Energy: A Visual mixtape by B+ and Denise Chaila.

Credits:

Performed by: Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley
Song Title: Life Is A Circle

Mochilla Productions
Director: B+
DP: Eric Coleman
Second Camera: Jason Taylor
Drone: We Fly Aerial
Locations and Consultant: Kechi Okpala
Location Coordination: Enable Media
Sound Recordist: Sean Minor
Editors: Eric Coleman and Ross Constable
Color by Laith Majali
Sound Mix: Simon Guzman
Text by Denise Chaila and B+
Animated Photos: Tom Cheel @Turismo4K
Location Stills: Ricky
Archive Courtesy of Virginia Key Beach Park, Miami (https://virginiakeybeachpark.net/)

Ana Tijoux's music video is a testament to the resilience and strength of women’s bodies and their labor and features the women day laborers of our member organization, the Workers Justice Project (WJP). After a year of great uncertainty, suffering, isolation, and loss during the pandemic, this video provides us a collective sigh of relief while focusing on the strength and resilience of our communities.

Credits:

Lyrics by Ana Tijoux
Music by Ana Tijoux, Ramiro Durán Bunster y Raimundo Santander (Roja y Negra)

Produced by Mochilla
Directed by B+
Director of Photography: Emilie Jackson
Steadicam: Michael Hauer
AC: Nate Spengler
Additional Photography: Kati Perez and B+
Sound Recording: Asa Mendelsohn
Production Assistance: Sam Wohl
Editing and Sound Design: Eric Coleman
Co-Produced by Shirley Alvarado del Aguila and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network

Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley visits Hawaii to “Protect Mauna Kea” from the invasive project.

If you would like to support, please visit and sign the petition: https://smarturl.it/SIGN_MaunaKea

Subscribe: http://bit.ly/SUBdm | The latest from Damian Marley: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC...

Mauna Kea stands out as the tallest mountain in the world from base to peak and holds a sacred place in Hawaii’s cultural history. Right now, Mauna Kea is under threat from a state plan to construct a $1.4 billion telescope at its peak. After successfully stopping the production in 2014, native Hawaiian elders and citizens from every Hawaiian island once again took up the cause and congregated in the road to prevent constructions of the TMT project at the beginning of last month. In the face of military and police force, these non-violent protestors bravely remain resolute as they are now joined by thousands around the world. Damian is among those thousands.

“I recently visited Hawaii where people have come together to protect their sacred land on Mauna Kea, the tallest mountain in the world from base to peak. Ironically, while the people in Hawaii are trying to protect their sacred land from allowing the world’s largest telescope (costing $1.4 billion) to be built on top of Mauna Kea; we in Jamaica are trying to protect our nation’s land from bauxite mining companies expanding into Cockpit Country. Mining these areas would remove forest cover, block and pollute waterways, displace residents, threaten agricultural livelihoods, compromise air quality and threaten the health and well-being of thousands of Jamaican citizens. In the late 1700’s, Maroons who had escaped from plantations used this difficult territory to build communities outside of government control to free themselves of slavery. Please sign the petitions below on Change.Org to support these two important movements. ”

If you would like to support, please visit the petitions and sign:

Change Hawaii: https://smarturl.it/SIGN_MaunaKea
Change Jamaica: https://smarturl.it/SIGN_CockpitCountry

Directed by B+ for Mochilla.com
Shot by B+ and Eric Coleman
AC Cesar Alvarez
Edited by Grason Caldwell at Parallax Post
Drone Photography: Greg Malone
Color by Bossi Baker
Sound Recording by Stephen Hodge
Sound Mix by Kevin Abdella

Directed by B+ for Mochilla.com
Shot by B+ and Eric Coleman
AC Cesar Alvarez
Edited by Grason Caldwell at Parallax Post
Drone Photography: Greg Malone
Color by Bossi Baker
Sound Recording by Stephen Hodge
Sound Mix by Kevin Abdella

Ghostnotes is an extended photo essay with more than two hundred images that represent a mid-career retrospective of B+’s photography of hip-hop music and its influences. Taking its name from the unplayed sounds that exist between beats in a rhythm, the book creates a visual music, putting photos next to each other to evoke unseen images and create new histories. Like a DJ seamlessly overlapping and entangling disparate musics, Cross brings together L.A. Black Arts poetry and Jamaican dub, Brazilian samba and Ethiopian jazz, Cuban timba and Colombian cumbia. He links vendors of rare vinyl with iconic studio wizards ranging from J Dilla and Brian Wilson to Leon Ware and George Clinton, from David Axelrod to Shuggie Otis, Bill Withers to Ras Kass, Biggie Smalls to Timmy Thomas, DJ Shadow to Eugene McDaniels, Dj Quik to Madlib. In this unique photographic mix tape, an extraordinary web of associations becomes apparent, revealing connections between people, cultures, and their creations.

Longtime friends and musical collaborators, Common, Karriem Riggins and Robert Glasper felt the time was right to release music from August Greene, which has themes of optimism and black excellence. They have found a sound that does not solely fit into one genre, but is truly an invigorating hybrid of R&B, hip-hop, and jazz.

Common - vocals
Brandy - vocals
Robert Glasper - keys
Karriem Riggins - drums
Burniss Travis - bass

Directed by B+

Director: B+
Director of Photography: Jerry Henry
Additional Photography: Eric Coleman and B+
Local Production Company: Orangeswitch
Line Producer: Abiy Solomon
Production Managers: Hermela Feredegne & Wondwossen Yeshewalul
Production Assistant: Abegaz Solomon
Sound Operator: Zain Vally
Costume Designer: Mahlet Afework (Mafi Designs)
Casting Director: Meseret Mengistu
Fire Controller: Biruk Tassew
Translation: Bethelhem Shibru & Saba Eshetu
Driver: Yosef Araya

Production Company (US): Mochilla
Producer (US): Michael Park
Production Company (Africa): Visual Content Gang
Producer (Africa): Batandwa Alperstein

"Speak Life" Music Video Cast:
Mute Model: Mekdelawit Tadesse
Buna Ceremony Lady: Gebeyanesh
National Theatre Artistes: Neberegn Besuye, Amaru, Endale Brhane, Nigussie Bayle, Samuel Akale, Tseganeh Tamene, Workneh, Yetnayet Lakew, Mekdes Kassahun, Workneh Makonen & Tsegeneh Tamene

Special Guests: Haile Roots, Kassaye Araya, Ethiopia Skate, Belay Bekele, Shibeshi Tariku & Shewantasew Mengistu

Directed by B+

TIDAL Presents: A Mochilla Production in conjunction with Visual Content Gang

A Film By B+: 'Stony Hill To Addis'

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Directed by: B+
Produced by: Mike Park and Batandwa Alperstein
Director of Photography: Eric Coleman
Cameras: B+, Jerry Henry, Eugene Alberts, Zunaid Green
Edited by: Eric Coleman, Laith Majali

Original Music by: Damian ‘Jr Gong’’ Marley

Band:
Keyboards: “Winta” James
Guitars: Elton “Elly B” Brown
Drums: Courtney “Bam” Diedrick
Bass: Shiah Coore
Keyboards: Sean “Pow” Diedrick
Vocals: Roselyn Williams
Vocals: Sherieta Lewis
Flag: Donovan Logan

Touring Personnel:
Tour Manager: Kamal Soliman
Road Manager: Hartnel “Sky High” Henry
Security: Gary “Tiger” Hudson
Lighting Director: Nesta Garrick
Production Manager / FOH Engineer: Keith “Cyllva” Grant
Monitor Engineer: David Cole
Backline Technician: Chris Miller

South Africa:
Local Production Company: Visual Content Gang
Production Manager: Bokamoso Selaelo
Production Assistant: Simphiwe Bam

Kenya:
Local Production Company: Camouflage Media
Line Producer: Roy Wachira
Drone Operator: Zunaid Green
Production Manager: Samson K. Njenga
Tour Guide: Samson K. Gaithuma
Transport Coordinator: Linda S. Wambua
Driver: Godfrey Mwesigwa

Reunion Island:
Drone Operator: Zunaid Green

Ethiopia:
Local Production Company: Orangeswitch
Line Producer: Abiy Solomon
Production Managers: Hermela Feredegne, Wondwossen Yeshewalul
Production Assistant: Abegaz Solomon
Translation: Bethelhem Shibru, Saba Eshetu
Driver: Yosef Araya

Ethiopia Live Crew:
Camera Operators: Bruk Zenebe, Nebil Jemal, Berket Yosef, Mubark Jemal, Freezer Aregahegn, Mehari Aleka, Mandela Yohans, Nahom Negatu, Henok Jerjera

Assistant Editing: Mike Park, Grason Caldwell
Sound Mixing: Simon Guzman, William Quantic Holland
Sound Recording: Zain Vally, Keith Grant
Colorist: Bossi Baker

Directed and Filmed by: B+

Directed and Filmed by: B+

Directed and Filmed by: B+

A VIRTUOSIC PERFORMANCE FROM THE JAZZ MUSICIAN AND KENDRICK LAMAR’S COSMIC COLLABORATOR

I first saw Kamasi Washington play with many of these same musicians in Leimert Park in the early two thousands. It was the same night I first met Miguel Atwood Ferguson.  I remember thinking Kamasi was a young Cannonball Adderley – open, charismatic and in full flight already on his instrument. I had the distinct feeling that the future of the music was safe.  Although I had no idea just how safe it was.

I met Kamasi again in the lead up to the release of Thundercat’s first record with Brainfeeder.  I had the pleasure of shooting that release party with Eric Coleman and Mike Park and we released a short film of it called Thundercat 105 and that’s me trying to follow Kamasi’s fingers on the sax with the Nikon 105mm lens. I offered to make our resources available to Kamasi for whatever he needed around then.  Kamasi embodies the best of Los Angeles.  His commitment, patience and clarity are always re-assuring. The measure of a great musician isn’t just in what he plays but in what he facilitates around him and all these men and woman play and sing pure emotion with Kamasi.

THUNDERCAT TOLD ME ONCE “HE’S OUR PHAROAH SAUNDERS…”

In late December 2011, a good friend Sufia Toorawa called me and invited me to come down to the Kingsize studios – less than a mile from my house.  “Kamasi is there recording you have to see…” Sufia had been helping Kamasi with production and when I got there I realized that it wasn’t just Kamasi but the whole West Coast Get Down.  They had been there the entire month.  I set up an audio recorder and started shooting the following night and managed three days in total.  Those files sat for four years. But in there was the actual take of Rhythm Changes that ended up on the record. I’ve always loved this song and the lyric immediately caught me.  Patrice is a wonderful spirit and fits perfectly with the band.

In the ensuing months and now years Kamasi’s stature has only grown, capped this year by his string and horn arrangements on To Pimp a Butterfly for Kendrick Lamar.  Kamasi’s record, The Epic, eventually got strings and a choir (even including my wife Thalma De Freitas) and by the time the record was released in May of this year the buzz was at fever pitch. On that famous night at the Regent, Kamasi put 1200 L.A. heads of all generations, races and beliefs in the same room on a Monday night paying $40 a head to see four hours of jazz. Yes four hours, yes a Monday night.  After the second set, (there was three) I told the poet Kamau Daaood, “My chest feels so full man, my heart is beating bigger…” Ethno-musicologist Josh Kuhn asked me, “What is this man? This just can't be the Kendrick thing…” I’ve spent the past few months trying to answer this question. Somehow it is Kendrick, it is Los Angeles, it is Kamasi and his ability to bring people together, the fact that these musicians built their own audience in LA over the past ten years, but it is also a profound need I think we’ve all had to celebrate the exquisite, loving that Black American Music is. In a moment populated by dead black men’s bodies, (from Oscar Grant, to Trayvon, to Mike Brown and Eric Garner and on and on every twenty eight hours) we needed to not look away, we needed to remember, we needed somehow to celebrate. This show and this music is that.

This film is a mere eight minutes of this entire experience.  I am profoundly honored to have the chance to share it with you here.

B+

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Directed by B+ for Mochilla
Editor: Luke Lynch for Parallax
Cameras: B+, Mike Park, Ava Porter, Laith Majali
Color: Laith Majali
Voice Over: Kamasi Washington
Sound Mix: Daddy Kev
Executive Producers: Kamasi Washington, Banch Abegaze and Adam Stover

Band: Kamasi Washington (Saxophone), Ryan Porter (Trombone), Dontae Winslow (Trumpet), Patrice Quinn (Vocal), Cameron Graves (Piano), Brandon Coleman (Keyboards), Miles Mosley (Upright Bass), Stephen "Thundercat" Bruner (Electric Bass), Tony Austin (Drums), Ronald Bruner (Drums)

Choir: Charles Jones, Dwight Trible, Dawn Norsleet, Mashica Winslow, Nia Andrews, Steven Wayne, Taylor Graves, Thalma de Freitas

Strings: PaulCartwright (Violin), Tylana Renga (Violin), Jen Simone (Violin), Yvette Devereaux (Violin), Molly Rogers (Viola), Andrea Witt (Viola), Ginger Murphy (Cello), Atryom Manukyan (Cello)

Directed by: B+
Edited by: Luke Lynch
Cameras: Eric Coleman, B+, Jerry Henry, Mike Park, Laith Majali

Directed and Filmed by: B+
Edited by: Luke Lynch

Directed and Filmed by: B+
Edited by: Luke Lynch

The first official single from Quantic’s freshly announced ‘Magnetica’ album is “Duvidó” featuring Portuguese resident, Angolan born vocalist Pongolove. Premiered by The Guardian, with a stunning video filmed by B+ in Colombia, the vinyl and digital single drops on 17th March ahead of the LP release in May.

Directed and Filmed by: B+
Edited by: Luke Lynch

The Los Angeles bassmaster takes us through two cuts off his Flying Lotus-produced sophomore album, ‘Apocalypse.’ Drenched in psychedelia, Thundercat strolls through a Southern California wasteland for “Evangelion” before settling down for a sunset performance of “We’ll Die.”

Directed by B+
DOP Jerry Henry

On June 1st, King, the vocal trio from Minnesota began their month long residency at the Bootleg Theatre in Los Angeles. The opening act was a tall, charismatic, and talented young artist named Moses Sumney. Sumney's music is a tender combination of singer-songwriter soul with a tough and sometimes daring series of vocal loops. Performing by himself, he was openly nervous and dealt with it with a bright sense of humor. However, as soon as the music started, his gift overcame any timidity making the delighted audience scream at the end of every song, each time louder. I approached him afterwards and we struck up a conversation. Later that evening I thought it might be nice for Mochilla to help showcase his talent. This video is what came of that thought. Just one take, no edits, no corrections, no after effects, just pure soul. Below Moses tells us a little about himself.

When and how did you get into music?
I started singing when I was 7, and I'm not really sure why. Nobody in my family is musical. I've always just had a natural affinity towards it, but I didn't really start doing it publicly and consistently until i was 20 years old.

Where were you born and raised? 
I was born in San Bernardino, California in 1990. After living there for 10 years, I moved to Ghana with my family. Then at 16 I moved to Riverside to complete high school and begin college.

Does your period in Ghana have an influence on your music?
It's hard to tell. I think it's impossible for any period in our lives to not affect the art we output. I write about my life experiences and realizations, many of which occurred during my teen years in Ghana. Aesthetically, it may be too early to tell how much my upbringing affected my musical style. I've started to dabble in West African melodies and rhythmic patterns, but that didn't happen until years after I left Ghana and started actually paying attention to the music that was no longer ubiquitous in my life.

Do you have any formal training?
I do not. I am completely self-trained.

Who are your friends/co-workers in music?
Hard to say. I collaborate with many people on many different projects, I guess, but the bulk of what I do, I do alone.

Please tell us some of your influences... (not just music, if so...)
One of my earliest and main influences is India.Arie. Apart from being inspired by the folk-meets-soul genre she invoked, her lyrical content inspired me to want to create music that sparks consciousness and non-superficial levels of thinking. I'm also very influenced by Jeff Buckley, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray LaMontagne, and José Gonzalez.

Please tell us something about this song "Replaceable.'
It started with a melody. Sometimes I hear overlapping vocal melodies and harmonies in my head, and need a way to bring them to life. That's why I started looping. So the most important part of that song, to me, is the moving melody. The lyrics kind of just came naturally. I tried to write a song that, instead of the typical "you're-no-good" break-up song, gives perspective into the psychological trauma that causes us to treat people like they're expendable, and how those are cyclical behaviors. (Listen to the 2nd verse.)

Please tell us some of you career highlights so far...
Well there aren't too many so far! I won a few singing/performance contests when I attended UCLA but those matter very little to me now. The biggest highlight so far was definitely doing my first residency this June so early in my career, opening for the (amazing) band KING. Before that, it was the gig I did with Zee Avi. I think opening for Tony Allen at the Mayan Theatre will prove to be a highlight of sorts. Baby steps.

Moses is back with King at the Bootleg Theatre, this Friday August 2nd 2013. Doors at 8pm. 

Don't think I'd want to miss it.

- Thalma de Freitas

Mochilla productions brings a vintage feel to the brand new music video for @EllisMuzikChild (eldest son of the late great Alton Ellis). The black-and-white finds Chris Ellis pursuing the gorgeous girl of his dreams on a motorscooter. Produced by Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley, the swinging track features a hot DJ verse from Bay-C of dancehall supergroup TOK—who plays the cab driver driving the runaway girl’s getaway car. Will true love save the day? Will Chris catch up with his lady? There’s only one way to find out.

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Directed and Filmed by B+
Producer: Tashara Lee Johnson
Editor: Luke Lynch
Assistant Camera: Garth Daley
Stylist: Tamo Ennis
Make Up and Assistant: Emily Newland
Art Director: Kayla Shaw Warren
Runner: George Smith

Special thanks to the kind people of Port Royal, Jamaica.

Rated French-Chilean MC Ana Tijoux takes her song "Volver" to new heights on this video from rated director B+ -- specifically, above the clouds over Medellin, Colombia (no Escobar jokes please). Which seems to be the natural habitat for her Bahamadia-esque flow on this track; more whispered torch song than rap in the conventional sense.

Directed and Filmed by B+

One Take Live

Directed and Filmed by B+

Directed by Banksy
Camera: B+

Photography by B+

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The Petronio Alvarez Festival is a 5 day music event and competition held annually in Cali, Colombia. By a process of application and selection over 90 groups are invited each year to compete for the winning title. Across several evenings, bands perform in different musical categories as five judges mark them on appearance, composition, delivery and sound. The diversity is astounding, but all music presented is rooted in the traditions of the Pacific: marimba lead currulao from the south of the coast, home made violins from cauca and cutting dual-clarinet chiramia music from the choco region. As well as strictly folkloric groups, the festival also plays host to more urban interpretations of the Pacific sound, fusing tradition with salsa, reggaeton and rap. The Petronio experience is band focused, but the crowd give so much to the event, a great sense of unity and pride is shared by all who attend. A songline sung on stage soon becomes a thousand strong sing-along echoing around the shaky concrete frame of the bull ring it is held in.

People arrive ready to represent their origins in the Pacific and both celebrate and illuminate African heritage in Colombia. The festival also serves as a tremendous opportunity to see groups from rural regions who often travel several days by water and road to get there. It would be near impossible to see such a cross section of groups at any time of the year without traveling for several months by boat throughout the Pacific rivers and jungles, a part of Colombia increasingly known for its guerilla and paramilitary presence.

The Petronio Alvarez festival, relatively speaking, is still in its infancy. But like so many events of its kind, commerciality and business interests can so quickly change the aesthetics beyond recognition. For the meantime, Petronio remains an event for the people, people who for a long time have been excluded or isolated from mainstream Colombian identity. It’s not the most organized event, nor the biggest, but it’s certainly one of the most vibrant live music experiences you’re ever likely to experience.

Will “Quantic” Holland,
Cali, Colombia August 2010.

February 2009. Luckman Theatre, Los Angeles.

Timeless: The Composer/Arranger Series is an homage to the composer-arrangers that have influenced hip-hop in the most literal and profound ways.

The creative center of popular music today is the beatmaker-producer. Whether it is Timbaland, Dilla, Dre, or Madlib, these musicians have an uncanny sense for voicings, a penchant for unusual sounds and catchy rhythms and a magical ability to manufacture a good performance. Today’s beatmakers are the direct descendants of yesterday’s composer-arrangers. Their processes—whether it be writing a memorable line for background singers or finding the appropriate moment for a baritone harmonica — mirror those of today’s musicians. The composer-arranger creates music through the frame of the bigger picture, often more concerned with how things sound together than individually. Similarly today’s beatmakers produce music on a grand scale, but through automation and sampling.

Timeless brings these two seemingly unlike worlds together. The series honors the musical legacies of some of the greatest composer-arrangers ever.  Timeless celebrates the work of the composer-arranger in the context it should be seen—with full orchestras.

(2009) Tergiversation: Karriem Riggins Virtuoso Experience

Recorded at Yoshis in Oakland on June 25th 2009, the day Michael Jackson passed. This is the Karriem Riggins Virtuoso Project at their best. Doing a Gene Perla tune made famous by Elvin Jones. Mulgrew Miller R.I.P.

Drums: Karriem Riggins
Keys: Mulgrew Miller
Vibes: Warren Wolf
Bass: Joe Saunders
Cameras: B+ and Eric Coleman
Editing: Luke Lynch
Titles: Donal Thornton

Trailer from the forthcoming Mochilla/Sonido del Valle production. Shot in Cali and Buenaventura in Colombia. Based around the music of Quantic and his Combo Barbaro from their forthcoming Tradition in Transition album on Tru Thoughts Records featuring the talents of Will Quantic, Alfredito Linares, Nidia Gongora, Freddy Colorado, Arthur Verocai, Joao Comanche Gomes and Malcolm Catto.

A unfinished Mochilla Film about the beautiful music and scene that is Recife.

Brasilintime is a filmic map that connects the world of Rio de Janeiro of the late teens to the South Bronx of the early seventies. The roads from Samba through Bossa Nova to hip-hop are a complex web of musical whispers and echoes. Brasilintime is a two hour documentary that traverses this journey. In 2000 some of Los Angeles’s most revered soul and jazz session drummers came together with some of the city’s greatest turntablists. The magic that happened during this first meeting is both homage and discovery. It was filmed and became the acclaimed short “Keepintime: Talking Drums and Whispering Vinyl.” In November of 2002, both drummers and DJs travelled to Sao Paulo Brazil. The purpose of the journey was to expand the multi-generational conversation to include their counterparts from the world of Samba, Bossa Nova and Samba Rock, as well as the best new talent from Brasilian hip hop. This show was recorded and became the basis for Brasilintime: Batucada com Discos. Shot in a direct and often experimental way, relying frequently on the use of still photography, Brasilintime speaks the language of the music it addresses. Starring Paul Humphrey, James Gadson Derf Reklaw, Babu, Jrocc, Cut Chemist, Madlib and from Brasil - Wilson Das Neves, Ivan Mamao Conti, Joao Parahyba and DJ Nuts. Special appearances by Will I Am and Nelsao Triunfo.

In the second week of July 2007 Mochilla will bring all these radical forces that participated in Brasil in the making of the film back together for a monumental week of events in Los Angeles. This truly remarkable line-up will re-unite to set Los Angeles alight with the fire of Samba hearing hiphop while jazz dances between the two.

“For this listener when the chips are down, this project conjures up a risky and radical collision of forces whose existence we have very good reason to celebrate.” 
 - Paul Bradshaw: Straight No Chaser

“Brasilintime gives an extraordinary feel for these rhythmic exchanges, whether they happen in a drum shop, in a sweaty nightclub where DJs trade breaks with drummers, or across continents and over decades via vinyl legacies. Like a Madlib mix, the chains of influence are unpredictable but perfect.” 
- Bryan Mc Cann, author of Hello, Hello Brasil and Assistant Professor of Latin American History at Georgetown University

“It is brilliant as a combination of images and music, a film that does visually what its narrative proclaims through words and scenes.” 
- George Lipsitz: Author of Dangerous Crossroads and Head of the Dept of Black Studies UCSB

“What makes the film so filmic are all the strange little asides, strange little nothings that capture exactly what it is like to see some cats who have done some really important wilded out music come together and do the same thing together.” 
- Alex Wagner: The Fader Magazine

Keepintime started as a simple idea, let’s bring some of the most revered and notable L.A. session drummers together for a photo shoot. Then have them talk about the famous (to us) recordings that we (those whose ears have been opened through hip-hop) treasure, sample and discuss endlessly.

The musicians (Roy Porter, Earl Palmer, Paul Humphrey and James Gadson) were excited at the prospect of sitting together and discussing old times, old friends and the business. The first problem we encountered though was that to our ears the famous sessions were in fact often beyond the reach of our musician’s memory.

Memory can be an elusive fish. Simply put, the records we were most excited about were not hits. Sometimes they barely made a dent commercially and when one considers that Earl, Paul and James have recorded an album a day, five a week for years on end, it is not surprising that the elusive fish remains so.

Babu, J.Rocc and Cut Chemist are fishermen of the elusive. Cumulatively, they have a half-century of beat shopping experience. Similarly, they are the best turntablists in the City of Angels. As a result they would be the best way to snatch up those almost lost glimpses of music and represent them to their creators, that was the moment when we knew we had a film.

The puzzled smiles of Paul Humphrey and Earl Palmer speak multitudes on the perceived gap that exists between the musicians of today and their forefathers. However, lest we forget these men were progressive risk takers in their respective professions and a few turntables weren’t going to get in the way of a good conversation.

“I don’t know anything about that jigga jigga stuff - you play that and I’ll play this…”
- Paul Humphrey, 2000

And then the conversation started - like a bridge built of air. The premier of the original film put fifteen hundred people in the streets of downtown L.A. - the club only held four hundred but many waited outside in the cold just to hear what was going to happen. The result was legendary, the cast of the film played completely improvised music for almost an hour and a half to a sweat drenched multi-generational crowd. Somehow at this point those of us involved in the film knew that the journey was just beginning.

The film took off on its own, being appreciated in film festivals on every continent. DJ Shadow, who had edited and created music for the film, made “Keepintime” the intoduction of his critically acclaimed multi-media show in support of “The Private Press” album. As a result, one hundred thousand people saw it as part of his show.

Locally, we did four hugely successful screenings/shows. The pinnacle of this was the Getty show in July of 2002. Five thousand people crammed into the main courtyard of the museum to see the improvised session - now with new members Derf Reklaw and Numark. The Getty off-ramp of the 405 freeway (the busiest freeway in the U.S.) had to be closed because so many people tried to get in. The bridges in the air were becoming retrofitted - a human fault line was being re-examined.

This seismic report is the DVD. “Keepintime: Talking Drums and Whispering Vinyl” was always a trailer, somehow. “Keepintime: A Live Recording” is the DVD - on December 29th, 2002, almost two years after the original session in a photo studio - eleven hundred people were fortunate enough to witness a beautiful homecoming of sorts for LA music. The historic El Rey Theatre was filled beyond capacity to witness the unrehearsed masterpiece that was to unfold. That night along with the original cast, we added Derf, Numark, Shortkut and Madlib and they played this new music for two hours uninterrupted, save for the rapturous applause.