This Sunday in Philly a unique musical experiment is shaping up to take place at The Kimmel Center as part of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA) initiative to celebrate the spirit of 1900′s era Paris. At this special event, ?uestlove will perform along with Keren Ann and a slew of special guests, bringing together his hip-hop sensibility with jazz and classical luminaries to reinvent the sounds of turn of the century Paris. Performers will include Andrew Cyr on conduction, David Murray on saxaphone, D.D. Jackson and Pallavi Mahidhara on piano, The Roots own James Poyser and Anthony Tidd on keys and arrangements, Derrick Hodge on bass, the lovely ladies from The Dirty Projectors on vocals (Haley Dekle, Amber Coffman, and Susanna Waiche), Kristin Lee and Becky Anderson on violin, Joanna Franke on viola, Hiro Matsuo on cello, and Daniel Felsenfeld and Larry Gold as arrangers. “Philly-Paris Lockdown” will reinterpret the works of iconic period composers such as Satie, Debussy, Ravel, and Stravinsky.
Below, we have 3 songs for your listening pleasure – sketches of the works in progress. The first is a performance of one of the original songs used as inspiration for the show – a delightful piano tune entitled “Ma Mere L’Oye” (Mother Goose) composed by Maurice Ravel. Below that you’ll find the first layer of reinterpolation of the song, with a beautiful string arrangement added by D.D. Jackson. Finally, Ant Tidd took another version into the studio and created a notated version, with additional string arrangements as well. These songs are just early demos of what to expect Sunday night at the Kimmel Center. Stay tuned for future iterations of songs which we’ll be posting Friday, after the musicians have had time to jam and work out their arrangements in rehearsals. Expect to hear ?uestlove add his signature break beat style drums to each track, the hauntingly beautiful vocals of Keren Ann, as well as free jazz improvisations from the likes of David Murray and Derrick Hodge. Listen to the songs below, and then click after the jump for more info on the event at the Kimmel Center.
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The Kimmel Center Presents
?uestlove of The Roots
featuring Keren Ann and Special Guests
“Philly-Paris Lockdown”
?uestlove’s new spin on old-school Paris
The Kimmel Center
260 South Broad St.
Philadelphia, PA 19102
Sunday, April 17th
8pm
Posts like these make me wish y’all were located in Cali (or maybe i should move?). Bring more shows to so cal, ok!
Questlove has done a fantastic job of curating this concept for the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA). He’s brought together a group of world class musicians to execute this creative collaboration. Many thanks to Questlove and everyone involved in this project, The Kimmel Center is truly excited for this Sunday’s concert! It’s this season’s do not miss event!!!
please come to Toronto and do such lovely things for us ?uest. I could really go for something like this right about now.
Agree w/ Jai; I need this out here in Lil Boosie/Waka Flacka-ville; smh.
Is the concert going to be recorded at all?
i need this to be recorded…and available on amazon.
I hope this is recorded or perhaps a offered as a live cast. Philly is so lucky to have such an event.