We ♥ Erik Rico. As a veteran musician, producer, writer, composer and arranger this cat has been deep in the soul of music for over 10 years working alongside Elton John, Gene Simmons and Mariah Carey to name a few. We’ve been waiting patiently for Mr. Rico’s Reworks Project (Out on LifeNotes Music) with his reinterpretations of inspirational musicians and it is finally upon us! Have a listen to Erik Rico’s interpretation of Marvin Gaye’s “Want You”.
A very nice remix of Dhundee’s “Tomorrow” featuring Cecilia Stalin from the man Domu himself. One of the last remix projects Mr. Domu embarked on before dipping out of the music game.
Late pass on this groovy jam from the forthcoming SoulParlor album on Tokyo Dawn Records. Enjoy this lovely broken jammy featuring the beautiful vocal contributions of Jacob & The Appleblossom. From the upcoming SoulParlor album Evoluzion features Afronaut, Cecilia Stalin, Colonel Red, Daz-I-Kue, Dego, MdCL, Oddisee, Opolopo, Pure P, Replife, Stan Smith & many more! Stay tuned for the full album release dropping this June! Big ups to Giant Step for reminding us about this release!
Cecilia Stalin, Swedish jazz vocalist [based in London] has been on hiatus for a little while so you can imagine how pleased we were to hear her latest project, Step Like A Giant!
The album pays homage to those who’ve layed the jazz groundwork progressing the art along the way. It is really a beautiful tribute.
Here is a both thoughtful and insightful note that Cecilia posted along with the album:
“This project was born deep down in my heart when I first heard Naima by John Coltrane. I fell deeply in love with the melody and then even more with the lyrics after learning more about him. I have ever since spiritually been working with the music of John Coltrane and it’s now come out in new shapes, forms and ideas.
STEP LIKE A GIANT - is my way of reaching out to people today that haven’t been introduced to the music of John Coltrane, who haven’t been introduced to jazz in a way that appeals to them, to people who don’t know jazz at all and to everyone to understand what John did for the musical plattform we all use today! (hiphop/grime/soul/neo-soul/nu-jazz/broken beat/house/ dub step/garage/blues/pop/rock…and all the ones in between)
Their voice was music. They used it to fight against the injustices that was happening then (like racial discrimination, war and poverty) just as today. We need to speak up, be brave to push the bounderies and never get intimidated to tell our own story to make progress. We are doing it - BELIVE ME but we all need to STEP LIKE GIANTS to make it manifest!
So this is my way of paying my respect to the amazing musicians that’s paved the way for me to be able to do what I do…. Now come and join me!
Peace and creativity to all, Cecilia”
Some of our personal favorites from the album are below. Preview/buy the whole thang here.
