For those that know me personally or kick it with me on the various social networks, it’s no secret I’m a huge J. Dilla fan. I’ve written about him several times on my blog and I often post Music by him on Facebook and Twitter.
Shortly after our piano player joined our band back in February of this year, he composed a song and sent us the melody. After reading the title and hearing just the keys, I knew I was going to love playing this. The song is called D.D. (Dear Dilla) and it’s our dedication to the late Detroit genius, James Yancey aka Jay-Dee aka J. Dilla.
I’ve decided to post a couple of versions of this. The first version is from one of our studio sessions earlier this year. The second version is us playing live at Dolce Vita in Tokyo, Japan. Hope you like it.
RJ Bass
Noah Studio, Shimokitazawa, Tokyo, Japan – March 25, 2011
Dreams. We all have them…right? I hope you do! Moving to Japan was one of my dreams, that actually came true (I still find it hard to believe some times).
One of my other dreams: Making & Playing Music.
My Musical weapon of choice: Bass Guitar.
(Yes that is my baby “Kofi Brown” at time of this page.)
Towards the end of Summer 2010, my good friend (and co-worker) Daisaku and I decided to start a band. At first it was just he and I in the studio but we soon discovered that there is only so much fun you can have and only so much Music you can make with 1 Guitar and 1 Bass. About two months later Daisaku asked his friend Kaz if he would like to be our drummer. Kaz said yes and has become my rhythm section brother. We really needed a keyboard / piano player, so we decided to search the Twitterverse (aka Twitter). After a few responses from people that were either already pros (we are not) or just didn’t have what we were looking for, we thought, “Ok, this is not going to be so easy.” You know, sometimes you just have to be patient. We soon found our pianoman: Masaru.
As a group, the 4 of us have only been playing together since February 1 of this year although it seems like we’ve known each other for many years because of the amount of fun we have. Studio time followed by cheap food and even cheaper beer (no we’re not cheap!) before catching the next to the last train (yes we are responsible!) is a weekly ritual I always look forward to. My Musical brothers are really talented and I really feel honored to be able to play with them.
On Sunday March 6, 2011, we invited a small group of people to come and get a taste of “our” Music. I said “our” because 99% of our stuff is original. This was our first time playing live as a band, my guitarist’s first time in about 10 years and my first time ever. Yes, I was nervous as f***!
Anyway, here’s a little piece from our first live performance.
I hope you enjoy it.
