UK’s Dirty Fuzz’s Elida at it again!!!
Yes, yes…. black folks exist in the UK and we call ourselves … er..British(Black British)
Next month is Black history month here in the UK and I would like to big up the artists who have opened up the door in the arts for crazy singers like me:
Omar, Sade, Billy Ocean, Desiree, Naomi Campbell, Thin Lizzy, Jazzy B, Soul 11 Soul and all the reggae bands that inspired the Ska movement in the UK…..sorry to the ones I have forgotten. I could have done a better job had I been boozing…..feeling too edgy right now!!
It’s not very easy to break through in the UK music business because as black people in Britain, we have a long way to go compared to say African- Americans, who have been in the USA for centuries.
However, what I like about the UK music scene is that as long as we are not trying to sound like US artists (but only get influenced by them), we tend to bring something quite different to the table. Here are some acts I have discovered in recent years and they are bloody good when they play live too. It’s a work in progress but good nevertheless.
Noisettes
Sam Amant
Bianca Rose
Visitor Q
Rox
Tawiah
The list is not complete without Dirty Fuzz - Wish I could bring all these acts with me over for CMJ, New York!!!!
Uuuugh, 4 days in tha alcohol free zone and feeling almost good. …

This is another from our dear friend Dred Scott.

hello citizens.
trying to get into the election season mood and am having a hard time.  i don’t know if it’s the long preseason that wears me out or i’m just flat from the lexapro.  i’m sure i can get motivated enough to vote when the time comes but for now i’m just blase about it all.  i mean, it was exciting to think of either a woman or a black man being in the white (man) house.  but that was like what a year ago??  i’m just saturated.  speaking of…
looks like new orleans escaped a direct hit and what’s left of it will continue to remain.  it’s like they want a fucking pat on the back for doing their jobs.  nice work, guys.  you didn’t fuck up and the whole town didn’t get destroyed.  oh let’s down low the convention to show how concerned we are.   should’ve had it in new orleans.
so this is just a test.  i’m trying a new email program so i can more efficiently send these tepid tomes to the people who actually want to receive them.  if this is not you, apologies.  just type ‘666′ in the subject heading and i will remove you with a little ritual i learned from master severin at the academy.

TONIGHT
THE DRED SCOTT TRIO
ROCKWOOD MUSIC HALL
MIDNIGHT
BEN RUBIN, BASS
TONY MASON, DRUMS

NEW RECORDING
LIVE AT THE ROCKWOOD
NOW AVAILABLE
FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE
in your face, radiohead.

‘this disc (live at rockwood) demonstrates that scott’s vision of bop is a deeply personal one, which can be either cozily swinging or devilishly tricky.’ time out, ny

‘Live at the Rockwood Music Hall is a beautiful showcase of this dynamic piano trio.’ allaboutjazz-newyork

‘a restless trio.’ ny times

Dred Scott on Myspace.

My good friend over at VIMBY Zosimo Maximo has taken it upon himself to bring you a personal labour of love that needs to be conveyed and the message spread.

From Zosimo:

I reached out to many of you Friday about a personal video I put together called Obama+MKL Remix 08 where I found references from MLK’s “I Have a Dream” and mixed them into Barack’s DNC speech. Thank you for your great comments and for passing it around. I had more time to spend with it this weekend and found more parallels between the two speeches and came up with a tighter version.

I made the video as a reaction to being inspired by his speech.  The next day I realized that as a content creator I have a medium and access to an on-line community who’s targeted demo can make a difference in Obama’s campaign.  As we know, much of Obama’s’ success will heavily rely on “Generation Buzz”  and more specifically the urban youth market that most of us cater to.

I want to do more than cast my one vote, so I’m connecting with you today because you are all influential voices who are looked upon by your audiences to feed them information.  Collectively, we are a powerful community because we are the filter of relevance.   As VIMBY has displayed, the videos that my team and I have created for many of you on your events, artists, sneaker drops, trade shows, etc… can quickly spread when many of you get behind the promotion of it.

Several of you are posting Obama entries now, but I see a lack of content that hits home with our audience. I am personally committed to creating an original series of videos called “The Obama Remixes” to promote his campaign. I know when I was 18 I didn’t care much for politics because the way the messages where being delivered didn’t speak to me.  My plan is to do these in a style that connects to our target demo.

I am neither looking to create the next web phenomenon like Obama Girl whose creator has admitted that the video was never intended to promote Obama nor am I trying to monetize them.  They will have one goal and that is to help put Obama into the White House and to communicate his message at a street level access to guarded communities that McCain’s party can’t reach.  I feel our challenge is to actually get our audience to vote and I am open to your ideas and ready to collaborate with anyone willing on the series.

So, I call on you today to help me take the next step by giving me 10 minutes of your time by posting or mentioning the Obama+MLK Remix 08 to your blogs, facebooks, myspace pages, newsletters, personal email lists, etc…

Got to love Jazz Pianist Dred Scott–I never know what he’s going to say next!!!

i’m sitting in 4d.  an aisle seat.  i like to sit in the front of the aircraft and on the aisle so i can get up anytime i want.  i am always one of the last people to board and today as i turn the corner to go up the aisle there is a two year old boy smearing his germs all over my seat. wiping his mouth and playing with my channel changer, waving a crumbling cookie in his hand that is being ground into still smaller crumbs as he jumps up and down.   his mother sees me and scoops him up onto her lap .  she is about 20 and wears a burka.  next to her in the window seat a four year old girl sleeps face down on the metallic arm rest.

the boy fusses.  he shouts.  and then after his mother smacks him one, he
wails.
’stop it!’ she screams at him. ‘i’m so sorry, sir,’ to me.
’smacking him just makes it worse.  he’s just a little boy.  give him a break.’
‘why don’t you mind your own business,’ she snaps.
‘i’m just saying, is all.’
and the boy pukes all over the seat in front of him and onto the floor near my bag which is under the seat in front of me.  not chunks, fortunately.  i’m guessing too much juice.  i grab my bag and stand up in the aisle.
‘i am so sorry, sir.’ she says again.
‘it’s ok.  just a little puke.  the sky waiters will help you.’ i say loud enough for them to hear.  i say this because they have been giving this poor young girl annoyed glances ever since the boy started crying which is the second she took him out of my seat.  they reluctantly bring her juice and each time scold her that the child must be unbuckled in the seat.
she protests that it is impossible to keep him in one place and the buckle
restrains him.
‘no maam.  he MUST be on your lap. and he must remain UNBUCKLED.  that is the rule.  it is for you own safety.  beep, beep, beep.  whirrrrrr. bop.’
i am flanked by a tall gay man with a crew cut and a round southern lady with too much make-up.
‘what’s going on here?’ says crew cut and puts his hand on his hip.
’sir, you are going to have to move that bag out of the aisle,’ i hear simultaneously from the other one behind me.
the burka girl is furiously dabbing the floor and the middle seat.
‘it will be ok in a minute,’ i say, but the woman sky waitress grabs my
bag and says,
‘i can just put this in the overhead for you.’
to which i reply,
‘no that’s ok.’ and i pull it away from her bumping into crew cut who’s bent over helping the burka woman.  he smacks his head on the back of the seat and yells too loudly,
‘owwwwww.’
‘cmon. the seat’s padded. that didn’t even hurt,’ i offer.
but he doesn’t hear.  he’s had enough.  he’s going back to the front of the plane to sit down.
’sir you have to move that bag.’
‘what’s the big deal?  we’re at the gate.  we’re not going anywhere.’
‘the BIG DEAL is that bag blocks my easement and is a safety hazard!’
i say,
‘your easement isn’t completely blocked.  if you’re easement was blocked you wouldn’t be able to get by.  and you can.  and i think that’s considered passable easement which is technically easement.’
the puke was cleaned up so with that i put the bag back under the seat in front of me and sat down.

about a half and hour goes by and we are still sitting at the gate so i open the sandwich i brought.  it’s a little messy and there was no napkin in the bag so i get tall, blond and snooty’s attention.  he’s just standing there, but he does nothing to indicate he has seen me so i push the sky waiter button over the seat.
‘bing.’
he lets out a sigh and comes over.
‘what is it sir?’ as he reaches over and turns of the call button.
‘bing.’
‘could i please have a napkin?’
‘you’ll have to give me a second.’
‘well, a second is all it will take.’
pivots. one, two, three, four steps and he’s at his station picking up a handful of napkins.  one, two, three, four steps and he’s back.
‘thanks.  that wasn’t so bad was it?’
’sir. you have to put on your seatbelt.’
‘woops, sorry.’

we finally pull out of the gate and go out to a runway where we park uninformed for another 45 minutes.  so i pull out my phone to text my wife who is picking me up.  i get about half way when the delta burke waitress catches me,
’sir, we are on an active runway.’
‘doesn’t look very active to me.  i think we’re parked.’
‘you have to turn that off now!’ yelling.
‘other people are doing it.  why are you yelling at me?’ and i’m almost finished.  i am a very slow texter.
‘ok. i’m…..turning…..my…..phone……off……………now.’
now an older black woman i have not yet encountered comes over and crouches down in front of me.
‘now sir.  you have not been in compliance.’
‘because i wanted a napkin?  because i didn’t want my bag to get puke all over it??’
’sir, you are raising your voice. compliance is-’
‘well you guys keep hassling me.  you know i’m not drunk.  i haven’t had a single drink.  you know i quit drinking.  it hasn’t been easy and i haven’t been perfect, but i’m not about beating myself up about it, you know?  i haven’t had drink in two months so you can give me a breathalizer right now if you want.’
’sir, we’re not saying that.  we just need to let you know that you need to be in compliance.’
‘yeah, i got that.  you just said compliance like five times.  stop saying compliance.’
’sir - ‘
‘look. is there anything you want me to do right now?’
‘no sir.’
and so i put my headphones on and flipped through the channels using the napkin my friends the sky waiters brought me so i wouldn’t have to touch the channel changer.

TONIGHT
THE DRED SCOTT TRIO
ROCKWOOD MUSIC HALL
MIDNIGHT
BEN RUBIN, BASS
TONY MASON, DRUMS

Dred Scott

I came back from Barbados and found out that 3 of my artists were nominated in the Best New Artist category for  the Soultracks Readers Choice Awards 2008.

Melissa Young

April Hill

Heston

All three reside in Atlanta.  All 3 are friends and all 3 are my clients.   Who do I vote for?
Heston is also nominated in the Best Male Vocalist category too.

The other 2 nominees are Liv Warfield from Portland, OR who I’ve seen perform at SHRINE.  She’s just fabulous!!!!  and Algebra!

The Awards ceremony will be held on Friday, October 3rd at Detroit’s beautiful Max M.Fisher Music Center(the home of the Detroit Symphony).
The event is being produced along with Mosaicthump and Jodine’s Corner and this year’s awards will also be a charity benefit for Cornerstone Schools, a group of 4 schools in Detroit that are among the most successful and innovative urban schools in the nation.  100% of the profits from the Awards show will be donated to the music program at Cornerstone, where every student begins music training in the 3rd grade.

After the Awards show at “The Max,” we will be holding a private, invitation-only “after-party” for nominees and other visiting artists and industry people at the Detroit Music Hall’s Jazz Cafe. And on Saturday, October 4, we will be holding a Detroit Tribute concert at the fantastic Museum of African American History with many visiting artists performing Motown and other songs from Detroit’s rich soul heritage.  We’re  also planning another event during the day on Saturday.  For more information, visit Soultracks.

Voting for the Winners:

Now for the process:  There are 5 finalist nominees in each of the following categories:  Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Male Vocalist, Female Vocalist, Duo or Group and Best New Artist. You can see the full list of nominees beginning tonight at Soultracks.   They will also be awarding a Lifetime Achievement Award at the ceremony to The Dramatics, one of the greatest soul vocal groups of the last 40 years.

Beginning on August 11 and continuing until August 25, they will  have an online voting process whereby the readers will choose the winner in each category from the five finalists. For voting security reasons, only subscribers to the SoulTracks email newsletters will be eligible to vote.  Ballots will be sent via secure email to our subscribers.  If you have fans or friends who would like to vote, please have them sign up for the SoulTracks newsletter. A sign up box is on the top left corner of each page at Soultracks.   They  will continue to accept new subscribers (and will send out additional ballots to new subscribers) all during the voting period.

The final voting results will be tabulated by Plante and Moran, one of the nation’s largest and most prestigious accounting and professional service firms.  The winner in each category will be announced at the October 3rd show.

I am so happy to be re-connected with this fabulous women.  Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna.

I knew her back in the early days when we were young and dumb(haha)- when Carrie was over at Billboard.

She was the Rock correspondent.   I always admired Carrie– looked to her as the cool Rock Chick going places.  Then she branched out- spread her wings and went over to Allstar which has long gone but was quite the buzz website back in the late 90’s…After this she did some TV reporting and a lot of freelance work and wrote a couple books….Well, speaking of….Her latest project is  ‘CHERRY BOMB’.   It’s out on Simon and Schuster’s Spot Light Entertainment on August 5th.   It’s an A-Z on how to live life like a Rock Star without having to be one.  A very cute, fun and entertaining book with all the tricks, secrets and highlights on everything a girl could possibly know in fashion, rock star cool and everything else in the game…

Carrie reached out to me via Facebook.  That’s how we re-acquainted and got re-connected and she said- hey I want to throw a party for the book- would you be down to put it together - and I said - -Hell yes!
So here we are…..It’s all come together quite nicely.

NY Book Release -  1 night only.

Tuesday, August 19th-   BEAUTY BAR

7:00-10PM-    Complimentary EFFEN Vodka from 7:00-8:00PM

Music by  DJ CAT NYC

Photography by - Mel D. Cole - Village Slum

The fabulous Alternative Press is presenting the night with me…

We’re also doing some amazing giftbags.  100 of them for the first 75 in the door and the first 25 to buy a book.

Special thanks to our amazing gift sponsors:
Touchd, Pleasure Chest, Burning Angel, Urban Decay, Zildjian, Capitol Records, and Emergen-C…

See you all on August 19th.

Oh- did I tell you– Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna will be on hand to autograph your Cherry Bomb and mix and mingle.

Here’s as always - a banter/rant from Dred Scott- the phenomenal jazz pianist.

11am - arrive at screen test for reality show involving the kid’s band i play in.  the idea is wife swap except it’s lead singer swap.  i tell them an imaginary story about trying to get the lead singer from deicide to cover the upside down cross tatoo on his forehead with a baseball cap so the parents at the art museum gig we are about to do don’t freak out.  he wants to start with deicide’s big hit, ‘kill the christians,’ but i suggest ‘a day at the beach’ or ‘dad’s new car.’

2pm - drop off the drums at the movie shoot the trio is doing with linda fiorentino and chazz palmentieri.  there is nowhere to set up the drums so we put them in the kitchen and go for lunch.

4:30pm - finish a fantastic lunch at Lupa where i start drinking.  punt e mes at first.  then a couple of chilled shots of vodka.

5pm - meet up with the bass player at milady’s in soho.  play some pool.  drink some beers.  bass player has weed so we smoke on the way back to
shoot.

6:30pm - check in at shoot.  not sure when they will be ready for us.
don’t go too far.

6:45pm - some bar in western soho.  more drinks.  i try to call the cocaine dude i know but he won’t deliver just one line, so i forget about that idea.  the bass player suggests we slow down a little but we ignore him.

8pm - lunch and the set is now closed down for an hour.  i try to eat some vegetables and some not too bad tasting foil wrapped fish.

9:30pm - definitely can’t drink anymore and the drummer has gone missing.
i have a splitting headache and try to find some advil.  i can’t really account for the next couple of hours.

11pm - we get dressed in a stifling gymnasium.  my shirt is completely pit-stained by the time i walk the two blocks from holding over to the set.

Midnight -  we shoot our scene a few times.  i find out for the first time that there will be a close up of my hands playing the solo i played three days ago.  i get to listen to it three or four times.  while waiting for a reset i ask ms. fiorentino how it was working with vincent d’onofrio in men in black.  she confirms my suspicions that he is a lunatic.  i mean, what is that shit he is doing in law and order?  it’s like the dude went to the walken school of punctuation removal.

2am - after talking to the fourth p.a. i finally find out i can’t get 20 bucks to get home in a cab because they need the receipt, so i go over to varick and wake up a livery cab driver asleep in his front seat and ask him for a receipt which i produce to somebody who pulls out his wallet and hands me a twenty.

on the way home i’m thinking about poor heath ledger. it’s just not easy being in films.  lots of waiting, repetition.  it’s kind of boring for the actors. you don’t really get a sense of the kind of job you’ve done until it’s long over.  it’s easy to get distracted and go down a wrong path.  maybe i’ll just stick to music.  that acting shit is hard work.

TONIGHT
THE DRED SCOTT TRIO
ROCKWOOD MUSIC HALL
MIDNIGHT
W/ BEN RUBIN, BASS
TONY MASON, DRUMS

also tonight…
sasha dobson 9pm
michael daves 10pm
leah siegel 11pm

what a great lineup. i wish i could see some of it.  but i’ll be attending back to back aa meetings as penance for my lost day.

also this week
WEDNESDAY
THE DRED SCOTT TRIO
JULES BISTRO (65 st. mark’s place)
8:30-11pm
ben and tony…can you do this??

SATURDAY
THE DRED SCOTT TRIO
BLUE NOTE
12:30am
w/ ben and tony

and don’t forget
AUGUST 9
NEWPORT JAZZ FESTIVAL
THE DRED SCOTT TRIO
w/ ben and tony

special thanks to ourstage.com

for helping us get this gig.

and check out thebloomeffect.com, your one stop for artists, labels and lifestyle marketers.  check out fiona’s blog, too.

dredscott.com
myspace.com/dred666

ben rubin

So Elida has the craziest posts I think it’s safe to say….   It only re-affirms how massive of a presence she must have on stage in Dirty Fuzz.

At first I thought- should I?  But then….I realize we all go through these processes and journey’s and questions in life and how many times are we looking in the mirror?

HELL KNOWS US ALL….. AND MUSIC SAVES OUR SOUL!

Hell crawls through the window
Without a sound, enters my bedroom
Takes off his hat, makes himself at home, sitting down on the couch across from me
I blast some AC DC, and  then a Michael Jackson tune
I take off my clothes and dance naked in my room
I see myself in the mirror
I laugh
‘Crazy girl!’ i say
When i look up again, the son-of –a-bitch is gone—–
Off looking for you my friend?
! MUSIC……..