Ropeadope Heads To Harlem For Experiment

  I  

Riding the acclaim of Ropeadope’s Philadelphia Experiment and Detroit Experiment, the label has recently put the finishing touches on its latest laboratory creation, The Harlem Experiment.

Like its predecessors, the record takes musicians from a shared hometown but very different musical backgrounds, puts them in a recording studio and has them create spontaneous art.

This installment’s representatives are guitarist Carlos Alomar, bassist Ruben Rodriguez, drummer Steve Berrios, clarinetist Don Byron, keyboardist Eddie Martinez and trumpeter/arranger Steve Bernstein. Special guests include Queen Esther on vocals; Olu Dara on vocals, guitar and pocket trumpet; James Hunter on vocals and guitar; and DJ Mums on vocals.

The album is slated for release in September. A free preview track from Ropeadope is available here.



  • Zakir_Hussain_2011_Symphony_Center_copy.jpg

    “Watching people like Max Roach or Elvin Jones and seeing how they utilize the whole drum kit in a very rhythmic and melodic way and how they stretched time — that was a huge inspiration to me,” Hussain said in DownBeat.

  • John_and_Gerald_Clayton_by_Paul_Wellman_copy.jpg

    Gerald and John Clayton at the family home in Altadena during a photo shoot for the June 2022 cover of DownBeat. The house was lost during the Los Angeles fires.

  • KennedyCenter.jpg

    Queen Latifah extols Harlem and the Apollo Theater at this year’s Kennedy Center Honors.

  • Jernberg_Photo_Jon_Edergren_2_copy.jpg

    “With jazz I thought it must be OK to be Black, for the first time,” says singer Sofia Jernberg.

  • Deerhead_Inn_courtesy_Poconogo.com_copy.jpg

    The Old Country: More From The Deer Head Inn arrives 30 years after ECM issued the Keith Jarret Trio live album At The Deer Head Inn.


On Sale Now
February 2025
Sullivan Fortner
Look Inside
Subscribe
Print | Digital | iPad