"REWIND!
VOL.2"
Rewind:
Original classics, re-worked, remixed, re-edited and rewound!
This is the second in the Ubiquity Rewind compilation series.
The concept is simple – producers and singers from as far
away as London, Bari, Tokyo, San Francisco, and Detroit bring
old school classics, famous songs, and underground rare groove
gems bang up-to-date.
Volume One was released in Spring 2002. We had no idea how it
would do, but the concept caught on and instead of selling a few
thousand as expected, we sold in the tens of thousands. For volume
II we raised the bar to include 5 exclusive tracks alongside 10
handpicked from our favorite artists/labels around the world.
Gathered here are songs by artists like John Coltrane,
Bill Withers, Curtis Mayfield, The Temptations, and even
Chrissie Hyndes and Sting! Spanning
eras and genres the Rewind series is based on classic tunes that
live on, inspire and have been given a 2003 twist in the best
possible taste.
Roy Davis Jr, Yesterdays New Quintet, Herbert, Greyboy,
Joseph Malik, Nicola Conte and others connect the old
school with the new and show that despite the splintering of electronic
music into countless sub-genres we all love those golden oldies!
The Platinum Pied Pipers is a new project headed
by Slum Village co-producer and founding member
Waajeed. Having worked with Slum Village and
on Jay Dee’s “Welcome To Detroit”
(BBE) album, producer Waajeed steps out solo with two super soulful
jams on Rewind II. Covering the Faze-O and Bobby Caldwell classics
“Ridin’ High” and “Open Your Eyes”
respectively. Waajeed makes lazy fat beats and leaves room for
the amazing vocal talents of Detroit vocalist Elleuud. Already
released as a Ubiquity single “Ridin’ High”
caused a stir with DJs worldwide, getting airplay everywhere from
BBC Radio 1X in England to KCRW in Los Angeles. Check Waajeed
out at www.bling 47.com.
Ubiquity artist Greyboy takes a soulful step
in the right direction covering the Syreeta and Stevie
Wonder collaboration “To Know You Is To Love You”.
Syreeta and Stevie met in 1968 and were married in 1970 for 18
months before splitting-up. Somehow their split didn’t prevent
them from working together and the Motown duo came up with classics
like this one along with “Signed Sealed, Delivered (I’m
Yours)” and “Your Kiss is Sweet”. For vocals
Greyboy brings in Bart Davenport (Fortune Records), from Oakland,
CA whose work over the past decade has included playing with The
Loved Ones and the Kinetics (as well as a stint playing bass guitar
for Persephone's Bees). Watch out for more Davenport and Greyboy
collaborations on the upcoming Greyboy album.
Joseph Malik’s “Diverse” album
(on Compost Records) is a stunning mix of folk, soul, and jazz.
Picking a tune from “Still Bill”, the 1972 album that
featured classics “Lean on Me” and “Use Me”
Scotsman Malik joins Joe Cocker, Isaac Hayes, Club Nouveau and
even Kiss in the list of artists to cover Bill Withers timeless
music.
On the recently formed Swedish–based Raw Fusion label Povo
Povo pay tribute trumpeter Art Farmer.
Farmer appeared on both Prestige and Blue Note, and his tune “Mau
Mau” was originally recorded in the mid-fifties, produced
by Quincy Jones and Gigi Gryce for “The
Art Farmer Septet” album. Povo (which means "people"
in Portuguese) Povo is a collaboration between 2 Danes, DJ and
record collector Wunderbaum and jazz musician Lars Vissing. Giving
the tune their own spin they also flipped the title to become
“Uam Uam”.
Karin Krogs “The Meaning of Love”
is from the recently re-issued “Raindrops Raindrops”
album. Re-issuing label Crippled Dick Hotwax gave the parts to
Krog’s original tune (which includes playing by master jazz
musicians John Surman, Dexter Gordon and Steve Kuhn) to the ultra-talented
Matthew Herbert (aka Bjork-collaborating producer who records
as Wishmountain, Radioboy, Dr. Rockit or Herbert). Krogs mad vocal
jazz soundscapes provide a perfect vehicle for Herberts cut n’paste
collage editing style. Karin Krog recently appeared as a guest
on Bobby Hughes album for Stereo Deluxe.
When composer and conductor Kurt Weill wrote
“Speak Low” in 1943 it’s highly
unlikely he thought that 60 years later Londoners would be making
future jazz versions of his Broadway hit. Big Bang is Simone Seritella
(also one half of Ubiquity act "Cuica"). His solo debut
album features collaborations with IG Culture, Hajime Yoshizawa,
Jessica Lauren, and Earl Zinger. But it’s previously undiscovered
gospel singer Alexander who works his magic on this version of
“Speak Low”.
Legendary house music producer Roy Davis Jr is
collaborating with upcoming stars and classic musicians, vocalists
and MCs from Detroit and Chicago on a Ubiquity project called
“Roy Davis Jr Presents D-Chi”. Expect collaborations
to yield both hip hop and house music. Here Roy sings on his own
uplifting down tempo version of a Curtis Mayfield track, one of
Roy’s all-time favorite musicians, and as Chicago as you
can get!
Stones Throw producer-extraordinaire Madlib delivers
an exclusive Yesterdays New Quintet version of
Weldon Irvine’s "Deja Vu". The
original version was once re-issued on our Luv N'Haight label,
and Irvine sadly passed-away in 2002. Legendary soul-jazzster
Irvine had recently worked with the likes of Mos Def and heard
this version giving Madlib his approval. Watch for an upcoming
full Madlib “Tribute to Weldon Suite” on Stones Throw
records.
Superbacana is a Bay Area project pushing a mix
of live musicianship and club beats with a Brazilian lilt. A demo
version of the Brazilian standard “Reza” (originally
written by Edu Lobo and Ruy Guerra) was delivered by way of the
Groove Merchant record store. Fantastic timing meant they made
the cut for the compilation and since then the band have played
numerous live gigs around San Francisco developing future carnival
stylings. A new demo cd is apparently in production, hold tight
for more Superbacana!
Rosalia De Souza was born in Rio de Janeiro in
the Nilopolis district famous for its samba Beija-Flor. In 1989
she arrived in Italy eventually hooking-up with artists like Quintetto
X, Les Hommes and, as on this track, DJ and Italian-bossa nova
supremo Nicola Conte. This version of the Roberto Menescal tune
was taken from an excellent 3-track vinyl sampler on the Italian
Schema label. John Beltran released the “Sun Gypsy”
album on Ubiquity in the Fall of 2002. He surprised fans of his
previous ambient and techno releases with club music bathed in
Latin and Brazilian influences. Even more surprising to many was
his appreciation of pop-icon Sting. Teaming up with vocalist and
Substance label-boss Greg Chin he knocks out a drum and bossa
cover of “Fragile” originally found on Sting’s
1987 album “Nothing Like The Sun”.
Released by Gavin Mills under the name Red
Or Dead on Fruitbeard Records in 1998 this is a little-known
version of the Chrissie Hyndes classic “Private Life,”
more famously covered by Grace Jones. Mills liked the timeless
original but wanted to do it with a breakbeat flavor. He found
Danish-born singer Maria Simonson busking in Vauxhall tube station,
London and the collaboration took shape. Amalgamation of Soundz
producer Jean Claude Thomson was a big fan of the track and apparently
still regularly tells Gavin it should have been a big hit. At
the time JC was working at Release the Groove records store in
Soho and personally sold over 200 copies.
Want a magical musical combo? Try Terry Callier,
produced by Jean-Paul Maunick of Incognito covering
a classic soul tune by the Temptations, phew!
“Just My Imagination” is from the “Speak Your
Peace” album released on Mr. Bongo records in 2002. Norman
Whitfield and Barrett Strong originally wrote "Just My Imagination"
as a showcase for the Eddie Kendricks, one of the three lead singers
in the Temptations. Appearing on the “Sky's the Limit”,
it was released as a 7” single in February 1971, peaking
at number one in April, spending fifteen weeks on the charts.
During that period, it sold in excess of two million copies.
Gonzalez Suzuki and his Soul Bossa Trio are no strangers to Ubiquity.
We released a compilation of their first two albums in the early
days of our Cubop label. Their latest work is an album called
“Dolphins” available on Tokuma in Japan, and Irma
records everywhere else. The album features several cover versions,
but a chilled-out adaptation of John Coltrane’s
“Naima” is our favorite.
To read interviews with Greyboy, Superbacana and The Platinum
Pied Pipers about the tracks they covered for Rewind
II click here.
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