Jarvis was guest editor of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 this morning – he asked me for a ‘beatbox resolution’ for 2009, you can hear it here BBC – Today Programme along with resolutions from Brian Eno and Bill Drummond.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
yo… have a great holidays, thanks for reading my blog in 2008! here’s to another great year.
check out these pics from the concert against knife crime at southbank, more to come soon
Love from
SHLO
x
hey.. what a crazy week.. the benefit show was incredible.. amazing end to the year.. my personal highlight was Jarvis’ scat-dance…we video’d the whole thing and will post up a full account with pics and youtube videos soon!
in the meantime here’s a pic of us performing at covent garden with the stunning xmas light installation by United Visual Artists.
photo by RJ Fernandez
Here I get up close and personal with the eight members of Shlomo’s beatbox choir ‘the Vocal Orchestra’ who perform on Saturday 13 December at 7.30pm in Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Beatboxers’ technique often requires the musician to cover their mouth with their hand, both for technical reasons (it creates an air chamber when using a mic) and social ones (it avoids expectorating upon innocent bystanders).
On a visual level however, half the face is lost, an area used substantially in human communication. We hear these incredible sounds but have no idea how they’re produced leaving us with a sense of mystery and misunderstanding. By removing this barrier, the process is demystified, and, in turn, allows us to identify better with the musicians.
This has an underlying metaphor with youth culture relations in general – much understanding is lost through poor communication.
jestar*
Testament
Neo
Alyusha
Yvette
Bellatrix
Shlomo
Billy
Although the Concert Against Knife Crime is sold out, Southbank Centre will be projecting the concert live onto the big screens in the Front Room, with FREE ENTRY. Starts at 7.30pm this Saturday 13th December.
There’s another chance to see Shlomo and the Vocal Orchestra for FREE this Thursday as they perform at Covent Garden in a special performance interacting with United Visual Artists’ Xmas Installation. Check out a teaser here!
yo.. what a hectic week, things are hotting up getting ready for the big show!
On Friday I had a meeting with MP David Lammy, and interviewed him for the short film on knife crime that we are screening at the benefit gig… he was recently Minister for Culture and is now Minister of State for Higher Education, and he’s a humble guy. He grew up in a tough background; many of the people he went to school with are now locked up or involved in crime. He escaped through a music scholarship and went on to make something of his life.
Shlomo and David Lammy MP
Then on Saturday I was working with a group of young people from the Beatbox Academy getting ready for their performance at the big show. They are an amazing bunch… some of them have been with us for nearly two years and are starting to develop truly original beatbox styles of their own.
Reuben
Joe
RJ Fernandez is working on a photographic study of the beatbox academy allstars.
Whilst chatting to a couple of the lads about the anti-knife crime message of this gig, they told me some stories of the regularity of getting robbed on their estates. One of our young beatboxers has made a special ankle pocket in the inside lining of his trousers, so that his phone can’t be found when he gets robbed… not in case he gets robbed, but when…. that sucks.
Young Beatboxers in training
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