Audibly giddy, Michael Franti reports that the recording of his forthcoming All Rebel Rockers found him feeling much like a member of the NBA All-Star team thanks to the backing of reggae’s most fabled rhythm squad, drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare (who produced the album with Franti). “It was a dream come true,” says the veteran musician-activist. Comprising the follow-up to his hailed 2006 disc, Yell Fire!, these sessions mark the first time Franti collaborated with the duo for an entire album. While Franti and Spearhead originally began All Rebel Rockers with Replacements/Faith No More producer Matt Wallace, he returned to the Caribbean in search of Sly and Robbie’s gold-plated groove, which has been applied to records by the likes of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Bob Dylan and Sinead O’Connor. “I wanted that groove and a toughness to the rhythm.”
RECORDING JAMAICAN-STYLE
Working in Jamaica with Jamaican musicians is a different experience than I’ve had anywhere else, because in Jamaica the music is made to be put on a record. You don’t form a band, tour the country and make an album after three or four years of touring.
There, it goes the opposite way: You make a record first, and if the record is good enough—if it rises above the other records put out—you get to go out on the road. They make music to be listened to on a sound system, and not necessarily just to be played live.
After getting its studio feet wet down south on 2006’s self-titled debut, it seems only appropriate that Rose Hill Drive’s follow-up should be cut in the group’s own backyard of Boulder, Colorado. After all, this is where the power trio got in trouble for playing too loud and too drunk at practice in its early days, and it’s where the band’s New Year’s Eve show has become a tradition.
Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey only spent a day recording its most recent studio album, 2005’s cover-heavy Sameness of Difference. So when the Tulsa, OK-based group entered the studio with producer Tae Meyulks, the one thing bassist Reed Mathis and keyboardist Brian Haas knew for sure is that they had no plans to rush its follow-up. Almost a full year and a lineup change later, JFJO is still tweaking its most symphonic and song-oriented recording yet reveling in its ability to redefine its sound 14 years into the game. Below, Mathis and Haas discuss their experimental recording approach, their late-blooming love of The Beatles and why Tulsa is full of weirdoes.
In the basement of its recently renovated Philadelphia studio, the Disco Biscuits are huddled around a computer, blaring hip-hop and working on tracks for a Def Jam mogul (sorry folks, anonymity required). For a band known for its long, improvised blend of trance and fusion, commercial rap seems like an unlikely source of inspiration- let alone work- especially given the band’s recent collaborations with psychedelic DJs like Simon Posford. But after inheriting a recording space from DJ Jazzy Jeff in 2005, the group rented an extra room to famed hip hop producer Dirty Harry, the man responsible for a number of Beanie Siegel’s biggest hits. Quickly finding common ground, the band soon began cranking out backing tracks some for some of Philadelphia’s hip-hop heavyweights.
Since its last studio effort five years ago, Senor Boombox, the Disco Biscuits have picked up a new drummer (Allen Aucoin), issued multiple live albums (including the TranceFusion series), and survived a somewhat unplanned mini-hiatus (loosely between ’03-’05). And now, with the hands-on addition of Harry in the mix, the stage has quite a different setting. Though the results are being kept under lock-and-key until they’re completely ready, they gave us a sneak peek at the process.
Audibly giddy, Michael Franti reports that the recording of his forthcoming All Rebel Rockers found him feeling much like a member of the NBA All-Star team thanks to the backing of reggae’s most fabled rhythm squad, drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare (who produced the album with Franti). “It was a dream come true,” says the veteran musician-activist. Comprising the follow-up to his hailed 2006 disc, Yell Fire!, these sessions mark the first time Franti collaborated with the duo for an entire album. While Franti and Spearhead originally began All Rebel Rockers with Replacements/Faith No More producer Matt Wallace, he returned to the Caribbean in search of Sly and Robbie’s gold-plated groove, which has been applied to records by the likes of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Bob Dylan and Sinead O’Connor. “I wanted that groove and a toughness to the rhythm.”
