N-Side, Just a broke brotha' tryin' to come up!

It's easy to dig jazz poet N-Side. He's chill. He's solid. He speaks his poems as neither an angry young man nor a self-satisfied old one, but as a literary artist. As a result he makes you really pay attention to his lyrics. "People wait for me to get fed up, frustrated - hate-filled with aggression, preparing myself to throw down. / But those folks rich in spirit have taught me force isn't needed to keep this prize called knowledge around." N's poems - some rhyming, some more freeflowing and prosy, but all engaged with the complete human experience - are backed by Ricardo Love's nu-soul grooves and organic hip-hop beats decorated with small splashes of jazz. (Two tracks are by Russell Case.)

The tracks rest in easy grooves that match the poet's calm intensity as he talks to people we can't see or hear, but whom he makes us envision clearly. "Someone said... they had no culture here and neither did I... 'Can you lay claim to an original thought of your own?' / I loaded up with all the names that I was about to call him: sellout, racist, double agent, cultural perpetrator, antebellum negro, no-risk vicarious activist... but I didn't say a word... finally I... realized once again, I was talking to myself. / Hopefully these type of conversations will change, and not be taken so personally."

Deep and useful stuff. Sample all tracks and purchase the CD at CD Baby.

Finally, here's a pic of Stratospheerius, the "full-on electro-fiddle-trip-funk" band whose CD I reviewed back in July. They rocked the legendary Bitter End last night with an all-too-short early set.

It's good to know that some things, like the Bitter End's tiny bathrooms, never change. But electric six-string violinist Joe Deninzon (who was born in St. Petersburg, Russia) leads this most excellent band through some serious rhythmic changes. Is it prog-rock? Jazz fusion? A jam band? Ask the portraits of Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell on the walls, I don't know. A little of each maybe. All I know is it's kickass. They closed the set with the instrumental "Heavy Shtettle II: Heavier Shtettle." I said kickass, right?

Here's a bonus shot of drummer Lucianna Padmore in action. She is an even more awesome musician in person than on CD.