Last FM Playlist

Kakande w/Mory Kante

I'm at it again. Time to promote the stuff I'm promoting. In this case, Kakande with Mory Kante.

Kakande will be playing Johnny D's featuring a guest appearance by Mory Kante! This concert is a CD Release Party for much anticipated new album Dununya.

Mory Kante is an international super star from Guinea, West Africa, and rarely backs anyone up. However, Kakande (led by Famoro Dioubate from Guinea) has touched Mory so much that he'll be appearing with them for this show.

"Kakande takes a unique approach to Mande music—acoustic, kinetic, textured and grooving. Dioubate's virtuosic balafon riffing is rightly front and center, backed harmonically by a sweet blend of electric guitar (Mamady Kouyate), cello (Raoul Rothblatt), flute (Sylvain Leroux)
and sax (Avram Fefer). These players step out occasionally, but mostly hang with the crisp rhythm section, creating textures that work as well in a dark, roiling jam like "Paya Paya," as on a slow, mellifluous praise song like "Mariama Traoré.""
- Afropop Worldwide's Review of Kakande's album "Dununya"
(http://www.afropop.org/explore/album_review/ID/3433/

Come on out and have a great time! More details below.

Press Release:
On Thursday February 21th, Johnny D's presents Kakande, a 9-piece West African band based out of NYC, celebrating the release of their much anticipated album, Dununya (http://www.JumbieRecords.com). The West African music scene has been steadily growing in the U.S. in recent
years and it is sure to explode when this groundbreaking new disc hits stores. To celebrate Dununya's release, African superstar Mory Kante will join Kakande on stage, in a rare U.S. appearance, and an once-in-a-lifetime chance to see this legendary musician supporting another group.

Kakande is a 9-piece collective that demonstrates how the balafon (xylophone) has electrified African music for 800 years. Lush vocals, flutes, sinewy guitars, cellos and countless melodic textures are propelled by the power of Famoro Dioubate's balafon virtuosity. Layers of intricate melody come together in Kakande to create this explosive
new groove. Mory Kante's support for the group is remarkable, especially since he was the first African artist to sell a million CDs (see http://www.MoryKante.com).

February 21th will be a historic chance to join Kakande and Mory Kante as Boston writes a new chapter in the history of griot music.

Who: Kakande with special guest Mory Kante

What: CD release for new album Dununya

Where: Johnny D's
17 Holland St.
Somerville, MA 02144
617-776-2004

When: Thursday Feb. 21, 2008

Price: $15 advance/$18 door
Advance Tickets at: http://kakande.eventbrite.com/

Yes We Can Song

Just wanted to post the text that accompanies the Obama video below. . . Inspiring stuff, just like the man himself.

The Yes We Can Song
by will.i.am

I was sitting in my recording studio watching the debates...
Torn between the candidates

I was never really big on politics...
and actually I’m still not big on politics...
but 4 years ago, me and the black eyed peas supported Kerry...
And we supported Kerry with all our might...
We performed and performed and performed for the DNC...
doing all we could do to get the youth involved...

The outcome of the last 2 elections has saddened me...
on how unfair, backwards, upside down, unbalanced, untruthful,
corrupt, and just simply, how wrong the world and "politics" are...

So this year i wanted to get involved and do all i could early...

And i found myself torn...
because this time it’s not that simple...
our choices aren’t as clear as the last elections ...
last time it was so obvious...
Bush and war
vs
no Bush and no war...

But this time it’s not that simple...
and there are a lot of people that are torn just like i am...

So for awhile I put it off and i was going to wait until it was decided for me...

And then came New Hampshire...

And i was captivated...

Inspired...

I reflected on my life...
and the blessings I have...
and the people who fought for me to have these rights and blessings...

and I’m not talking about a "black thing"
I’m talking about a "human thing" me as a "person"
an American...

That speech made me think of Martin Luther King...
Kennedy...
and Lincoln...
and all the others that have fought for what we have today...

what America is "supposed" to be...

freedom...
equality...
and truth...

and thats not what we have today...
we think we are free...
but in reality terror and fear controls our decisions...

this is not the America that our pioneers and leaders fought and
died for...

and then there was New Hampshire

it was that speech...
like many great speeches...
that one moved me...
because words and ideas are powerful...

It made me think...
and realize that today we have "very few" leaders...
maybe none...

but that speech...

it inspired me...
it inspired me to look inside myself and outwards towards the world...
it inspired me to want to change myself to better the world...
and take a "leap" towards change...
and hope that others become inspired to do the same...
change themselves..
change their greed...
change their fears...
and if we "change that"
"then hey"..
we got something right...???...

1 week later after the speech settled in me...
I began making this song...
I came up with the idea to turn his speech into a song...
because that speech effected and touched my inner core like nothing in a very long time...

it spoke to me...

because words and ideas are powerful...

I just wanted to add a melody to those words...
I wanted the inspiration that was bubbling inside me to take over...

so i let it..

I wasn't afraid to stand for something...
to stand for "change"...
I wasn't afraid of "fear"...
it was pure inspiration...

so I called my friends...
and they called their friends...
in a matter of 2 days...
We made the song and video...

Usually this process would take months...
a bunch of record company people figuring out strategies and release dates...
interviews...
all that stuff...
but this time i took it in my own hands...
so i called my friends sarah pantera, mike jurkovac, fred goldring, and jesse dylan to help make it happen...
and they called their friends..
and we did it together in 48 hours...
and instead of putting it in the hands of profit we put it in the hands of inspiration...

then we put it on the net for the world to feel...

When you are truly inspired..
magic happens...
incredible things happen...
love happens..
(and with that combination)

"love, and inspiration"

change happens...

"change for the better"
Inspiration breeds change...

"Positive change"...

no one on this planet is truly experienced to handle the obstacles we face today...
Terror, fear, lies, agendas, politics, money, all the above...
It’s all scary...

Martin Luther King didn't have experience to lead...
Kennedy didn't have experience to lead...
Susan B. Anthony...
Nelson Mandella...
Rosa Parks...
Gandhi...
Anne Frank...
and everyone else who has had a hand in molding the freedoms we have and take for granted today...

no one truly has experience to deal with the world today...

they just need "desire, strength, courage ability, and passion" to change...
and to stand for something even when people say it's not possible...

America would not be here "today" if we didn’t stand and fight for
change "yesterday"...
Everything we have as a "people" is because of the "people" who fought for
change...
and whoever is the President has to realize we have a lot of changing to do

I'm not trying to convince people to see things how i do...
I produced this song to share my new found inspiration and how I've been moved...
I hope this song will make you feel...
love...
and think...
and be inspired just like the speech inspired me...

that’s all...



Let's all come together like America is supposed to...
Like Japan did after Hiroshima...

that was less than 65 years ago...
and look at Japan now...

they did it together...
they did it...

"We can't?...

Are you serious..?..

WE CAN!!!

Yes we can...
A United "America"
Democrats, Republicans and Independents together...
Building a new America

We can do it...
"TOGETHER"

Please visit www.yeswecansong.com

Thank you for reading and listening...
will.i.am

Why Toni Morrison is endoring Obama

Here is the letter that Toni Morrison wrote when she endorsed Barack Obama. I like this line "I would not support you if that was all you had to offer or because it might make me "proud."" that she writes when she talks about the race/gender conflict dynamic so many people are struggling with. I am voting for Barack because it will make me proud. Not proud to be voting for a black man, just as I would not be proud to be voting for a woman. But I'll be proud to be voting for the person who I think offers these United States the best chance to move forward, to start to make this country and world a better place. Someone who can move things forward, not someone who will get bogged down in the gridlock of political patterns of fighting and the blind rage that some people feel towards Clinton. Someone with the vision and the fortitude and enough experience to get us to someplace better. Someone who will inspire millions of Americans and other around the world to join in this cause, who has already inspired people to dream of a better future, and someone who will work for tomorrow's challenges today.


Toni Morrison's letter:
Dear Senator Obama,

This letter represents a first for me--a public endorsement of a Presidential candidate. I feel driven to let you know why I am writing it. One reason is it may help gather other supporters; another is that this is one of those singular moments that nations ignore at their peril. I will not rehearse the multiple crises facing us, but of one thing I am certain: this opportunity for a national evolution (even revolution) will not come again soon, and I am convinced you are the person to capture it.

May I describe to you my thoughts?

I have admired Senator Clinton for years. Her knowledge always seemed to me exhaustive; her negotiation of politics expert. However I am more compelled by the quality of mind (as far as I can measure it) of a candidate. I cared little for her gender as a source of my admiration, and the little I did care was based on the fact that no liberal woman has ever ruled in America. Only conservative or "new-centrist" ones are allowed into that realm. Nor do I care very much for your race[s]. I would not support you if that was all you had to offer or because it might make me "proud."

In thinking carefully about the strengths of the candidates, I stunned myself when I came to the following conclusion: that in addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don't see in other candidates. That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom. It is too bad if we associate it only with gray hair and old age. Or if we call searing vision naivete. Or if we believe cunning is insight. Or if we settle for finessing cures tailored for each ravaged tree in the forest while ignoring the poisonous landscape that feeds and surrounds it. Wisdom is a gift; you can't train for it, inherit it, learn it in a class, or earn it in the workplace--that access can foster the acquisition of knowledge, but not wisdom.

When, I wondered, was the last time this country was guided by such a leader? Someone whose moral center was un-embargoed? Someone with courage instead of mere ambition? Someone who truly thinks of his country's citizens as "we," not "they"? Someone who understands what it will take to help America realize the virtues it fancies about itself, what it desperately needs to become in the world?

Our future is ripe, outrageously rich in its possibilities. Yet unleashing the glory of that future will require a difficult labor, and some may be so frightened of its birth they will refuse to abandon their nostalgia for the womb.

There have been a few prescient leaders in our past, but you are the man for this time.

Good luck to you and to us.

Toni Morrison

OBAMA! Si Se Puede! Yes WE Can!

OBAMA! Si Se Puede! Yes WE Can!