rFrday September 22, 2006 arts.michigandaily.com artspage@michigandaily.com ATe Sigan ilq 5A Courtesy of BBE Kids, you're looking at the best producer you've never heard of. Dilla 'Shines' on posthumous disc By Anthony Baber Daily Arts Writer MUSIC REVIEW * * * J Dilla is by far one of hip hop's most influential and acclaimed producers. Dilla, born J Dilla James Yancey, The Shining the Detroit pro- ducer got his BBE start with groups like Slum Village, The Pharcyde and A Tribe Called Quest. Those experiences led him to join the production group The Soulquar- ians, along with D'Angelo, James Poyser and ?uestlove. Before his death from Lupus complications last February, he had completed the majority of a few albums, one being the hotly anticipated The Shining. It's one of the last albums con- structed by the production wizard (it was mostly completed at the time of his death, with the finishing touches put on by close associate Kareem Riggins). The Shining is a masterful effort that sounds unlike anything else in his discography. Dilla enlists the aid some of hip hop's most eclectic, well-estab- lished lyricists, like Black Thought, Common and Pharaohe Monch to lace his beats with inspired rhymes, while still giving them room to breathe. The album starts off with Busta Rhymes as he introduces the opus "Beat Down." The song is composed of "Flight of the Bumblebees," set in an innova- tive arrangement - a chorus of kazoos accompanied by a heavy bassline that rattles the listener's brain. The brass horn and elegant string ensemble on "Love" has an inviting sound that proclaims Dilla's neverending love for sweet soul music. Pharaohe Monch's verse puts it best, saying "Love music, gospel to the thug music / Some inspire the soul when they write, some abuse it / I choose to choose what I choose when I choose it / Put love in the music, cuz we must be in love". Part of Dilla's genius is match- ing a beat to it's MC's particu- lar strengths. The electronically raspy chorus on "E=MC2" is sat- isfyingly conciliatory with Com- mon's palatable rhymes. The rippling sounds of piano keys and harmonious piping fully accentu- ate the mellow and beatific R&B stylings of D'Angelo on "So Far To Go." Sounding like a comput- er-generated ghost, D'Angelo's supernatural vocals spread over the track like hot butter. Not all of the production on the album is smooth beats with melodic vocals. The cymbal crashes and rattling chains over the crescendo of sirens on "Jun- gle Love" show off Dilla's affin- ity for commanding bass-heavy beats, as MED and Guilty Simp- son tag along with their coopera- tive flows. In a touching tribute, at the end of "Love Movin,' " the- song switches up to Dilla telling how he drew inspiration from his favorite records. "How I feel for the day. I don't understand how this shit comes to me or how I have the urge to work. It just happens." For mere mortals, it doesn't "just happen." But Dilla is no mere mortal, and The Shining is another stellar entry in a cata- logue that will live forever. She rules. No joke. No snark. She rules. JAZZ'S FIRST FAMILY ALICE COLTRANE QUARTET SET TO DAZZLE HILL By Lloyd H. Cargo Daily Music Editor FINE ARPTs 'PREVIEW Even if her name was still Alice Mcleod, Alice Col- trane's concert tomor- row night at Hill Alice Auditorium would Coltrane be a tremendous Quartet homecoming. Mrs. Saturday at 8 p.m. Coltrane is a Detroit native, and the honor Il-$k Rash of a Michigan date on t what would be John At Hill Auditorium Coltrane's 80th birth- day (and the equinox), was not bestowed unintentionally. Alice Coltrane, along with her son, Ravi Coltrane, and two other jazz legends - bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Roy Haynes, will return home to honor her husband and to celebrate her own sto- ried career in another in a string of great sold-out jazz concerts courtesy of UMS (Rush tickets are available today from 9 am. to 5 p.m. at the Michigan Union Ticket office, in person only.) Begin- ning with Ornette Coleman in 2004 and continuing with Sonny Rollins last year, we've been treated to a series of legend- ary jazz-men who have both given reve- latory performances - this one should be no different. Mrs. Coltrane will play material from John's vast catalogue, as well as music from her own critically acclaimed Translinear Light, released in 2004, her return to Impulse Records after a 26 year recording hiatus. She will perform on the Wurlitzer organ and piano in one of only three concerts scheduled. A private woman, Mrs. Coltrane lets her impres- sive discography speak for itself, staying out of the spotlight in recent years. Highlights abound from throughout her career, with her era on Impulse records proving particularly fruitful - both with her husbands group after McCoy Tyner left, and when she lead her own groups after John's death in 1967. Journey in Sat- chidananda, Universal Consciousness, and World Galaxy are all ethereal avant- garde workouts that display not only her Bud Powell-trained chops, but also her deeply spiritual improvising. It ought to go without saying, but Alice Coltrane has had a marvelous career, with her associa- tion with possibly the greatest jazzman just being the icing on the cake. Her band mates aren't lacking creden- tials either. Her son, Ravi Coltrane, is the spitting image of his father, though with a tenor tone more similar to Joe Henderson's. Charlie Haden is known as one of free jazz's key figures and arguably greatest bassist on the strength of his work with the aforementioned Ornette Coleman and his own Liberation Music Orchestra. Rounding out the rhythm section, Roy Haynes has laid down the beat for a stun- ning list of jazz's biggest names - from Lester Young, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis to Thelonious Monk, Eric Dolphy, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and John Coltrane himself. Basically, he's played with just about everyone. This afternoon (free, 3 p.m., fourth floor Rackham Ampitheatre) Mrs. Col- trane and the rest of the group will field questions about the legacy of her husband's music in the American jazz canon. It'll to be an excellent primer for a concert featuring some of the most important jazz musicians, paying tribute to one of jazz's most respected figures and playing some of jazz's greatest com- positions. Mamet-penned 'Edmond' disgusts By Sarah Schwartz Daily Arts Writer "You are not where you belong," a gypsy with tarot cards warns the title char- acter of Edmond "Edmond."' At the Michigan She could Theater really be First Independent talking to the audience, since they should be doing any- thing other than watching this horror show. "Edmond" boils down to a midlife crisis with loads of unnecessary violence. Sick of his job, his wife and his life, Edmond leaves his home and tries to get laid. After haggling over price with three women (yes, it goes on for that long), he gets beat up by street hustlers, buys a knife and proceeds to cut people up - all the while extol- ling the virtues of the white W hy does race. of "Edmond" is do any an unmitigated awful shit mess, which is a surprise, since does? W h it was writ- ten by David sentence Mamet. A wide- ly appreciated with raw playwright and screenwriter, Mamet has a way with words, and the dialogue in "Edmond" carries many of his signature dialogue: overlap- ping and high-minded questions. So why is the movie, reworked from Mamet's own one-act play, reduced to such a disaster? Is it the inability to feel any- thing other than revulsion toward the main character? That's not too strong a word to describe a man who leaves his wife, goes looking for sex, refuses to pay more than $50 for it, buys a knife and finally slashes a pimp and a waitress. There's another telling moment after Edmond verbally abuses a woman on a train simply because she doesn't answer him. Walking alone with nowhere to go, Edmond breaks down crying until he suddenly comes upon a Baptist Church. Typically, this would be saving-grace time, when the audience embraces Edmond and hopes he sees the error of his ways. Instead, I was worried he was about to attack the minister. Or maybe the problem was the number of C-list actresses who appear randomly and spout their lines without any sense or feeling. Bai Ling and Denise Richards both play strippers who ask for too much money and Mena Suvari returns to seducing older men. Julia Stiles plays a homopho- bic waitress s Edmond who allows th Edmond to the sleep with t he her, and gets turned on by -y is every the fact that he's not sure filled if the pimp he slashed is hatred? dead. The rea- son the movie really fails is most likely the fact that after every sen- tence, every action, the constant question is "Why?" Why does Edmond do any of the awful shit he does? Why is every sentence filled with raw hatred? Why is William H. Macy naked? Throw- ing around racial expletives and talking frankly about sex doesn't make a movie sophisticated. It just makes it disgusting. l e .t h f DAILY ARTS. Study Participants APPLE DRINK. 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