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1k Press
tilomo - soft lunch
3/30/2006
Tilomo - Soft Lunch (1k recordings)
Tim Motzer has made some pretty noisy shit...Ursula Rucker and King Britt's Sister Gertrude Morgan CD—not to mention contributions to David Sylvian's Nine Horses and Jaki Liebezeit's Secret Rhythms. Yet, on this new solo excursion, this Philadelphian finds solace in silence.
Tilomo, Tim Motzer's guitar/laptop solo project, benefits greatly from the sloe-gin-y liquid soul of his work with Britt—you can hear it in the way his fuzzy jazz-foink chords ooze through the title track. But there's a sputter, beep, whoosh and clink to the proceedings that make it happily irksome and decidedly un-neo-soulful. The sawed, strained string samples of "Blue Samari," the thickly blown wind sounds that trace the development of "Embrace" from autumn chill to winter storm, the cheery tinkling of "Chi Moto"—there are eight million moody stories to be told in this ambient jungle.
--A.D. Amorosi (City Paper)...
sister gertrude morgan (ropeadope)
12/14/2005
king britt presents sister gertrude morgan (ropeadope)
Best known for her vibrant folk-art paintings, Sister Gertrude Morgan (1900-1980) cut a stark gospel album in New Orleans in the late ’60s. Philadelphia house-music and hip-hop producer King Britt recently devised new backing tracks for Morgan’s insistent, wild-eyed vocals and rattling tambourine. Although such revisionism can smack of cheesy gimmickry, his unlikely hybrid is a glorious success. Britt resists the urge to depict this passionate eccentric as a weirdo, respectfully crafting diverse, satisfying settings for her fiery minisermons. Brooding and bluesy, “Let’s Make a Record” turns the exhortation “Praise him!” into an apocalyptic warning, while the wailing harmonica of “Living Bread” conveys deep yearning. If the funky percussion of “I Was Healed by the Wounds” reimagines Morgan as a rapper, “Precious Lord Lead Me On” marries her message to a lovely melody. (jon young for motherjones)...
nine horses - snow borne sorrow
12/4/2005
After the stark blemish, Sylvian has returned with a modern masterpiece that utilizes elements of avant guarde jazz and electronica melding effortlessly with Sylvian's pop sensibility to create his best release in years. Half of the disc contains material written with Steve Jansen and the other half contains material written with keyboardist/vibraphonist/remixer Burnt Friedman.
"Wonderful World" is an eerie jazz waltz featuring a vocal duet between Sylvian and Stina Nordenstam (who sounds somewhat like a cross between Shelly Duval as Olive Oyl and Rickie Lee Jones). Their 'she / he' back and forth lyrical scheme gives the song the overall feel of what could be considered as a Broadway musical show tune in the day and age of post 9/11. "Darkest Birds" is the 'poppiest' track on the disc, with slight elements of electronica and a punchier kick to the catchy chorus that gives the song a big lift. "The Banality Of Evil" is built upon a prevalent 5/4 rhythm throughout and Sylvian's polyrhythmic vocal lines may take some time to entirely sink in, but they will do just that with repeated listening. This track has a tone somewhat akin to the work of Peter Gabriel, not only in the rhythm and snaky guitar lines, but in the sinister backing vocals and grunts that appear later in this extended track. "Atom And Cell" is a slow dirge in 6/8. The sinister backing vocals and polyrhythmic vocal lines from the last track continue here, and in even greater abundance. The horn arrangement, or disarrangement to be more exact, is a nice touch that adds even more confusion to the disfunction of this plodding track dealing with the plight of the homeless. Ryuichi Sakamoto contributes some tasty piano melodies to the piece. "A History Of Holes" is another track in the odd time signature of five, with more free improvisational soloing from the horns, but the odd feel of this one is straightened out by Sylvian's smooth vocal delivery. Though the music was primarily written by Friedman, Sylvian's lyrics seem to be a little more biographical than he is usually willing to offer up, dealing with childhood memories...mostly those he has chosen to block out during most of his adult life. It may take some listening to get the gist of this track, but this one is a gem. "Snow Borne Sorrow" is a track that Jansen originally intended for a possible solo work. The harsh electronic sound of Sylvian's last release, blemish, makes a brief appearance during the introduction of this track but the song smooths out into a gentle ballad in 6/8. The lyrics detail Sylvian's recent divorce and the effect on the children. Ryuichi Sakamoto contributes another notable cameo on piano and there is some fine string quartet orchestration. "The Day The Earth Stole Heaven" is a hybrid of folk and jazz that reveals itself to be the highlight of this release. Sylvian's voice is in such fine form here. Guitarist Tim Motzer composed the music and Sylvian's melody lines are the most focused of all the selections...a perfect collaboration. "The Librarian" is the last track and is a fleshed out version of the Friedman / Jaki Liebezeit track released earlier this year. The song now has more of a pronounced groove due to the addition of drums and syncopated guitar riffs. Greater use of Morten Grønvad's vibraphone is similar to that of vibemaster Gary Burton's contributions on Bruce Cockburn's 'The Charity Of Night', and adds an excellent texture to the song. Yet there may be a little too much going on when compared to the original and the clutter of the additional instruments may have now taken away from the subtlety of Sylvian's delicate vocal delivery. But the song is still one of the stronger tunes on the disc. And the disc is Sylvian's strongest since the early nineties.
...
sister gertrude morgan (ropeadope)
12/4/2005
R Rated Reviews: King Britt
By Jason Moon Wilkins
King Britt Presents: Sister Gertrude Morgan
Preservation Hall/Ropeadope
Primitive folk art painter, singer, poet, street preacher and "servant of the Lord" in several capacities (including running orphanages and missions in the poorest parts of New Orleans) Sister Gertrude Morgan was born in 1900 and died in 1980. That was long before she received international recognition for her artwork and former Digable Planets DJ and world-renowned remixer and producer King Britt remixed her music into a soulful psychedelic epic.
It's fitting that Morgan once made her home in the Ninth Ward, the destitute area most affected by Hurricane Katrina, because her voice now calls like a righteous, insistent spirit from that spoiled Southern soil. It's also fitting that the woman who ran an orphanage that was blown away by Hurricane Betsy in 1965 finally is being rediscovered, years after her death, in the wake of another, even more devastating, storm.
Long before this album (which ironically was released a short time before Katrina hit) and long before her renaissance hit full swing in 2003, when a limited-edition release of her lone album, Let's Make a Record (originally recorded in 1970), was issued to a small but vocal group of critics and collectors, Morgan was roaming the streets of New Orleans, preaching, singing and shouting from the city's street corners. Dressed in a pristine white nurse's uniform meant to signify both her self-appointed role as a "bride of Christ" and her role as a spiritual healer to the sick souls she saw wandering the streets of the French Quarter, Morgan would preach and sing, accompanied usually by nothing more than a tambourine. This a cappella style eventually was captured on tape in 1970 on the aforementioned Let's Make a Record, which King Britt and his crew recently reinterpreted.
The album that King Britt has made is fervently and unflinchingly religious due to the nature of the lyrics, but the power and passion of Morgan's voice truly transcend any denomination or belief. Less songs than chants, Morgan's improvised sermon songs slowly revolve around a central theme, such as "I Am the Living Bread," until her chanting, circular singing becomes a spiral, spinning her message up through infinity, a process helped along by Britt's alternately ecstatic and euphoric beats. This album is more mantra than Moby, who also famously employed unearthed a cappella soul singers on his enormously successful Play album. These tunes are aimed more at moving your spirit, not your booty.
Morgan literally created many of these memorable tunes on the spot, famously shouting to the original album's engineer, "Let's make a record for our Lord!" before shaking her tambourine and immediately extemporizing on that theme while the fellas with the tape machine rushed to push record.
It's this song, more than any of the others on the album, that really shows the inspired and spiritually uplifting strength of this collaboration. King Britt and his musical partner, Tim Motzer, labored for 12 months to make this epic reinterpretation of Morgan's work into a hymn to her genius, and on Let's Make a Record you can hear that effort. Britt and Motzer rarely let their sonic experimentation detract from Morgan's original intent. In most cases, and especially on Let's Make a Record, it sounds like she was as present at the making of this album as any of the other guest musicians. When a fuzzy '60s skwonking guitar counters her voice or a humming buzz echoes her droning vocals, it lends credibility to King Britt's assertion that Morgan was at the studio in spirit.
Everyone is looking for a way to contribute to the relief effort in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast this holiday season, and this record is one way to make a small but measurable difference in keeping alive a music institution such as Preservation Hall, which always supported Sister Gertrude Morgan and even in its displaced state continues to do so....
sister gertrude morgan (ropeadope)
12/4/2005
Preaching the Gospel
King Britt's new album began in New Orleans in 1970, with one woman and a tambourine.
by Doree Shafrir (Philadelphia Weekly Story)
King Britt has worked with De La Soul and the Roots, Digable Planets, Alma Horton and Grover Washington Jr. He's remixed Yoko Ono and Femi Kuti. He's spun records all over the world. But until now he's never worked with a dead woman.
That woman is Sister Gertrude Morgan-folk artist, poet, preacher, nurse and musician-who recorded a single album of gospel music at New Orleans' Preservation Hall in 1970. Spare and deeply spiritual, the album was done entirely a cappella, with just a tambourine as accompaniment. In 2004 Preservation Hall director Ben Jaffe released it under his Preservation Hall Recordings label to coincide with a traveling exhibit of Morgan's art organized by the American Folk Art Museum in New York City.
On Tuesday Ropeadope releases King Britt's remixes of Sister Gertrude's album. King Britt Presents Sister Gertrude Morgan was two years in the making, the product of a series of fortuitous meetings and fruitful collaborations.
"Two or three years ago I was at Jazz Fest in New Orleans," Ropeadope founder Andy Hurwitz says on the phone from Brooklyn. "I was introduced to Ben and listened to the album. He asked me if I thought it'd be cool to have Ropeadope artists remix the record. I told him that instead of having lots of artists remix it, I'd rather see one person do the whole project."
Hurwitz asked Britt if he'd be interested in remixing Sister Gertrude's music. "I said I wasn't familiar with Sister Gertrude Morgan," Britt says. "Then I Googled her, and I was blown away. I felt like she was someone I should know-and more people should know her. I never accept a project unless I really like it, but I knew this would be incredible."
On her album Morgan sings of the Lord and redemption, but also of struggles for equality and the nature of power. Her spirituality is filtered through a strong political viewpoint, reflective of the turbulent late '60s and the struggles of the civil rights movement.
Britt's remixes, which he did with his longtime collaborator Tim Motzer, bring a contemporary element to the music without overwhelming it. There's the dark vibe of the "Power" remix, which channels the gothic New Orleans of Anne Rice, but there's also the exuberant opening track "Let's Make a Record," whose upbeat, electronic-influenced stylings make it almost danceable.
"Let's Make a Record" is the only track Motzer did without Britt's input. "I had just seen PJ Harvey," Motzer says. "Her guitar player made a big impression on me that night. He was overdriving his amplifiers. There's a tip of the hat to Led Zeppelin as well."
The rest of the tracks were done collaboratively, Britt says. "I sent the original tracks to my friend Jeff [Chestik]," he explains. "He put each song into Pro Tools, put it in time and figured out the beat, so I could take each track and put it into my computer and start working. It saved me about a month of work."
For a song like "Power," the first one they worked on, Britt says he was influenced by '80s band Talk Talk's 1988 album Spirit of Eden. "Talk Talk was starting to go left field at that point," he says. "They were using organ, slide guitar. The vocals were haunting. I thought these were the elements for Sister Gertrude."
Influenced by Talk Talk's use of harmonica, Britt called G. Love, who agreed to perform on the album as well. "He came in with a margarita and a harmonica, and an old mike from the '50s. When he laid the harmonica down, Tim started the track. He gave me the files and I took them home and worked on them," Britt says.
The rest of the album, Britt says, was done similarly. "Each track always starts with a beat, because I'm a DJ. I put the vocal in with a metronome. I put different rhythms in, then chords and the organ. Then I'd give it to Tim to put in the guitar, then the bass."
The experience of doing the Sister Gertrude album has inspired Britt to look beyond his typical sources for music to remix. "My friend Steph went to Brazil and found an a cappella group from the '60s-I'm trying to get the rights to it," he says. "Technology allows us to do whatever. It brings awareness to cultures in a different way."
Percussion on the album was done with a drum machine, and most of the bass lines were programmed-only the guitar and harmonica are live. But Britt has put together a band to perform the album live. The Sister Gertrude Morgan Experience, as he's calling it, performed in a rehearsal at the Painted Bride in August, then debuted a few days later at the Flow Festival in Helsinki. The official Stateside debut will be at the Bride Oct. 8. The live show is accompanied by a video projection put together by VJ Illuminati. Rapid-fire imagery of Sister Gertrude and her art flash across the screen, followed by shots of people protesting the war in Iraq as the song "Power" is played.
The Oct. 8 show will also include a screening of the 15-minute documentary Searching for Sister Gertrude Morgan, which Britt did with MBN Studios' Ben Barnett. "King suggested I come to New Orleans as he went down there to let these people hear [the album] for the first time. I started hanging out and started filming. That was it," Barnett says. The pair visited Sister Gertrude's grave and her old neighborhood, recreating the mysterious life Sister Gertrude lived.
All of the project's elements-the album, the live show and the documentary-pay tribute to a woman whose message, Motzer says, is ever more applicable.
"I think Sister Gertrude speaks something that people need to hear in these times we're living in," says Motzer. "Iraq, tsunamis, all the stuff that's been happening. It gives people solace, gives people strength and hope that the whole planet isn't going down the dumps. There's a real joy and power in her voice." ...
sister gertrude morgan (ropeadope)
12/4/2005
Revelations
King Britt finds God in the meticulous resurrection of a lost soul sister.
by Andrew Parks (City Paper Cover Story)
Moby would have wet himself had he heard it; maybe even sold his stake in Teany for a simple sample. For this self-proclaimed "bride of Christ" sounded as if she were from another time and plane, clanging her convulsive tambourine and singing verses from the book of Revelations like Mavis Staples possessed by the Holy Spirit. But the bald one didn't discover the lone lost recording of Sister Gertrude Morgan. Ropeadope Records founder Andy Hurwitz did, as he was flipping through discs in New Orleans during Jazz & Heritage Fest 2002. It only took one listen of Morgan's mysteriously labeled Let's Make a Record live LP (recorded in 1970, and pressed in small, discrete batches by the legendary Preservation Hall) before Hurwitz was on the phone negotiating a proper reissue of the record with Ben Jaffe, overseer of the jazz mecca. (Meanwhile, Jaffe re-released Morgan's raw voice-and-tambourine tracks in 2004, to coincide with a traveling exhibit of her art organized by the American Folk Art Museum in New York City.)
"[She] has to be the best-kept secret in blues and gospel music," explains Hurwitz. "I could not believe that her voice wasn't world-famous."
Hurwitz says it only took "about 12 minutes" to spark plans for both a Ropeadope re-release with extensive liner notes (including some of Morgan's haunting simplistic paintings) and a remix record. There was one hang-up, however: Hurwitz wasn't comfortable with the suggestion of selecting a dozen producers for the job, similar to the successful but spotty looting of Verve's vaults on countless compilations, most notably by Madlib. Such an approach could distort the deeply spiritual, raw power of Morgan's two-track recordings. A carefully constructed "reinterpretation," on the other hand, could take her to the higher, clouded realm she celebrated in song.
"Sister Gertrude's music was too sacred for something as shallow [as a simple remix]," says Hurwitz. Turns out he had Philadelphia's own Madlib in mind from the start — the chameleonic soul man King Britt. "I felt no single person was better-suited for the project because I knew he'd treat it with respect and integrity. Britt wasn't going to take the easy way out, raping the sister's work for the sake of making a hit. Just look at Moby's Play."
Inspired: "We were going off Sister Gertrude -- she was in the room with us because her spirit, her vibe is so huge, the essence of everything," says Tim Motzer (left).
Convincing Britt to commit was about as easy as Hurwitz's original call to Jaffe, although Britt admits he had to Google Morgan's name a bit before he realized who the hell she was: a revered New Orleans legend, saintlike in some circles, yet rarely spoken about in graveyard tours. Once he heard those original two-track cuts and saw some of her paintings (collected in the hardcover book Sister Gertrude Morgan: The Tools of Her Ministry), the producer was wholly engrossed in the project. It helped that he'd fallen into a creative funk since releasing his first hip-hop album, 2003's space odyssey Adventures in Lo-fi (on BBE, featuring rhymes from Quasimoto, De La Soul and Britt's former Digable Planets collaborator, Cherrywine).
"I was just looking for a new sound, a new inspiration," admits Britt. "And my mom's like, 'You need to find God, you need to go to church,'" Britt says, with a groan and a laugh. "After hearing Sister G, I realized we all need a sense of spirituality right now. The whole world is in cahoots and it's Armageddon time. People are losing their sense of hope, so I think records like this are exactly what people need."
Britt was so taken aback by Morgan's fiery sermon-songs that he immediately insisted on including frequent collaborator (as part of the Sylk 130 collective) Tim Motzer in the songwriting and production process. Motzer owns 1K Recordings and has played with everyone from Les Nubians to Patti LaBelle and Philadelphia poet Ursula Rucker. He even has an ambient project in the works called Soft Lunch, under the guise of Tilomo ("King uses it for sex," jokes Motzer), as well as a solo record that Britt describes as "very Ziggy Stardust … we [Britt's FiveSix imprint] are actually trying to license it to a major label."
Sitting on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, amid the stifling midafternoon sun and several wannabe Rockys, it's clear the two are more than session mates with a similar lust for crate digging (they actually headed out to Lancaster at 6 this Sunday morning for the town's monthly record fair, where some prime David Axelrod and Don Cherry platters were consumed). That's partly because they've known each other since the heyday of Britt's residencies at Silk City in the mid-'90s, including the Saturday house and electronic party Back to Basics, and a Monday mix of hip-hop, soul and live music that often featured Motzer's virtuoso fret work.
"I'm into the old-school mode of production — getting the right people to make the best product," says Britt, as the three of us sit down on a bench near the museum's monumental entrance. "That's what Quincy Jones would do: Get the right people to do everything, like on Off the Wall for Michael Jackson. Tim is a super musician, whereas I've never had training or anything. So coming from that point of view, I may play a chord the wrong way, but it really doesn't matter if it's wrong or right."
"It's just whether this is working or not," adds Motzer. "Ultimately, we complement one another. The holes are always covered, which is cool."
Britt continues, explaining that he prefers collaborating over the reclusive bedroom producer role largely because he was an only child — an only child so bored he played Dungeons and Dragons by himself. (Too bad he didn't know Philadelphia's drum 'n' bass dungeonmaster Dieselboy back then.)
Five months of constant writing and chance improv — with nary a second for a D&D match — went into the Sister Gertrude Morgan record. The attention to detail and refusal to simply remix with synth stabs or piano keys certainly shows. The opening cut, "Let's Make a Record" (tracked by Motzer and his Fractured Reverb Underground bandmate, bassist Barry Meehan), is as dark and disturbing as it is a joyous battle cry of treated riffs, snappy breaks, gumbo-thick basslines and hallelujahs from the heavens. Every séance that follows is as sonically surprising, from the way "I Was Healed by the Wounds" hits you right in the chest with a choice "oomph!" sample and tribal percussion patterns to the sheer soul-singeing intensity of "Power (Voodoo Version)" [see sidebar]. If she's listening, Sister G is probably smiling right now, momentarily content that her message of salvation will live on — especially in these troubled times of tsunamis, war and of course, the Mississippi Delta flood that washed away her beloved city.
"Man, it's just beautiful," says Hurwitz. "I should also add that this record is bigger than King and he knows it. The real story here is about Sister Gertrude Morgan — her lyrics, her passion and her art are borderline religious to me. If there was one artist past/present/future that I could sit down with for a roadside chat, it would be her."
"Some people erroneously call this a remix record, when it's really a full-blown production," adds Motzer. "We're writing songs around what she already wrote down, being inspired by her vibe. We were going off Sister Gertrude — she was in the room with us because her spirit, her vibe is so huge, the essence of everything. She had this great message in the '60s, one that's just as relevant in 2005."
Relevant, and better than another techno-lite blues album from Moby?
"Well, he did sell a lot of records," says Britt, laughing. "I'd rather hear Sister Gertrude in the Top 10 than the new Ludacris. I want us to release pop records, but in the sense of our pop — just good songs with longevity that people can sing. Whatever happens, we're embarking on a heavy journey the next few years."
King Britt Presents Sister Gertrude Morgan, Sat., Oct. 8, 8 p.m., $25, Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine St., 215-925-9914, www.paintedbride.org.
One Track Mind
"Power (Voodoo Version)" featuring G. Love
At first, they thought he was crazy. Or maybe it was just his margarita talking. Either way, King Britt and Tim Motzer weren't about to say no when G. Love asked the duo to kill the lights in Britt's studio for a "Voodoo Version" of Sister Gertrude Morgan's already evocative song, "Power."
"We couldn't even see him, but he ripped it on the harmonica and took it over the top," says Britt. "He brought the dirty swamp vibe out."
Motzer, in turn, went absolutely wild with his riffs — fingerpicking his strings, strangling his guitar's neck, and even getting a little Phish-y. (Motzer's Jazzheads quartet would have totally gotten booked at Bonnaroo, had their Avant Wot Not LP not come out in 1999.)
"I was trying to conjure the voodoo, so to speak, by playing slide guitars," explains Motzer. "It just evokes so much — that sound of tearing your heart out of your chest. It's very beautiful and brutal, the most gorgeous nasty sound you've heard. It's like modern-day blues in a sense."
To achieve an ultramodern excursion into Delta blues, Britt started with Morgan's time-stretched vocals (setting her singing to a certain pitch and amount of beats per minute) and the usual bedrock of a production: A beat. This track does more than dust off a drum break, though. It goes for the broken beat vibe of West London, a shadowy, soulful sound popularized by Jazzanova in the States. Consequently, the track is manic for its entire eight minutes, even a little claustrophobic, with "deep, dark and dubby" basslines alongside keyboard snippets that recall the best of reggae. Britt is so happy with the song that he's considering submitting it for Grammy consideration.
"'Power' is intense," says Britt. "It was total voodoo: A groove that continually builds and turns into a complete trance."...
SDT @ the edinburgh fringe
8/18/2004
Seductive Steps
Festival Dance: Scottish Dance Theatre - Dance Base until August 22
Reviewed by Elizabeth Schwyzer
Sunday Herald Edinburgh Scotland
It’s not just hype – Scottish Dance Theatre really is on top form, and this Fringe programme shows off its delectable dancing. In utterly distinct styles, both Didy Veldman’s Track and Sean Feldman’s Moment explore themes of competition and seduction, and the interplay between desire and rejection.
Moment is wonderfully evocative, full of aggressive slashes and great lunging grasps executed with startling fluidity and set to Tim Motzer’s pulsating, percussive soundscape. Track takes a more literal tack, contrasting Victoria Roberts tottering on blood-red heels with Philippa White in her panties going to extreme lengths with a roll of masking tape. In an intimate space like this, detail is everything, and these dancers really hold up under close scrutiny, because they know how to dance with one another. It’s the moments of recognition between them that makes Scottish Dance Theatre such a joy to watch....
SDT @ the place, london
8/15/2004
Scottish Dance Theatre, The Place, London
By Zoe Anderson
06 April 2004
Scottish Dance Theatre is a small company with a growing reputation. Since Janet Smith took over as director seven years ago, the company has been touring more widely, in larger venues and with a more ambitious repertoire. The current tour shows works made for the company within the past year; two have commissioned scores. New choreography is a gamble, and these works are patchy. But it's a direct, lively performance.
The strongest piece is Sean Feldman's Moment. Seven dancers run in and out of solos and group dances, tilting and swinging. Tim Motzer's new score moves from electronic bleeps to gasps and voices. Feldman gets more imaginative as soon as the human voice comes in. A long section of laboured breathing and speech is set as a duet for Philippa White and Baptiste Bourgougnon. They circle around each other, closing and separating. As White steps towards Bourgougnon, she tips right over into a fall. Each time, he catches her and turns, swinging her round with him. It's a lurching, dipping spin, a fall that starts to look like a waltz.
...
jazzcafe in london
12/20/2003
Electrifying
Ursula Rucker w/ Tim Motzer
Jazz Cafe, London
08/10/2003
"The revolution will not be televised". But
maybe it'll happen at the Jazz Cafe©.
Philadelphia's spoken-word queen, Ursula
Rucker, performed at the famous Camden
venue, leaving a spellbound audience
dreaming of a less ignorant world.
Recently, Ursula released her second album,
Silver or Lead, dropping poetical science
over progressive Hip Hop and future jazz
rhythms crafted by the likes of 4 Hero and
Jazzanova. Firmly regarded as the hottest
poet on wax, Ursula first won hearts with
her collaborations with Philly's finest, the
Roots, now she sells out in advance, over-
seas at the Jazz Cafe, whose audience was
treated to a rare reading of Ursula's tales of
racism, sexism, heartbreak and loss, accom-
panied by collaborator and producer, Tim
Motzer. Armed with two guitars, an Akai
sampler and pedals, Tim replayed the layers
of music which accompanied Ursula's
recordings, sampling everything but pre-
programmed beats to create a wall-of-
sound. Ursula's voice is captivatingly, her
delivery succinct and articulate, whilst
rhythmically on point. Her words are sin-
cere, steeped in true Hip Hop culture, yet
not cliched, and are extremely personal. To
paraphrase Ursula herself, she isn't doing
this to hear the sound of her own voice, this
is her fucking life!
Oliver Brunetti, London Student Culture...
cactusclub in brugge belgium
12/20/2003
ursula rucker @ cactus club
After performing for 40 minutes or so Ursula Rucker stopped the show because the monitors weren't working. Guitar player Tim Motzer and the drummer (gintis janusonis) also had the same problem. Ursula had asked the sound guys before if they could do something about it. She was very polite though, and it was quite fair: without monitors it is very hard to do a decent gig. So she went offstage and told the audience she wasn't coming back until somebody fixed this problem. And how was the music up 'til then? Well, it was nice, although I never felt this was like a gig I'd remember for a long time.
But then, after ten minutes, the monitor-problem was fixed, and Ursula stepped onto the stage once again. Much more confident now, she and the 2-piece band came back with a vengeance. They performed totally different but beautiful arrangements of tunes from her two albums. It all sounded so great because you know all these tracks, but don't immediately recognise them when played with only voice, guitar and drums. Don't be fooled by the word 'guitar' however, as Tim Motzer uses a heap of digital toys to turn the guitar into a versatile full blown band. (check Spectrum's post on this)
He did a mesmerizing version of 'What a woman must do' where he played all kinds of oriental bells just with his guitar. Other highlights were the great poetry of 'Soon', the three-tracks-in-one 'Q & A' and the smart accoustic rendition of the 4hero production 'Time'. In total, she performed for more than 1:45 hours, leaving us once again with a great live experience...
by Lensco for Beyondjazz.net...
nu cultures review
9/10/2003
"Nu Cultures" A One K Mix Collection
Various (1K)
Tim Motzer is one of those artists who is better known and respected as a musician on a global scale than he is here on his home turf. Locally (in
Philadelphia) we've seen Tim strum his guitar on stage at the Theatre of the Living Arts as part of the Silk 130 Tour (which King Britt brought with the
release of "When The Funk Hits the Fan"). He's also provided music to the Afro-French duo Les Nubians and countless other acts. Back in the day, Motzer jammed with a combo called the Jazzheads.
"Nu Cultures" is an amalgamation of Motzer's musical interests. An extensive repertoire of forward thinking sound, the tracks on "Nu Cultures" span tastes. Steeped in jazz, Motzer and company extend their sonic reach into experimental
ambient glitchiness.
There are some very beautiful tracks on this mix (which, mind you isn't like a deejay mix tape) including "Remember" and the openingtrack, "Free My Mind" which feature the vocals of Ellie Perez.
Motzer's influence reaches across a funky Philadelphia musical underground that values talent and innovation more than commercialism. Various incarnations of Motzer-influenced acts are featured: Jazzheads, Fractured Reverb Underground, Global Illage along with Perez and vocalist Barry Meehan take turns entertaining us. There are several other musicians pumping their talent through this CD as well.
If you're a fan of Compost Records artists, or any progressive German or underground French labels, you'll find "Nu Cultures" to be right up your alley.
I am not a big fan of the glitch track, but the rest of the disc is so stellar you can easily overlook it.
kc bajai - audiogliphix magazine february 2003
...
ursula rucker + tim motzer - live reviews
7/31/2003
'Change' is good
Poetess Ursula Rucker beautifully capped off the eclectic local entertainment and arts showcase "We Carry Change" July 12 at Union Terminal. Teamed with astounding Hamilton-bred guitarist Tim Motzer, Rucker's sing-sung spoken word performance was smart, artful and generally riveting. Early in her set, she addressed the efforts of local activists trying to get black performers and artists to boycott the city with grace and logic, pointing out that the arts are an ideal way to actually address issues and bring races together, as was proven by the eclectic multi-cultural audience in attendance.
CITYBEAT Vol 9, Issue 36 Jul 16-Jul 22, 2003
Cincinnati, Ohio
URSULA RUCKER + TIM MOTZER / ALEXKID @ Les Nuits Botanique, Brussels, Sept. 21st 2003
Philly's very own Supa Sista was in town! The lady we all love since she displayed her soul, wisdom and street poetry on some of our all time favorite albums and singles from some of our all time favorite producers (Jazzanova, King Britt, 4hero,...): Miss Ursula Rucker! She did a very intimate set joined only by none other then Tim Motzer who worked with her on the Supa Sista lp and is also a member of King Britt's stunning Sylk 130 project. Tim brought just an accoustic and 'digital' guitar and a sampler/drummachine but the effect was almost that of a full band, looping his own guitarplaying and adding drumbeats and even more sounds from his excellent skillz on the guitar. Great sounddesigner! Ursula herself took time to tell little stories to introduce the songs - for instance about how she got into hiphop as a kid and how she feels about it now (a massive lack of responsibility among black artists) - and to inform that she was suffering from a jet-lag that had her trippin'. At one point she even said she felt so weird as if she was doing a performance-art thing here
Fortunately the music wasn't suffering from that as she guided us through a set of songs from both her debut and her upcoming album. Here's the list (which Tim was so kind to give me after the show to put it on this very site!)
get ready / womansong / supa sista / untitled flow / fear in flight / 4 minutes of fun / what a woman must do / keep fallin' / what / time
some got a nice new arrangement, like 'fear...' and 'what', which made it all the more interesting and enjoyable. Go check this Lady out in Bruges' Cactusclub in november!!!
And guess what ? Backstage Miss Rucker and Mister Motzer were waiting to join Mr. AlexKid and band for a last encore!!! They both were asked to the stage again to bring a really brilliant song but I'm affraid I did not recognise it to tell you what it was. Probably from Ursula's new lp. Definately the highlight of the night that made me go home on a cloud.... Another great night it was!
beyondjazz, belguim september 22, 2003
...
NU CULTURES - A ONE K MIX COLLECTION
4/24/2003
Bathe gracefully in the deep, cleansing, soothing, gentle, experimental luxuriance of jazzy lushness. You can thank Philly's own Tim Motzer (guitarist/multi-instrumentalist/producer for
Les Nubians, Ursula Rucker, Kenny Lattimore and King Britt's Sylk 130) for dishin' out this 65-minute trip through a downtempo dreamscape that caresses your relaxing head and massages your soul. Motzer strings together previously recorded tracks from an array of his own projects and collaborations to yield a seamless, continuous mix of supple, multicolored goodness. So, soak in the soulful, trip-hoppin' atmospheric vocal verdure and lyrical sweetness of Ellie Perez and Barry Meehan. Crawl into the subterranean, sax-laden, organic nu jazz of the Jazzheads. And let yourself free-fall weightlessly to the beatless ambience and glitch-y experimentation of Global Illage and Fractured Reverb Underground. Let Motzer do the talking while your soul does the walking, and your body can sit back with headphones and some cushiony pillows.
–Sean O’Neal Philadelphia City Paper
Sept 12 - Sept 19, 2002 issue #904
...
NU CULTURES - A ONE K MIX COLLECTION
4/24/2003
Sweet grooves and soulful tunes from this Philly collective -- a surprisingly nice batch of tracks that sparkles with the spiritual depth of recent work from the London scene! The lovely Ellie Perez lends her lead vocals to about a third of the tracks on the set -- making for some really great tunes that have a drifting cosmic feel, tripping lightly with lots of great keyboard work! Titles include "Come Alive", "Luscious", "On The Rize", and "Free My Mind" by Ellie Perez; "Between", "Koln Shivers", and "Spiders Etude" by Fractured Reverb Underground; "Hollands Tunnel" and "Blur" by Jazzheads; and "Loves First Night" by Barry Meehan. dusty grooves, chicago
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URSULA RUCKER - SUPA SISTA (k7) Reviews
3/20/2003
"Like Laurie Anderson, there's an acrid electronic clatter behind her, provided by Phillip Charles, 4 Hero, Tim Motzer (who creates a Bjork-
blues environ for the title track) and Motzer/Britt."
a.d amorosi city paper
"Spring is a triumph of smooth beats (from King Britt and Tim Motzer) and languid
phrases that drift into a dreamy ether."
Tom Moon philadelphia inquirer
"Supa Sista reads like a who's who of respected producers; 4 Hero's Dego MacFarlane and Marc Clair deal the goods on 'what' and '7,' King Britt and Tim Motzer man the desk 'Spring' while Cali's Jonah Sharp is called up for production on 'one million ways.' Supa Sista makes for a fluid listen with Rucker's voice the single constant."
London Darker than Blue
"The title track "Supa Sista" sounds like some funked-up "gangsta folk" music that invokes the flavor of Cassandra Wilson's major label breakthrough Blue Lights 'Till Dawn (1994). Produced by Tim Motzer who Rucker originally worked with on King Britt's Sylk130, the song begins with Rucker's slow big drum chant of "I rose and fell / As he called my name . . . he changed my name / Called my blackness untamed / He put me in chains / He changed my name / Then he changed my names."
mark anthony neal --popmatters
"Philly native Rucker, along with collaborator Tim Motzer and another musican or two, turned out a brilliant set of her socially engaged neo-soul and spoken-word, but it was tough to focus on her performance amidst the swirl of people... The claustrophobia was almost worth it, though, seeing Björk plow her way through the crowd, a star happy to come back down to earth for the afternoon."
neumu needledrops nyc -- from a review on nyc ps1 festival w/ herbert, dj mark rae and ursula rucker.
"And the music -- a delicious blend of black soul and electronica crafted by heavies like King Britt, 4Hero, Alexkid, Robert Yancey III, and Tim Motzer -- is as intoxicating as the words."
errol nazareth - toronto sun
"Prominent producers are helping out; 4Hero, AlexKid from French F-Communications and
Tim Motzer (who has also written many of the songs together with Ursula), just to name a few. Because of this, "Supa Sista" is a soulful mix of different styles. Tracks to especially mention are "Brown Boy", "Supa Sista", "7" and "Womansong"."
senait belaynesh pitch adjust
"On the acoustic-funk-driven title track , produced by jazz guitarist/producer Tim Motzer
(Jazzheads, Sylk 130), Rucker calls black women to arms, liltingly proclaiming, "I call on all Supa Sistas/ To emerge from the muck and the mire/ Set the brainwashed-up masses on fire."
lynne d johnson -- tablehouse...
JAMAALADEEN TACUMA & WOLFGANG PUSCHNIG
3/20/2003
Journey Into Gemini Territory (itm)
Eine schöne Platte ist da Wolfgang Puschnig (sax,flute) und Bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma gelungen. Mit Unterstützung von Drummer Adam Guth, Tim Motzer an der Gitarre und Dave Falciani an den Tasten wurden funkig-jazzige Kompositionen mit coolen Grooves aufgenommen. Geschmackvolle Synthie-Sounds und das tighte Zusammenspiel der Rhythmusgruppe sind die Basis, dazu kommen die spannenden Saxophonlinien von Puschnig, die herrlich gekonnt outside klingen. Tacuma hält sich solistisch zurück, glänzt aber mit seiner soliden Spielweise und interessanten Fills. Galaktisch gute Platte.
(am) gitarre and bass berlin...
A MIND FOR JAZZ
3/20/2003
Tim Motzer has King Britt to thank for a lot of things, but Jazzheads isn't among them-directly, at least. Lately, it seems the talented, low-key guitarist for King Britt's living, breathing, funky acid-jazz project, Sylk 130, has taken the entrée into loftier East Coast player circles provided him by Britt and run with it. The result: avant wot not (1k), the first standard-issue cd from Motzer's Jazzheads quartet. The 10-track effort is a nimble, all instrumental excursion into the disparate corners of all that boogies, simmers and swings, from acid jazz to improve, from drum n bass to funk.
"It's kind of looking back at what has gone down-from the 70's up to this moment in time-and also looking a bit toward the future," says Motzer of the new album, which is available at Jazzheads gigs and on the web at
www.1krecordings.com.
Aside from Motzer (whose credits also include work with Kenny Lattimore and Isaac Hayes), the group includes drummer Ari Hoenig (James Hurt, Richard Bona), bassist Ben Bocardo (Everlast, Bass-X) and sax player Chris Cuzme (Leslie Chueng). That combined experience pretty much ensures that the playing in dizzyingly fine throughout. But what's most compelling about avant wot not is its unhampered sense of fun, an "up" vibe that carries listeners over some rought compositional patches and murky stylistic transitions.
That giddy quotient should come as no surprise, seeing as Jazzheads were, in essence, born out of a simple love of playing. "Ari Hoenig and myself kind of met through the house band at Silk City," Motzer recalls. "He used to come out and listen every Monday night. One night we started talking, and he said, 'Hey man, you want to
come out and play some night?' And I said, 'Sure man, let's do it.' I had a bunch of tunes, we booked some gigs and it just jelled."
Not that Sylk 130's points of origins weren't a blast in their own right. But what began as a Silk City house band overseen by Britt will always bear his overwhelming influence-as it should ("It was something Britt had in his mind for a long time." Motzer says). While a more collaborative spirit is said to inform the upcoming Sylk 130 release (due this fall on Britt's Columbia-affiliated Ovum label), nothing beats running your own show. And Jazzheads is, by and large Motzer's baby.
"There are certain flavors reminiscent [of Sylk 130]," he says. "But this is a jazz thing. It's all tunes that I wrote or collaborated on with Chris Cuzme. The thing about the band is the interplay that's happening; it's really collective improvisation."
Hobart Rowland Philadelphia Weekly...
GLOBAL ILLAGE SUSHILOVE SESSIONS
3/20/2003
Consisting of members out of Philly and NYC, from other groups like the Jazzheads, King Britt's Sylk 130 and Sole Pocket, the foursome Global Illage consolidates for Sushilove Sessions, a double disc which tenders two separate excursions in to live instumental bliss - aptly titled the 'chill side' and 'ill side.' Whether there's a beat or not, Illage manages to find that groove and ride it profoundly. The 'chill' disc is synth driven, chimes-laden, dreamy, somewhat new age and drenched with jazzy undertones from sax solos to sparse guitar licks. Think late Talk Talk, ECM, or Peter Gabriel's soothing side - utterly befitting of radio shows like Star's End or Echoes. The 'ill' disc is a downright jam session with live, laid-back trip-hoppy beats and rhythms, groovy guitar and synth-guitar, heart-riding funky basslines, didgeridoos, flutes and some of the more mind-blowing trumpet solos you'll ever hear, a la Tortoise, Club d'Elf, or even The Sun Ra Arkestra. Sushilove Sessions is a breathtaking pot- pouri of jazzy, electronic ambience. There's nothing raw about it.
-Sean O Neal Philadelphia City Paper...
FRACTAL ARK RAISES JAM-BAND STAKES
3/20/2003
Although Philadelphia's proud musical history has been well documented, the crucial resuscitative role played by its artists over the years has rarely been properly acknowledged.
Yet from Jimmy Smith shaking up the bebop scene of the late 50's, John Coltrane's exploratory spiritual trip of the 60's and Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff's 70's soul salvation to Schooly D's late-80s hiphop jolt and the Roots' beat breakthrough in the 90s, whenever music seemed to be getting stale, you could always count on someone from the City of Brotherly Love to offer a timely ass-kick that would bring things roaring back to life.
Tough acts to follow, but Philly groove unit Fractal Ark - involving session guitarist Tim Motzer (Ursula Rucker, King Britt), poet Elliot Levin (Cecil Taylor, Odean Pope), sub bassist Barry Meehan (the Bears), keyboardist Mark Boyce (Delta 72), and turntablist DJ Ian Jolah Riddle (Ghat Math)- have the skills and the wisdom to liven up a jam-band genre overpopulated by wank specialists.
A brief sampling of the brain-scattering improvisations on their recent Live Volume 2 disc should be proof enough that Fractal Ark have what it takes to create in the moment as a group rather than merely exchanging solos.
"What makes playing with Fractal Ark so exciting is the experimental nature of the group," says Motzer from Philadelphia. "We come to each gig ready to improvise the entire set. It's all based on what DJ Jolah does with his turntables and beatbox, and then we each build on that and move out from there.
"We've done 24 shows now, and the more we play together the more this sound gels. Having Mark Boyce come aboard with his incredibly funky keyboard parts has helped bring it together."
But laying stone-solid grooves over house and broken beats isn't enough for Fractal Ark - they intend to bring the studio to the stage.
"With the technology available now you can cut and paste beats, pitch things up and down and manipulate minute sounds in endless ways in the recording studio.
"What we need to do next is to bring these sound concepts into a performance context and create this sound with instruments. The challenge for us and the audience is to keep the music moving forward-that's what Fractal Ark is all about."
Tim Perlich
NOW TORONTO
Toronto's Independent Weekly
February 28-March 6, 2002
Issue 1050 Vol. 21 No. 26...
3/30/2006
Tilomo - Soft Lunch (1k recordings)
Tim Motzer has made some pretty noisy shit...Ursula Rucker and King Britt's Sister Gertrude Morgan CD—not to mention contributions to David Sylvian's Nine Horses and Jaki Liebezeit's Secret Rhythms. Yet, on this new solo excursion, this Philadelphian finds solace in silence.
Tilomo, Tim Motzer's guitar/laptop solo project, benefits greatly from the sloe-gin-y liquid soul of his work with Britt—you can hear it in the way his fuzzy jazz-foink chords ooze through the title track. But there's a sputter, beep, whoosh and clink to the proceedings that make it happily irksome and decidedly un-neo-soulful. The sawed, strained string samples of "Blue Samari," the thickly blown wind sounds that trace the development of "Embrace" from autumn chill to winter storm, the cheery tinkling of "Chi Moto"—there are eight million moody stories to be told in this ambient jungle.
--A.D. Amorosi (City Paper)...
sister gertrude morgan (ropeadope)12/14/2005
king britt presents sister gertrude morgan (ropeadope)
Best known for her vibrant folk-art paintings, Sister Gertrude Morgan (1900-1980) cut a stark gospel album in New Orleans in the late ’60s. Philadelphia house-music and hip-hop producer King Britt recently devised new backing tracks for Morgan’s insistent, wild-eyed vocals and rattling tambourine. Although such revisionism can smack of cheesy gimmickry, his unlikely hybrid is a glorious success. Britt resists the urge to depict this passionate eccentric as a weirdo, respectfully crafting diverse, satisfying settings for her fiery minisermons. Brooding and bluesy, “Let’s Make a Record” turns the exhortation “Praise him!” into an apocalyptic warning, while the wailing harmonica of “Living Bread” conveys deep yearning. If the funky percussion of “I Was Healed by the Wounds” reimagines Morgan as a rapper, “Precious Lord Lead Me On” marries her message to a lovely melody. (jon young for motherjones)...
nine horses - snow borne sorrow12/4/2005
After the stark blemish, Sylvian has returned with a modern masterpiece that utilizes elements of avant guarde jazz and electronica melding effortlessly with Sylvian's pop sensibility to create his best release in years. Half of the disc contains material written with Steve Jansen and the other half contains material written with keyboardist/vibraphonist/remixer Burnt Friedman.
"Wonderful World" is an eerie jazz waltz featuring a vocal duet between Sylvian and Stina Nordenstam (who sounds somewhat like a cross between Shelly Duval as Olive Oyl and Rickie Lee Jones). Their 'she / he' back and forth lyrical scheme gives the song the overall feel of what could be considered as a Broadway musical show tune in the day and age of post 9/11. "Darkest Birds" is the 'poppiest' track on the disc, with slight elements of electronica and a punchier kick to the catchy chorus that gives the song a big lift. "The Banality Of Evil" is built upon a prevalent 5/4 rhythm throughout and Sylvian's polyrhythmic vocal lines may take some time to entirely sink in, but they will do just that with repeated listening. This track has a tone somewhat akin to the work of Peter Gabriel, not only in the rhythm and snaky guitar lines, but in the sinister backing vocals and grunts that appear later in this extended track. "Atom And Cell" is a slow dirge in 6/8. The sinister backing vocals and polyrhythmic vocal lines from the last track continue here, and in even greater abundance. The horn arrangement, or disarrangement to be more exact, is a nice touch that adds even more confusion to the disfunction of this plodding track dealing with the plight of the homeless. Ryuichi Sakamoto contributes some tasty piano melodies to the piece. "A History Of Holes" is another track in the odd time signature of five, with more free improvisational soloing from the horns, but the odd feel of this one is straightened out by Sylvian's smooth vocal delivery. Though the music was primarily written by Friedman, Sylvian's lyrics seem to be a little more biographical than he is usually willing to offer up, dealing with childhood memories...mostly those he has chosen to block out during most of his adult life. It may take some listening to get the gist of this track, but this one is a gem. "Snow Borne Sorrow" is a track that Jansen originally intended for a possible solo work. The harsh electronic sound of Sylvian's last release, blemish, makes a brief appearance during the introduction of this track but the song smooths out into a gentle ballad in 6/8. The lyrics detail Sylvian's recent divorce and the effect on the children. Ryuichi Sakamoto contributes another notable cameo on piano and there is some fine string quartet orchestration. "The Day The Earth Stole Heaven" is a hybrid of folk and jazz that reveals itself to be the highlight of this release. Sylvian's voice is in such fine form here. Guitarist Tim Motzer composed the music and Sylvian's melody lines are the most focused of all the selections...a perfect collaboration. "The Librarian" is the last track and is a fleshed out version of the Friedman / Jaki Liebezeit track released earlier this year. The song now has more of a pronounced groove due to the addition of drums and syncopated guitar riffs. Greater use of Morten Grønvad's vibraphone is similar to that of vibemaster Gary Burton's contributions on Bruce Cockburn's 'The Charity Of Night', and adds an excellent texture to the song. Yet there may be a little too much going on when compared to the original and the clutter of the additional instruments may have now taken away from the subtlety of Sylvian's delicate vocal delivery. But the song is still one of the stronger tunes on the disc. And the disc is Sylvian's strongest since the early nineties.
...
sister gertrude morgan (ropeadope)12/4/2005
R Rated Reviews: King Britt
By Jason Moon Wilkins
King Britt Presents: Sister Gertrude Morgan
Preservation Hall/Ropeadope
Primitive folk art painter, singer, poet, street preacher and "servant of the Lord" in several capacities (including running orphanages and missions in the poorest parts of New Orleans) Sister Gertrude Morgan was born in 1900 and died in 1980. That was long before she received international recognition for her artwork and former Digable Planets DJ and world-renowned remixer and producer King Britt remixed her music into a soulful psychedelic epic.
It's fitting that Morgan once made her home in the Ninth Ward, the destitute area most affected by Hurricane Katrina, because her voice now calls like a righteous, insistent spirit from that spoiled Southern soil. It's also fitting that the woman who ran an orphanage that was blown away by Hurricane Betsy in 1965 finally is being rediscovered, years after her death, in the wake of another, even more devastating, storm.
Long before this album (which ironically was released a short time before Katrina hit) and long before her renaissance hit full swing in 2003, when a limited-edition release of her lone album, Let's Make a Record (originally recorded in 1970), was issued to a small but vocal group of critics and collectors, Morgan was roaming the streets of New Orleans, preaching, singing and shouting from the city's street corners. Dressed in a pristine white nurse's uniform meant to signify both her self-appointed role as a "bride of Christ" and her role as a spiritual healer to the sick souls she saw wandering the streets of the French Quarter, Morgan would preach and sing, accompanied usually by nothing more than a tambourine. This a cappella style eventually was captured on tape in 1970 on the aforementioned Let's Make a Record, which King Britt and his crew recently reinterpreted.
The album that King Britt has made is fervently and unflinchingly religious due to the nature of the lyrics, but the power and passion of Morgan's voice truly transcend any denomination or belief. Less songs than chants, Morgan's improvised sermon songs slowly revolve around a central theme, such as "I Am the Living Bread," until her chanting, circular singing becomes a spiral, spinning her message up through infinity, a process helped along by Britt's alternately ecstatic and euphoric beats. This album is more mantra than Moby, who also famously employed unearthed a cappella soul singers on his enormously successful Play album. These tunes are aimed more at moving your spirit, not your booty.
Morgan literally created many of these memorable tunes on the spot, famously shouting to the original album's engineer, "Let's make a record for our Lord!" before shaking her tambourine and immediately extemporizing on that theme while the fellas with the tape machine rushed to push record.
It's this song, more than any of the others on the album, that really shows the inspired and spiritually uplifting strength of this collaboration. King Britt and his musical partner, Tim Motzer, labored for 12 months to make this epic reinterpretation of Morgan's work into a hymn to her genius, and on Let's Make a Record you can hear that effort. Britt and Motzer rarely let their sonic experimentation detract from Morgan's original intent. In most cases, and especially on Let's Make a Record, it sounds like she was as present at the making of this album as any of the other guest musicians. When a fuzzy '60s skwonking guitar counters her voice or a humming buzz echoes her droning vocals, it lends credibility to King Britt's assertion that Morgan was at the studio in spirit.
Everyone is looking for a way to contribute to the relief effort in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast this holiday season, and this record is one way to make a small but measurable difference in keeping alive a music institution such as Preservation Hall, which always supported Sister Gertrude Morgan and even in its displaced state continues to do so....
sister gertrude morgan (ropeadope)12/4/2005
Preaching the Gospel
King Britt's new album began in New Orleans in 1970, with one woman and a tambourine.
by Doree Shafrir (Philadelphia Weekly Story)
King Britt has worked with De La Soul and the Roots, Digable Planets, Alma Horton and Grover Washington Jr. He's remixed Yoko Ono and Femi Kuti. He's spun records all over the world. But until now he's never worked with a dead woman.
That woman is Sister Gertrude Morgan-folk artist, poet, preacher, nurse and musician-who recorded a single album of gospel music at New Orleans' Preservation Hall in 1970. Spare and deeply spiritual, the album was done entirely a cappella, with just a tambourine as accompaniment. In 2004 Preservation Hall director Ben Jaffe released it under his Preservation Hall Recordings label to coincide with a traveling exhibit of Morgan's art organized by the American Folk Art Museum in New York City.
On Tuesday Ropeadope releases King Britt's remixes of Sister Gertrude's album. King Britt Presents Sister Gertrude Morgan was two years in the making, the product of a series of fortuitous meetings and fruitful collaborations.
"Two or three years ago I was at Jazz Fest in New Orleans," Ropeadope founder Andy Hurwitz says on the phone from Brooklyn. "I was introduced to Ben and listened to the album. He asked me if I thought it'd be cool to have Ropeadope artists remix the record. I told him that instead of having lots of artists remix it, I'd rather see one person do the whole project."
Hurwitz asked Britt if he'd be interested in remixing Sister Gertrude's music. "I said I wasn't familiar with Sister Gertrude Morgan," Britt says. "Then I Googled her, and I was blown away. I felt like she was someone I should know-and more people should know her. I never accept a project unless I really like it, but I knew this would be incredible."
On her album Morgan sings of the Lord and redemption, but also of struggles for equality and the nature of power. Her spirituality is filtered through a strong political viewpoint, reflective of the turbulent late '60s and the struggles of the civil rights movement.
Britt's remixes, which he did with his longtime collaborator Tim Motzer, bring a contemporary element to the music without overwhelming it. There's the dark vibe of the "Power" remix, which channels the gothic New Orleans of Anne Rice, but there's also the exuberant opening track "Let's Make a Record," whose upbeat, electronic-influenced stylings make it almost danceable.
"Let's Make a Record" is the only track Motzer did without Britt's input. "I had just seen PJ Harvey," Motzer says. "Her guitar player made a big impression on me that night. He was overdriving his amplifiers. There's a tip of the hat to Led Zeppelin as well."
The rest of the tracks were done collaboratively, Britt says. "I sent the original tracks to my friend Jeff [Chestik]," he explains. "He put each song into Pro Tools, put it in time and figured out the beat, so I could take each track and put it into my computer and start working. It saved me about a month of work."
For a song like "Power," the first one they worked on, Britt says he was influenced by '80s band Talk Talk's 1988 album Spirit of Eden. "Talk Talk was starting to go left field at that point," he says. "They were using organ, slide guitar. The vocals were haunting. I thought these were the elements for Sister Gertrude."
Influenced by Talk Talk's use of harmonica, Britt called G. Love, who agreed to perform on the album as well. "He came in with a margarita and a harmonica, and an old mike from the '50s. When he laid the harmonica down, Tim started the track. He gave me the files and I took them home and worked on them," Britt says.
The rest of the album, Britt says, was done similarly. "Each track always starts with a beat, because I'm a DJ. I put the vocal in with a metronome. I put different rhythms in, then chords and the organ. Then I'd give it to Tim to put in the guitar, then the bass."
The experience of doing the Sister Gertrude album has inspired Britt to look beyond his typical sources for music to remix. "My friend Steph went to Brazil and found an a cappella group from the '60s-I'm trying to get the rights to it," he says. "Technology allows us to do whatever. It brings awareness to cultures in a different way."
Percussion on the album was done with a drum machine, and most of the bass lines were programmed-only the guitar and harmonica are live. But Britt has put together a band to perform the album live. The Sister Gertrude Morgan Experience, as he's calling it, performed in a rehearsal at the Painted Bride in August, then debuted a few days later at the Flow Festival in Helsinki. The official Stateside debut will be at the Bride Oct. 8. The live show is accompanied by a video projection put together by VJ Illuminati. Rapid-fire imagery of Sister Gertrude and her art flash across the screen, followed by shots of people protesting the war in Iraq as the song "Power" is played.
The Oct. 8 show will also include a screening of the 15-minute documentary Searching for Sister Gertrude Morgan, which Britt did with MBN Studios' Ben Barnett. "King suggested I come to New Orleans as he went down there to let these people hear [the album] for the first time. I started hanging out and started filming. That was it," Barnett says. The pair visited Sister Gertrude's grave and her old neighborhood, recreating the mysterious life Sister Gertrude lived.
All of the project's elements-the album, the live show and the documentary-pay tribute to a woman whose message, Motzer says, is ever more applicable.
"I think Sister Gertrude speaks something that people need to hear in these times we're living in," says Motzer. "Iraq, tsunamis, all the stuff that's been happening. It gives people solace, gives people strength and hope that the whole planet isn't going down the dumps. There's a real joy and power in her voice." ...
sister gertrude morgan (ropeadope)12/4/2005
Revelations
King Britt finds God in the meticulous resurrection of a lost soul sister.
by Andrew Parks (City Paper Cover Story)
Moby would have wet himself had he heard it; maybe even sold his stake in Teany for a simple sample. For this self-proclaimed "bride of Christ" sounded as if she were from another time and plane, clanging her convulsive tambourine and singing verses from the book of Revelations like Mavis Staples possessed by the Holy Spirit. But the bald one didn't discover the lone lost recording of Sister Gertrude Morgan. Ropeadope Records founder Andy Hurwitz did, as he was flipping through discs in New Orleans during Jazz & Heritage Fest 2002. It only took one listen of Morgan's mysteriously labeled Let's Make a Record live LP (recorded in 1970, and pressed in small, discrete batches by the legendary Preservation Hall) before Hurwitz was on the phone negotiating a proper reissue of the record with Ben Jaffe, overseer of the jazz mecca. (Meanwhile, Jaffe re-released Morgan's raw voice-and-tambourine tracks in 2004, to coincide with a traveling exhibit of her art organized by the American Folk Art Museum in New York City.)
"[She] has to be the best-kept secret in blues and gospel music," explains Hurwitz. "I could not believe that her voice wasn't world-famous."
Hurwitz says it only took "about 12 minutes" to spark plans for both a Ropeadope re-release with extensive liner notes (including some of Morgan's haunting simplistic paintings) and a remix record. There was one hang-up, however: Hurwitz wasn't comfortable with the suggestion of selecting a dozen producers for the job, similar to the successful but spotty looting of Verve's vaults on countless compilations, most notably by Madlib. Such an approach could distort the deeply spiritual, raw power of Morgan's two-track recordings. A carefully constructed "reinterpretation," on the other hand, could take her to the higher, clouded realm she celebrated in song.
"Sister Gertrude's music was too sacred for something as shallow [as a simple remix]," says Hurwitz. Turns out he had Philadelphia's own Madlib in mind from the start — the chameleonic soul man King Britt. "I felt no single person was better-suited for the project because I knew he'd treat it with respect and integrity. Britt wasn't going to take the easy way out, raping the sister's work for the sake of making a hit. Just look at Moby's Play."
Inspired: "We were going off Sister Gertrude -- she was in the room with us because her spirit, her vibe is so huge, the essence of everything," says Tim Motzer (left).
Convincing Britt to commit was about as easy as Hurwitz's original call to Jaffe, although Britt admits he had to Google Morgan's name a bit before he realized who the hell she was: a revered New Orleans legend, saintlike in some circles, yet rarely spoken about in graveyard tours. Once he heard those original two-track cuts and saw some of her paintings (collected in the hardcover book Sister Gertrude Morgan: The Tools of Her Ministry), the producer was wholly engrossed in the project. It helped that he'd fallen into a creative funk since releasing his first hip-hop album, 2003's space odyssey Adventures in Lo-fi (on BBE, featuring rhymes from Quasimoto, De La Soul and Britt's former Digable Planets collaborator, Cherrywine).
"I was just looking for a new sound, a new inspiration," admits Britt. "And my mom's like, 'You need to find God, you need to go to church,'" Britt says, with a groan and a laugh. "After hearing Sister G, I realized we all need a sense of spirituality right now. The whole world is in cahoots and it's Armageddon time. People are losing their sense of hope, so I think records like this are exactly what people need."
Britt was so taken aback by Morgan's fiery sermon-songs that he immediately insisted on including frequent collaborator (as part of the Sylk 130 collective) Tim Motzer in the songwriting and production process. Motzer owns 1K Recordings and has played with everyone from Les Nubians to Patti LaBelle and Philadelphia poet Ursula Rucker. He even has an ambient project in the works called Soft Lunch, under the guise of Tilomo ("King uses it for sex," jokes Motzer), as well as a solo record that Britt describes as "very Ziggy Stardust … we [Britt's FiveSix imprint] are actually trying to license it to a major label."
Sitting on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, amid the stifling midafternoon sun and several wannabe Rockys, it's clear the two are more than session mates with a similar lust for crate digging (they actually headed out to Lancaster at 6 this Sunday morning for the town's monthly record fair, where some prime David Axelrod and Don Cherry platters were consumed). That's partly because they've known each other since the heyday of Britt's residencies at Silk City in the mid-'90s, including the Saturday house and electronic party Back to Basics, and a Monday mix of hip-hop, soul and live music that often featured Motzer's virtuoso fret work.
"I'm into the old-school mode of production — getting the right people to make the best product," says Britt, as the three of us sit down on a bench near the museum's monumental entrance. "That's what Quincy Jones would do: Get the right people to do everything, like on Off the Wall for Michael Jackson. Tim is a super musician, whereas I've never had training or anything. So coming from that point of view, I may play a chord the wrong way, but it really doesn't matter if it's wrong or right."
"It's just whether this is working or not," adds Motzer. "Ultimately, we complement one another. The holes are always covered, which is cool."
Britt continues, explaining that he prefers collaborating over the reclusive bedroom producer role largely because he was an only child — an only child so bored he played Dungeons and Dragons by himself. (Too bad he didn't know Philadelphia's drum 'n' bass dungeonmaster Dieselboy back then.)
Five months of constant writing and chance improv — with nary a second for a D&D match — went into the Sister Gertrude Morgan record. The attention to detail and refusal to simply remix with synth stabs or piano keys certainly shows. The opening cut, "Let's Make a Record" (tracked by Motzer and his Fractured Reverb Underground bandmate, bassist Barry Meehan), is as dark and disturbing as it is a joyous battle cry of treated riffs, snappy breaks, gumbo-thick basslines and hallelujahs from the heavens. Every séance that follows is as sonically surprising, from the way "I Was Healed by the Wounds" hits you right in the chest with a choice "oomph!" sample and tribal percussion patterns to the sheer soul-singeing intensity of "Power (Voodoo Version)" [see sidebar]. If she's listening, Sister G is probably smiling right now, momentarily content that her message of salvation will live on — especially in these troubled times of tsunamis, war and of course, the Mississippi Delta flood that washed away her beloved city.
"Man, it's just beautiful," says Hurwitz. "I should also add that this record is bigger than King and he knows it. The real story here is about Sister Gertrude Morgan — her lyrics, her passion and her art are borderline religious to me. If there was one artist past/present/future that I could sit down with for a roadside chat, it would be her."
"Some people erroneously call this a remix record, when it's really a full-blown production," adds Motzer. "We're writing songs around what she already wrote down, being inspired by her vibe. We were going off Sister Gertrude — she was in the room with us because her spirit, her vibe is so huge, the essence of everything. She had this great message in the '60s, one that's just as relevant in 2005."
Relevant, and better than another techno-lite blues album from Moby?
"Well, he did sell a lot of records," says Britt, laughing. "I'd rather hear Sister Gertrude in the Top 10 than the new Ludacris. I want us to release pop records, but in the sense of our pop — just good songs with longevity that people can sing. Whatever happens, we're embarking on a heavy journey the next few years."
King Britt Presents Sister Gertrude Morgan, Sat., Oct. 8, 8 p.m., $25, Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine St., 215-925-9914, www.paintedbride.org.
One Track Mind
"Power (Voodoo Version)" featuring G. Love
At first, they thought he was crazy. Or maybe it was just his margarita talking. Either way, King Britt and Tim Motzer weren't about to say no when G. Love asked the duo to kill the lights in Britt's studio for a "Voodoo Version" of Sister Gertrude Morgan's already evocative song, "Power."
"We couldn't even see him, but he ripped it on the harmonica and took it over the top," says Britt. "He brought the dirty swamp vibe out."
Motzer, in turn, went absolutely wild with his riffs — fingerpicking his strings, strangling his guitar's neck, and even getting a little Phish-y. (Motzer's Jazzheads quartet would have totally gotten booked at Bonnaroo, had their Avant Wot Not LP not come out in 1999.)
"I was trying to conjure the voodoo, so to speak, by playing slide guitars," explains Motzer. "It just evokes so much — that sound of tearing your heart out of your chest. It's very beautiful and brutal, the most gorgeous nasty sound you've heard. It's like modern-day blues in a sense."
To achieve an ultramodern excursion into Delta blues, Britt started with Morgan's time-stretched vocals (setting her singing to a certain pitch and amount of beats per minute) and the usual bedrock of a production: A beat. This track does more than dust off a drum break, though. It goes for the broken beat vibe of West London, a shadowy, soulful sound popularized by Jazzanova in the States. Consequently, the track is manic for its entire eight minutes, even a little claustrophobic, with "deep, dark and dubby" basslines alongside keyboard snippets that recall the best of reggae. Britt is so happy with the song that he's considering submitting it for Grammy consideration.
"'Power' is intense," says Britt. "It was total voodoo: A groove that continually builds and turns into a complete trance."...
SDT @ the edinburgh fringe
8/18/2004
Seductive Steps
Festival Dance: Scottish Dance Theatre - Dance Base until August 22
Reviewed by Elizabeth Schwyzer
Sunday Herald Edinburgh Scotland
It’s not just hype – Scottish Dance Theatre really is on top form, and this Fringe programme shows off its delectable dancing. In utterly distinct styles, both Didy Veldman’s Track and Sean Feldman’s Moment explore themes of competition and seduction, and the interplay between desire and rejection.
Moment is wonderfully evocative, full of aggressive slashes and great lunging grasps executed with startling fluidity and set to Tim Motzer’s pulsating, percussive soundscape. Track takes a more literal tack, contrasting Victoria Roberts tottering on blood-red heels with Philippa White in her panties going to extreme lengths with a roll of masking tape. In an intimate space like this, detail is everything, and these dancers really hold up under close scrutiny, because they know how to dance with one another. It’s the moments of recognition between them that makes Scottish Dance Theatre such a joy to watch....
SDT @ the place, london
8/15/2004
Scottish Dance Theatre, The Place, London
By Zoe Anderson
06 April 2004
Scottish Dance Theatre is a small company with a growing reputation. Since Janet Smith took over as director seven years ago, the company has been touring more widely, in larger venues and with a more ambitious repertoire. The current tour shows works made for the company within the past year; two have commissioned scores. New choreography is a gamble, and these works are patchy. But it's a direct, lively performance.
The strongest piece is Sean Feldman's Moment. Seven dancers run in and out of solos and group dances, tilting and swinging. Tim Motzer's new score moves from electronic bleeps to gasps and voices. Feldman gets more imaginative as soon as the human voice comes in. A long section of laboured breathing and speech is set as a duet for Philippa White and Baptiste Bourgougnon. They circle around each other, closing and separating. As White steps towards Bourgougnon, she tips right over into a fall. Each time, he catches her and turns, swinging her round with him. It's a lurching, dipping spin, a fall that starts to look like a waltz.
...
jazzcafe in london
12/20/2003
Electrifying
Ursula Rucker w/ Tim Motzer
Jazz Cafe, London
08/10/2003
"The revolution will not be televised". But
maybe it'll happen at the Jazz Cafe©.
Philadelphia's spoken-word queen, Ursula
Rucker, performed at the famous Camden
venue, leaving a spellbound audience
dreaming of a less ignorant world.
Recently, Ursula released her second album,
Silver or Lead, dropping poetical science
over progressive Hip Hop and future jazz
rhythms crafted by the likes of 4 Hero and
Jazzanova. Firmly regarded as the hottest
poet on wax, Ursula first won hearts with
her collaborations with Philly's finest, the
Roots, now she sells out in advance, over-
seas at the Jazz Cafe, whose audience was
treated to a rare reading of Ursula's tales of
racism, sexism, heartbreak and loss, accom-
panied by collaborator and producer, Tim
Motzer. Armed with two guitars, an Akai
sampler and pedals, Tim replayed the layers
of music which accompanied Ursula's
recordings, sampling everything but pre-
programmed beats to create a wall-of-
sound. Ursula's voice is captivatingly, her
delivery succinct and articulate, whilst
rhythmically on point. Her words are sin-
cere, steeped in true Hip Hop culture, yet
not cliched, and are extremely personal. To
paraphrase Ursula herself, she isn't doing
this to hear the sound of her own voice, this
is her fucking life!
Oliver Brunetti, London Student Culture...
cactusclub in brugge belgium
12/20/2003
ursula rucker @ cactus club
After performing for 40 minutes or so Ursula Rucker stopped the show because the monitors weren't working. Guitar player Tim Motzer and the drummer (gintis janusonis) also had the same problem. Ursula had asked the sound guys before if they could do something about it. She was very polite though, and it was quite fair: without monitors it is very hard to do a decent gig. So she went offstage and told the audience she wasn't coming back until somebody fixed this problem. And how was the music up 'til then? Well, it was nice, although I never felt this was like a gig I'd remember for a long time.
But then, after ten minutes, the monitor-problem was fixed, and Ursula stepped onto the stage once again. Much more confident now, she and the 2-piece band came back with a vengeance. They performed totally different but beautiful arrangements of tunes from her two albums. It all sounded so great because you know all these tracks, but don't immediately recognise them when played with only voice, guitar and drums. Don't be fooled by the word 'guitar' however, as Tim Motzer uses a heap of digital toys to turn the guitar into a versatile full blown band. (check Spectrum's post on this)
He did a mesmerizing version of 'What a woman must do' where he played all kinds of oriental bells just with his guitar. Other highlights were the great poetry of 'Soon', the three-tracks-in-one 'Q & A' and the smart accoustic rendition of the 4hero production 'Time'. In total, she performed for more than 1:45 hours, leaving us once again with a great live experience...
by Lensco for Beyondjazz.net...
nu cultures review9/10/2003
"Nu Cultures" A One K Mix Collection
Various (1K)
Tim Motzer is one of those artists who is better known and respected as a musician on a global scale than he is here on his home turf. Locally (in
Philadelphia) we've seen Tim strum his guitar on stage at the Theatre of the Living Arts as part of the Silk 130 Tour (which King Britt brought with the
release of "When The Funk Hits the Fan"). He's also provided music to the Afro-French duo Les Nubians and countless other acts. Back in the day, Motzer jammed with a combo called the Jazzheads.
"Nu Cultures" is an amalgamation of Motzer's musical interests. An extensive repertoire of forward thinking sound, the tracks on "Nu Cultures" span tastes. Steeped in jazz, Motzer and company extend their sonic reach into experimental
ambient glitchiness.
There are some very beautiful tracks on this mix (which, mind you isn't like a deejay mix tape) including "Remember" and the openingtrack, "Free My Mind" which feature the vocals of Ellie Perez.
Motzer's influence reaches across a funky Philadelphia musical underground that values talent and innovation more than commercialism. Various incarnations of Motzer-influenced acts are featured: Jazzheads, Fractured Reverb Underground, Global Illage along with Perez and vocalist Barry Meehan take turns entertaining us. There are several other musicians pumping their talent through this CD as well.
If you're a fan of Compost Records artists, or any progressive German or underground French labels, you'll find "Nu Cultures" to be right up your alley.
I am not a big fan of the glitch track, but the rest of the disc is so stellar you can easily overlook it.
kc bajai - audiogliphix magazine february 2003
...
ursula rucker + tim motzer - live reviews
7/31/2003
'Change' is good
Poetess Ursula Rucker beautifully capped off the eclectic local entertainment and arts showcase "We Carry Change" July 12 at Union Terminal. Teamed with astounding Hamilton-bred guitarist Tim Motzer, Rucker's sing-sung spoken word performance was smart, artful and generally riveting. Early in her set, she addressed the efforts of local activists trying to get black performers and artists to boycott the city with grace and logic, pointing out that the arts are an ideal way to actually address issues and bring races together, as was proven by the eclectic multi-cultural audience in attendance.
CITYBEAT Vol 9, Issue 36 Jul 16-Jul 22, 2003
Cincinnati, Ohio
URSULA RUCKER + TIM MOTZER / ALEXKID @ Les Nuits Botanique, Brussels, Sept. 21st 2003
Philly's very own Supa Sista was in town! The lady we all love since she displayed her soul, wisdom and street poetry on some of our all time favorite albums and singles from some of our all time favorite producers (Jazzanova, King Britt, 4hero,...): Miss Ursula Rucker! She did a very intimate set joined only by none other then Tim Motzer who worked with her on the Supa Sista lp and is also a member of King Britt's stunning Sylk 130 project. Tim brought just an accoustic and 'digital' guitar and a sampler/drummachine but the effect was almost that of a full band, looping his own guitarplaying and adding drumbeats and even more sounds from his excellent skillz on the guitar. Great sounddesigner! Ursula herself took time to tell little stories to introduce the songs - for instance about how she got into hiphop as a kid and how she feels about it now (a massive lack of responsibility among black artists) - and to inform that she was suffering from a jet-lag that had her trippin'. At one point she even said she felt so weird as if she was doing a performance-art thing here
Fortunately the music wasn't suffering from that as she guided us through a set of songs from both her debut and her upcoming album. Here's the list (which Tim was so kind to give me after the show to put it on this very site!)
get ready / womansong / supa sista / untitled flow / fear in flight / 4 minutes of fun / what a woman must do / keep fallin' / what / time
some got a nice new arrangement, like 'fear...' and 'what', which made it all the more interesting and enjoyable. Go check this Lady out in Bruges' Cactusclub in november!!!
And guess what ? Backstage Miss Rucker and Mister Motzer were waiting to join Mr. AlexKid and band for a last encore!!! They both were asked to the stage again to bring a really brilliant song but I'm affraid I did not recognise it to tell you what it was. Probably from Ursula's new lp. Definately the highlight of the night that made me go home on a cloud.... Another great night it was!
beyondjazz, belguim september 22, 2003
...
NU CULTURES - A ONE K MIX COLLECTION4/24/2003
Bathe gracefully in the deep, cleansing, soothing, gentle, experimental luxuriance of jazzy lushness. You can thank Philly's own Tim Motzer (guitarist/multi-instrumentalist/producer for
Les Nubians, Ursula Rucker, Kenny Lattimore and King Britt's Sylk 130) for dishin' out this 65-minute trip through a downtempo dreamscape that caresses your relaxing head and massages your soul. Motzer strings together previously recorded tracks from an array of his own projects and collaborations to yield a seamless, continuous mix of supple, multicolored goodness. So, soak in the soulful, trip-hoppin' atmospheric vocal verdure and lyrical sweetness of Ellie Perez and Barry Meehan. Crawl into the subterranean, sax-laden, organic nu jazz of the Jazzheads. And let yourself free-fall weightlessly to the beatless ambience and glitch-y experimentation of Global Illage and Fractured Reverb Underground. Let Motzer do the talking while your soul does the walking, and your body can sit back with headphones and some cushiony pillows.
–Sean O’Neal Philadelphia City Paper
Sept 12 - Sept 19, 2002 issue #904
...
NU CULTURES - A ONE K MIX COLLECTION4/24/2003
Sweet grooves and soulful tunes from this Philly collective -- a surprisingly nice batch of tracks that sparkles with the spiritual depth of recent work from the London scene! The lovely Ellie Perez lends her lead vocals to about a third of the tracks on the set -- making for some really great tunes that have a drifting cosmic feel, tripping lightly with lots of great keyboard work! Titles include "Come Alive", "Luscious", "On The Rize", and "Free My Mind" by Ellie Perez; "Between", "Koln Shivers", and "Spiders Etude" by Fractured Reverb Underground; "Hollands Tunnel" and "Blur" by Jazzheads; and "Loves First Night" by Barry Meehan. dusty grooves, chicago
...
URSULA RUCKER - SUPA SISTA (k7) Reviews3/20/2003
"Like Laurie Anderson, there's an acrid electronic clatter behind her, provided by Phillip Charles, 4 Hero, Tim Motzer (who creates a Bjork-
blues environ for the title track) and Motzer/Britt."
a.d amorosi city paper
"Spring is a triumph of smooth beats (from King Britt and Tim Motzer) and languid
phrases that drift into a dreamy ether."
Tom Moon philadelphia inquirer
"Supa Sista reads like a who's who of respected producers; 4 Hero's Dego MacFarlane and Marc Clair deal the goods on 'what' and '7,' King Britt and Tim Motzer man the desk 'Spring' while Cali's Jonah Sharp is called up for production on 'one million ways.' Supa Sista makes for a fluid listen with Rucker's voice the single constant."
London Darker than Blue
"The title track "Supa Sista" sounds like some funked-up "gangsta folk" music that invokes the flavor of Cassandra Wilson's major label breakthrough Blue Lights 'Till Dawn (1994). Produced by Tim Motzer who Rucker originally worked with on King Britt's Sylk130, the song begins with Rucker's slow big drum chant of "I rose and fell / As he called my name . . . he changed my name / Called my blackness untamed / He put me in chains / He changed my name / Then he changed my names."
mark anthony neal --popmatters
"Philly native Rucker, along with collaborator Tim Motzer and another musican or two, turned out a brilliant set of her socially engaged neo-soul and spoken-word, but it was tough to focus on her performance amidst the swirl of people... The claustrophobia was almost worth it, though, seeing Björk plow her way through the crowd, a star happy to come back down to earth for the afternoon."
neumu needledrops nyc -- from a review on nyc ps1 festival w/ herbert, dj mark rae and ursula rucker.
"And the music -- a delicious blend of black soul and electronica crafted by heavies like King Britt, 4Hero, Alexkid, Robert Yancey III, and Tim Motzer -- is as intoxicating as the words."
errol nazareth - toronto sun
"Prominent producers are helping out; 4Hero, AlexKid from French F-Communications and
Tim Motzer (who has also written many of the songs together with Ursula), just to name a few. Because of this, "Supa Sista" is a soulful mix of different styles. Tracks to especially mention are "Brown Boy", "Supa Sista", "7" and "Womansong"."
senait belaynesh pitch adjust
"On the acoustic-funk-driven title track , produced by jazz guitarist/producer Tim Motzer
(Jazzheads, Sylk 130), Rucker calls black women to arms, liltingly proclaiming, "I call on all Supa Sistas/ To emerge from the muck and the mire/ Set the brainwashed-up masses on fire."
lynne d johnson -- tablehouse...
JAMAALADEEN TACUMA & WOLFGANG PUSCHNIG
3/20/2003
Journey Into Gemini Territory (itm)
Eine schöne Platte ist da Wolfgang Puschnig (sax,flute) und Bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma gelungen. Mit Unterstützung von Drummer Adam Guth, Tim Motzer an der Gitarre und Dave Falciani an den Tasten wurden funkig-jazzige Kompositionen mit coolen Grooves aufgenommen. Geschmackvolle Synthie-Sounds und das tighte Zusammenspiel der Rhythmusgruppe sind die Basis, dazu kommen die spannenden Saxophonlinien von Puschnig, die herrlich gekonnt outside klingen. Tacuma hält sich solistisch zurück, glänzt aber mit seiner soliden Spielweise und interessanten Fills. Galaktisch gute Platte.
(am) gitarre and bass berlin...
A MIND FOR JAZZ3/20/2003
Tim Motzer has King Britt to thank for a lot of things, but Jazzheads isn't among them-directly, at least. Lately, it seems the talented, low-key guitarist for King Britt's living, breathing, funky acid-jazz project, Sylk 130, has taken the entrée into loftier East Coast player circles provided him by Britt and run with it. The result: avant wot not (1k), the first standard-issue cd from Motzer's Jazzheads quartet. The 10-track effort is a nimble, all instrumental excursion into the disparate corners of all that boogies, simmers and swings, from acid jazz to improve, from drum n bass to funk.
"It's kind of looking back at what has gone down-from the 70's up to this moment in time-and also looking a bit toward the future," says Motzer of the new album, which is available at Jazzheads gigs and on the web at
www.1krecordings.com.
Aside from Motzer (whose credits also include work with Kenny Lattimore and Isaac Hayes), the group includes drummer Ari Hoenig (James Hurt, Richard Bona), bassist Ben Bocardo (Everlast, Bass-X) and sax player Chris Cuzme (Leslie Chueng). That combined experience pretty much ensures that the playing in dizzyingly fine throughout. But what's most compelling about avant wot not is its unhampered sense of fun, an "up" vibe that carries listeners over some rought compositional patches and murky stylistic transitions.
That giddy quotient should come as no surprise, seeing as Jazzheads were, in essence, born out of a simple love of playing. "Ari Hoenig and myself kind of met through the house band at Silk City," Motzer recalls. "He used to come out and listen every Monday night. One night we started talking, and he said, 'Hey man, you want to
come out and play some night?' And I said, 'Sure man, let's do it.' I had a bunch of tunes, we booked some gigs and it just jelled."
Not that Sylk 130's points of origins weren't a blast in their own right. But what began as a Silk City house band overseen by Britt will always bear his overwhelming influence-as it should ("It was something Britt had in his mind for a long time." Motzer says). While a more collaborative spirit is said to inform the upcoming Sylk 130 release (due this fall on Britt's Columbia-affiliated Ovum label), nothing beats running your own show. And Jazzheads is, by and large Motzer's baby.
"There are certain flavors reminiscent [of Sylk 130]," he says. "But this is a jazz thing. It's all tunes that I wrote or collaborated on with Chris Cuzme. The thing about the band is the interplay that's happening; it's really collective improvisation."
Hobart Rowland Philadelphia Weekly...
GLOBAL ILLAGE SUSHILOVE SESSIONS
3/20/2003
Consisting of members out of Philly and NYC, from other groups like the Jazzheads, King Britt's Sylk 130 and Sole Pocket, the foursome Global Illage consolidates for Sushilove Sessions, a double disc which tenders two separate excursions in to live instumental bliss - aptly titled the 'chill side' and 'ill side.' Whether there's a beat or not, Illage manages to find that groove and ride it profoundly. The 'chill' disc is synth driven, chimes-laden, dreamy, somewhat new age and drenched with jazzy undertones from sax solos to sparse guitar licks. Think late Talk Talk, ECM, or Peter Gabriel's soothing side - utterly befitting of radio shows like Star's End or Echoes. The 'ill' disc is a downright jam session with live, laid-back trip-hoppy beats and rhythms, groovy guitar and synth-guitar, heart-riding funky basslines, didgeridoos, flutes and some of the more mind-blowing trumpet solos you'll ever hear, a la Tortoise, Club d'Elf, or even The Sun Ra Arkestra. Sushilove Sessions is a breathtaking pot- pouri of jazzy, electronic ambience. There's nothing raw about it.
-Sean O Neal Philadelphia City Paper...
FRACTAL ARK RAISES JAM-BAND STAKES
3/20/2003
Although Philadelphia's proud musical history has been well documented, the crucial resuscitative role played by its artists over the years has rarely been properly acknowledged.
Yet from Jimmy Smith shaking up the bebop scene of the late 50's, John Coltrane's exploratory spiritual trip of the 60's and Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff's 70's soul salvation to Schooly D's late-80s hiphop jolt and the Roots' beat breakthrough in the 90s, whenever music seemed to be getting stale, you could always count on someone from the City of Brotherly Love to offer a timely ass-kick that would bring things roaring back to life.
Tough acts to follow, but Philly groove unit Fractal Ark - involving session guitarist Tim Motzer (Ursula Rucker, King Britt), poet Elliot Levin (Cecil Taylor, Odean Pope), sub bassist Barry Meehan (the Bears), keyboardist Mark Boyce (Delta 72), and turntablist DJ Ian Jolah Riddle (Ghat Math)- have the skills and the wisdom to liven up a jam-band genre overpopulated by wank specialists.
A brief sampling of the brain-scattering improvisations on their recent Live Volume 2 disc should be proof enough that Fractal Ark have what it takes to create in the moment as a group rather than merely exchanging solos.
"What makes playing with Fractal Ark so exciting is the experimental nature of the group," says Motzer from Philadelphia. "We come to each gig ready to improvise the entire set. It's all based on what DJ Jolah does with his turntables and beatbox, and then we each build on that and move out from there.
"We've done 24 shows now, and the more we play together the more this sound gels. Having Mark Boyce come aboard with his incredibly funky keyboard parts has helped bring it together."
But laying stone-solid grooves over house and broken beats isn't enough for Fractal Ark - they intend to bring the studio to the stage.
"With the technology available now you can cut and paste beats, pitch things up and down and manipulate minute sounds in endless ways in the recording studio.
"What we need to do next is to bring these sound concepts into a performance context and create this sound with instruments. The challenge for us and the audience is to keep the music moving forward-that's what Fractal Ark is all about."
Tim Perlich
NOW TORONTO
Toronto's Independent Weekly
February 28-March 6, 2002
Issue 1050 Vol. 21 No. 26...