Daru Jones
This Brazilian cultural matrix positions Daru Jones globally...
Curation
CURATION
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from this page:
by Augmented Matrix
The Integrated Global Creative Economy
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Name:
Daru Jones
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City/Place:
Brooklyn, NY / Nashville, TN
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Country:
United States
Life & Work
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Bio:
Daru Jones is one of the most respected drummers of his generation. Jones is a two-time Grammy Award-Winning musician for his work on Lazaretto (Jack White) and on Testimony (Gloria Gaynor). Born to two professional musicians, he began playing the drums at the age of four. Though he got his start in the church, Jones has been influenced by musicians from a wide range of genres. These eclectic musical tastes have carried over into his own career as he has recorded, performed, and toured with renowned artists and producers such as: Jack White, Pete Rock, Gloria Gaynor, Slum Village, Jamie Lidell, Talib Kweli, Dwight Yoakam, Nas, Pee Wee Ellis, Lorenzo Jovanotti, Queen Latifah, Black Milk, Salaam Remi, Pharoahe Monch, Rance Allen, Black Violin, Ski Beatz & The Sensei’s, and Jon B (partial list). Alongside these artists, Jones has graced the stages of some of the most revered events in the music industry, including: One Mic: Hip-Hop Culture Worldwide! A 20th anniversary celebration of Nas debut album Illmatic, the 2013 Grammy Awards, Austin City Limits, Rock The Bells Festival, and the Montreux Jazz Festival. Receiving rave reviews from: Rolling Stone Magazine, LA Weekly, and USA Today (partial list), he has also appeared on several national and international television programs: The David Letterman Show, Jools Holland (UK), The Colbert Report, Saturday Night Live, and MTV.
Jones has been the “go-to-drummer” in the hip hop game for over a decade. He has shared the stage with legends and emerging stars alike, including: Black Moon, Smif N Wessun, Q-Tip, Mos Def, Raekwon, Curren$y, Pharoahe Monch, Jean Grae, Black Sheep, Digable Planets, Camp_Lo, Smoke Dza, Theophulis London and Large Professor.
Jones is also a sought-after producer and boutique label owner who develops talent and releases music through his imprint, RUSIC RECORDS, LLC. The Brooklyn, NY and Nashville, TN-based producer/musician exhibits a unique approach to beat-making that incorporates live drum loops, jazz and gospel samples, and a soulful musicianship into all of his projects. Over the past decade, Jones has produced and released a catalog of projects he classifies as “soul-hop” featuring collaborations with vocalists and rappers: Kissey Asplund, Ishe', Jasiri X, Reggie B, Rena, AB, and Eagle Nebula, among others. In addition to these RUSIC projects, Jones has produced original and remixed tracks for recording artists including : Muhsinah, iSHE, Jessie Boykins III and Kendra Ross.
2015 was an amazing year for Jones. His performance on “Lazaretto , ” the first single from Jack White’s second solo album of the same name, helped White earn a 2015 Grammy for Best Rock Performance. Jones has also received high accolades for his performances on the Lazaretto Tour (his second with White). Most recently, he was featured on Esquire.com, declared the “Unsung Hero of Coachella 2015″ by Fuse.tv, and named “Best Drummer of Coachella 2015″ by the LA Times Music Blog, Pop & Hiss.
After wrapping up the Blunderbuss and Lazaretto Tour with White, Jones recorded in late 2015 and toured the globe in 2016-2017 with eclectic soulster, Jamie Lidell in support his release, “Building a Beginning.”
Daru is currently prepping for an upcoming release from super group, DMD the Vibes with Jones, guitar wunderkind Marcus Machado, and legendary Living Colour bassist, Doug Wimbish. In 2018, Jones teamed up with hip-hop producer, Pete Rock and a member also the music director for his new live band, The Soul Brothers. Jones also recently joined forces with Pharoahe Monch as well as power house Rock-Hop trio called, Th1rt3en.
Daru was also the featured drummer on Gloria Gaynor’s recent 2020 Grammy win for “Best Roots Gospel Album”. This critically acclaimed album is Gaynor’s first award in 40 years. Jones also played on Gaynor’s Grammy Nominated song “Something Bout Jesus” featuring Yolanda Adams.
More
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Quotes, Notes & Etc.
Drum Influences:
Dana Davis, Steve Gadd, Vinnie Colaiuta, Stewart Copeland, Steve Smith, Peter Eskine, Bernard Purdie, Virgil Donati, Dave Weckl, Tony Williams, Elvin Jones, Gene Krupa, Omar Hakim, Bill Maxwell, Questlove
Producer Influences:
DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Dre, Marley Marl, Jay Dee (J.Dilla), Kay Gee, Rza, Da Beatminerz, Eric B, Eric Sermon, The Bomb Squad, Bill Maxwell, Micheal Brooks
Clips (more may be added)
There are certain countries, the names of which fire the popular imagination. Brazil is one of them; an amalgam of primitive and sophisticated, jungle and elegance, luscious jazz harmonics — there’s no other place like it in the world. And while Rio de Janeiro, or its fame anyway, tends toward the sophisticated end of the spectrum, Bahia bends toward the atavistic…
It’s like a trick of the mind’s light (I suppose), but standing on beach or escarpment in Salvador and looking out across the Baía de Todos os Santos to the great Recôncavo, and mindful of what happened there (and here; the Bahian Recôncavo was final port-of-call for more enslaved human beings than any other place throughout the entirety of mankind’s existence on this planet, and in the past it extended into what is now urban Salvador), one must be led to the inevitable conclusion that one is in a place unique to history, and to the present:
Brazil absorbed over ten times the number of enslaved Africans taken to the United States of America, and is a repository of African deities (and their music) now largely forgotten in their lands of origin.
Brazil was a refuge (of sorts) for Sephardim fleeing an Inquisition which followed them across the Atlantic (that unofficial symbol of Brazil’s national music — the pandeiro — was almost certainly brought to Brazil by these people).
Across the parched savannas of the interior of Brazil’s culturally fecund nordeste/northeast (where wizard Hermeto Pascoal was born in Lagoa da Canoa — Lagoon of the Canoe — and raised in Olho d’Águia — Eye of the Eagle), much of Brazil’s aboriginal population was absorbed into a caboclo/quilombola culture punctuated by the Star of David.
Three cultures — from three continents — running for their lives, their confluence forming an unprecedented fourth. Pandeirista on the roof.
That's where this Matrix begins:
Wolfram MathWorld
The idea is simple, powerful, and egalitarian: To propagate for them, the Matrix must propagate for all. Most in the world are within six degrees of us. The concept of a "small world" network (see Wolfram above) applies here, placing artists from the Recôncavo and the sertão, from Salvador... from Brooklyn, Berlin and Mombassa... musicians, writers, filmmakers... clicks (recommendations) away from their peers all over the planet.
This Integrated Global Creative Economy (we invented the concept) uncoils from Brazil's sprawling Indigenous, African, Sephardic and then Ashkenazic, Arabic, European, Asian cultural matrix... expanding like the canopy of a rainforest tree rooted in Bahia, branches spreading to embrace the entire world...
Recent Visitors Map
Great culture is great power.
And in a small world great things are possible.
Alicia Svigals
"Thanks, this is a brilliant idea!!"
—Alicia Svigals (NEW YORK CITY): Apotheosis of klezmer violinists
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers (BOSTON): Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory ... Former personal recording engineer for Prince; "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"
"Dear Sparrow, Many thanks for this – I am touched!"
—Julian Lloyd Webber (LONDON): Premier cellist in UK; brother of Andrew (Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Phantom of the Opera...)
"This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :)))"
—Clarice Assad (RIO DE JANEIRO/CHICAGO): Pianist and composer with works performed by Yo Yo Ma and orchestras around the world
"We appreciate you including Kamasi in the matrix, Sparrow."
—Banch Abegaze (LOS ANGELES): manager, Kamasi Washington
"Thanks! It looks great!....I didn't write 'Cantaloupe Island' though...Herbie Hancock did! Great Page though, well done! best, Randy"
"Very nice! Thank you for this. Warmest regards and wishing much success for the project! Matt"
—Son of Jimmy Garrison (bass for John Coltrane, Bill Evans...); plays with Herbie Hancock and other greats...
I opened the shop in Salvador, Bahia in 2005 in order to create an outlet to the wider world for magnificent Brazilian musicians.
David Dye & Kim Junod for NPR found us (above), and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (he's a huge jazz fan), David Byrne, Oscar Castro-Neves... Spike Lee walked past the place while I was sitting on the stoop across the street drinking beer and listening to samba from the speaker in the window...
But we weren't exactly easy for the world-at-large to get to. So in order to extend the place's ethos I transformed the site associated with it into a network wherein Brazilian musicians I knew would recommend other Brazilian musicians, who would recommend others...
And as I anticipated, the chalky hand of God-as-mathematician intervened: In human society — per the small-world phenomenon — most of the billions of us on earth are within some 6 or fewer degrees of each other. Likewise, within a network of interlinked artists as I've described above, most of these artists will in the same manner be at most a handful of steps away from each other.
So then, all that's necessary to put the Brazilians within possible purview of the wide wide world is to include them among a wide wide range of artists around that world.
If, for example, Quincy Jones is inside the matrix, then anybody on his page — whether they be accessing from a campus in L.A., a pub in Dublin, a shebeen in Cape Town, a tent in Mongolia — will be close, transitable steps away from Raymundo Sodré, even if they know nothing of Brazil and are unaware that Sodré sings/dances upon this planet. Sodré, having been knocked from the perch of fame and ground into anonymity by Brazil's dictatorship, has now the alternative of access to the world-at-large via recourse to the vast potential of network theory.
...to the degree that other artists et al — writers, researchers, filmmakers, painters, choreographers...everywhere — do also. Artificial intelligence not required. Real intelligence, yes.
Years ago in NYC (I've lived here in Brazil for 32 years now) I "rescued" unpaid royalties (performance & mechanical) for artists/composers including Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Mongo Santamaria, Jim Hall, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd (for his rights in Bob Marley compositions; Clement was Bob's first producer), Led Zeppelin, Ray Barretto, Philip Glass and many others. Aretha called me out of the blue vis-à-vis money owed by Atlantic Records. Allen Klein (managed The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Ray Charles) called about money due the estate of Sam Cooke. Jerry Ragovoy (Time Is On My Side, Piece of My Heart) called just to see if he had any unpaid money floating around out there (the royalty world was a shark-filled jungle, to mangle metaphors, and I doubt it's changed).
But the pertinent client (and friend) in the present context is Earl "Speedo" Carroll, of The Cadillacs. Earl went from doo-wopping on Harlem streetcorners to chart-topping success to working as a custodian at PS 87 elementary school on the west side of Manhattan. Through all of this he never lost what made him great.
Greatness and fame are too often conflated. The former should be accessible independently of the latter.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay (they paid).
Matrix founding creators are behind "one of 10 of the best (radios) around the world", per The Guardian.
Across the creative universe... For another list, reload page.
This list is random, and incomplete. Reload the page for another list.
For a complete list of everybody inside, tap TOTAL below:
TOTAL
Ex Terra Brasilis
Susan Rogers
Julian Lloyd Webber
Clarice Assad
Kamasi Washington
Randy Brecker
Matt Garrison
RÁDIO MATRIX