February 2012
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WatchAt long last, I’ve released my most recent project: a live mixtape paying tribute to the late great producer, James Yancey, AKA J Dilla. I played all the instruments as entire live takes without punch-ins, and I had a blast tackling the challenge of recreating some of my favorite Dilla compositions without using any samples. Listen, enjoy, download, and pass it along!
RIP DILLA
...
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January 2012
3 posts
December 2011
5 posts
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The Table. (Or, "Where My Ladies At?")
This is a picture of my dinner table. When I first moved into my apartment, I felt like I needed to give myself an official housewarming gift, so I spent my first week there creating a decoupage (don’t hate on the craftiness) of album artwork and photos of some of my favorite musicians. My brother and his wife had done a similar project in their apartment, so I decided to borrow their idea...
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WatchShouts to my boy Wildersee AKA Willie Beemen. Check out his dope beat tape at williebeemen.bandcamp.com.
-BrotherSpanky
November 2011
2 posts
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October 2011
8 posts
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WatchSo I have the pleasure of having been invited to play in a group with some good friends of mine, Columbia Nights. Here’s a snippet of a recent rehearsal.
If you don’t know them, get familiar!
-BrotherSpanky
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Promotion Perils.
This is how I feel sometimes about promoting my own music.
Intentionally, I rarely use the venue of this blog as a soapbox or bully pulpit about my own pet peeves or opinions. I’d like it to remain a place primarily reserved for all things music-related. But I feel like this fits into the category of both.
A little while ago, I had a conversation with a friend about the way that many...
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WatchI’m getting pretty amped about one of my next upcoming projects: a re-release of a one-beat-per-day mixtape I worked on last year. This time, the project will feature some of my favorite artists to work with; gifted singers and rappers who have lent their voices and words to these instrumentals I produced. Stay tuned…
…and if you haven’t heard last year’s project,...
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Attention DMV Residents!!
One of the toughest things about being a gigging musician is booking venues to play. I feel blessed to say that Ramzy & the Brothers Handsome (the soul-funk trio I play drums in, if you didn’t know) has regular gigs during the week. The only thing missing is YOU! Truthfully, nothing makes us happier than seeing people in the crowd, nodding their heads and shaking their thangs....
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So on the day of my surreal Arrested Development...
September 2011
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WatchSo I managed to have a pretty surreal experience a few weekends ago. I found myself on an Amtrak train,
headed to downtown New York City,
on the weekend of September 11, 2011,
to go to Ground Zero,
to play an Interdependence Day Conference concert,
with Speech from Arrested Development.
Somehow, the connections of my partner in crime Ramzy (of Ramzy and the Brothers Handsome) led to us being...
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WatchSo a while back I posted some chord changes I had been working on. Here is their reiteration with fuller instrumentation. This video was recorded and edited over the course of a day at The Upper Room Studios (aka my apartment.)
This is basically a peek into my creative/recording process, since this is essentially how I record all my live arrangements. Enjoy.
-BrotherSpanky
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WatchIf you didn’t know, I play with Ramzy & the Brothers Handsome every last Thursday at the Wonderland Ballroom in DC. Shoutout to Wildersee for the dope promo footage.
-BrotherSpanky
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Watchcolumbianights:
Another groove-in-progress.
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For Troy.
I wrote this 2 hours after the execution of Troy Davis on September 21st, 2011.
if suffering is only in our minds
then where is the compassion
for misery and agony?
the empathy for those beyond the lines
invisible as magic
belittled as a tragedy
we often find
the awful scene
a lawful crime
a wrongful dream
an open hand
a broken mind
dismissed without a sigh
i hope we all can...
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August 2011
15 posts
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Simple Things.
I know it’s a pretty tired and clichéd adage, but maybe with my old age, I’ve begun to enjoy the simpler things in life: good food, a nice drink, old records, and the like.
Case in point: After a tough morning recently that included a flat tire on my bike, I stopped by RadioShack and picked up some cheap replacement noise-reducing earphones, like the ones I had lost a while back,...
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FTR: First Listen #7.
Crate #: 2 (jazz & folk records)
Record #: 57 (of 65): Simon & Garfunkel, Bookends (1968)
1. Bookends Theme (Instrumental)
2. Save The Life Of My Child
3. America
4. Overs
5. Voices of Old People
6. Old Friends
7. Bookends Theme
8. Fakin’ It
9. Punky’s Dilemma
10. Mrs. Robinson
11. A Hazy Shade Of Winter
12. At The Zoo
My dad is a Simon & Garfunkel fan, and...
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WatchEver wonder what a remix to an annoying Chris Brown song would sound like if it featured the greatest jazz songstress of all time? Well, wonder no more.
Here’s “Ella Dope,” the sixth installment from my “For The Record” Randomized Sample Project (and, in my opinion, the most difficult so far).
-BrotherSpanky
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FTR: First Listen #6.
Crate #: 2 (jazz & folk records)
Record #: 42 (of 60): Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Gershwin Song Book, Vol. 1 (1959)
1. But Not For Me
2. Fascinatin’ Rhythm
3. They All Laughed
4. The Man I Love
5. Nice Work If You Can Get It
6. Clap Yo’ Hands
7. Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off
8. Love Is Here To Stay
9. I Was Doing All Right
10. He Loves And She Loves
11. Lorelei
12. (I’ve Got)...
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This week, I had a chance to re-watch one of my...
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WatchSo I decided to show a bit of my writing/creative process. I often sit down at the piano to write new pieces, and when I come up with some chord changes that I like, I try to either write them down or record them so that I won’t forget. I came up with these this past week. We’ll see where it goes; stay tuned.
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“Nevertheless, I’m back from my hiatus/Style Wars, Jay the greatest.”
– Jay Electronica
Two weeks off from updating, and not by choice. Let’s get back into the swing of things…
July 2011
16 posts
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The Importance of Being Burnished.
A little while ago, I posted a flyer for the DC <3 Dilla benefit that I was a bit excited to go to. “Live J Dilla tracks? I’m there,” I thought. Perhaps in my mind I had the idea of the concert being reminiscent of sessions like the Roots’ Dilla Joints, which I had on repeat up until the show. I even heard that The Pharcyde would be special guests.
I ended up leaving early (even before...
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WatchHere’s “Black Apples,” the fifth installment from my “For The Record” random sample series. Enjoy.
By the way, all Tribe fans in DC: “Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest” is out this Friday, July 15.
-BrotherSpanky
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Another Listen: "Here, My Dear"
I’m going to officially state for the record that Here, My Dear might be the greatest break-up album of all time.
Music is a powerful thing. I had never listened to this album in the actual aftermath of a breakup until very recently (for those of you unfamiliar with the context of the album, here is your perfunctory late pass). I put this record on the other night and listened to it...
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