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Ahmad Jamal, a legendary Jazz pianist who released a bevy of songs heavily sampled in the Hip-Hop sphere, has died after combating prostate cancer according to reports. Ahmad Jamal remained an active and curious musician well into his 80s, including a Kennedy Center set he expertly performed two years ago.
Ahmad Jamal (formerly Frederick Russell Jones) was born on July 2, 1930, in Pittsburgh, Pa. According to biographical accounts, Jamal began playing piano at the age of 3 and became a professional player at 14. Shortly after high school, Jamal’s touring career began and his travels led him to Islam, thus changing his name to Ahmad Jamal and keeping with the Muslim traditions of prayer.
In 1951, Jamal’s recording career would officially begin, culminating in his touring nationally and around the world behind the success of the At the Pershing: But Not for Me album. Jamal was also known as a prudent investor and used his fortunes to make investments across Africa. In 1962, Jamal stepped away from music for more than two years, returning to recording with the release of three albums in 1965, including the acclaimed Extensions album.
In 1973, Jamal released an instrumental version of the theme song for the 1970 film M*A*S*H*, a song originally known as “Suicide Is Painless” by The Mash and featured on the film’s original soundtrack.
The American Jazz Masters award, National Endowment for the Arts gave Jamal an American Jazz Masters award in 1994. In 2007, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts named Jamal a Living Jazz Legend. In 2017, Jamal was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by The Recording Academy.
Jamal’s music was famously sampled by Hip-Hop acts such as De La Soul, Pete Rock, Nas, 9th Wonder, Earl Sweatshirt, and countless others over the past two decades and more. Jamal’s last official recording was 2019’s Ballades album.
According to a report from the Washington Post, Jamal’s daughter, Sumayah Jamal, confirmed the passing of her father.
Ahmad Jamal was 92.
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Yung Gravy should be enjoying the fruits of his virtual track “Betty (Get Money)” that’s all the rage on social media. However, the Rochester, Minn. rapper is facing a lawsuit from 1980s hitmaker Rick Astley for an unauthorized imitation of the British singer’s voice.
Deadline reports that Yung Gravy, 26, sampled Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” track from 1987. According to the suit, Astley, 56, approved the sample of the original but did not authorize Gravy to hire a performer to imitate his voice.
The suit was filed in Los Angeles and states that only the instrumentals to “Never Gonna Give You Up” were licensed and that Astley’s voice was a “resource that needs to be carefully managed.”
The outlet obtained the legal filing which cites Yung Gravy and producer Dillion Francis “conspired to include a deliberate and nearly indistinguishable imitation of Mr. Astley’s voice throughout the song.”
Also named in the lawsuit is Nick Seeley, better known as Popnick, who performed the vocal impersonation.
According to Astley’s filing, the impersonation upended a future collaboration with another artist who wanted to use Astley’s vocals.
Yung Gravy has not made a public response to the lawsuit.
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Source: The Coca-Cola Company / The Coca-Cola Company
The art of sampling is taking something previously recorded and rendering it anew by chopping, looping, and other techniques that are the hallmarks of Hip-Hop production. Producers Madlib and Mark Ronson joined forces with The Coca-Cola Company for an innovative EP cleverly titled Recycled Records.
Source: The Coca-Cola Company / The Coca-Cola Company
The Recycled Records campaign launched back in December, putting Oxnard, Calif. native Madlib (Lootpack, Madvilliany, Freddie Gibbs) and London’s Mark Ronson (Amy Winehouse, Wale, Lady Gaga) in charge of sampling a bevy of sounds from a number of recycling centers that are turning used clear plastic bottles into new containers for a bevy of Coca-Cola products.
For years, Sprite, Fresca, and Seagram’s used a distinctive green plastic for their products, and as we learn in a short film narrated by the legendary MC Lyte, those bottles can largely only be used once. With Coca-Cola transitioning to clear bottles, recycling is now easier than ever thus creating less impact on the environment and giving the bottles new life.
The campaign produced the unique seven-track EP full of original tracks from Madlib and Mark Ronson, all of which are sonically different than the other and show off an amazing range of sounds between the pair. Fans can also try their hand at sampling the sounds and producing their own beats using the same library of sounds the Loopdigga (Madlib) and Ronson employed on their respective outings.
Source: The Coca-Cola Company / The Coca-Cola Company
“Sampling is an artform which is constantly regenerating. The tiniest sound, whether from an old record or from the world around us, can inspire an entire piece of music. I learnt from my heroes, DJ Premier and Q-Tip, who all made incredible albums from sampling, and it’s stayed an integral part of my work up until today,” Ronson added in a statement.
Madlib adds, “A great sample doesn’t have to come from other music, it just has to make you move. The thud of a plastic bottle going through a recycling facility is, in its own way, a piece of art, it has the ability to transform. Being able to take sounds from the recycling process that are so different from what I’ve used in the past, and flipping it into a whole new format, is a great example of the versatility of sound. Now any cat has the opportunity to make some dope sounds of their own.”
As the short film highlights, the most random sounds were used to create the samples, including the fizz of a bottle opening, the whirr of a forklift in motion, and the steady hiss of a factory conveyer belt. These music masters used all of their skills to flip these sounds into serious head-nodding bangers.
The campaign is part of Coca-Cola’s wider efforts in waste management under its World Without Waste operation.
To learn more, please visit this link to get more information on Recycled Records and to create your own original soundscape. Kudos to The Coca-Cola Company for its effort in protecting the planet by reducing waste on a global scale.
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Photo: Coca-Cola Company