Name: Don't Kill My Vibe by BE4EIGHT
Duration: 2 min 8 s
Description: Electronic, Chill-out Lo-fi beat for every part of the day...

Very cool tune - put a real hard snare on this one with slught reverb and you got it! Awesomeness

Electronic, Chill-out Lo-fi beat for every part of the day...

Don't Kill My Vibe

Rez Abbasi - guitar/composition
Mark Shim - tenor saxophone/midi wind controller
Ben Stivers - keyboards/organ
Kenny Grohowski - drums

Groundswell

A junction is the point at which several things converge. For the visionary and award-winning jazz guitarist Rez Abbasi, his new band Junction weaves together musical currents he’s spent his career navigating. Abbasi has been at the center of some of the most enthralling and culturally expansive music of the past two decades, and his Cuneiform debut Behind the Vibration introduces a bracing new body of music, a sinewy 21st century approach to jazz-rock inspired by his far-flung influences. 

“Everything I do musically is stimulated by call and response,” Abbasi says. “I did the Acoustic Quartet project of covers from the ‘70s jazz-rock period and that impacted me to want to do an electric project of all originals. The new album reflects a continuum of what I’ve been doing all along – finding fresh orchestrations to present my music through. In some ways this project connects me more directly back to my first love, the energy that comes out of rock music. I wrote new tunes for this band and it was time for all these musical worlds to collide.”

Junction, the electric project that Abbasi formed to bring his original tunes to life, features Mark Shim on tenor saxophone and the electronic MIDI Wind Controller, Ben Stivers on keyboards, B-3 organ and Rhodes, and drummer Kenny Grohowski. The band is a supremely maleable ensemble that has forged a poised and texturally accute group approach. While exploring a vivid palette of electronic sounds and aggressive grooves, Junction maintains the dynamics, precise calibration, and interactive imperative of an inspired jazz ‘acoustic’ combo.

Sonically surprising, the album opens with “Holy Butter,” a piece inspired by a collaboration with classical South Indian dancers. In the first of many sonic feints, what sounds like a deeply funky bass solo is actually Shim getting down with his MIDI Wind Controller. Indeed, not having a defined bass player is a significant element of Junction, opening up the band’s sound as Stivers and Shim alternate low end responsibilities. 

Inspired by the Arab Spring, “Groundswell” is a slowly ascending tune that, while originally written for another ensemble, comes home in Junction, with Stivers on B-3—“the first electric keyboard instrument,” Abbasi notes—and a searing Abbasi solo followed by Shim’s oragami-angular tenor.  If that piece evokes the mounting of external pressure, “Uncommon Sense” suggests a wending internal spiritual journey with a hypnautically sinuous opening guitar line. As Abbasi puts it, “The title refers to a ‘sense’ that’s beyond our five and one that’s more difficult to connect to due to the clutter in our minds.” Before long, the becalmed lyricism gives way to a frantic search powered by Grohowski’s exceptionally deft trap work. 

A sparsely decorated noir scene that emerges and departs without pausing for a solo, “And I You” is a brief, cinematic mood piece that arrives mid-album like a shimmering urban oasis. “Self-Brewing” is one of the album’s most fusion-y pieces, with a steeplechase theme introduced by Abbasi and Shim on Midi Wind Controller. The album closes with “Matter Falls,” a mid-tempo anthem that hints at South Asian cadences. Both grand and invitingly intimate, it’s a crunching tune that points to further explorations. Clearly, Junction is just one stop on a spectacularly rich and incident-filled sojourn. 

With this newest album, Behind the Vibration, realized via his new electric Junction, Abbasi takes another bold step, embracing his rock ‘n’ roll roots with a bear hug that encompasses post-bop, South Asian traditions, and state of the art sonics. “More than anything that I’ve ever recorded, this album is the convergence of everything I’m interested in,” he says. “The musicians I’ve chosen are versatile enough to pull it off. It’s not only all of the influences that have come up to this point, it’s also the process of merging it with the technology of today. This is music that could’ve only happened now.” 

Rez Abbasi & Junction, "Self-Brewing" from 'Behind the Vibration' (out May 20 on Cuneiform Records)

Guitarist Rez Abbasi is well known for his distinctive fusing of modern jazz with influences from Hindu North Indian music and Pakistani traditional music.

In this episode of the Creative Strings Podcast, hear him reflect upon how he developed his own voice as a player and composer, as well as what it means for musicians jumping cultural boundaries to explore a wider variety of music.

Check out the blog here: https://christianhowes.com/2018/05/25/rez-abbasi-improvising-composer/
Watch my extended interview with Rez: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYWsrgqmabA

This episode also includes:

- Tips and tricks for composers- Where's the balance between mapping out a form and letting the composition form itself?
- The business of music
- Tons of amazing clips from Rez's albums

Born in Karachi, Pakistan, removed at the age of four to the vastness of Southern California, schooled at the University of Southern California and the Manhattan School of Music in jazz and classical music, along with a pilgrimage in India under the tutelage of master percussionist, Ustad Alla Rakha, Rez Abbasi is a vivid synthesis of all these influences and genres. Making New York home for the past 25 years, Abbasi has developed a unique sound both as a composer and an instrumentalist and is considered by many to be one of the foremost modern jazz guitar players.

Now it's time to plan for summer! Join Rez and I, with tons of amazing faculty and participants, at the 16th Annual Creative Strings Workshop in Columbus, OH July 1-7. I am thrilled to host Rez for this year's Creative Strings Workshop as our featured instructor. Learn more here: https://christianhowes.com/education/creative-strings-workshop/

Thanks so much to our sponsors Yamaha and Electric Violin Shop for supporting the Creative Strings Podcast. Their support makes it possible to invest in the production of each episode and bring you great stories like Rez’s.

Please take a moment to visit Electric Violin Shop, your one-stop shop for electric instruments, amps, gear, accessories, and most of all, expertise. Use code CHOWES at checkout and take 5% off of your order. Call 866-900-8400 to get your questions answered on “all things electric strings.” While you are talking to EVS, be sure to ask them about the new Yamaha Electric Violin. I’ve been a Yamaha performing artist for almost 20 years now and am very proud to be a part of the Yamaha family.

Rez Abbasi- On Practice, Improvisation, & Composition: Creative Strings Podcast Ep. 30

misterG of greenarrowradio talks with guitarist Rez Abbasi about his latest release, Django-Shift on Whirlwind Recordings.

Rez Abbasi

VALUES

BE4EIGHT (Jacob Carl Ruzicka) is a Canadian-Czech multi-instrumentalist whose original work is based on many diverse genres. 
Captivating jazz and ambient sounds combined with Groove Music. His work is full of surprising arrangements, hidden meanings, and enchanting passages.

Don't Kill My Vibe

BE4EIGHT

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