Peace (Ornette Coleman). Howard Wiley, David Ewell and Darrell Green.
So the second track is by Juan Tizol, but the next is by Ornette, so it's ok. Howard assembled a wonderful band and played one of these shows that makes just feel good for a couple of days. Always stay for the second set.
Perdido (Juan Tizol). Howard Wiley - tenor saxophone, Mitch Butler - trombone, David Ewell - bass, Darrell Green - drums.
One of my favorite ballads from Meklit's 2014 album "We Are Alive" out on Six Degrees Records. We shot this on a late evening in March, shortly before the album came out, at Todd Brown's Studio Teobi in Hunters Point, San Francisco.
I've always had a hard time describing the music of Mercury Falls. The labels prog rock, ambient jazz, and fusion all fit, but I generally don't like music that falls in those categories. This band I've loved ever since Patrick gave me a copy of the yet unreleased master of Quadrangle, Mercury Fall's debut album that we put out on Porto Franco Records in 2010. Due to their bicoastalism, it wasn't until February 2014 that I finally pinned MF down at their practice studio in Oakland and got some music on proverbial film (film was digital, but I'm pretty happy with how silvery the end result turned out). Since recording Quadrangle, Roger Riedlbauer and Sam Bevan (who will soon be featured in a duet video with Meklit) filled the respective musical shoes of Ryan Francesconi and Eric Perney. Watch out for the intricately woven textures of Tim Bulkley's drum work and the looped alto saxophone harmonies. This song gets pretty big in no small part thanks to Myles Boisen, who managed to get my recording to sound far better than I ever would.
Composition by Patrick Cress and Ryan Francesconi
Patrick Cress: alto sax + pedals
Roger Riedlbauer: guitar
Sam Bevan: bass
Tim Bulkley: drums
Mixed by Myles Boisen
In the last four years Meklit released three eclectic albums on Porto Franco Records: a jazz rooted singer-songwriter debut On a Day Like This..., an album of rock cover duets with Oakland-based singer Quinn DeVeaux, Meklit & Quinn, and an Ethiopian sci-fi hip hop space opera Earthbound as member of the trio CopperWire. Her second album We Are Alive is out this month on Six Degrees Records. In the past few weeks I got a chance to document two rehearsals, this video is the first of these documents. The others will follow soon.
Meklit's San Francisco CD release show is on April 2nd at The Great American Music Hall. More information and tickets are here.
