Music
Press
One thing is clear from listening to Mwalim's work as the keyboard player for the Bass Mint Bros and his work on the collaborative effort The Liberation Sessions: Mwalim (pronounced M-waaleem) really likes to make concept albums. The Bass Mint Bros' Sketches of a Neighborhood was basically a musical description of the ecology of an urban neighborhood. On The Liberation Sessions, Mwalim creates the fictional radio station WBAR (Black Ass Radio) in which the DJ's play records from a playlist that the DJ created. The criteria the DJs used to created this playlist appears to be whether the tunes were quality and interesting tracks that represented the breadth and depth of forms that influenced black music (imagine that). This might explain why Mwalim ends up being just one of several guests on his own record. He shares the disc with the Bass Mint Bros but also Robert Taylor Jr. Tah Phrum Duh Bush, Amaris and Tantra, to name just a few.
The one constant is Bob B., the fictional DJ, who has a clear and silky smooth delivery that takes me back to the days before the Clear Channels of the world recruited a bunch of on-air radio personalities to crack a bunch of (often funny) jokes during drive time in hopes of making listeners forget that (a) the station plays the same songs over and over and (b) that those radio personalities are syndicated jocks who don't live anywhere near the communities where the show is being heard.
On Mwalim's dream radio station, a funky/jazzy hip-hop joint such as "Micro PH 101" would follow up "Dem Big Girls," a dance hall ode to our Reubenesque sisters. "Life & Death," a philosophical overview of life's biggest questions fits comfortably on a playlist with "Lay That Pipe," where they serve as melodic confirmation that the best works address the extremes of sex and death. Then again, "Lay That Pipe" has another contrast in "You," a Latin tinged ode to monogamy. Listening to all these talented and eclectic artists who appear on The Liberation Sessions makes me want to tune into WBAR and tear off the knob.
RECOMMENDED.
By Howard Dukes
- Soul Tracks
"The highlight of the night for me was a soulful, four-piece jam session featuring Mwalim *7)" - Jason Perry - Southcoast 247
It’s a warm evening in a Cambridge, MA coffeehouse, a small crowd of customers sit around the small café tables, or towards the back on the over-stuffed couches and love seats. Their conversations and entries into their laptops and Blackberries slowly fade into an attentive silence as the descending riff of a Nord reproduced Hammond organ calls the room to order. A rich, powerfully soulful voice belts out an opening riff over the groove filled game of call and response between his left and right hands on the keyboard. Mwalim opens his set with a rendition of Bobby Caldwell’s “What You Won’t Do For Love” that has the entire room bobbing their heads and tapping their feet... - David Williamson - All Around Town
Discography
The Liberation Sessions - 2009
Sketches of a Neighborhood - (The Bass Mint Bros) - 2008
Jazzy-Soul Club Grooves (EP)- 2001
Thief in the Night (Single) - 2000
Photos
Bio
Mwalim is the type of soul artist who embodies the time-honored tradition of the multifaceted singer, songwriter and producer. Emerging from the east coast small club circuit, followed by several years lending his talents to other artists projects and a writer, musician, producer, and remixer, adding his ‘Mwalimadelic’ soul-touch to numerous remix compilations. Some might consider it to be an ominous sign of the times when people think of a remix artist or dance music producer, the last thing they often think of is a singer and songwriter from the coffeehouse circuit. “A lot of my music is based on grooves, even the laid-back coffeehouse stuff.�
Mwalim has shared the stage with The Four Tops, ,King Britt, The Last Poets, KRS –ONE, and Angie Stone, small gigs and venues like this are among his favorites kinds of gigs. “I get to test my material in the rawest form in gigs like this: just me and my keys.� It was years ago that my grandfather (late big band jazz band leader and arranger, Allan H. Nurse) told me that it’s only a good song if it sounds good on just a piano or guitar. The rest is dressing.�
His debut single, “Thief in the Night� (Midnight Groove/ OTC) came out in 2000 and became an underground hit; followed with a vinyl only E.P “Jazzy-Soul Club Grooves� (Midnight Groove Records), establishing Mwalim as an artist among House Music and Rare Groove Djs world-wide. After a ‘bid’ as he calls it, signed to a major label, Mwalim focused his attention on producing, writing, arranging and producing remixes for other artists, adding the ‘Mwalimadelic’ soul-touch to remix compilations of numerous singles. Last year, his work as the composer and producer on the critically acclaimed nu-jazz CD “Sketches of a Neighborhood� by The Bass Mint Bros (Liberation Music/ MGR).
His forthcoming album, ‘The Liberation Sessions: Soul of the City’ (Liberation Music - MGM) is an eclectically funky, party record featuring collaborations and Mwalim’s soul-jazz remixes of recordings from his friends, including vocalists like Amaris, Phillip Aaron, and Robert Taylor, Jr.; world-class MC Tah Phrum Duh Bush!; and internationally renowned spoken-word artist Tantra Zawadi.
Links
