World Fusion

10 MP3 Songs
WORLD: World Fusion, WORLD: World Beat



Details:
Jamie Catto (of Faithless & 1 Giant Leap) says: âThe Happeningâ was a tithe or a thank you gift to the goddess of music for letting me make a living from music in which I invited all my favorite diverse artists to Dave Stewartâs place (an old church in Crouch End London where we did a lot of Didoâs first album there too including âThank Youâ). During the 3 day recording session, not one track was played more than once and everything was improvised around ideas in my head. Iâd heard about Miles Davis when he made âIn a Silent Wayâ, he just laid down the vibe verbally to the guys, who were so hot they could just go for it. So thatâs what we did. One one of my favorite tracks is âChances Areâ where an African xylophone player and DJ Swamp from Beckâs group do a very unique duet, just the kind of thing I wanted to happen.

We had the Faithless rhythm section, other percussionists from different disciplines, the keyboard player from Oasis, the singer from the Sneaker Pimps, the scratch DJ from Beckâs band, DJ Swamp (whoâs also the USA champion!), and Lévon Minassian (the duduk player from Peter Gabrielâs Passionâ album & whoâs featured in and on the â1 Giant Leapâ CD & DVD, and is actually a jeweller who lives in Marseilles, France) and a Canadian, Paris-based clarinetist called Carol Robinson (who is deeply avant guard and plays the Lituanian birbine too on track #3), Liam, the singer from The Hothouse Flowers, singer Pauline Taylor and Dave Randall on guitars, sitar & programming.

Nick Raphael, who is the root of the most successful UK Reggae Sound System, Mannasseh was my brotherâs roommate and I always wanted to do something with him. He brought the rhythm track along so we thought weâd do a straight, down the line, reggae track just before we set to the track. A couple of the guys had been to a local record shop with DJ Swamp to find some new stuff to mess with and theyâd brought a reggae record which, in the old style, had the full track on side A and just the bare vocal on side B. Dave Randall decided to play sitar to make it more interesting and DJ Swamp scratched the vocal up âBrothers and Sisters good day! How ya doin? I hope youâre doing fine. Round and round - Irie! At 3:10 PM we were feaking out YESSSSS!!!! and the band just picked a key and dropped it on the signal - âPAFâ when that bass drops.

Maxi Jazz from Faithless showed up with Pauline Taylor. Pauline is the female vocalist on âDonât Leaveâ & Pauline said to Maxi, whoâs folks are Jamaican, âdo rap in a kind of reggae way if possible and say something about the three day album we were makingâ so his rhyme describes âThe Happeningâ and I wrote a chorus to space out the melody which Pauline sang.I just copied the words to match the reggae scratched voice and the icing on the cake with that tune - a little analog synth, was these three guys who were a horn section (and didnât realise until it was too late) that they were out of their depth as they were very young, but as heaven would have it, at 3:15 PM their slightly wonky delivery (if you donât know better) sounds like three old Jamaican dudes really lends flavour then at the end. Franky, our percussionist gem-of-a-man wanted to layer some rhythms to try something and it became a cool outro, it fit so perfectly like it outroâd to an intro.

It was all blessed! The whole 3 days. To improvise a whole record and have it hang together is rare. Everyone said I was mad to try it before hand. It translated impeccably, in my humble opinion! I hope you enjoy (the least accessible track) Sadness.â

Hope indeed springs eternal in âThe Happeningâ. Please enjoy every sensual, subtle, funky, soul-filled & inspired note, beat & rhythm in this exquisitly crafted, highly spirited expression of unity through diversity.