Ships Pass
It must’ve been grade 11 or 12. 98 or 99 I think. It was spring, and my boy Matty burned me a J-Live cd, which I still have. Zack and I went to see him perform at the Comfort Zone that year, with the Unspoken Heard.
The second J-Live show I saw was definitely more memorable; it was Vancouver, 2002, my first year of university. To perform “Braggin’ Writes,” he rapped and DJ'd simultaneously! It might seem gimmicky, but it blew my mind then (and still does).
When J came off stage into the crowd, I told him he was the best artist there (lots of other acts were on the bill), and he was super humble (“Nah, nah, nah,” shaking his head, smiling). Then Joey snapped the pic you see above with a disposable camera.
Now 15 years later, as an educator, I still identify with him: after a year in the classroom, he wrote "Brooklyn Public." In another life, I'll write an amazing hip hop song about teaching.
As a budding jazz fan, I also appreciate J-Live: it was on "The Listening" I first heard the name Lonnie Liston Smith (which I must have known I'd need for later). And I recently picked up Miles and Gil's Quiet Nights because J mentions it on "The 4th 3rd."
So how does else does J-Live's influence manifest itself?
Yesterday, I was eating a sandwich and reading about David Axelrod in Wax Poetics. (Where am I going with this?) Later, I plopped Bob James’s 4 on the turntable. James is like the poor man’s Axelrod: both have been sampled extensively, both are composer/arrangers, and both come from jazz contexts, but BJ doesn't seem nearly as cool:
As 4 played, I was telling Esther how it's BJ’s strongest album (it’s so consistent). The opening track on side 2, “Nights are Forever Without You,” sounded real familiar. I couldn’t place the sample at first, a short, subtle, suggestive, piano melody. I put the needle back to the start a few times. The spidy senses tingled, and I’m still learning from J-Live’s music.
Bob James's "Nights are Forever Without You."
J-Live's "Ships Pass."
Peace to Jean Jacques, Matty, Zack, and the old crew.
