"All the people." - Build An Ark, This Prayer: For The Whole World (listen + download)
(photo by Grace Oh and used totally without permission but I hope she won't mind)
I was going to write about how, while several of my friends have been praising Arcade Fire's The Suburbs, I just haven't been able to get into it but that's boring so let's talk about some music I'm currently in love with instead, yes?
My music listening habits made a right turn somewhere the night that The Martini and I made our way to Grand Performances to see Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Friends. I knew who he was, of course, as any self-respecting Dilla fan boy or girl should have Suite for Ma Dukes in their collection but seeing him and his compadres live was a joy. Even though we were distracted by loud free concert attendees and the growing chill of our unreasonably cold Los Angeles Summer this year, there's nothing like hearing a 12 piece band perform some of your favorite old school r&b and hip hop jams. What I didn't know, truly, what I had forgotten, was how wonderful and eclectic (and familiar) our local music scene is.
Sure, Los Angeles's indie rock acts get a lot of play but this is a land filled with musicians. Real musicians. The play for peanuts musicians. The play every style imaginable musicians. The play every instrument imaginable musicians. The take the session gig, the concert in the park, the dirty club, the backyard bbq, the world tour and then go to the jam session for free after the show musicians.
Which brings us to Build An Ark. The Los Angeles collective features not only Miguel and his impeccable arrangements and strings, but a friend—Andres Renteria, a local music scene icon—Carlos Nino, and a whole host of other local cats like Dwight Trible and Damon Aaron. They play this wonderful mix of improvisational and experimental jazz and downtempo that gets under my skin.
It's bright and shiny and deep and powerful. They've released two collections of music this year, Love Pts. 1 and 2, and whenever I hear just a single piece from either, I'm compelled to listen to it all.
Their desire is to bring peace and calm to the world through music.
Let's everyone play it in our headphones and see if it works.
"All the children. All the people."
