crumbsroom wrote:

 

I just wanted to mention that I recently picked up this album, as well as the 1976 solo follow-up, and it's such a lovely work, one of those reminders of a masterpiece which fell under my radar all of these years.



 

Am I the only one just now discovering MIKE? 
Found him on a dig for modern underground Hip-Hop.
And struck GOLD.
Sure you did, Pop. 
No, you’ve got to see this. This will move you.
I just cannot get over how good this sounds, it’s hard to believe this is actually a live performance. Equally skillful and soulful. 

The man’s story is every bit as moving.
The first thing of his I listened to instantly seized my attention: Winter New York, his breakout mixtape from 2015, created in a shared apartment with the underground group called Slums that he co-founded with like-minded artist friends in New York City.

Drawing attention to that backing vocalist on the very far-right in this Tiny Desk Concert, that’s Liv.e, who has a solo career of her own, named by Pitchfork as one of the “25 New and Rising Artists Shaping the Future of Music in 2023” and her album Girl in the Half Pearl released later that year on independent record label In Real Life  garnered resounding critical acclaim and was included on numerous “best of 2023” lists. And my, my, what sweet sounds she brings. Listening to this music I could be fooled into thinking I’ve woken up from the nightmare of the past 30 years to find myself back in the warm organic jazzy consciousness of the mid-1990s. 

There is hope. Even now, there is hope, yet.

The other backing vocalist is Duendita, whose latest release The Mind Is a Miracle dropped exactly one year ago September 27, 2024 on Freedom Dr (as in Freedom Drive), the independent label she founded with her mom and best friend, and it is art very much worth checking out. Really cool and unusual voice and style. She comes across as arty and… deep.

That exceptional drummer, Savannah Harris, also did all the band arrangements for this concert. Native of Oakland, drumming since age two, she holds a master’s in Jazz performance from Manhattan School of Music, the Harlem Stage Emerging Artist Award from their 2019 gala, and has been recently featured in Modern Drummer as both an artist and contributor.

The guitarist on the right is London singer-songwriter Mark William Lewis. Good fuck, is everyone in this video an independent and influential rising star? His self-titled album just dropped less than two weeks ago, on A24 Music(!) Well I’ll be fucked in the face. A24 just started a music label earlier this year. Again, am I fucking dreaming, or am I waking up from what was all just a bad dream, in which the garden of independent artists and labels was a distant memory?

I’m especially tempted to post a Mark William Lewis video here, along with all these other videos that I’m only linking instead of posting. Originally I was thinking in terms of not diluting or diverting attention from the Tiny Desk Concert I’m posting here because it is so fucking good, but these are all worthy, and all restorative of faith in human music’s inevitable rebound.

We knew it was coming, friends. I”m prepared to say the pendulum has officially swung. Real music is back. Listeners are dissatisfied with the lazy corporate drek being shoveled at them, and taking their ears elsewhere, and another wave of independent artists and labels are rising to greet them… to greet us. Halle-fucking-lujah!

I haven’t even gotten around to researching the remaining half of this band, and I am winded. Will this expedition of discovery reveal a straight eight-for-eight? It’s all I have left to simply provide their names for now, and remind myself to check them out later:
The other guitarist is Jespfur (ok, Amsterdam-based DIY multi-instrumentalist and producer)
That smooth bassist is Olu Odubiro (performs around New York a lot)
The killer on the keys is Bobby Hall III (has collaborated with the likes of Cee Lo Green and Earth Wind and Fire 😳)
And on talking drum, Olawale: this is the only member I’m having trouble tracking down. He might be Nigerian talking drum player Olawale Oladosu, who posts educational videos about the talking drum on Instagram and Tik-Tok. But that’s only my best guess based what very limited information I could scrounge up. And I’m not on Instagram or Tik-Tok.

So ok, what wr’re seeing here is basically something of a supergroup of extremely talented and skilled independent artists, all on various independent labels, all with their own followings, making marks in their respective music scenes and generating buzz in online music journalism spheres. 

What a bouquet of delights, not a bad haul from just turning over a few stones out of passing curiosity.

…so am I the only one showing up late and wide-eyed to all this?

Last edited by Rampop II (9/25/2025 4:11 am)

crumbsroom wrote:

How did you find it? It took me years to find a copy that wouldn't cost me in excess of 100 bucks. 

Err... it's not really that kind of copy.  The 1976 Milton is the only Nascimento that I have on vinyl.  But I saw the Clube da Esquina sets on a music blog a couple of weeks after your post and "picked them up".

Apparently the first Clube da Esquina didn't do too well on initial release and has become more of a cult item.  Figures, because I can't recall ever seeing it in record stores, "in the bins" as it were.

Surprise, 2025!