It’s a special thing when three equally-talented sound sculptors combine all their skills to create a new constellation. Enter keyboardist and producer MARK de CLIVE-LOWE - the LA-based global citizen trailblazing new paths in jazz hybridity for the past two decades; drummer and producer SHIGETO - calling Detroit home and deftly switching from ambient music, to jazz, to techno with idiosyncratic deftness; and vocalist, flautist, and sample-chopping producer MELANIE CHARLES - with Haitian roots and a Brooklyn home, her voice is a channel for the past to meet the future and her triple threat rules supreme - the mic, the flute, the SP.
MdCL and SHIGETO first collaborated at Detroit’s Motor City Wine - meeting in person for the very first time at soundcheck for what was to be an unforgettable treat for all in attendance - a two-hour improvised ‘nice to meet you’ dive into beat-heavy electronic jazz. Half way across the world in Italy, having caught wind of the Motor City Wine throwdown, the legendary Fat Fat Fat Festival set their sites on featuring the duo. Wanting to expand to a three-piece, MdCL enlisted MELANIE CHARLES, knowing her triple-threat skills would complete the unit perfectly. The three assembled in Loreto, Italy, spending a week jamming out material putting the set for Fat Fat Fat together. Opening the festival, the trio knew something special had been born.
Three months later, reuniting in NYC, MdCL, SHIGETO and MELANIE CHARLES took the stage at the Nublu Jazz Festival following the Sun Ra Arkestra, opening with their sublime flip of Pharoah Sanders’ The Creator Has A Master Plan and proceeded to take the capacity audience on an epic journey - see the video clip of ‘Strings’ below! Pharoah Sanders’ inspirational spirit is clearly present on the trio’s debut offering - with separate opening and closing interpretations of ‘Creator’ and their reimagining of the saxophone legend’s jazz-dance classic ‘Love Is Everywhere’. Elsewhere the trio takes us on a journey through their love for hip hop, jazz, sample chopping and soulful sounds. Recorded straight after their NYC show, the 9-track album serves as a perfect introduction to a new chemistry-laden collaborative unit with plenty more to come.
