--------------0B94EA9F977ADFBCD54C1BE6
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-2022-jp
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Feature Interview >> Monday Michiru: Episodes in Color
Source: Campus Circle
Episodes in Exemplar: Renders Neo-Soul Spurious
by Wesley Chu
Monday Michiru Interview Article (April 2002)
Episodes in Exemplar
The same year the words “acid jazz” assimilated into the vernacular of
groovers mystified by ‘70s jazz-funk and the irrepressible departures
from hard bop typified by Donald Byrd’s Black Byrd, an artist who would
soon materialize as a forerunner in groove centralized music was imaging
her heart’s mind and marking her first steps with role as vocal
arranger and backing vocalist on the 1988 soundtrack to the Clint
Eastwood biopic Bird. That vocal arranger was working in a cultural
landscape where Gilles Peterson and Patrick Forge were looking high and
low for the best rare grooves, the forward-thinking tunes dismissed by
uptight jazz purists, and still three years until the Brand New Heavies
would bring acid jazz into the popular conscious of Londoners and
eventually off shores. Soon enough, she emerged from behind the decks
and into the play lists of cutting-edge DJs from London, Japan,
metropolitan America (L.A., New York, and San Francisco) and the Oslo
Underground. The name Monday Michiru is now synonymous with vicissitude
and integrity in spirit and expression - a consummate singer/songwriter
(handling all composing, writing, arranging, and producing duties)
carrying the weighty praise from veteran jazzers to springtime
hip-hoppers.
With a solo recording career a decade young, Monday has fully immersed
herself in a subculture whose unifying commonality is the virtual
absence of it. The eidolon nature of acid jazz welcomes an atlas of
styles from the electro-Jazz of Compost Records to the hip-hop
minimalism of DJ Krush, the gems of Jobim and Gilberto to the
Afro-Brazilian Caetano Veloso, the broken beats of 4 Hero to Herbie
Hancock’s fusion frontal Head Hunters, Matthew Shipp’s intrepid avant
jazz to Kyoto Jazz Massive’s futuristic Brazilian bashes, and the
occasional tracks from such mainstream names as Jill Scott and A Tribe
Called Quest, the few commercial acts to enter such daedal company. Yet
Monday Michiru fits in groove occupied only by herself. Her more club
oriented work is not as deliberately catchy as dance floors demand, and
her jazz compositions too eclectic and genre unconscious for the
mainstream jazz formats. In the spirit and tradition of jazz, Monday
has personalized her perspective into a genuinely singular voice and
fashion. Integral to her body of work is the strong sense of groove
construction and melodic refinement.
With her ninth original studio album, Episodes in Color, to drop on July
24 on Sony Japan, it will be one step closer towards her eminent
legendary status and the next episode in her aesthetic exploration as
she prepares to follow-up her prodigious masterpiece, 4 Seasons.
“The new album follows in the footsteps of 4 Seasons on the organic and
jazzy tip. Simpler sound production, consistency, and flow of sound as
I use the same musicians, production/arrangement team (myself and my
husband, Alex [Sipiaguine]), engineer, and studios,” relates Monday.
With her 1994 Polygram debut, Maiden Japan, Monday explored the
possibilities of merging contemporary R&B and modern hip-hop beats with
the essence of classic soul. One whole year before the Neo-Soul
movement kick started, Monday had already mobilized herself with an
effervescent plunge into the old soul revival and achieving results with
far greater poeticism, social conscience, and musical sophistication
than was offered by what most mistook as the onset of the classic soul
tsunami in D’Angelo’s Brown Sugar up to the present second wave in
Alicia Keys and RES. She has since driven a wider gap from the rest of
the pack with subsequent albums further building up the jazz persuasion
that has always elemental to her work, expanding her stylistic reach,
and deepening her composing and arranging mastery: the Brazilian rhythms
of Jazz Brat, the live jazz-funk of Delicious Poison, the electronically
embellished Double Image, the groove roller coaster in Optimista.
As a vocalist possessing astonishing melismatic dexterity, textural
permutation, and technical virtuoso (with a range on par with Minnie
Riperton’s operatic upper register) Monday is a superlative model of
what a complete artist is. Not merely a singer; not a puppet singing
other people’s songs and words. She handles duties all across the
board: all vocals, composing, writing, arranging, producing, performing
(a classical flautist), remixing, and programming. These are not vanity
descriptions. Her adept in each department nullifies the necessity for
outside aid.
Her name attracts meaningful collaborations with international talents
from the dance community (Basement Jaxx, Talvin Singh, I.G. Culture,
Masters at Work, Da Lata, Cleveland Watkiss), the urban crowd (DJ Krush,
MC Muro, 60 Channels), the jazz collective (Akiyoshi Toshiko, Airto,
Bobby Watson, Gene Jackson, Kenny Garrett, members of the Mingus Big
Band), the acid jazz scene (Mondo Grosso, Soul Bossa Trio, UA, United
Future Organization, Kyoto Jazz Massive, bird), and also Bill Laswell to
name a few of the several dozen. With Dave Darlington as her regular
engineer, he’s been brought along to work on Episodes in Color again,
and will be accompanied with backing from Alex Sipiaguine and Donny
McCaslin (horns), Dave Kikoski (keyboards), Boris Kozlov (bass), Dave
Gilmore and Adam Rogers (guitars), Rodney Holmes and Jonathan Blake
(drums), and Danny Sadownick (percussion).
“I did all the vocals… No outside producers this time. It’s sort of
on the Delicious Poison album vibe in terms of keeping the same players
and studio and engineer to homogenize the sound,” Monday says of
upcoming summer record. “It’s more mellow than in my earlier
releases, and I believe it has matured somewhat in content and
writing.”
Monday remains an underground artist on a major label--her releases stay
within the radar of the counterculture because purity of expression is
of paramount importance to her. She stands in an enviable and venerable
position whereby she can make a living in her profession of choice,
having never compromised her art for sales and popularity. Rarely does
the underground misstep, and neither has Monday. This subterranean
population is the first to discover ground breaking sounds, only to be
pillaged by mainstream long after it was still fresh and subsequently
diluted to serve the public appetite. As certain as Clive Davis is
rich, Monday will stay true to her ideals. With or without big money
backing, she ranks among the top talents in this artistic medium.
Obscurity does not detract from her phenomenal importance in the music
lineage. If anything, it further solidifies her credibility.
“Unfortunately, as far as people in the record business are concerned,
it doesn’t have to do with the content of the album, but the amount of
records that sells that’ll determine whether you can make another
record with them or not,” says Monday of the industry.
Unless mainstream trips up and commits the grave, uncustomary sin of
marketing artists built on substance, classics like the electrified
Miles period will be relegated to the side. Like the few Chicagoans who
recognized Rotary Connection for the gem that they were, Monday Michiru
is an exquisite secret for the discerning few in the know. Catch it if
you’re in.
-- ECLECTIC Japan [Sound*Lounge] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SoundLoungeCampus Circle - http://www.CampusCircle.net junkmedia - http://www.JunkMedia.org KindaMuzik - http://www.KindaMuzik.com Metropolis - http://www.Metropolis.co.jp/
--------------0B94EA9F977ADFBCD54C1BE6 Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-2022-jp Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> <br><b>Feature Interview >> Monday Michiru: Episodes in Color</b> <p>Source: Campus Circle <p><b>Episodes in Exemplar: Renders Neo-Soul Spurious</b> <br>by Wesley Chu <br>Monday Michiru Interview Article (April 2002) <p>Episodes in Exemplar <p>The same year the words “acid jazz” assimilated into the vernacular of groovers mystified by ‘70s jazz-funk and the irrepressible departures from hard bop typified by Donald Byrd’s Black Byrd, an artist who would soon materialize as a forerunner in groove centralized music was imaging her heart’s mind and marking her first steps with role as vocal arranger and backing vocalist on the 1988 soundtrack to the Clint Eastwood biopic Bird. That vocal arranger was working in a cultural landscape where Gilles Peterson and Patrick Forge were looking high and low for the best rare grooves, the forward-thinking tunes dismissed by uptight jazz purists, and still three years until the Brand New Heavies would bring acid jazz into the popular conscious of Londoners and eventually off shores. Soon enough, she emerged from behind the decks and into the play lists of cutting-edge DJs from London, Japan, metropolitan America (L.A., New York, and San Francisco) and the Oslo Underground. The name Monday Michiru is now synonymous with vicissitude and integrity in spirit and expression - a consummate singer/songwriter (handling all composing, writing, arranging, and producing duties) carrying the weighty praise from veteran jazzers to springtime hip-hoppers. <p>With a solo recording career a decade young, Monday has fully immersed herself in a subculture whose unifying commonality is the virtual absence of it. The eidolon nature of acid jazz welcomes an atlas of styles from the electro-Jazz of Compost Records to the hip-hop minimalism of DJ Krush, the gems of Jobim and Gilberto to the Afro-Brazilian Caetano Veloso, the broken beats of 4 Hero to Herbie Hancock’s fusion frontal Head Hunters, Matthew Shipp’s intrepid avant jazz to Kyoto Jazz Massive’s futuristic Brazilian bashes, and the occasional tracks from such mainstream names as Jill Scott and A Tribe Called Quest, the few commercial acts to enter such daedal company. Yet Monday Michiru fits in groove occupied only by herself. Her more club oriented work is not as deliberately catchy as dance floors demand, and her jazz compositions too eclectic and genre unconscious for the mainstream jazz formats. In the spirit and tradition of jazz, Monday has personalized her perspective into a genuinely singular voice and fashion. Integral to her body of work is the strong sense of groove construction and melodic refinement. <p>With her ninth original studio album, Episodes in Color, to drop on July 24 on Sony Japan, it will be one step closer towards her eminent legendary status and the next episode in her aesthetic exploration as she prepares to follow-up her prodigious masterpiece, 4 Seasons. <p>“The new album follows in the footsteps of 4 Seasons on the organic and jazzy tip. Simpler sound production, consistency, and flow of sound as I use the same musicians, production/arrangement team (myself and my husband, Alex [Sipiaguine]), engineer, and studios,” relates Monday. With her 1994 Polygram debut, Maiden Japan, Monday explored the possibilities of merging contemporary R&B and modern hip-hop beats with the essence of classic soul. One whole year before the Neo-Soul movement kick started, Monday had already mobilized herself with an effervescent plunge into the old soul revival and achieving results with far greater poeticism, social conscience, and musical sophistication than was offered by what most mistook as the onset of the classic soul tsunami in D’Angelo’s Brown Sugar up to the present second wave in Alicia Keys and RES. She has since driven a wider gap from the rest of the pack with subsequent albums further building up the jazz persuasion that has always elemental to her work, expanding her stylistic reach, and deepening her composing and arranging mastery: the Brazilian rhythms of Jazz Brat, the live jazz-funk of Delicious Poison, the electronically embellished Double Image, the groove roller coaster in Optimista. <p>As a vocalist possessing astonishing melismatic dexterity, textural permutation, and technical virtuoso (with a range on par with Minnie Riperton’s operatic upper register) Monday is a superlative model of what a complete artist is. Not merely a singer; not a puppet singing other people’s songs and words. She handles duties all across the board: all vocals, composing, writing, arranging, producing, performing (a classical flautist), remixing, and programming. These are not vanity descriptions. Her adept in each department nullifies the necessity for outside aid. <p>Her name attracts meaningful collaborations with international talents from the dance community (Basement Jaxx, Talvin Singh, I.G. Culture, Masters at Work, Da Lata, Cleveland Watkiss), the urban crowd (DJ Krush, MC Muro, 60 Channels), the jazz collective (Akiyoshi Toshiko, Airto, Bobby Watson, Gene Jackson, Kenny Garrett, members of the Mingus Big Band), the acid jazz scene (Mondo Grosso, Soul Bossa Trio, UA, United Future Organization, Kyoto Jazz Massive, bird), and also Bill Laswell to name a few of the several dozen. With Dave Darlington as her regular engineer, he’s been brought along to work on Episodes in Color again, and will be accompanied with backing from Alex Sipiaguine and Donny McCaslin (horns), Dave Kikoski (keyboards), Boris Kozlov (bass), Dave Gilmore and Adam Rogers (guitars), Rodney Holmes and Jonathan Blake (drums), and Danny Sadownick (percussion). <p>“I did all the vocals… No outside producers this time. It’s sort of on the Delicious Poison album vibe in terms of keeping the same players and studio and engineer to homogenize the sound,” Monday says of upcoming summer record. “It’s more mellow than in my earlier releases, and I believe it has matured somewhat in content and writing.” <p>Monday remains an underground artist on a major label--her releases stay within the radar of the counterculture because purity of expression is of paramount importance to her. She stands in an enviable and venerable position whereby she can make a living in her profession of choice, having never compromised her art for sales and popularity. Rarely does the underground misstep, and neither has Monday. This subterranean population is the first to discover ground breaking sounds, only to be pillaged by mainstream long after it was still fresh and subsequently diluted to serve the public appetite. As certain as Clive Davis is rich, Monday will stay true to her ideals. With or without big money backing, she ranks among the top talents in this artistic medium. Obscurity does not detract from her phenomenal importance in the music lineage. If anything, it further solidifies her credibility. <p>“Unfortunately, as far as people in the record business are concerned, it doesn’t have to do with the content of the album, but the amount of records that sells that’ll determine whether you can make another record with them or not,” says Monday of the industry. <p>Unless mainstream trips up and commits the grave, uncustomary sin of marketing artists built on substance, classics like the electrified Miles period will be relegated to the side. Like the few Chicagoans who recognized Rotary Connection for the gem that they were, Monday Michiru is an exquisite secret for the discerning few in the know. Catch it if you’re in. <br> <p>-- <br>ECLECTIC Japan <br>[Sound*Lounge] <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SoundLounge">http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SoundLounge> <p>Campus Circle - <a href="http://www.CampusCircle.net">http://www.CampusCircle.net> <br>junkmedia - <a href="http://www.JunkMedia.org">http://www.JunkMedia.org> <br>KindaMuzik - <a href="http://www.KindaMuzik.com">http://www.KindaMuzik.com> <br>Metropolis - <a href="http://www.Metropolis.co.jp/">http://www.Metropolis.co.jp/> <br><tt></tt> </html>
--------------0B94EA9F977ADFBCD54C1BE6--
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Jun 15 2002 - 03:00:38 CEST