After a sling of instantly sold-out 45s through his Bandcamp (we’re talking minutes here), it’s tempting to say that Soul Supreme got a Midas touch. But that doesn’t do justice to his hard work and carefully crafted reinterpretations of music by A Tribe Called Quest, Madvillain, Mos Def & others. The newest addition: not one but two 45s built around Jay Dee a.k.a. J Dilla on the 'SSR45 003/004' release.
The Amsterdam - based keyboardist / producer Noam Ofir a.k.a. Soul Supreme takes on ‘Let’s Ride’ (Q-Tip) and ‘Runnin'’ (The Pharcyde) on the first donut. The other 45 contains a medley of ‘The Official’ (Jaylib) and ‘Fall In Love’ (Slum Village), and two unsung Jay Dee beats: ‘Still Shining’, as produced for Busta Rhymes, which has never seen the light of day as an instrumental. Another never-before-released Jay Dee beat is ‘Feelin’ Good’, an essential case of Dilla’s unparalleled ear for swing.
Sidetrack: check out the Bling47 Breaks video below with House Shoes’s story on giving Jay Dee the Frank Cunimondo Trio record, with a VHS footage of T3 and Baatin going crazy in Detroit’s The Shelter to Jay Dee’s ‘Feelin’ Good’ flip. Pure gold:
The Detroit visionary reimagined ‘groove’ and sampling. On his turn, Soul Supreme takes on Dilla’s timing, rhythms, and harmonies. Think of how halfway in “Runnin’,” the keys start to follow the well-hidden, heavily filtered sample on The Pharcyde’s original, instead of the main melody. Or how there’s punch to J-Zone’s drumming on “Let’s Ride” as there’s punch to the MPC3000. How Jonny Murray improvises on trumpet rather than replaying the sample. The marriage of Rhodes and synths on “Fall In Love” resemble Soul Supreme’s trademark sound as showcased on last year’s self-titled LP. Built on top of that, the two 45 releases (sold separately) are all-original takes on Jay Dee-produced classics.
As an early taste, you can now hear two of the total five tunes from the 'SSR45 003/004' project on bandcamp.
First, the ridiculously good instrumental single 'Let's Ride', originally performed by Q-Tip on his masterpiece solo-endeavor 'Amplified', produced by the late great Dilla. Pair that with the amazing Jay 'J-Zone' Mumford on the drums and the great Jonny Murray on trumpet and you've got yourself a "brand new truck, butter soft seats" kinda vibe. 'Officially in Love' medley is also ready to be played and you won't be disappointed. Get ready for heartwarming smiles and feel-good vibes. Now go ahead and blast these tunes up on your speakers, headphones, bump 'em in your car with your windows down, put it on repeat until the full project drops. Soon. Mid-May-ish.
And remember, it's Bandcamp Friday today, which means that to support musicians during Covid-19, they're waiving the revenue share on all sales, from midnight to midnight Pacific Time, as per usual.
Steppin' Into Tomorrow stands with artists & labels and encourages listeners to support by buying their music directly from Bandcamp.
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