James Whetzel has a new DJ mix playing at Seattle Center in the background in the Center House and in International Fountain when the “big show” music is not playing. The big show music plays every hour and every half hour for 6 -15 minutes.
The current mix is the Irish Festival mix and features music by various artists including:
The Swell Season, U2, The Pogues, Camille O’Sullivan, Pugwash, Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill, Niamh Parsons, St. James Gate, Duke Special, Seamus Egan, Sinead O’ Connor, Kila, Sharon Shannon, Mundy, and Dervish.
Here’s a link to one of the tracks, a medley of “The Recruiting Sergeant/The Rocky Road to Dublin& Galway Races”
James Whetzel has a new DJ mix playing at Seattle Center from March 2 - 9, 2010. It plays in the background in the Center House and in the International Fountain when the “big show” music is not playing. The “big show” is the music to which the fountain fires off big blasts of water, and which usually plays for 5 -10 minutes every hour or half hour.
James’ new mix includes music by:
Mum, Manu Dibango, Morcheeba, Explosions in the Sky, Death Cab for Cutie, De-Phazz, Cepia, Max Roach, Apocalyptica, J-Dilla, Plan B, Nightmares on Wax, The Section Quartet, and Mogwai.
Here’s one of the tracks revealed for you via you tube:
From Seattle & Paris, voila Plan B’s “Backside Grind (Pt. 2)”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCrf0QEd6bs
[photo of the International Fountain @ Seattle Center taken by James Whetzel on March 2nd just before the music was changed]
Vibrance’s Edge is a track I am giving away as free download on the occasion of Holi. It’s an unmastered mix of a new James Whetzel solo track. Appropriately, it’s a Bollywood influenced number.
Astute Whetzel listeners may recognize an element or two from the track “About Love” from my album “The House of Good Juju.” Yes. It’s true, I started this track by remixing “About Love” for a performance a couple months back. I now know more about love than I did in 2008, so it is only fair that I revisit the music and bring some deeper insights and renewed vigor.
For those who don’t know what Holi is, it’s a Hindu festival in which people “play with colors.” This can mean throwing colored powder on people, smearing people with colors, or using super shooters to spray colors. Sometimes it seems like it can get a bit out of hand, (word to the wise avoid riding a train in Bihar during holi . . . I’m just sayin’) anyways it can also be a lot of fun.
There are many stories about the origin of Holi, the one I like is that it came about because Krishna, who was an adopted child as the story goes, was confused as to why he looked different from his girlfriend Radha. Krishna had dark skin, and Radha had light skin. His adoptive mother suggested to him that that they put colors on each other so that their difference in appearance would disappear.
A couple years back I threw a holi party with my buddy Shree D and I have to say the concept did work. By the end everybody did look like members of the same extra-terrestrial race! (see attached photo by Cassie Wallender).
I hope you enjoy the track, it’s not actually a track about holi per se but I thought it was a good occasion to give this one out to the world. So please vibe out to it, rock out it, dance about to it, and even throw colors on someone if you can find someone who wants to do it!
James Whetzel has a new DJ mix playing at Seattle Center; it plays in the background in the Center House and in the International Fountain when the “big show” music is not playing (the big show music is the music that plays when the fountain fires off it’s big water jets).
Artists in the mix include:
Nav Katze & Black Dog, Bobby Ellis & The Observers, Fila Brazilia, Global Dance Project, Benny Goodman & his Orchestra feat. Charlie Christian, Duke Reid, Ravi Harris & The Prophets, Yann Tiersen & Baba James, Augustus Pablo, Orchestre Continental, I.K. Dairo, and Heights of Abraham.
Here is a link to one of the tracks, J-Pop group Nav Katze “Never Not” (Black Dog Remix) from the album “Never Mind The Distortion,” in video format:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK4E_NC8maw
Best musical regards,
James Whetzel & Funketabla
[photo at top: Seattle Center, International Fountain]
It’s become a tradition to send out New Year wishes from Olin Place and Funketabla. This year we did not do so. Neither the end of the 2009 nor the start of January arrived as sweetly as we had hoped. The Taliban bombed a volleyball game in Pakistan, a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, and people passed away both near and far. It was not the sort of fresh start we had been hoping for. So we decided to delay our good wishes for the new year.
Fortunately the solar New Year is not the only New Year’s option available! The Lunar New Year is coming on Valentine’s Day February 14th, 2010 and we will delay our good wishes no longer!
And since talk is cheap and wishes without will can be feeble, we are actually doing something to make this year better. We are giving away a track by James Whetzel! It’s a happy little ditty called “Days In Black Satin.” It’s based on an out-take from the Sarod & Beats album. The song began as a joke. At Remedy Teas they make a tea called “Black Satin, “ and James joked, playing off of the name of the Moody Blues song “Nights In White Satin,” that he would make a track called “Days in Black Satin.” Well now he’s done it and now you can enjoy it. For the record “Beauty” is the name of another tea they make at Remedy Teas.
You can listen and/or download the track at ilike or soundcloud at the following links:
Eduardo Mendonca is a Seattle based musician who is one of twenty Music Corps fellows in the U.S. Music Corps is a part of the Music National Service project. Eduardo interviewed Funketabla’s James Whetzel asking questions about music, its meaning and value and music education and its relationship to creating community.
Here is also a link to the video at Eduardo’s blog at the Music National Service project:
The trailer to the documentary film “Sit Beside Me” by Linda Jandejskova. The film tells the story of the Loreto school in Kolkata, India, and music to the film is by Funketabla’s own James Whetzel.
Mixed Metaphors features photographer Claudia Smith, fiber artists Bo Young Choi and Hye Young Kim, and opening night music by James Whetzel and Sebastian Lange with special guest Viren Kamdar.
Bo Young Choi and Hye Young Kim, both recent fiber-art graduates of MFA programs at University of Washington, Seattle, and Washington University, St. Louis, respectively, will present their new work. Hye Young Kim’s paintings offer an interpretation of our daily routines with brightly colored yarn applied to canvas in circular patterns.
Bo Choi will install the piece seen below titled “Second Skin” that she terms “action art”. These large pieces represent a removable skin that are the first barrier to the naked body and which contain the individual’s desire for social connection.” Dancers will wear her skins as they perform.
Live music will be provided by James Whetzel and Sebastian Lange who will perform a set of sarod, violin and beats, happily mixing Indian classical ragas, electronica, African polyrhythms, and Western Classical music, with improvisatory gusto. They will be joined by percussionist Viren Kamdar from the group Mangis Khan for a second set which will include material from their groups Mean Deep and Das Dhoom.
Claudia Smith’s ephemeral photography disembodies objects from the natural world rendering them in the abstract. Mundane seed pod become a beautiful abstract mosaic. Through the use of color negative processing her landscape images become otherworldly.
The One Night Stand Series is a sequence of mini exhibitions showcasing emerging artists.
An instrumental excerpt from Das Dhoom’s performance at the 2009 Diwali Ball at Seattle Art Museum. Shree D on dhol, Sebastian Lange on violin, James Whetzel on sarod.
“My Road to Somewhere: Sarod & Beats” is James Whetzel’s new album. The CD release party for it is happening October 4th. James says: “You should come if you can. It will be very cool and will rock you like a whoop of hurricanes.”
About the disc? It’s an instrumental disc which features James’ sarod playing. It lives on the upbeat edge of downtempo, with tracks based on classical Hindustani ragas and taals. He applies his hard earned, DJ Baba James, electronic music production skills and his love of African polyrhythms to keep the sound both fun and funky.
Preview the album online at CD Baby:http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/whetzeljames5
To repeat the CD release party is going down Sunday, October 4th. It will occur at Remedy Teas on Capitol Hill in Seattle, WA, USA, from 8pm - 10pm James will open the night with a solo set of sarod & beats. After a short break in which James says: the new CD will be “relentlessly hawked, flogged, and sold,” violinist extraordinaire Sebastian Lange will join James for a set of sarod, violin, and beats. Deepayan Acharjya aka Shree D. will join at the very end (he’s coming all the way from Montreal!) and bring some manic live dhol energy to finish the evening in high style. Not only will this event be cool and rock like a whoop of hurricanes, but it’s free! and all ages! Who loves you? Clearly it’s JW and funketabla. . .
We hope to see you there, peace, cheers, and musica!
James Whetzel and the funketabla family
btw: Remedy Teas is located at 345 15th Avenue East on Capitol Hill in Seattle, USA.
http://www.remedyteas.com/
Photos below, special guests: Shree D and Sebastian Lange:
