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Showing posts from April, 2015

Jeremiah Jae and L-Orange- Cinematic Noir Rap

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L'Orange and Jeremiah Jae- The Night Took Us in Like Family If you are the kind of person who has a difficult time when an artist you like releases an album that is a little different than what you expected, then you probably don't understand why I've been posting so much hip-hop music lately. Truthfully, I am a child of the 80's, and this was the decade where the seeds of hip-hop started to bloom into an undeniable force of nature that could no longer be ignored by the masses. Fast forward almost three decades later to 2015, a year where Kendrick Lamar releases an innovative mainstream record with heart and soul, and artists like Ghostface Killah, Adrian Younge and the aforementioned Lamar decided to incorporate live instruments into their usual repertoire of samples and programmed drum beats.  Amongst this bevy of artists experimenting with new sounds is producer/rapper Jeremiah Jae, the leader of the Black Jungle Squad, a coalition of rappers and

Rediscoveries of Lost Gems- Larry Coryell

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Larry Coryell- Coryell When I was searching my brain for a record that deserved to be rediscovered, I came up with Larry Coryell's self-titled album from 1969 entitled simply Coryell . While Coryell's official recording debut was on Chico Hamilton's The Dealer , this is the record that would cement his reputation as one of the most sought after lead guitarists during the Jazz-fusion era in the 70's.  From the beginning of the manic guitar solo on "Sex", you can tell that Coryell is not playing around, eventually filtering his guitar through a copious amount of wah-wah and phaser effects. "Beautiful Woman" starts out unassumingly enough, with a pleasing vocal and mellow tone, but the bottom drops out in the last minute with screaming vocals and an especially biting guitar solo. Then, the urgent rhythm of  "The Jam With Albert" comes rushing out the gates, and the rest of the band masterfully compliment Coryell's m