Music

Tap The Root - Flow The Sound

Breaking Through From Underground

Spinning the groove at 1RPH:

One Revolution Per Heart.

Got the beat?

Musical Mission

Music is a powerful form of cultural action. It can certainly affect moods, heal pains and even erase fear. And it can bring people together to share one unified heartbeat, one sweet love.

Jazz, Hip-Hop, Reggae, Dub, Soul, RnB, Blues, Rock and Roll: these are just various forms of urban folk music: people music. They are not just music, they are a whole way of life: A soundscape of cultural exploration towards unifying the fractal mosaic of diversity in our world.

Return of Remi

Previously, the last time Remi worked as a recording artist was with the Mad Professor in 1986. Remi hasn’t led a band since 1990, Cha Wa, seen opposite headlining at the first ever Brighton Festival, and featuring Byron Wallen on horn and Adrian Oxaal on guitar, both of whom went on to international ‘stardom’.

(‘Cha wa’ is the battle cry of the spiritual warrior in the New Orleans ‘Mardi Gras Indian’ tradition that derives from the rebel Maroons of Louisianna!)

Now a brand new star of a whole new generation beckons Remi into action again. Max Ayinde is a phenomenal young Jazz pianist with a lot of heart in his playing, and a top notch sound engineer too. He heard that Remi wanted to record some tunes for his novel so he volunteered and the ‘TreeSongs’ album emerged.

As soon as London St Vincent gospelist and guitar supremo Day Lavale heard what was happening he wanted in!

Remi doesn’t need much encouragement. One goods shot is all he wanted. Max and Day made sure he got it and The Tonic Roots was born.

Working with real pros like Max Ayinde and Day Lavale has lifted Remi’s playing to a whole new level, better than ever; it’s matured properly now; and it’s ready for YOU!

Down By The Riverside

Remi’s music always has a spontaneous feel, reflecting how the initial ideas spring up out of the infinite stream of the blue: “There’s a river somewhere that runs through the heart of everyone,” sings Roberta Flack; anytime we dip our hand in it’s twinkling liquid sound we’re scooping up. And it’s always brand new, just like Heraclitus said.

Improvisation is the essence of being in the moment when we reach down there by that riverside. Improvisation is at the core of the new and exciting music showcased on Remi’s exciting new ‘Treesongs’ album.

Raga Ya-Ya

Some say Jazz was so ragged they called it ‘Rag’ (or ‘Ragtime’). But the word ‘Reggae’ has the same root. Both come from ‘Raga’, the Sanskrit word for sacred music coloured with passion.

New Orleans has a tradition called gumbo-ya-ya, different voices talking together. Remi D’s new sound features what he calls raga ya-ya, different voices all making statements, comments and asides in response to each other’s statements: a bubbling hubbub of musical conversation that builds into a prayer.

New Orleans: that’s where Jazz was styled from its African roots. And call and response is how it was originally played: raggedy, cobbled and unexpected, but beautiful. Full of instant ripostes, just like life. And chasing meaning, truth, beauty, much as any poet or philosopher ever did. And sometimes touching sacred.

After so many years listening and playing, Remi jokes that he does not play the music any more, it plays him.

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Dubwise steal it

Jazz is all about telling the truth, true statements and stories made of notes. Whatever the instrument, everyone on the album plays meaningful musical statements all the way. Music cannot lie. This groove digs deep.

Not since players like Mittoo, Ranglin and Lennie Hibbert has instrumental Reggae shown that deep Jazz heritage. Instead, Dub took over the instrumental side of reggae during most of the 70s and 80s.

A lot of Dub seemed more like sound engineers expressing themselves through electronics than musicians expressing themselves through their instruments.

For Remi, only a handful of producers had the feel for music to do Dub right most of the time: brothers like King Tubby, Yabby You, Keith Hudson; sacred to the bone!

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Music Reveal it

TreeSongs: Feel it

With the debut album ‘Treesongs’, the mellow Jazzy side steps back in the arena, picking up where Mittoo, Ranglin and Hibbert left off, putting more musicians’ music into instrumental reggae in place of engineers’ electronic effects.

There’s some vocal tracks on the album too, but what makes the album unique is the freedom, honesty and depth of musical expression by all: The feel.

Taking the groove to new exciting places. Cooking with all forms of Rhythm’n’Blues in brand new ways, Remi’s music combines Reggae, Jazz, Rock’n’roll, Dub, Soul, and traditional West-African polyrhythm to dish up the kind of soul-food that puts you right there on the beach with sunshine smiles.

Remi D never chose music, it chose him. He’s always been reluctant because of what he saw as a kid, the lifestyle. Because Remi has never aspired to ‘make it’, feel has always been more important than technique. He knows how to get out of the way and let the music and the instrument play.

TreeSongs

Music from the source

The album started when Remi envisioned adding a new dimension to the experience of reading a novel. Music is so central to ‘The Songtree’ that he wanted to find a way to include actual music in it beyond just the musicality of words.

All the tunes Remi wrote or adapted for the album were composed by getting out of the way and letting the instrument speak.

Some say the divine spirit drives it all.

According to Yoruba tradition, Marimba is the instrument and the deity!

Remi says “Whatever it is there is a feeling or spirit of something sacred, higher consciousness of being, I just have to trust it and follow the way.” He calls it ‘The Source’. It’s that river every time.

Some of these tunes were composed deep in the hills of Uganda right by the source of the River Nile at the Great Lake there. (The location pictured top of page.) Some say that’s where we all sprang from originally. Those tunes capture the experience: deep, ancestral and life-giving. They sprang from that source.

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Sample Track

‘Blue Maroon’

The taster track given here is called Blue Maroon. The first track we recorded, it is the first oar stroke of a three year odyssey winding through Reggae, Jazz and East and West African waters and beyond, all fused together as never before.

If you find it an interesting direction of musical travel, check out the album: Each tune an individually spiced and fragranced slice of seabreeze sunshine set in an infinite ocean of musical delight. Welcome aboard the musical mothership of this unique ‘Windrush Tale’.