Monthly Archives: January 2025

Currently celebrating 30 Years Since Their Groundbreaking Debut, Dah Shinin’, Brooklyn, NY-Iconic duo, Smif-N-Wessun is preparing to release their latest album Infinity, February 21st., 2025. Hailing from Bucktown, a borderless place where otherwise warring Brooklyn neighborhoods find peace, Smif-N-Wessun, aka Tek & General Steele, are recognized and respected worldwide for their lyrical control. The pair first appeared on Black Moon’s debut album Enta Da Stage in 1993. Adding relentless rhymes to tracks “U da Man” & “Black Smif N’ Wessun,” the pair paved the way for the Brooklyn Supergroup Boot Camp Clik. Smif-N-Wessun released their classic debut Dah Shinin’ January 10, 1995 on Nervous Records. The album was noted for its hardcore lyrical content & gritty production, handled by Da Beatminerz production crew and was selected as one of The Source’s 100 Best Rap Albums of all time. Always standing on business, the Brooklyn duo has always stayed true to their roots. Never faltering or curving to conformity Infinity is a testament to their staying power and a gift to their loyal fans. The album will be released on Bucktown USA Entertainment/ Duck Down Music. The first single, “Infinity” was released on January 10th, followed by “Elephant In The Room” both produced by Khrysis, February 7th. A third single, “Medina” featuring Pharoahe Monch produced by SND*TRK, to be released simultaneously on February 21st. Fresh from the triumphant return of a successful domestic & international tour, Smif-N-Wessun’s new album is a cumulative reflection of their life experiences. Executive Produced by college professor & world renowned producer, 9th Wonder and the Soul Council, 9th explains the thought process with the album. “I wanted to make sure that it didn’t sound dated. It sounds like them (Smif-N-Wessun) but it’s also new. They are our generation’s version of Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Donald Byrd.” Illustrious MCs featured on the album include, Buckshot, Pharoahe Monch, Conway the Machine, legendary artists Sean Price & Prodigy, multi-platinum RnB legend, Ralph Tresvant along with rising stars, Sweta and Jalisa. Infinity cements Smif-N-Wessun’s status as creators of nothing but classics. This is their eighth album and the 2nd collaboration with 9th Wonder and the Soul Council. Showcasing buttery beats from Council members, 9th Wonder himself, Khrysis, SND*TRK, Kash, Mu’aath & Nottz, the album delivers a sonic smash that will satisfy everyone from the rap purist to new school connoisseurs. This new album has cemented Smif-N-Wessun’s place in Hip-Hop history as stalwart artists and champions of Hip-Hop culture.

I had the honor of chatting with Tek & Steele like we was hanging out on the front stoop together talking music. We got into the 30th anniversary of Das Shinin’ and how that album got it’s story built, and the fellas of course, mention those who came before and helped them through. We also got into the upcoming event at the Union Theater’s Play Circle in Madison on February 13th and what showgoers can think to expect, especially with this new record, ‘Infinity’ set to drop a little over a week later. We gonna get some teasers! That of course got us into the new album and how these joints came to life, and they got me a couple of tunes ahead of time to share with listeners. From the classic to the this moment music, Smif-n-Wessun are always poised to share their stories in a way that are relatable, image in the mind worthy and got a soul of their own riding on beats to move to.

In 1988 the Orchestra was formed as an outgrowth of its concert series, Classical Jazz, with David Berger conducting. When Wynton Marsalis became artistic director in 1991, he emphasized the history of jazz, particularly Duke Ellington. The first album was Portraits by Ellington (1992), and seven years later the Ellington centennial was honored with the album Live in Swing City: Swingin’ with the Duke (1999). Under the leadership of Marsalis, the band performs at its home The House of Swing, tours throughout the U.S. and abroad, visits schools, appears on television, and performs with symphony orchestras. The Orchestra backed Wynton Marsalis on his album Blood on the Fields, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1997. Since 2015, the Orchestra’s albums have been issued on its own label, Blue Engine Records. The first release from Blue Engine Records, Live in Cuba, was recorded on a historic 2010 trip to Havana by the JLCO and released in October 2015. The label issued Big Band Holidays in December 2015, The Abyssinian Mass in March 2016, The Music of John Lewis in March 2017, and the JLCO’s Handful of Keys in September 2017. Blue Engine’s United We Swing: Best of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Galas features the Wynton Marsalis Septet and an array of special guests, with all proceeds going toward Jazz at Lincoln Center’s ever important education initiatives. One of Blue Engine’s most recent album releases (2023) include Wynton Marsalis Plays Louis Armstrong’s Hot Fives and Sevens and The Jungle, a recording of Marsalis’ fourth symphony featuring the JLCO and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and they dropped another at the end of 2024, ‘The Shanghai Suite’. Always swinGin’!

Wynton Marsalis is an internationally acclaimed musician, composer, bandleader, educator and a leading advocate of American culture. He is the world’s first jazz artist to perform and compose across the full jazz spectrum from its New Orleans roots to bebop to modern jazz. By creating and performing an expansive range of brilliant new music for quartets to big bands, chamber music ensembles to symphony orchestras, tap dance to ballet, Wynton has expanded the vocabulary for jazz and created a vital body of work that places him among the world’s finest musicians and composers. Here in Madison on January 29th, at the Overture Center, we will get to experience the world’s premier big band, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra directed by Wynton Marsalis. Marsalis, has been hailed as the “Pied Piper” & “Doctor of Swing”. The group performs a vast repertoire of music, from historic and rare compositions, including works by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams & Charles Mingus, to new music from the group’s unrivalled collection of world-renowned composers and arrangers. I had the honor of catching up with Maestro Marsalis ahead of the event in Madison and we get going by talking about what a youngster joining the experience for the first time may want to check out and try to focus on. Us young at heart can follow along with this advice as well. We dive into the latest release on Blue Engine Records, ‘The Shanghai Suite’, and how it grew it’s wings. I was personally interested in a couple of other things. Just how did his time with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers show him how to become himself and what is a day off like for Wynton Marsalis, someone who’s list of deeply cool and important accolades is so long and impressive, I just wonder how he chills out. You probably won’t be surprised by his answer. This time with Maestro Marsalis felt good to be a part of, he was welcoming and open….HUMAN…like the music.