Posted on 06/11/2008

Ok, I'll admit it.  I was drinking on the job.  Not drunk drinking, but let's call it tipsy drinking.  Nonetheless, The Roots Picnic weekend has left me with a blur of memories that all sort of overlap in a heatwave of hazy flashes- from Santogold's performance at the pre-Picnic jam to The Cool Kids colorfully  bouncing around the sweaty Picnic stage, from the guestlist madness of Hors D'Oeuvres, to the REAL guestlist madness of The Picnic.  It all started sometime last week when Shawn Gee called us up and informed us that there was to be a last minute jam session show the Friday night before the Picnic at the TLA on South Street.  Santogold could no longer perform at the Picnic, but would do a full set at the jam sesh. Hors D'Oeuvres would also feature Nouveau Riche (with Dice Raw), The Randy Watson Experience featuring Bilal, The Roots, and the incredible Janelle Monáe.

 

Now, I know we just did a massive OKP story on your girl, but Ms. Monáe is the truth!  After her performance left the entire room with jaws agape, and artist after artist wandered around backstage somewhat blown away, like, "did you just see that?,"  "yo, she moonwalked!" "she's the female Prince," and more, we had to agree, she is the real deal. But I've jumped too far ahead. 

First I've gotta rewind to Wednesday, when I was chatting with ?uestlove about the jam session.  I told him about a band I'm working with, Bajah featuring the Dry Yai Crew , from Sierra Leone.  He's heard me talk about them before, but had never seen them perform live.  Then came the magic words "Why don't your guys do two songs Friday night?"  Fantastic news.  But wait... we have to rehearse and be ready to perform in 2 days?  And get a band?  So I began the all-too-familiar last minute hustle-shuffle.  I'm calling every musician I know.  Luckily, the incentive to come down to the illadleph for the weekend, escape NYC for a bit, and gain free entry to The Roots Picnic was a pretty easy pitch.  Not to mention, Bajah is an incredible musician, and I knew once anyone heard his songs, they'd be excited to play in the band.

Bajah and the Dry Yai crew consists of three MCs and singers.  They recorded all of their tracks in Sierra Leone, with little resources and no real producer.  We are now recording an album in Brooklyn, and working with some wonderful musicians (you'll hear more about this soon!).  We are also going to collaborate with an amazing charity called Bambai Bling to help give back to the community in Freetown and other parts of Sierra Leone.  Having survived the bloody civil war which ended around 2002, Bajah and the Dry Yai Crew met and began to spread a message of hope and love with their music.  But they can't forget that Sierra Leone is in a state of post-war trauma and is desperately in need of help.   

Ok, I digressed, back to the weekend.  So finally we've got a drummer, the phenomenal Nikki Glaspie.  She's played with the likes of Beyonce, Vernon Reid, Martin Luther and many many more.  Girlfriend stays in the pocket!!  I've always been in awe of Nikki's drumming and I knew she would kill this set.  Sure enough, she was into the music and down for the adventure.  Then came Paul Josephs , who I met when he was playing guitar with Alice Smith.  We all rendezvous in Philly the day of the jam session- with NO rehearsal under our belt!  Luckily I've seen Bajah perform under some serious improv jump-up-on-stage-and-freestyle conditions, and he never fails to shine.  I meet up with the band after a few hours of running around with GoodTimeGirl Tina Farris and illegally crossing state lines with thousands of dollars worth of liquor for Saturday's festivities.  After stopping by the venue to make sure the production team was straight, and helping with guestlist duties, I arrive at The Studio (Larry Gold's studio in Philly which also serves as Roots home-base).   

My main goal was to get in an hour of rehearsal before the event.  No such luck.  Turns out Gnarls Barkley is back in The Roots studio room all day.  ?uestlove's engineer Steve informs me that I can use ?uesto's room to rehearse (drums are set up and all!) except there's a glitch- ?uesto is being filmed inside his studio with a Sixer (you'll find out soon) to promote a collabo he did with a certain company for a certain product (see the photos in my photo gallery with the black-out on them!).  Sorry for the tease but I'm not allowed to divulge the info yet!  We manage to slip in, dodging the lights and equipment they have set up, and we get a whole 20 minutes of rehearsal in before they kick us out again.  At least we ran through each song once.

At the jam session, Nouveau Riche kick it off with some guest performers, including rapper Tu Phace.  After their set, Bajah and the Dry Yai crew hit the stage and hype the crowd.  Everyone seemed to really be feeling it, and Nikki held down the beat like a monster.  The feedback was all very positive, and the guys felt great about their performance.  We have a toast, then move out to the front of house to watch Santi wreck the room.

Next up, Santogold absolutely wowed the crowd despite a serious sore throat (you would never have known, her voice sounded beautiful), as hipsters and hip-hoppers alike shook their bodies to her reggae inspired 80s flavored bangers.  And then there was Janelle Monáe's show-stopping performance.  Finally, Bilal came on and did his usual mind-blowing vocal gymnastics, and then The Roots closed it out with a vicious set.  The night went on until almost 3am, and The Roots call for the next day was 12:30am, leaving a few hours to get home and rest up.

Throughout the night OKPDan and I were with our boy Josh from VIMBY and hostess Amanda Diva, so stay tuned for two in-depth video pieces documenting the night, coming your way shortly.  We also had our OkayplayerTV film crew on hand all day Saturday for the entire Picnic, so make sure you check back for the virtual-Picnic experience, in case you missed it.  I snapped a few photos in the gallery above, but was mostly consumed with management duties, running around in the thick, soupy, 95 degree heat, helping to manage the guestlist, working with the merch sellers, and generally dealing with the artists.  There was a food run to Pattersons, a Roots-vegan-favorite, and a bit of deception consisting of a slight-of-hand and some AA passes (we just didn't have enough to go 'round), and some babysitting action throughout the day.  It was a straight up Family Affair as Roots-babies bounded through the catering tent and in-and-out of the slightly air-conditioned dressing rooms ("shut the door, yo!" could be frequently heard if you walked along the dressingroom corridor).  The cops appeared for .05 minutes, and caused a minor scare, encouraging those in the "smoking" dressingroom to quickly extinguish any herbal ciggs that may have been burning.  In the end, it was all cool, turns out they were just stopping by to "visit a friend" who worked there, and were not into causing any problems.  

OKP had our boy Trevor Paulhus on site to take portraits of whoever wandered by his set up.  Luckily he captured almost everyone, from the entire Roots squadron to Sharon Jones, Esperanza Spalding to Deerhoof, J*Davey to Dice Raw to Chuck English of The Cool Kids, and many more.  We can't wait to share the portraits with you, as Trevor is an incredibly talented artist.  I won't go through each set of performances as you can read the many glowing reviews given to The Picnic, from The Philly Tribune to The Philadelphia Inquirer.  One delightful surprise that I must mention, however, was that original Roots bassist Hub showed up and graced the stage for a devastating 10 minute bass solo.  The crowd went wild, and backstage it was a happy family reunion.

 

- gingerlynn