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Nadir

PRE-ORDER NOW: Distorted Soul Sound Pack for Producers, Beat Makers & DJs

Some artists defy classification. Detroit-based rock and soul insurgent Nadir rebels against it. So true to form, Nadir’s Distorted Soul Sound Pack for producers, beat makers and DJs, arms you with a stockpile of original rock, funk, jazz and soul kits, instruments and loops for your production arsenal.

Explore the making of the Distorted Soul Sound Pack, created by funk/rock/soul producer Nadir in collaboration with BKE Technology at legendary Submerge Studios Somewhere in Detroit.

We stuffed the Distorted Soul Sound Pack with tons of crunchy rock guitars, roaring B3 organ, percolating bass, stellar post-bop saxophone riffs, and loads of live drum fills and loops. Click below to download FREE kits and samples, and take advantage of nearly 40% pre-order savings!

CLICK HERE to Pre-Order your copy NOW!

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GQ: Amen! (D’Angelo’s Back)… well, almost…

dangelo-guitar-gqThis dude’s music has always inspired me. The depth of his funk and soul raise the bar for all of us who strive to – as he quotes Beethoven in this article – “make music for the ages.”

Like his other fans, I hope he gets it together and puts out another timeless album. As an artist who tends to take my own time in the studio when working on my personal stuff, I know that the pressures we place on ourselves can far outweigh outside forces.

This fantastic article by Amy Wallace illuminates this past hazy decade in D’Angelo’s life, casting a sympathetic glow on his process, and on his perils. After reading it, I can be patient a bit longer.

Take your time, bro. Do your thang, and let us all hear it when the time is right.

He was once hailed as the next Marvin Gaye. Then, after his ripped body threatened to overshadow his music, he vanished into addiction. So what the hell was he doing recently singing his heart out in a Pentecostal church in Stockholm? And how are his abs? Amy Wallace witnessed D’Angelo’s ecstatic return to the stage—and hung out with the master of the sacred and the profane as he finishes his first album in a dozen years

Afro-Punk & SoulTracks Spotlight “Go It Alone” Music Video

One is the most important hub of the urban alternative music community in cyberspace. The other is the biggest soul music website on the planet. Both of them featured Nadir’s “Go It Alone” music video this week.

SoulTracks.com

 


SoulTracks.com is the leading online resource dedicated to classic and modern soul music. Their “First Listen” feature presents the hottest new soul music to the international soul community. Here’s how they laid it out:

SoulTrackers who’ve been with us awhile know that we’re fans of Detroit funk, rock, soul and blues man, Nadir.  He’s always bringing us something real, and since it’s been a few years since we last heard new music from him, we were glad to hear he was working on a new album.

Click HERE to check out SoulTracks.com and their First Listen feature…

Nadir on the Afro-Punk Social NetworkAfter the release of 2003’s Afro-Punk, the seminal cult classic film spotlighting Black Punks in America, alternative urban kids across the nation (and across the globe) who felt like outsiders discovered they were actually the core of a boldly innovative, fast-growing community.

The online members of the social network the filmmakers created have been the driving force behind the exploding Afro-Punk (AP) culture, creating an authentic virtual home in www.afropunk.com, and nurturing the musics best and brightest.

Click HERE to check out Nadir’s video feature, and to visit the Afro-Punk community.

Exclusive Interview: Nadir Featured on TheDetroiter.com

TheDetroiter.comSince its founding in 2002, TheDetroiter.com has covered thousands of happenings and artists, and continues to be one of Detroit’s favorite sources for art and culture.

In this exclusive interview by Chariti Joi Ntuk, Nadir talks about his forthcoming album The Book of Jonah, about why Detroit is the world’s number one music city, and about why organizing artists is like herding cats.

Nadir Omowale: Diary of a Distorted Soul

TheDetroiter.com

Somewhere in Detroit sits an anonymous building on a nondescript block. Throughout any given day, a steady stream of conspicuously awesome people carrying guitars, keyboards, etc. flow in and out of this seemingly forgettable building on a seemingly forgotten block of a city whose demise some people seem to think is a foregone conclusion.

If music is indeed the soundtrack to life, then Detroit and more specifically, this building, is very much alive thanks to its long list of strong-winded musicians who blow life into it daily. One of the musicians you can find in this building, and who is most responsible for the city’s current musical pulse is none other than 11-time Detroit Music Award winner, Nadir Omowale.

Read the full article HERE

Bob Davis of Soul-Patrol.com: This has been one heck of a week (if you are a F-U-N-K-A-T-E-E-R)

Belita WoodsNote from Nadir: Earlier this week I posted about the passing of bass master Donald “Duck” Dunn of Booker T and the MGs. Well, wouldn’t you know it, before the virtual ink of my blog had dried, we heard that Detroit’s own, P-Funk and Brainstorm vocalist Belita Woods also left us. The very next day we got the news that Chuck Brown, the Godfather of DC Go-Go, made his transition. UPDATED: And right after I posted this, we learned that Donna Summer passed away. What a week!

Our good friend, Bob Davis of Soul-Patrol.com, by virtue of his esteemed role as connector between artists and fans in the worlds of soul and funk, sometimes holds the unenviable position as bearer of bad news. He laments that too often his weekly Soul-Patrol newsletters function as a black music obituary column. As you could expect, this has been a trying week for him in that regard. Yet, in his late night email, he comments on these deaths with his usual eloquence and poise. I can’t say it any better, so we’ll let Bob do the talking.

This has been one heck of a week (if you are a F-U-N-K-A-T-E-E-R)
Originally posted by Bob Davis of Soul-Patrol.com
May 17, 2012

There has certainly been a whole lot going on in my world and the world around me over the past week, that has absolutely nothing to do with music. I won’t bore you all with the details, but I will tell you that it has all been quite good.

All of that good stuff is somewhat tempered by all of the bad stuff that has been happening in the neighborhood of the world that Soul-Patrol lives in.

This has been one of the worst weeks that I can recall. (and the week is not yet even 1/2 over yet)

We lost 3 soldiers this week. FUNK soldiers that is:
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Rest in the Funk – Donald “Duck” Dunn

While Motown bassist, James Jamerson, revolutionized the bass guitar by applying his jazz training to 60s pop music, the great Stax bass god Donald “Duck” Dunn melded gut bucket blues with good old-fashioned southern soul. The result was a rugged blue-collar groove that shines on dozens of timeless recordings.

On May 13, 2012 the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer passed away in his sleep after a hit at the Blue Note in Tokyo. His music, like the two classic cuts below, will live on forever. Rest in the Funk, Duck Dunn.

Whose Hologram Would You Pay To See In Concert?

After the overwhelming (surprised? horrified?) response to the appearance of Tupac Shakur’s hologram during Snoop Dogg’s Coachella set, promoters are now talking about a Tupac hologram tour. Of course they are.
Virtual TupacWould you pay to see an entire concert performed by a computer-generated hologram of Tupac? If not, what artist would you pay $50 to see perform as a hologram? Michael Jackson? Whitney Houston? A resurrected Sublime? A reunited Led Zeppelin?

As much as I regret never seeing Miles Davis live, I’m not going to pay $75 to watch M Dewey’s hologram turn its back to me on stage, but I’d have to think about those Jimi Hendrix hologram tickets, especially if they could make him burn a real Fender Strat on stage.

Whose hologram would you pay to see?

Yaminah Brock’s Endless Journey

Yaminah Brock - BLAC Detroit Magazine - EAPro.net

Yaminah Brock is a veteran of stage and studio, and has sung every style of music from house and funk to country and Big Band and swing.

But now, she’s the boss, leading her own band, Yaminah and Jazzy Soul, and financing and marketing her solo debut, “Endless Journey,” a full-length collection of jazz-inflected soul music slated for a spring release.

While spending more than two years recording and assembling her band, Brock discovered the rewards and challenges that lie on the road to independence. Yet, she stays on course by staying true to herself—and the music.

“I have new respect for anybody who has [recorded an album] independently, because this is no joke,” Yaminah says. “It’s a whole other job! But it’s well worth it. I’ve learned a lot.”

Read More HERE

Robinson’s Revolution in BLAC Detroit Magazine

Rick Robinson

Highland Park, Michigan native Rick Robinson is on a mission to transform classical music. As a bassist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for 22 years, Robinson is rooted in the storied classical tradition.

But the animated original compositions and inventive arrangements of classical and jazz masterpieces that he creates for his own ensembles, the nine-piece CutTime Players and his string sextet, CutTime Simfonica, inject vim and vigor into the sometimes-staid classical form.

Now with the performance series Classical Revolution Detroit, the 2010 Kresge Arts Fellow aims to remove the physical barriers between classical musicians and their audiences by offering intimate presentations in restaurants, cafes, bars and other non-traditional venues around the city.

Click HERE to Read More

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© Nadir Omowale