Category Archives: All Interviews

Critically acclaimed French producer and DJ, Wax Tailor has released ‘Fishing For Accidents’ via his own label LAB’ORATOIRE. The album explores cinematic landscapes by sampling a world of vinyl, exploring with his sampler a world of vinyl and cinematographic references. A multi-recidivist talent scout he gathers a prestigious cast of talent from folks in the HipHop world like Mick Jenkins, Mr. Lif, Kuf Knotz, Mattic, and from the indie rock scene (Jennifer Charles, singer of the legendary band Elysian Fields and Victoria Bigelow). With one eye on the past and the other on the horizon Wax Tailor has made an album with one foot in the past and one foot in the present, the result is a unique and beautiful dance. Wax Tailor instills the incandescence of an organic sound and distills his art of sound anachronism in a wide gap between nostalgia and modernity that has made him one of the leaders of the international electro hip hop scene for over twenty years. Going to a live event where you are automatically taken from where you stand and are brought to a new space and place without moving…that’s the experience of a Wax Tailor shared in the moments together time brings.

I had the opportunity to catch back up with family to the program, J.C. (Wax Tailor) ahead of his March 24th performance at the Majestic in Madison. We reel in what the performance could be like for those in the there of the moment. We spend a good amount of time discussing the shaping of the new record “Fishing For Accidents” that he is out in support of. Once aGain, this is another artist that I find to be able to really find the perfect fits when it comes to collaborations or pairing…we get into how that sometimes goes about, and a few examples of other recent artists that have been examples of relationships that have worked out, including Mr. Lif and Kuf Knotz and Christine Elise. All I now is there is no accident with how this music fits together and certainly how I feel lie a different person after a live hang with Wax Tailor.

David Libert had such a long & interesting career in the music business, his friends encouraged him to write a book about it and so he did. The result is an autobiography 50-plus years in the making titled Rock and Roll Warrior, recently released on Sunset Blvd Books. It’s a chronicle of David’s inner circle life in the music industry as a popular international performer, singer/songwriter, tour manager, booking agent, producer, and drug dealer on the Sunset Strip. It’s a story so wild, so crazy, so over-the-top that it can only be true. You can’t make this stuff up! This book is a riotous, humorous, intimate, provocative story of Mr. Libert’s life in music. From his tenure as co-lead singer of 60s pop hitmakers, The Happenings, to his role as tour manager for Alice Cooper’s most legendary 70s tours, to managing funk/R&B legend George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic to…yes, there’s more even. Hailing from Paterson, New Jersey, he co-founded The Happenings w/3 high school pals shortly after graduation. The Happenings went on to have several hit records including “See You in September” and “I Got Rhythm.” Those 2 tunes were on the Billboard Hot 100 charts for 14 weeks in 1966 and 13 weeks in 1967, respectively, and both songs peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 charts at #3. Sales for both exceeded one million copies, resulting in R.I.A.A. gold record awards by 1969. David left the group to become a booking agent and eventually a tour manager. After a brief stint as road manager for Rare Earth, he became tour manager for Alice Cooper during Alice’s most formidable years (1971–1975). David figured prominently in Bob Greene’s book about accompanying Cooper’s band on 1973’s Billion Dollar Babies tour. He remains friendly with Alice to this day. In 1975, Libert migrated from New York to Los Angeles and in 1976, opened the David Libert Management Agency which represented George Clinton, Parliament/Funkadelic, Bootsy’s Rubber Band and The Runaways (Cherie Currie, Joan Jett, Lita Ford). In the early 80s, he met Prince through Sheila E, who was one of his management clients at the time. Sheila E opened for Prince on the legendary Purple Rain tour and he spent a lot of time hanging with Prince, many times assisting with his shows. In the late 90s, Libert formed Available Entertainment with entertainment attorney Alan Oken. Mr. Libert has promoted many concerts throughout his career including sold out shows at Madison Square Garden in New York (George Clinton) and the Cricket Wireless Amphitheater in Kansas City (Kool and the Gang). After some personal happenings that took some time to handle – these too are in the book, he regrouped and made a successful return to the music industry as a manager, working with acts including Living Colour and Vanilla Fudge, who were respectful of his knowledge and skills and were happy to work with him. These days, soon to be 80 years young, David is enjoying a much more relaxed and less hectic life. He lives in Southern California and is a devoted animal rights activist, helping to find homes for animals that desperately need one. There’s talk about the book being made into a feature length film as well, which excites David to no end.

I had the joy of discussing the man behind the Rock And Roll Warrior himself, Mr. Liebert to get a little more insight into the tales, the people and the journey. We learn the about the beGinning of a rock and roll life and how it ld up to so many just jaw-dropping experiences. I looked over David’s extensive résumé and had to get a sense of how he was able to fit in with the variety of people and artists and worked with, or formed relationships with. The answer while I suppose is not shocking, it is interesting how much translates from one artist to the other as far as logistics and that stuff, but it’s the knowing when and knowing when not to and the being yourself that got me. We compare/contrast times with Alice Cooper versus the Funkadelic Mothership and there is some very intriguing insight into the man we know as Prince. This guy lived aspects of a life many people have wished upon, dreamt about or cringed towards and lived to tell about it, remarkably. In this book, David shares unvarnished, no-holds-barred, stories of his life in the rock ‘n roll fast lane on the road, backstage, on private jets & inside notorious after-show parties with music legends in the era of free-spirit, hard driving rock ‘n’ roll & R&B. It’s life on the road in technicolor. A roller coaster ride peek behind the curtain at the good, the bad and even yes, the ugly in the music biz of years gone by.

As they enter a new cycle, Bear Witness & Tim “2oolman” Hill of A Tribe Called Red are reintroducing themselves as The Halluci Nation, to reflect the evolution of their music & mission. The Halluci Nation, takes its name from a phrase coined by John Trudell, to describe the vast global community of people who remember at their core what it means to be human. As a visionary artist & activist, Trudell recognized the connection between his accomplishments and what ATCR did intuitively through music & art. Trudell’s voice was the first heard scattered throughout the music. The Halluci Nation’s future revolves around collaboration. From hip-hop star, Yasiin Bey (AKA Mos Def), to the Indigenous Australian band, OKA, to the Wayuu-Colombian powerhouse, Lido Pimienta, the group has always sought out artists from around the world who would join the Halluci Nation family to form a like minded community as well as an international indigenous alliance. The Halluci Nation maintains focus on what they feel they can impact most: how Indigenous people are seen. Through groundbreaking stage shows & ever-changing visuals, Bear Witness & 2oolman are constantly working to create media that reflects today’s Indigenous identity. They see themselves simply as contributors to a necessary conversation around a subtle and complex representation of the contemporary Indigenous experience.

I am proud to say I had the chance to catch up with Tim “2oolman” Hill (Mohawk, of the Six Nations of the Grand River) and Bear Witness (of the Cayuga First Nation) ahead of the December 13th event at the High Noon Saloon. We get into what someone who may not quite know what they should prepare for will be preparing for. The collaborative spirt of The Halluci Nation is what always drives my ears and mind [and a good body shake] to the music, and the scene so we get into some of the going’s on and going downs when working with artists. The relationships, the family style and the understanding of where each other is coming from unites the people and the sounds as they’re being created. I found it real cool to hear how what they are doing with the music and the culture took on a responsibility – and just how that all clicked in and how they pay homage to those who came before and lend a hand to those on their way. Oh yeah, there’s also a set list built by 2oolman & Bear.

Photo by Jon Riera

The Sun Ra Arkestra is a sonic explosions recreating itself with each note and was formed in the mid-1950s and led by keyboardist/composer Sun Ra until his death in 1993. They are certainly considered a pioneer of afrofuturism. The Arkestra is still led by saxophonist Marshall Allen, an member since 1958. To this day, the outer shell of the travelers on stage are still draped in their cosmic entrance gear, expelling from the ever-evolving swirl. In jazz, unity could emerge — even as individual notes seemed in disarray and rhythms seemed uncountable. Jazz demanded discipline and precision, but also an open mind. “A lot of things that some men do… come from somewhere else,” Sun Ra said, “or they’re inspired by something that’s not of this planet. And jazz was most definitely inspired, because it wasn’t here before.” Jazz was the road to a mystical experience, a sort of reasoned ecstasy. It was the music of elsewhere. Sun Ra called his band the Arkestra, though it went far beyond the limits of a band. The Arkestra was Sun Ra’s grand Gesamtkunstwerk, a total work that crossed the boundaries of art and life for Sun Ra and his musicians. Arkestra performances were music, theatre, dance, philosophy. They combined the ancient and the radical future, African rhythms played with fists and synthesizers played with the elbows. Arkestra musicians followed Sun Ra’s style, wearing Egyptian headdresses and African robes and Mardi Gras beads. Onstage, they laughed and danced and walked arm in arm. Sun Ra wanted to show his audiences an expression of pure possibility. And yet the Arkestra was more for the musicians than the audience. Musicians lived together (for a long while in a building Sun Ra bought on Morton Street, in the Germantown area of Philadelphia) worked together, thought together. When they weren’t onstage, they were rehearsing. They played music in place of social activities, in place of sleep. The Arkestra breathed music together, abandoned themselves to it, like one single enlightened organism with Sun Ra as their guide. Sun Ra’s compositions were famously difficult, even for the most talented instrumentalists. Arkestra musicians tell stories of being baffled sometimes for months before they could hear music in the written notes. The intervals were mad, impossible. Sun Ra was patient though, often choosing musicians who were more intuitive than knowledgeable, who could be developed (intuitive people had more space in their minds). One could imagine the Morton Street building like a monastery, and Arkestra rehearsals akin to liturgical chant, with Arkestra players embodying the music through repetition until playing was an ecstatic experience. For this experience of both the past and the future, breathing and being altered in the now, we find Marshall Allen continuing to be a director from which it came – within the spiraling sound landings of The Sun Ra Arkestra.

I had the honor of checking in with Mr. Marshall Allen ahead of CODAFEST 2022 – A Celebration of Creative and Cultural Music’. Highlighting this 5-day event will be the legendary Sun Ra Arkestra, led by the 98-year-old saxophonist and protégé of the late/great Sun Ra. This event will be on November 19th at Cafe Coda. We discussed how the moment, any moment is about the vibration of that day, that moment, that time. This translated into how the group will be proceeding into the spiral while here in Madison, avoiding the square and adding the feeling of the audience to the building blocks of notes to be. This little conversation reminds me to always listen in to what those who’ve been to and from – and how/why there is the reason what the Arkestra did/does resonates within me. Its the moments within each. Take a moment. Make a moment

FLY MAGIC is saxophonist-composer, bandleader & scholar Timo Vollbrecht’s longstanding signature ensemble. A genre-exploding unit with a bold sense of creativity & intent. After 2 acclaimed records and performances in over 30 countries, their 3rd album, Givers & Takers, marks a new chapter: It conjures acoustic delicateness with otherworldly electronic soundscapes of orchestral width. Recorded in the studio while on a 12-date-tour, it captures the unique chemistry the 4 musicians developed on the road while using the stage as their laboratory. It is out now on BERTHOLD Records. Originally from Germany and based out of New York, Timo is a celebrated creative force on the Brooklyn music scene who fuses jazz with post-rock, electronics & instrumental songwriting. Described as a “luminously-fine bandleader” by the NYC Jazz Record, he has performed at landmark stages like the Village Vanguard. He is also the new Director of Jazz Studies at Brown University. Together with Keisuke Matsuno (guitar), Elias Stemeseder (piano & synthesizers) & Dayeon Seok (drums), he formed a band with no bassist. Instead, Stemeseder – who just led his residency at John Zorn’s iconic Stone venue – plays synth-bass while his other hand operates other keys. Thematically, Givers & Takers refers to Timo’s underlying sense of community through music. The album emerges from this place of human interactivity. It features four musically synergetic friends of diverse backgrounds entering into an improvisational dialog marked by mutual trust. Giving & Taking is a natural part of this process. The fact that Givers & Takers is also the name of their favorite bar in Brooklyn underpins the importance that Timo and his bandmates assign to the gathering. With Givers & Takers, Timo is presenting his vision of a band that is truly original, avoids easy categorization, and blends acoustic and electronic sounds enveloped in intricate song forms.

I had the pleasure of getting toGether with Timo to dive into the creation of this project. We got into how one records this open music without a bassist, how working this music out live during a tour assisted in the heart of the music and how this is really friends making music, and how THAT is part of the entire process of seeing the initial vision through. We talk about the diversity of the individuals making the music and how that fits into the music itself with the live spirit of an audience helping to wrap this into its final building. Once again, this kind of music that encourages spaces for created improvisation and the ‘I Don’t Know’ also does the same for a listener in my opinion. Timo tells me what he would drink at the bar with these friends as well as building a setlist choosing two tracks off the new album. FLY MAGIC does just that for me.