【分享】fRUITY-FRESH | 什锦杂谈之 JJ Whitefield 的五种形态之二

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每期包含不同风格的音乐，满足好奇的耳朵

JJ Whitefield & Forced Meditation – The Infinity Of Nothingness

Jazz

fRUITY-PICK: Solar Breeze From The East

Label: Jazzman

最近，JJ Whitefield 的音乐冒险开始走向了 “精神爵士乐”，我们在 The Infinity Of Nothingness 专辑中不难发现这一点。就像 Whitefield 的大部分佳作一样，这是一张成熟、细腻并且饱含沉思的专辑。专辑中的 hip-hop, library music 和 avantgarde 元素明显被一种恍惚感统一起来，微妙且丰富。从稀疏的开篇 “Nothingness” ，到 “Time” “Space”和“Energy”的“Infinity Suite”，尽显细腻。正如他在 Poets of Rhythm 中所做的那样，Whitefield 凭借 The Infinity Of Nothingness 实现了极其罕见的音乐创作壮举——这张专辑不仅配得上他的统治性的影响力，而且还将经受住时间的考验。

More recently, Whitefield has begun to venture into the astral planes of what’s now commonly referred to as ‘spiritual jazz’, and this is very much where we find him manifesting on ‘The Infinity Of Nothingness’. A set of mature, delicate and meditative orchestrations, like much of Whitefield’s best work. With subtle yet diverse accents of hip-hop, library and avantgarde appearing wholly unobtrusively, the album is unified by a marked trance-like feel, beginning with the sparse, processional opener ‘Nothingness’ through to the 3 part ‘Infinity Suite’ of ‘Time’, ‘Space’ and ‘Energy’. As he did as a schoolboy with the Poets of Rhythm, with ‘The Infinity Of Nothingness’ Whitefield achieves that exceptionally rare feat of creating music that is not only worthy of sitting alongside that of his overarching influences, but will also stand up with it against the tests of time. 

The Whitefield Brothers Ft. Edan & Mr. Lif – The Gift

Hip-hop

fRUITY-Pick：Gifted (The Oh No Remix)

Label: Now-Again Records

你永远可以相信小马，当然还有他弟弟。

Whitefield Brothers 中的两兄弟 Jan 和 Max 在正式成型之前，穿梭在各个变体之间，而 Madlib 和 Oh No 也是一样。小马两兄弟的合作从 Lootpack 时期开始，再到后来的 The Professionals。

Whitefield 兄弟和小马兄弟的缘分妙不可言，四人共同爱好的交汇点似乎就是埃塞俄比亚音乐。除去在 Ethio Meditation 这张专辑中的合作，他们还在今天分享的这首“埃式嘻哈”中同框过。

You can always trust Madlib, and of course his brother.

Like Jan and Max of the Whitefield Brothers, shuttling between variants before officially taking shape, the same can be said for Madlib and Oh No, the duo’s collaboration can be spotted from the time of Lootpack and even later on with The Professionals.

The Whitefield Brothers and the Madlib Brothers have a wonderful bond, and the intersection of the foursome‘s shared passions seems to be Ethiopian music, except the album Ethio Meditation, today we have another Ethiopian vibe remix of the Whitefield Brothers.

The Whitefield Brothers - In The Raw

Funk

fRUITY-Pick: In The Raw

Label: Now-Again Records

90 年代初，The Daptone Kings 还没有诞生，Sharon Jones 的名下还只有一张稀有45 寸唱片，The Michels Affair 乐队还是一帮名叫 Mighty Imperials 的小年轻。放克的时代已经悄然消逝。此时，美国第一个“真正的放克”唱片公司 Desco 已经不在，老板 Phillipe Lehman 开始寻找着新方向。来自德国慕尼黑 Whitefield 两兄弟，Jan 和 Max Whitefield，来到了纽约录制以 The Whitefield Brothers 为名的首张专辑 In The Raw。他俩是放克乐队 Poets Of Rhythm 的创始成员，十年间发行了几十张 45 寸唱片和几张重要的 LP，将放克音乐进行现代的演绎。尽管如此，他们的唱片那时也只为少数人喜爱。

在当时，“受非洲影响的放克”意味着“听起来像 Fela”。兄弟两带来一整张受到非洲侨民影响的专辑，这正中 Philliepe Lehman 的下怀。这张专辑音乐上同时继承了 The Meters 和 Fela Kuti and His Africa 70，并且饱有如同 Blo、Edazawa 和 The Psychedelic Aliens 等加纳和尼日利亚迷幻放克先锋杰作一样的迷幻风味。Desco 的另一位创始人，Gabriel Roth（也是之后 Daptone Records的创始人之一，以及乐队 The Dap Kings 的主脑）负责专辑的贝斯；Leon Michels，El Michels 本人负责演奏萨克斯和笛子以及号角部分的编排；Daptone 的另一创始人 Neal Sugarman 也参与了专辑。Jan 和 Max 的音乐创作变成了现实，这张专辑很快就发行了。 一张 7 寸和 10 寸唱片紧随其后，并且包含未收录在 In The Raw 中的曲目。

Karl Hector & The Malcouns - Non Ex Orbis

Afrobeat

fRUITY-Pick：Mother Seletta

Label: Now-Again Records

Rodinia 在 2017 年发行的专辑 Ex Anima 的开篇曲目为“Non Ex Orbis, Ex Anima”，在拉丁语里意为“非出自世界，而出自灵魂”。Karl Hector 发行于 2019 年的 Non Ex Orbis 这张专辑则与其遥相呼应。

这两张专辑的倾向性也可以从专辑名看出来，Ex Anima 是一张对德国地下音乐场景的致敬，沿用经典元素再加以创作。迷幻系风格也恰恰如此，不管弹的怎么样，母星都在等着我随时出发。可以参考一下 Funkadelic 的键盘手 Bernie Worrell 七六年在休斯顿的现场。

Ex Anima 很明显地在专辑中展露出大量的 JJ 想要转变、实验的痕迹，虽然仍旧不是这个世界上的产物，但是，是出自我的灵魂的。而我，来自外太空。

In Rodinia‘s 2017 album, Ex Anima, the intro track “Non Ex Orbis, Ex Anima”, which in Latin means ”not from the world, but from the soul“. Karl Hector’s album: Non Ex Orbis, released in 2019, surprisingly connected.

The tendency of the two albums can also be seen in the title, Non Ex Orbis is a tribute to the German underground music scene, using classic elements and creating new ones. The same with other psychedelic band; no matter how well it‘s played, the mother planet is waiting for me to leave at any moment. A reference can be made to Funkadelic’s keyboardist Bernie Worrell, live in Houston in 1976.

Rodinia’s album: Ex Anima is just as obvious, which is heavily filled with traces of JJ‘s desire to shift, to experiment, and while still not a product of this world, it is from my soul. And I, from outer space.

Karl Hector - Sahara Swing

Jazz-Funk, Afrobeat

fRUITY-Pick: Sahara Swing

Label: Now-Again Records

Karl Hector的首张专辑发行至今已有数年，现在人们已经知道，Karl Hector 是德国制作人兼吉他手 JJ Whitefield, 又称 Jan Weissenfeldt。他是 Poets of Rhythm 和 The Whitefield Brothers 背后的远见卓识者，这两个乐队粗糙的模拟声和对 60 年代末至 70 年代初放克乐原型的复刻，为 Daptone、Truth & Soul、Timmion 等唱片公司铺平了道路。

Whitefield 与 Thomas Myland 和 Zdenko Curlija 于 2000 年代初创立了 Karl Hector and The Malcouns。他们的首张专辑 Sahara Swing 于 2008 年在 Now-Again 唱片公司发行。这张专辑受到了世界各地的关注，吸引了一批重度崇拜者。

It’s been some years since the first Karl Hector release, and it’s known now that Mr. Hector is indeed the German producer and guitarist JJ Whitefield, ne Jan Weissenfeldt. Whitefield is the visionary behind the Poets of Rhythm and the Whitefield Brothers, the ensembles whose rough analog sound and return to the funk archetypes of the late 60s to early 70s paved the way for labels like Daptone, Truth & Soul, Timmion.

Whitefield, along with Thomas Myland and Zdenko Curlija, founded Karl Hector and The Malcouns in the early 2000s. Their debut, Sahara Swing, saw release on Now-Again in 2008. The album swung with influences from across the African diaspora and set the stage for a cult, but influential following. 

*文字来自 Now-Again 官网

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