This year has been a year of expansion & experimentation for me (DJ Ripley), from the chance to play Lincoln Center with Ushka, Dutty Artz/Kafundo collaborators Buraka Plays Som and Charanjit Singh, to my new gig as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Business at NYU. I’ve also been branching out creatively, with new collaborations in the works in production/remixing (more on that forthcoming), and this week, a new live performance experience – I will be performing a live DJ set with amazing drummer/percussionist/beatmaker Ravish Momin. He is an esteemed jazz drummer and Indian percussionist who has toured across the world alongside many free jazz greats as well as with multiple iterations of his own band, Tarana.
We hope this will be different from other live drums/DJ sets out there – we are interested in layers and textures, as well as rhythms, and also in not having live drums replicate or imitate programmed beats -we want to push the differences as well as the similarities of sound. Ravish also incorporates Ableton and midi triggers into his drum kit, processing his own sounds on the fly, so there will be even more options for experimentation. It’s  first for both of us, and we are excited to try it out!
Even better, we are doing it under the auspices of a great project organized by composer Lukas Ligeti, Pidgin Culture. A pidgin is a trade language made up of pieces of other languages, it’s generated by people from different places who have an urgent need to communicate. Pidgins are not proud, they are practical, often simple, and facilitate cross-cultural communication, ideally for common goals. The goal of the organization (linked to mine and many of those involved in Dutty Artz) is fostering: “a new creativity and help[ing] tap into new ways of perceiving and understanding art and the world.”
This event brings together some amazing experimental and avant-garde musicians from a variety of cultures and traditions. Alongside myself & Ravish Momin, the event includes other stellar performers. A note on Kevin Shea, who I THOUGHT I first saw in his great jazz band “Mostly Other People Do The Killing,” but then I realized I had seen him in Storm and Stress, years ago… and isn’t he in a dub band? Clearly he is in the kind of multifarious worlds I favor. Anyway the whole lineup is nuts:
Talibam! (Matt Mottel and Kevin Shea) meets Li Daiguo & Rick Parker
Li Daiguo & Rick Parker (solo and duo)
LI DAIGUO is based in China, a musical polymath proficient at a dozen different instruments along with throat-singing and beatboxing and a dynamic live performer known for his eclectic collaborations with a seemingly-limitless roster of colorful characters and ensembles. >>> http://genjingrecords.com/archives/5499
RICK PARKER combines jazz, experimental, electronic and rock, casting a broad net with his trombone playing augmented by electronics and synthesizers. He has worked with a large cross section of notable musicians and groups including Tim Berne, Mingus Big Band, Charli Persip, Frank Lacy, plus hip-hop legends the Wu-Tang Clan and DMC. Since 2012, he has been a member of Ravish Momin’s Tarana, performing at concerns and festivals across the world. Parker’s innovative use of electronics with the trombone have allowed him to cross through many musical genres and even garnered the attention of manufacturers Electroharmonix and Eventide with whom he has consulted on the development of new pedals and effects. >>> http://www.rickparker.net/
TALIBAM! (Matt Mottel and Kevin Shea) VIGILANTLY BOLSTERING SONIC DIVERSITY & HUMAN COMPASSION SINCE 2003. >>> http://talibam.bandcamp.com/
I will also play a DJ set after the show – blending into it from the set with Ravish, so you’ll get a chance to dance it all out at the end.
Facebook RSVP here.
doors at 8, music at 9, $10 cover! Trans Pecos 915 Wycoff Ave, Queens, New York 11385