Sunday, a sold out crowd gathered on the intramurals fields at UCLA to get their jam on at Jam Day for the Jazz & Reggae Festival. It was a perfect day for some Memeorial Day Weekend jamming - sun out, slight breeze, happy people with sun-kissed skin.
I unfortunately missed The Stepkids (so glad I got to see their secret show), and Lee Fields & the Expressions but I got there in time to catch Little Dragon again who rocked out just as hard for thousands of people as they did for the intimate crowd in my previous post. The remaining acts for the day were Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and his Ensemble with special guests, and Lupe Fiasco.
I want to say that Lupe did a fine job. He drew the crowd to the front, played a mixture of songs from all of his albums (yeah “Kick, Push”), and otherwise gave a solid performance for the screaming group of people.
I have to say though, for me, the highlight of the day was undoubtedly Miguel and his host of take your breath away talented guests.
I’ve seen Miguel Atwood-Ferguson two other times now. Once at Zanzibar in Santa Monica and another time as part of Grand Performances at the California Plaza. Both times I was struck by the incomparable musicianship of Miguel and his musicians. But it wasn’t until this Sunday that I truly appreciated how much Miguel is a musician’s musician.
I’ve heard DJs talk a lot about how Miguel is just a scary, awesome, mad scientist, genius. Jeremy Sole said this today when he introduced Miguel and an ensemble that filled the stage with horns, trumpets, flutes, keys, drums, bass, violin, and guitars. The number of people who want to associate themselves with Miguel speaks to this genius. The parade of people there with him on Sunday was remarkable to say the least. One after another great voice after great talent after great musician kept coming out on stage. Coco from Quadron to Talib Kweli to Meshell Ndegeocello, they all were gracious and brought another layer of flavor to the Miguel Atwood-Ferguson magic.
I was most struck by Talib Kweli’s appearance because of the incredible juxtaposition of beautiful string, instrumental arrangements from Miguel and his band underneath Talib’s straight from the heart, no fumbles, quick speaking hip hop floetry. It was such an impactful marriage of sounds and with Miguel at the helm, conducting with his violin bow, it all went down flawlessly - as if this was how all of Talib’s songs were supposed to sound in the first place.
Miguel and his Ensemble play out quite a bit if you’re in the LA area. Definitely make some time to catch them if you haven’t already.
Here’s some video of his performance with Flying Lotus at the Grand Performances set last summer.
Miguel Atwood-Ferguson Ensemble "Drips/Take Notice" feat Flying Lotus from Miguel Atwood-Ferguson on Vimeo.
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