|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LP
|
|
SNDW 128LP
|
Dexter Story is an artistic spirit in the truest sense of the phrase. From his work as a multi-instrumentalist for acts like the Sa-Ra Creative Partners, to his management role with Snoop Dogg and his turn producing Daymé Arocena's 2017 album Cubafonia, Story understands the business from every conceivable angle. Initially inspired by the music and cultures pervasive throughout the Horn of Africa, Story translated his experiences there into his previous album Wondem (SNDW 076CD/LP, 2015), followed closely by the single "Wejene Aola" featuring jazz luminary Kamasi Washington (SNDW 7022EP), both on Soundway Records. If Wondem was a brief glance into Story's new creative vision, Bahir is a pinpoint refinement of that purpose, the fine-tuning and expanding of the world he created on his Soundway debut. On Bahir, Story steps in front of those influences and melds his world into the one he fell in love with so strongly while in Africa. One way in which he's done so is by incorporating musicians from both sides of this coin. LA luminaries are featured throughout, as are African contemporaries he encountered throughout his travels. Sudan Archives gives a show-stealing vocal performance on "Gold", while the Ethiopian producer Endeguena Mulu adds impenetrable and psychedelic texture to the album's title track. So Bahir finds the polymath musician not stuck between two worlds, but as a member of both. We get Ethiopian jazz tonalities, Tuareg grooves, ekista dance rhythms, Afro-funk, Somalian soul, and forays into more contemporary jazz rhythms, too. Angelenos like Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Josef Leimberg give the record its backbone, while African artists like the Ethiopian singer Hamelmal Abate give Bahir its glimmer and shine. Also features Kibrom Birhane, Jimetta Rose, Haile Supreme, and Marie Daulne. For fans of: Sudan Archives, Kamasi Washington, Laraaji, Carlos Niño, Mark de Clive-Lowe, Zap Mama, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Josef Leimberg.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
7"
|
|
SNDW 7022EP
|
2016 release. Los Angeles-based Dexter Story hooks up with long-time friend and compatriot of music, the saxophonist, jazz composer, producer, and band-leader Kamasi Washington. A fierce, rumbling electro Ethio-funk groove provides the platform for an intense and powerful interplay between Washington on tenor sax and Todd Simon on trumpet.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
SNDW 076CD
|
2015 release. On his debut Soundway release, multi-instrumentalist Dexter Story distills his diverse background in soul, funk, jazz, and folk idioms into his own unique and worldly voice. Borrowing from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia, and Kenya, this collection of East African-influenced music is a testament to Story's decades of dedication to artistic excellence.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
SNDW 076LP
|
LP version. 2015 release. On his debut Soundway release, multi-instrumentalist Dexter Story distills his diverse background in soul, funk, jazz, and folk idioms into his own unique and worldly voice. Borrowing from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia, and Kenya, this collection of East African-influenced music is a testament to Story's decades of dedication to artistic excellence.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
KS 040LP
|
L.A. mainstay Dexter Story steps up with his debut album Seasons -- a collection of songs written by Dexter and co-produced by Carlos Niño, with guests from Los Angeles' close-knit jazz and soul community, including Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Mark de Clive-Lowe, Dwight Trible, i_Ced, Gaby Hernandez, and many more. Progressing from their first two records together as the Life Force Trio, 2005's Dwight Trible and The Life Force Trio on Ninja Tune and 2006's Living Room on Plug Research, the constellation of conscious themes are all there, but the sound is very different. Leaving behind the beat soundscapes from producers such as Georgia Anne Muldrow, Ras G, Madlib and Sa-Ra, for Seasons Dexter Story looks instead to artists like Bill Withers, Steely Dan, Donovan, and Earth Wind & Fire, for a record that's just as cosmically-minded, but wrapped in the folk-y, blue-eyed soul that Carlos regularly plays on his weekly Spaceways radio show.
|
|
|
|