(FYI: This song is available on my website at: https://ahmedsirour.com/track/2996468/midnight-melanin-manhattan-a-score-for-ivy as well as Bandcamp at: https://ahmedsirour.bandcamp.com/track/midnight-melanin-manhattan-a-score-for-ivy)

I created this based on a scene from the 1968 film, #ForLoveofIvy, which was a story written by the recently departed, late/great #SidneyPoitier and featuring the also late/great #AbbeyLincoln. The music you hear is an original score I created, inspired by this scene (not one of Quincy Jones', who beautifully scored the rest of this movie, although his style was an influence I wanted to partially emulate). I was actually surprised he left so much room open in this bedroom scene you're watching now, because the original scene had no music at all until after Ivy (Abbey) joins Jack (Sidney) in bed for Round 2 of their lovemaking. 

Inspired by the great cinematography and sexiness of this moment, this is an all original arrangement of my own, and even chopping up and editing the royalty-free horns that I used for the trumpet and saxophone solos (which was very difficult to do because it's a combination of many different real horn player samples that I had to edit/pitch/re-arrange/EQ just for it to sound like two players to add to the grand piano, upright/double bass, and horn parts in the hook/chorus that I manually played and myself on keyboard (via Logic Pro instruments) to make it into a Jazz "quartet", then finally mixing and mastering the whole thing for it to come out finally as it did, which you can hear in full from the link at the top of this description.

Like many, I took a trip down memory lane, watching #SidneyPoitier films, since his recent passing at age 94. However, not many people know of/have seen this particular film called  "For Love of Ivy", which is kinda surprising since Sidney was THE biggest movie star in Hollywood at the time this film came out in 1968.

To put it in perspective, he started filming this movie (an original story he wrote, himself) in the Autumn of '67, but just a few months earlier that year, #ToSirWithLove dropped in the Spring, followed by #InTheHeatoftheNight that Summer, and #GuessWhosComingToDinner was up next in December to close out his undefeated year as the King of the Silver Screen. While each film in '67 was a blockbuster hit (and all dealt with #racism in some form), "Ivy" was very different as it was a rare mainstream film showcasing two Black romantic leads–Sidney, and the magnificent Jazz singer/activist Abbey Lincoln (who had a dope afro but they gave her a wig, instead 🙄 )–and it even featured the very first (though not explicit) Black lovemaking scene in a Hollywood movie. Perhaps that's why it didn't get much publicity over time as those others did, because more radical than a 1967 film with an interracial couple is a 1968 one with a Black couple being intimate on the big screen.

Ivy's character looked so serene, looking through the window, out over Manhattan late at night, in the afterglow of their tryst, before taking the throne and looking over her sleeping "conquest" 😉 It's a sexy scene without music, but I wanted to hear what it would sound like with some, and so I take this moment to celebrate the memory and legacy of Sidney Poitier, of Abbey, and this wonderful moment of #BlackLove on film with it!

This song will be included in my upcoming project I'm releasing on my bday, Tuesday, the 22nd of February, 2022 (or 22/02/2022). That's also the title of the project: 22022022 (the only palindrome b'earthday I'll have in my lifetime). I hope you enjoy and Happy #BlackHistoryMonth.

#AhmedSirour

Midnight, Melanin, & Manhattan (a score for Ivy)

"Midnight, Melanin, & Manhattan (a score for Ivy)"

THE OFFICIAL SOUNDCLOUD ACCOUNT FOR AHMED SIROUR

Well, after having many tracks on Soundcloud, include various remixes that were up for years without any issue, SC started throwing strikes at me left and right, even with those I had proof I had permission to post, but they decided to take down my former page: (at)22music, inclusive of the thousands of wonderful followers who've joined me over the years.

So now I start back from the very beginning, the ground up, and hopefully many of you will find me again as well as newcomers who are hearing my work for the first time--and this time it will only be MY original work (or remixes that are verified)! lol Either way, I hope you take yet another journey again with me as I push the envelope with even more music, more positive vibrations, and more influences from around the world as I infuse my travels into my sounds...

J'étudie la pratique de l'orgue Jazz à l'âge de 14 ans à Paris avec Armand Motta (pianiste de Barbara , Brassens) et j'ai mon premier synthé en 1976. Des études musicales en section T1 Musique au Lycée de Sèvres, avec dans la classe : Louis Winsberg du groupe Sixun et  Ludovic de Preissac. Je fais à l'époque partie de différents groupes pop/rock/funk et fais des rencontres musicales enrichissantes à l'aube des années 80 au Studio Vitamines à Gentilly et au Studio Witas à Chaville. En 1988, je découvre la MAO et je m'enferme alors avec synthés et ordis pendant pas mal de temps pour explorer tout ça et commencer à composer sérieusement. Passionné par le Jazz, l'énergie du Funk, j'aime la fusion des styles (electro/acid jazz/drum & bass/musiques du Monde). Quelque temps en 2006 au sein de Atif and Soul People et de Notsos sur Versailles. Mes claviers préferés sont l'orgue Hammond, le Fender Rhodes, le Wurlitzer et bien sur les synthés analogiques au gros son bien funky. Les rencontres qui m'on marqué : Rhoda Scott en 1974 au Club St Germain, Bertrand Richard (p.) qui m'a montré mes premiers accords de Blues, Philippe Khalifa (gt.), Stephan Gibu (dr. & bs.) des groupes de funk/gospel "Ray Sidney Firm Soundation" et "Soul Activation", Loïc Bordas (sax & bs.), Bernard Le Bellego, Emmanuel Barrache (gt. harmo.) des groupes "Quai Ouest" et "Chicago Line Blues Gang" , Patrice Barreau (dr.), les musiciens de 'Atif and Soul People' et de 'Notsos'...

Différents métiers : webmaster, infographiste, vendeur de pianos/orgues (Hammond, Gem, Viscount, Oberheim, Promotion d'artiste... 

Influences :

George Duke, Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Wendy & Lisa, Prince, Sheila E., Joe Sample, Rodney Franklyn, Bob James, Ricky Peterson, Michel Petrucciani, Bill O'Connell, Horace Silver, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Pierre-Alain Goualch, Ludovic De Preissac, Soulive, Isaac Hayes, Roy Ayers, Donny Hathaway, Till Brönner, Candy Dulfer, Maceo Parker, Don Braden, Sophie Alour, Meshell Ndegeocello, Marcus Miller, Rhonda Smith, Herbie Hancock, George Benson, Larry Carlton, Earl Klugh, Michael Sembello, Al Jarreau, Gino Vannelli, Steely Dan, Toto, Level 42, Weather Report, Barbara Denerlein, Lonnie Liston Smith, Joey DeFrancesco, Jimmy Smith, Take 6, Kurt Elling, Viktoria Tolstoy, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Robin McKelle, Eliane Elias, Bebel Gilberto, Gabriela Anders, Tania Maria, Ray Barretto, Natali René, Ani DiFranco, Randy Crawford, Rachelle Ferrell, Maxwell, Jill Scott, Angie Stone, The Brand New Heavies, Sarah McLachlan, Coldplay, The Beauty Room, Michel Colombier, The Cinematic Orchestra, [re:jazz], Ananda Project, Gaelle Adison, Everything But The Girl, Massive Attack, Morcheeba, Laurent De Wilde... 
Une admiration sans borne pour : George Duke, Prince et H.E.R.

Actuellement j'écoute :
https://soundcloud.com/you/likes

Sacramento raised, music taste is all over.
I haven't made anything in forever, but I'm cooking up some new tunes that just might see the light of day. Or I'll unprivate some of my old tracks on here.

"Midnight, Melanin, & Manhattan (a score for Ivy)"

Ahmed Sirour