestlove/FE/Zo!/Carlitta Durand EXCLUSIVE!

Let's get down to business immediately... I want to drop something new on y'all today. The night before our vacation to Bermuda a couple weeks ago, Phonte hit me up at about 1am and passed me this joint to play on. He was telling me that ?uestlove had flipped Prince's "Take Me With You" and that he and Carlitta Durand also did their own take on the lyrics.... Dope. I sent my parts back, Nicolay finished it up while we were gone and now we have a 5-person collaborative effort in tribute to the living legend himself....

PURPLE FLIP [right click and save to download MP3 file]

Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson- Drums, Samples
Nicolay- Fender Rhodes, acoustic piano
Zo!- Moog synth, additional rhodes
Phonte and Carlitta Durand- Vocals

This is the first in a series of random goodies that we will be periodically dropping off in your mailboxes. (Who loves ya, baby?)

We recorded this over a month ago specifically for a ?uestlove tribute party dedicated to The Purple One himself. Other than passing it off to a few DJ friends who vowed to keep it on some secret squirrel, "bet you aint up on THIS!" status, no one has ever heard it. In the wake of the incredible loss we suffered on June 25 however, this joint took on somewhat of a deeper meaning.

We decided to share it with our fans not only as a token of appreciation, but also as a way of paying respect to one of our last living musical geniuses.

Let's not wait until tragedy strikes before we show love and gratitude to our heroes, people. Give them their flowers while they live.

This one's for you, Mr. Nelson. You are loved and appreciated.

Enjoy!

One Love,
'Tay and Nic

Enjoy this one!...

Damn Wishbone! b/w A Tribe Called PPP

Before our departure from Chicago, I set up a breakfast meeting with one of my old college teammates and my homegirl. I had my mouf all set for some CJ's Eatery being as though they had come through so tough last month with the absolutely ridiculous catfish breakfast platter. BUT, we got word that they didn't do brunch on Friday. No problem, let's hit up Wishbone! I've been there a couple of times for breakfast, and they do their thing (my breakfast history @ Wishbone: Shrimp & Grits and the Banana Pancakes <--LAWD). So we met up at about 10:45a and put the orders in at a little before 11a... of course if I'm listing times, you already know where I'm going with this. 11:30 came and went, 11:40...11:50?!!?! Come on now... We had our drinks and no real explanation on why we had no food. The place was packed up, yes..BUT people around us were getting their food. I think the joint just got lost and they were covering it up - poorly. So in order for me to avoid missing my ride back to O'Hare, we had to leave and walk up the street to Starbucks so I could pick up a breakfast sammich. By this time, it was 12-something and I was HOWNGREE... I didn't give a rat's ass what I ate at that point. I thought that sammich and orange juice was the greatest meal of all-time... Wishbone FAILED miserably, almost an hour went by with no food, and no real explanation why. Damn, what happened? Then fast forward to the airport... It's myself, Jeed, Train and Syd all checking in and going through security. The nasty-minded older female security folk were giving me an earfull basically saying they were gonna go through ALL of my stuff, frisk me, and make me play my bass guitar for them before they let me through. Wonderful...
We got through that madness and walked over to Johnny Rockets for a bite to eat before heading to our gates. Now mind you, I had on my Tribe Called Quest t-shirt as the four of us stepped up to order our food. The girl who took Coultrain's order was just grinning... ear to damn ear. Then she kept saying, "I know I'm not crazy... I know I'm not crazy." It was strange, but kats finished placing the orders, got our seats and waited for the food... We all looked at each other trying to figure out what the issue was and why ole girl was at the register having a moment. Train was like, "I'm pretty sure she thought I was somebody I'm not." But the million dollar question still remained... WHO? So when Jeed went back up to get his food, he came back laughing. It turned out that because of my T-shirt, she thought we were A Tribe Called Quest HILARIOUS. So we spent about 5 minutes at the table tryna figure out which one of us was who... She had to have been real young, po' child. At least she had A Tribe Called Quest in her mind as an option to choose from.. *shrugs*

With PPP In Chicago @ The Shrine - 07.02.09

Well... Hit the airport for our 45 minute flight to Chicago and got to O'Hare and found a limo pulling up for us. Oh word? We were in there taking pictures like we've never been anywhere before... Gotta enjoy yourself right? Hahahahaha.Anyway, we pulled up to the hotel, checked in... got grub, and hit the soundcheck. The check was long as hell, but once they got the sound locked in, it was a wrap and it was sounding good. Toward the end, in walks Muhsinah and fellow ELs member SlimKat78 to set up and check as they were scheduled to go on before us.



We had a looong time of waiting around at the hotel before we were to return to the spot to perform, so I got a workout and a pre-show meal in before we had to jet up. Once we got to the Shrine, we were informed that the place was pretty much packed out, which is ALWAYS good news. Now, once the show started...it went smoothly, until the end when they cut our set a song short because the club was about to close in 10 minutes. Can you say horrible time management? Damn man, it didn't feel good to leave the crowd hanging like that. On top of that, the after the show piece when I like to get out there, mingle, say 'what up' to everybody who came out was eliminated as security was wanting everybody to leave immediately. It was confusion... but a great show once again.

Click to see all pics from this entry

On the Road With PPP in Detroit @ CityFest - 07.01.09

Our West Coast trip in March wasn't enough... Waajeed, Coultrain, Monica Blaire, Sydney Driver, and myself had to get back up again and roll through a couple more spots before it was all said and done. The first stop this time around was the spot where three of us call home, Detroit where we played at CityFest opening for De La Soul on the main stage.

Because of the early flight, I stayed up all night (surprise, surprise) and arrived at BWI Airport at about 4am. Delta was obviously having problems checking folks in, because despite the fact that I was there 2 hours prior to take off, by the time I got checked in, went through security, and got to the gate it was 5:50am ...my flight left at 6am.


Once I landed in The D, Moms came to scoop from the airport and I got home and passed out on the couch. When I finally woke up, I checked outside and made sure I said a prayer for the bad weather to hold off until we played... Well, the weather held off during soundcheck, that was no problem. But soon after that, it started to POUR. We were scheduled to go on at 7pm and because of the downpour, the people got outta there for a minute. The rain held off for a little while once we did get on stage and the soundman had us sounding real good up there. The rain started to come back down in the middle of us playing "Stay With Me." The thing that got me was, once the rain came back...the people stayed - how 'bout that?! I think that said a whole lot about the crowd and support group that we have back home, kats hung with us out there and I am very appreciative of that. Moms, Pops and my younger sister came out... popped open the umbrellas and enjoyed themselves - even took pictures for me. After the show, my family came back to the trailer and kicked it for a little while with the entire group, the brotha Maestro of Silent Riot stopped through, along with Mudd of 5 Ela. Everybody was just crackin' jokes, talkin' shiff and having a good time.

I ended up rolling to Champps with the family to get fat and have some drainks, in which I had two... We closed the night out by laughing at Shaq & Cedric the Entertainer's Comedy special, which was HILARIOUS.

On to Chicago....!

Click here to see the full set of pics from this show