DOWNTIME 3: ELECTRIC

DOWNLOAD :: DOWNTIME 3: ELECTRIC

1st, I want to thank folks for the response I have been getting from the Downtime mixes. I've always accumulated a ton of music but only shared them minimally with folks. Expect more concept mixtapes in the future where I pair sound with design.

As for Downtime 3, I wanted to go in the opposite direction of Downtime 2. Whereas 1 was a mix of electric, low-fi, soul, and sample based Hip-Hop, and Downtime 2 being a mix of acoustic and stripped music, I wanted 3 to be more electric and harder than 2 yet not diverge from the subtleness that Downtime is known for. That's it. Peace.

Tracklist

1. Running - Gil Scott-Heron And Jamie XX // 2. Wildfire feat. Little Dragon - SBTRKT // 3. Free Press and Curl - Shabazz Palaces // 4. And We Gonna (Samiyam Chopsticks Remix) - Shigeto // 5. Embody - SebastiAn // 6. Ascension (Remix) - Maxwell // 7. Peace - Carlitta Durand // 8. Løb Stop Stå (feat. Coco O.) - Boom Clap Bachelors // 9. Don't Look Back - Telepopmusik feat Angela McCluskey // 10. Hoping Will Only Take You So Far - B.Lewis // 11. No Idea's Original (14KT Remix) - Nas // 12. Zambony (Remix) - K-OS // 13. Hear You Say (featuring Khari Mateen) - Money Making Jam Boys // 14. Magikbullet - Mndsgn/ 15. The Verge - Kenton Dunson / 16. I Mind - James Blake / 17. What You Need - The Weekend // 18. LucidAgain - B.Lewis // 19. Purple Pills (Sleeping Pills Remix) - Peter Hadar // 20. Manifestations - Mono/Poly // 21. Tiger Eyes (Laid Back) - Peaking Lights

 

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DOWNTIME

DOWNLOAD: DOWNTIME

This mixtape is inspired by Duke Hugh, a producer from the Netherlands, who is prominently featured on the mixtape.  His recent beattape and remixes of Oliver Daysoul's new project with Oddisee are so serene yet lively that I imagined it being a backdrop for a nice day, a good conversation with a friend, or music for a road trip.  Not wanting to simply mash his two recent projects together, I paired his music with current songs, and some old ones, that I felt complemented his sound.  What ensued was Downtime.

The covers were inspired by the recent video project, Hi-Fi, by director Bante and artist Moussa Kaba.  Nothing too fancy but images that reverberate simplicity, welcomed melancholy, elegance and tranquility like the Blue Note covers of yesteryear.

TRACKLIST
01 Steve Mason - Boys Outside (Keep Shelly In Athens Remix) // 02 Duke Hugh - Sweet and Lowdown // 03 Olivier Daysoul - In The Now (Duke Hugh Bossatronic Remix) // 04 Duke Hugh - Derby-Dana // 05 Electric Wire Hustle - Chaser // 06 Robin Hannibal - Transit (Instrumental) // 07 Casa del Mirto - Brother // 08 Von Pea - New Pair // 09 Electric Wire Hustle - Perception // 10 Musiq - I Luv Her // 11 Duke Hugh - Lovesong // 12 Bilal - Levels // 13 Olivier Daysoul - Labor (Duke Hugh Futuresoul Remix) // 14 Jazzanova feat Vikter Duplaix - Wasted Time // 15 Duke Hugh - Polaroids // 16 Foreign Exchange - Everything Must Go // 17 Duke Hugh - It's All Good // 18 N.E.R.D. - Inside of Clouds // 19 Yesterdays' New Quintet - Rocket Love Pt. 1 // 20 Gretchen Parlato - Weak // 21 Kenton Dunson - Stranger // 22 RJD2 - Work // 23 Dudley Perkins - Falling (Instrumental) // 24 Duke Hugh - The Blue Marble

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ROSA PARKS REMIX

Andre 3000 - Rosa Parks (Nick James Remix) Download Snippet


I've been wanting to do a 3000 project for a while and am finally getting into it. It's going to be a joint collaboration with singer, Siaira Shawn, where she adds choruses and verses as well. Given that most of 3000 acapella are just one verse, I wanted to fill the tracks with new music. Not to mention, Siaira is dope.  Thus, it should knock hard. Oh, and that isn't the cover.

Stay tuned.

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IT'S MY BIRTHDAY

Jay-Z - 99 Problems (Nick James Remix)


You may be wondering why I posted my "99 Problems" remix for my birthday?  Well, I don't have 99 problems but this song is one (Yes! that pun just happened).  This is my first good remix.  I made the "Encore" remix right before this but that song sounded like my old style of producing.  This remix solidified my trajectory as a producer.  Six years ago I created The Color Line and "99 Problems" was the first thing I played for my friend Wes.  I was in my 83 Celica with 15' inch speaker and when he got in the car outside Grass Valley Court, he immediately was juiced when I played it.  Ever since that moment I never looked back on music.

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"MY JAZZ WORLD" IS GONE!

Bobbi Humphrey - Is This All


My favorite blog has been attacked for posting rare first pressings of albums that will never see the light of day.  I want to thank Smooth for what he did.  His blog was such a resource. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't have been able to create this. Below is his response and farewell.

I call it quits!

June 29th, 2010 By Smooth 

I have been running this blog for the love of music and the preservation of the art form for quite a while now. My visitors included musicians, students, producers, and music aficionados from all over the world. Many people have expressed their gratitude for my work and have discovered lots of great music here that otherwise would have been forgotten and neglected. By strictly concentrating on out-of-print material and offering to remove any post at the request of the copyright holder, I considered myself on the safe side.

Currently I am under a legal attack from the attorneys of Chuck Mangione’s management. Despite the fact that a long-standing petition has been asking for the re-release of his back catalog, the label never felt the need to fulfill those wishes nor announce plans of a re-release, reasons why this blog has stepped in to fill the void by making those albums available digitally. Today, I was asked to immediately remove all the Mangione posts and now face a threat to compensate alleged losses. It saddens me that we cannot communicate in a civilized manner – a friendly mail from Chuck would have done the trick – and instead have to employ the service of lawyers.

Without awaiting any further development of this case, I decided to close down “My Jazz World”. I live a happy and active life where music plays a big part, but I have many other interests to pursue and don’t need any legal hassles to deal with. I don’t have to run this blog at all, I don’t make any money from it, my only reward are the enthusiastic responses from my visitors. So I decided to call it quits and assume a low profile from now on.

Thanks to everyone who sent me records for publication on the blog. Those people can still reach me at my e-mail address and I will make sure that they will receive their digitized music back. For all the others, thanks for visiting, we had a good time as long as it lasted. I’m out!

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1 YEAR LATER | THE FOUNDATION

This time last year, we were dismayed by the untimely passing of Michael Jackson.  Some folks and I celebrated by throwing a party in his honor last year.  Those who came to the party got a copy of this mix cd I produced.  Thus, to celebrate the King of Pop and the anniversary of this mix, here it is for those who never got a chance to get it.

Download: Nick James Presents...Michael Jackson | The Foundation (1970-1980)

Below, check out Aloe Blacc do a blues rendition of Billie Jean

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SIAIRA SHAWN - IN BETWEEN LIVE

This past Sunday, Oakland singer Siaira Shawn performed at the Air Lounge.  She has performed there before but this time she performed with a band and performed the title track off her EP, In Between.  This is the first time I've ever heard my music played by a live band.  Thank You Siaira.

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NICK JAMES - YORUBA

I've been trying to figure out what my next experimental/solo project is going to be and I have pretty much decided that it will be a 3-part instrumental series.  Each album will explore a different process of human development.  If this songs in on there it will be on the second album, "Wisdom."  Once I fully document this process of development and more importantly, make the beats, I will have a full write up posted.  Some of the tracks are unlike anything I've ever produced and I'm no longer limited by an artist's voice so it should be dope.

Nick James - Yoruba
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KIWI - CONTENTS UNDER PRESSURE REMIX

Click Link to Download

Kiwi - Contents Under Pressure (Nick James Remix)


I made a bunch of remixes for Kiwi years ago and we never did anything with them.  Here's another one.Share

MEGA SAMPLING

I was Google image surfing and came across the reference album cover to my album cover for American Producer and figured I would share it.  I remember downloading 400 soul, funk and jazz records in preparation for the remix album of Jay-Z's American Gangster.  That's when vintage music blogs just really popped off.  The majority of the samples came from two sites; 4 Brothers Beats (which had to switch formats because of copyright issues) and My Jazz World (which just recently had to switch formats because of copyright issues).  While I sat and listened to every album before the acapellas to American Gangster dropped, I fell in love with all of these album covers that came with the zip files.  This jazz album cover by Seawind personified the mansion in the movie so I photoshoped it and the rest is history.  It's interesting how our generation is one of not only referencing music to make new music, but also referencing anything in particular to produce commodities and cultural products.  It also is a great strength for our generation to consume and reference so much visual and audio information.  All the work I do is essentially an archive of past historical moments and cultural milieus, but then again, past generations did the same thing, it just wasn't as apparent.     

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LATE CHRISTMAS GIFT

Download :: Nas - Get Down (Special Edition Nick James Remix)
Download :: Nas - Get Down (Special Edition Nick James Remix Instrumental)

Click Image to Have Fun

The reason I called this post a special edition is because of how this remix came about.  I was on Twitter one night and two DJs/producers (DJ Doctor Who and DJ Daislo) I met on Twitter were going back and fourth about a beat.  DJ Doctor Who was contemplating whether or not to send a beat to Daislo and amidst their exchange, I asked to hear it as well.  They sent me the beat and I immediately recognized the sample.  I twitted Doctor Who back, gave him his props and told him I would flip the sample too.  I thought I would do it the following day but I got caught up in getting ready for a two week trip to the Dominican Republic.  I didn't think I would get around to it, but earlier tonight I sat down and made this beat in 20 minutes.  Then, I figured I should do something special with it, so I put Nas on top of it and here it is.  Below is a 3 week exchange chronicling the process.

What's so dope about Daislo and Doctor Who is their love for Hip-Hop period.  I have no idea how they ever heard my music but they have been amazing supporters.  They Twit each other back and forth sending each other beats in their infancy stages up until they create a final product, which I think is an amazing way to use Twitter (they should try Google Wave though).       

Follow: @DaiKatamyisGone & @DJDoctorWho and be sure to check out http://solprecision.tumblr.com

Original Sample: George Benson - "Changing the World"

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ALL MY COVERS

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LEFTOVERS GALORE PT. 3 | SEXUAL HEALING PT. 2

Click Cover to Download

This is probably 2005. I totally give up. Anyway, this my second stab at "Sexual Healing."  My first was better.  Thank god my beats are way better now.

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MORE LEFTOVERS: THE 1ST "SELFISH" REMIX

DOWNLOAD :: SLUM VILLAGE - SELFISH (NICK JAMES REMIX PART I)

Here's yet another leftover from the Early Years.  I made this before the one that appears on the mixtape but felt that Part II meshed better with the tone of the album.

What the cover text says:

"I made this remix in 2005 after being inspired by the MF Doom & Madlib album, Madvillian.  I wanted to create a hip-hop jazz track.  I got an Ahmad Jamal sample and created this."

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MOBB DEEP feat. NAS - IT'S MINE REMIX II

DOWNLOAD: MOBB DEEP feat. NAS | IT'S MINE REMIX PART II

So I made this four years ago and never released because I didn't really care.  Download it and enjoy it if you like it.  Told you I would drop it in 10 minutes.Share

THE EARLY YEARS INSTRUMENTALS

DOWNLOAD NICK JAMES - THE EARLY YEARS INSTRUMENTALS

Here you go.  I figured I might as well let these go and hope they find a good home with somebody else.  This is the first time I have packaged instrumentals for the public.  I hope you enjoyed The Early Years.
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NICK JAMES PLAYS COMMON

DOWNLOAD :: NICK JAMES PLAYS COMMON

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NICK JAMES PLAYS CROWN CITY ROCKERS

So I went crazy yesterday.  I got home at 4 in the afternoon and made music until 4 in the morning.  This is the end result.  The whole "Nick James Plays" process has been an interesting one.  I thought I had a schedule of what and when I wanted to drop these remixes but my imagination has been taking me to different places.  Years I got a bunch of Crown City acapellas and I remixed five songs.  The best one by far was "Culture."  When I sat down to my computer yesterday I remade the remix from scratch because I wanted to re-release it because I didn't like the mix down from three years ago.  I ended up making a new remix using the same sample that sounds completely different.  I added a speech I love from Malcolm X to emphasize the content of the song and poof.  I made the Zion I remix at about 2 in the morning and finished by 4.  Download the whole project with all the remixes, instrumentals, and samples below.   

Tracklist:

1. Crown City Rockers - Culture feat. Malcolm X (2009 Nick James Remix)
2. Crown City Rockers - Culture (2006 Nick James Remix)
3 Crown City Rockers - No Sense (Nick James Remix)
4. Crown City Rockers feat. Zion I - Without Love (Nick James Remix)
5. Nick James - Culture Instrumental (2009 Remix)
6. Nick James - Culture Instrumental (2006 Remix)
7. Nick James - Without Love Instrumental
8. Malcolm X - You Can't Hate the Roots of A Tree (Vocal Sample for Culture 2009 Remix)
9. Alice Coltrane  - Turiya and Ramakrishna (Sample for Culture 2009 & 2006)
10. Mandrill - Children of the Sun (Sample for No Sense)

Download :: Nick James Plays Crown City Rockers 

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NICK JAMES PLAYS STEVIE WONDER

Download: Nick James Plays Stevie

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MY FAVORITE GROUP HANDS DOWN

I finally got around to posting my remix of Camp Lo's Coolie High. Pretty soon I will be dropping this:

In the meantime, enjoy some classic Lo.

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