#larry mizell

[plus-low-overthrow]

VIDEO: Roger Glenn - Reachin' (Fantasy)

prod. Larry & Fonce Mizell, 1976. Flutes!

[karmaalwayswins]

Dehd perform a live set on KEXP in 2022.

Video Credit: KEXP

[strathshepard]

[sevendavisjr]

[projazznet]

Donald Byrd – Black Byrd

Black Byrd is a 1973 album by Donald Byrd and his first for Blue Note Records produced by Larry Mizell, assisted by his brother, former Motown producer Fonce. In the jazz funk idiom, it is among Blue Note Records’ best selling album releases. The title of the album inspired the name of Byrd’s apprentice group, The Blackbyrds.

[nonesuchrecords]

Multi-instrumentalist, producer, and composer Yussef Dayes, who is currently on tour in the US, stopped by KEXP in Seattle way back in November following the release of his debut solo album, Black Classical Music, to perform three songs from the album—"Raisins Under the Sun," "Turquoise Galaxy," and "Chasing the Drum"—and talk with host Larry Mizell, Jr. about his work, what Mizell calls "some of the most exciting music I've heard in years."

[allmusic]

AllMusic Staff Pick: The Blackbyrds The Blackbyrds

This amazing album, released 50 years ago this month, is the product of six full-time Howard University students taking the direction of department head and jazz great Donald Byrd into the Fantasy Studios along with the aid of production wizard Larry Mizell. The result is some of the finest groove-oriented jazz music ever recorded.

- Robert Gabriel

[the-birth-of-art]

Black Byrd (Live at Montreux, July 5, 1973)

Donald Byrd: Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Vocals Fonce Mizell: Trumpet, Vocals Allan Barnes: Tenor Saxophone, Flute Nathan Davis: Tenor & Soprano Saxophone Kevin Toney: Electric Piano Larry Mizell: Synthesizers Barney Perry: Electric Guitar Henry Franklin: Electric Bass Keith Killgo: Drums, Vocals Ray Armando: Congas, Percussion

[burlveneer-music]

VA - Irida Records: Hybrid Musics from Texas and Beyond, 1979​–​1986 - how about a 7 LP set of experimental music from the 80s? (Blank Forms Editions)

Irida Associates U.S.A., an obscure and short-lived record label formed by composer-performer Jerry Hunt, offers a glimpse into the revelatory world of new music and composition in the artist’s native Third Coast. Based first in Dallas and later in Hunt’s home outside the rural town of Canton, Texas, Irida presented the innovative and daring experiments—into aleatoric methods, environmental acoustics, improvisation, homemade technologies, and more—pursued by Hunt and his select collaborators, primarily working in or near Texas between 1979 and 1986. Irida’s brief and compact output—seven non-sequentially numbered LPs released in unknown quantities—shared work by artists whose practices often challenged the limitations of vinyl recording. Hunt called the label a “vanity project” and frequently talked of a tax loophole he could claim if it all went belly up, but in its short lifespan Irida captured a tremendous period of creative experimentation by the artist and his friends and collaborators. This boxed set gathers Irida’s complete discography for the first time. These records include early attempts by Hunt to record his generative and highly permutable scores and performances on vinyl in Cantegral Segment(s) 16.17.18.19. / Transform (Stream) / Transphalba / Volta (Kernel), as well as his only composition for piano, “Lattice,” on Texas Music (both records 1979). The label distributed solo and group recordings by those in Hunt’s circle as well, including Larry Austin’s electroacoustic, syncretic compositions in Hybrid Musics; James Fulkerson’s unique, extended techniques for the trombone on Works; a fusion of three overlaid compositions in Dary John Mizelle’s Music of Dary John Mizelle; spontaneous pieces and riff-based “character improvisations” in Music of BL Lacerta by the four piece “orchestra in miniature” BL Lacerta Improvisation Quartet; and experiments in compositional “mapping” by external structures in Cartography, featuring Austin, Gene De Lisa, Robert Michael Keefe, and Rodney Waschka II. Accompanying the boxed set is a richly-illustrated reader with a detailed essay on on the label by Lawrence Kumpf and Tyler Maxin; never-before-published archival materials; newly commissioned reflections by Fulkerson and the composer Jerry Willingham; as well as an interview with Hunt and ephemera including album and concert reviews, artworks, posters and flyers, and correspondences from the musicians and composers involved. The Irida boxed set is released as part of Blank Forms’s extensive program dedicated to Jerry Hunt. This program includes the first institutional exhibition of the artist’s video and sculptures, Jerry Hunt: Transmissions from the Pleroma, presented at Blank Forms from February 16 to May 31, 2022; the republication of Partners, a memoir-cum-biography by the artist’s long-time romantic partner Stephen Housewright; the forthcoming anthology Blank Forms 08: Transmissions from the Pleroma; and a vinyl reissue of the last record released in Hunt’s lifetime, Ground: Five Mechanic Convention Streams (1992). 

[c-40]

A-T-3 125 Run DMC - Sucker MC's

Sucker Mc's is the b-side of Run DMC's debut single and a pivotal record in hip hop. The most common line is 'it ushered in a new era of hip hop,' 'pioneering the new-school' and kick starting 'the drum machine era' (1983-1986) with its stripped down sound. It's been said to have introduced 'real hip hop' to audiences, 'saving hip hop from going stale' or becoming a passing fad. Fresh is the word and Run DMC were the first hip hop group to go platinum in the US, so the group themselves are also a marker for hip hop's commercial success. Being held in such high regard Sucker MC's has had its story told many times, but the first telling of how Sucker MCs came about are in the lyrics themselves

“Took a test to become an MC" - Run had been DJ for Kurtis Blow who was managed by his brother Russell Simmonds

"and Orange Krush became amazed at me" - Orange Krush was Kurtis Blow's backing band which included Larry Smith, Trevor Gale and Davy DMX

"So, Larry put me inside his Cadillac, the chauffeur drove off, and we never came back" At this point in the lyrics it's just Run, Russell Simmonds originally wished for his brother Run The MC to be a solo artist. Larry its Larry Smith of Orange Krush who, as well as working with Kurtis Blow and Run DMC, worked with Jimmy Spicer, "Love Bug" Starski, Dr Jeckyll And Mr Hyde, Starchild in those early years, and Whodini from 1984 - there's not enough said about Larry Smith

"Dave cut the record down to the bone, and now they got me rocking on the microphone” In 1982 Orange Krush released a disco track called Action. The beats for Sucker MC's is Trevor Gale's drum pattern from Action replayed on a Oberheim DMX drum machine. In the lyric this is Dave (Davey DMX) that cuts the record down to the bone. It's literally (Orange) Krush's groove

Run DMC are Joseph Simmons (Run), Darryl McDaniels(DMC), and Jason Mizell (Jam Master Jay)

Sucker MC's is said to take hip hop (meaning rap) back to its origin of 'rapping over a beat.' like you hear on Spoonie Gee's seminal track Love Rap from 1980. "Run-D.M.C's debut marked the start of a new era that saw a return to hip hop's roots in breakbeats, sampling and drum machines." What we have to take into consideration here is drum machines are still new and very expensive, the Oberheim DMX drum machine was released in 1980 and would have cost over $10,000 in todays money. I maybe wrong but I'm guessing when talking about going back to it's roots of 'rapping to a beat' that was more often than not that was a loop of a recorded live drum rather than a drum machine. The Oberheim DMX was released shortly after the Linn LM-1 in 1980, but the more popular LinnDrum didn't come out until 1982. The Roland TR-808 also came out in 1980 and was replaced by the TR-909 in 1983

"The mainstream was not quite prepared for the concept of breakbeats." - I'm getting these quotes from this awful article. In 1982 Malcolm McLaren releases Buffalo Gals, in 1982 in peaked at number 9 on the UK singles charts, and sold well around the world. Of course it's a bit of a novelty record but it also features an Oberheim DMX with a pretty sparse arrangement and was very influential

Run DMC's set up of emcee and a dj would become the new template of a rap group, although the dj would often get pushed out of the limelight. I don't agree with this statement "no major record label was willing to bet on a DJ over a live band." I've mentioned Buffalo Galls, that is The World's Famous Supreme Team djs scratching over the DMX drum beat and Trevor Horn el embellishing with a few samples from their new Fairlight CMI (is it the first hip hop record you use actual samples?), Grandmaster Flash had released the breakthrough dj record The Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel in 1981, Grandmaster D.St is releasing records in 1982 and introduces mainstream US audiences to scratching in 1983 when he plays on Herbie Hancock's Rockit (most notably when he steals the show at the 1984 Grammy's). Then there is Planet Rock, Afrika Bambaataa and Arthur Baker are both dj's and recording in the dj come producer/remixer tradition of the disco era

I've seen Sucker MC's drum beat described as a sample and held up as introducing sampling to hip hop, "sampling was more stigmatised at the time." First of all it's not a sample is it, only if you want to call the sounds of the DMX samples, which would be technically right, but it's not sampling like you hear on Buffalo Gals. The reason sampling wasn't common in hip hop at the time is because samplers were rare and ridiculously expensive

Run DMC - Sucker MC's so good

The Beastie Boys performing Sucker MC's (5m18s) at the fist VH-1 Hip Hop Honours, which in my opinion was better than the Grammy's Hip Hop 50 celebration

[ashymcgee]

// @reverend_dr_dj_riz has, and always will be, one of the cornerstones in my life. To know he will be kicking off the first day of Black History Month soothes my soul // . RADIO - MORNING - WEDNESDAY , like, rilly riily early, rilly 7am ( in the morning , rilly ) - 10 am ) which is normal BUT, it’s my privileged calling to be on to usher in BLACK HISTORY is NOW. @KEXP 90.3 fm terrestrially, www.kexp.org, streaming/archived, celestially. . THE beautifullest Karen Toering is stopping by for a conversation cause she is important and crucial and be around people that do things and I want her in my apartment on the first ever BLACK HISTORY is NOW on kexp and THEN we, all of us that are able, from Gabriel Teodros and KINGZ at 4 AM, me and Karen at 7am , Vitamn D and Barry Blendiana Jones Gayle aka Topspin at 10, Larry Mizell Jr.and Martin Douglas at 1pm, Yaddy Fuller and Lace Cadence at 4 pm, 7pm Roadhouse with Eva Walker, Sharlese at 10pm , overnight with Reverend Dollars and 5am the next morn’tink back to Gabriel again at 4am. . Songs of faith, inspiration, celebration. . Hug life is real life … . Especially in the morning. . #kexp #Seattle #radio #blackhistory #blackhistorymonth #lifteveryvoice #independentradio (at Seattle, Washington) https://www.instagram.com/p/CoG4rxCLvj0gLE2pIxtlWyAGUH6Vn9anJmTSeU0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[cakeniron]

// @reverend_dr_dj_riz has, and always will be, one of the cornerstones in my life. To know he will be kicking off the first day of Black History Month soothes my soul // . RADIO - MORNING - WEDNESDAY , like, rilly riily early, rilly 7am ( in the morning , rilly ) - 10 am ) which is normal BUT, it’s my privileged calling to be on to usher in BLACK HISTORY is NOW. @KEXP 90.3 fm terrestrially, www.kexp.org, streaming/archived, celestially. . THE beautifullest Karen Toering is stopping by for a conversation cause she is important and crucial and be around people that do things and I want her in my apartment on the first ever BLACK HISTORY is NOW on kexp and THEN we, all of us that are able, from Gabriel Teodros and KINGZ at 4 AM, me and Karen at 7am , Vitamn D and Barry Blendiana Jones Gayle aka Topspin at 10, Larry Mizell Jr.and Martin Douglas at 1pm, Yaddy Fuller and Lace Cadence at 4 pm, 7pm Roadhouse with Eva Walker, Sharlese at 10pm , overnight with Reverend Dollars and 5am the next morn’tink back to Gabriel again at 4am. . Songs of faith, inspiration, celebration. . Hug life is real life … . Especially in the morning. . #kexp #Seattle #radio #blackhistory #blackhistorymonth #lifteveryvoice #independentradio (at Seattle, Washington) https://www.instagram.com/p/CoG4ngqLP6f/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[moldytundra]

Laraaji - “Ocean”

Segue To Infinity by Laraaji, is available 2/10/2023 via Numero Group

Including his earliest-known recordings, featuring his debut album, plus three discs of never-before-heard, previously unreleased material.

Pre-Order Vinyl LP

Bethlehem (Glimpse) by Laraaji

Numero Group are thrilled to announce Segue To Infinity, a 4-LP boxed set containing the earliest-known recordings by new age visionary and sound artist, Laraaji, out February 10th, and today presents its hypnotic lead single/visualizer, “Ocean.” A multi-instrumentalist, mystic, and laughter meditation practitioner, Laraaji arguably remains the most respected and popular of all legacy musicians to return to prominence in the new age music revival of the past 15 years. With recordings collected from the late 1970s–before he was famously discovered by Brian Eno–alongside never-before-seen photos of a young Laraaji and liner notes by legendary Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid and Numero Group A&R, Douglas Mcgowan (Hearing Music, I Am The Center), Segue To Infinity is the most impressive and remarkable collection of Laraaji’s early work to date. Beginning with Celestial Vibration, Laraaji’s 1978 debut and the only album he recorded under his birth name, Edward Larry Gordon, Segue To Infinity goes on to showcase three full discs of previously-unreleased, trance-inducing tracks from the same time period. Recorded during or shortly after the sessions for Celestial Vibration, these six side-length tracks were entirely forgotten about until just a few years ago when the acetates were discovered in a storage locker, sold at auction, purchased by a reseller at a flea market, and then ultimately listed on eBay in mid-2021. That’s when Jake Fischer–a college student with a self-described “record collecting habit”–saw the listing, made the Laraaji connection, and purchased the four miraculously unworn acetate discs (packaged in their original box postmarked January 25, 1983) for $114.01. Laraaji was prolific during this time, recording at least a dozen cassette albums in the period between Celestial Vibration in 1978 and Rhythm ‘N’ Bliss in 1982. On nearly all these tapes, the artist is credited as “Laraaji Venus.” The six sides presented here, credited to Edward Larry Gordon, make their first appearance with this release. Segue To Infinity’s title track, a duet with flutist Richard Cooper, is intimately understated, melodic, thoughtful, and mysterious. The three takes entitled “Kalimba” represent a dogged pursuit of beauty and bliss, each more ecstatic than the last, while the most cinematic of the newly discovered tracks, “Koto,” is adventurous and arcane, incorporating kalimba, open zither, prepared zither, bell chime percussion, and repurposed koto. “Ocean” and “Segue To Infinity,” both performed on the zither, are the two recordings presented here most similar to those on Celestial Vibration. Taking full advantage of the studio environment, Gordon added delay and reverb to enhance the wash to great effect. “Ocean” in particular is a textual tour de force. It’s similar to, and feels like a warmup for, Laraaji’s epic 90-minute Celestial Electronic Zither cassette, I Am Ocean (1981).

Born in Philadelphia in 1943, Gordon primarily grew up in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, where music was a constant presence, and 2nd Baptist church attendance was a weekly feature of family life for him and his two brothers. His studious bent of mind led to considerable academic achievement, with the force of music and the dramatic arts leading him to study composition and piano on scholarship at Howard University where he collaborated with Larry Mizell and Marvin Gaye. By the mid-1960s, Gordon was hosting shows at the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem, and he was a fixture in the coffeehouse folk scene in the West Village. Following a brief acting stint, ultimately leading him to question how Black people were represented on screen, Gordon found himself at a crossroads. He began meditating, exploring Eastern spiritual philosophies, and practicing mindfulness as a way to deal with growing doubts about the paths before him. After a paranormal sound-hearing experience, Gordon’s musical explorations began after pawning his guitar, initially for much-needed cash, before trading it for an autoharp/zither, a 36-string American folk instrument he’d never touched before. After weeks of exploring altered tunings, Gordon developed a switched-on, open-tuned, deeply engaging sound he called “Celestial Vibration.” Gordon continued to study Eastern mysticism and played for change on the streets of New York before being discovered by Brian Eno in 1979, when Eno found Gordon improvising in Washington Square Park and invited him to record the seminal Ambient 3: Day of Radiance. Earlier that same year, Gordon was parked outside the hallowed Tree of Life Bookstore in Harlem, playing music for the people passing by. A few folks from the community approached him with news that they had come up with a suggestion for a new name “that matched their intuitive experience of my music,” Gordon said. Gordon was apprehensive, but he was in fact looking for a new name, one he’d already intuited would be three syllables and make a reference to the sun. They met the next day in Central Park, and the men revealed and explained a name describing “a divine being whose energies come down from the cosmic field into the earth plane to support and nourish and illuminate.” The name was LARAJI. Gordon was amazed at the synchronicity. He added one more letter A “to achieve a numerological value of seven and three triangle symbols of intergalactic peaceful intentions.”

[stradarecords]

BLACKBYRDS / REGGINS : EXPANSION (7") 伝説のプロデューサー Larry Mizell(Sky High Productions)が手掛けた1974の名作アルバム『The Blackbyrds』に収録のジャズ・ファンク・チューン「Reggins」、同年のDonald Byrdがプロデュースしたアルバム『Flying Start』に収録のファンキーな「Blackbyrds’ Theme」が世界初正規で7インチ化！ #Blackbyrds#EXPANSION#jazz#funk#7inch#vinyl#record#stradarecords#dj#vinyljunkies#kobe#motomachi#strada#recordshop#recordstore#神戸レコード#元町レコード#レコード店#レコード#アナログ https://www.stradarecords.com/shop/item/27787/index.php (Strada Records) https://www.instagram.com/p/ClajtgYBT7C/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[sevendavisjr]

[projazznet]

Donald Byrd – Black Byrd (Full Album)

Black Byrd is a 1973 album by Donald Byrd and his first for Blue Note Records produced by Larry Mizell, assisted by his brother, former Motown producer Fonce. In the jazz funk idiom, it is among Blue Note Records’ best selling album releases. The title of the album inspired the name of Byrd’s apprentice group, The Blackbyrds