Bio:
Born as Jill Heather Scott in the North Philly neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 4, 1972, Jill Scott kicked off her career as a performance poet. Her breakthrough came when she was discovered by Amir “Questlove” Thompson of The Roots, who invited her to join the band in the studios. This collaboration resulted in the live version of “You Got Me” in 1999.
Following this, Jill Scott expanded her artistic horizons by collaborating with notable artists such as Eric Benet, Will Smith, Lupe Fiasco, and Common. She also broadened her performance experience by touring Canada in a production of the Broadway musical Rent. Signed to Steve McKeever’s newly formed Hidden Beach Recordings label, she unveiled her debut album, *Who Is Jill Scott: Words and Sounds Vol. 1*, in July 2000. The subsequent release of *Experience: Jill Scott 826+* the following summer, after the single “A Long Walk,” further solidified her place in the music scene.
Jill Scott's recognition continued to grow, earning her a Grammy nomination in early 2003 for Best Female Vocal Performance with “A Long Walk.” In 2005, she clinched a Grammy award for Best R&B Solo Vocal Performance, Male or Female.
Her presence in the cultural landscape extended to film, with notable appearances in David Chappelle’s Block Party alongside The Roots and Erykah Badu. In 2004, she released the album *Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2*, and in April 2005, her book of poetry, *The Moments, The Minutes, The Hours*, hit the shelves.
Jill Scott’s collaboration with hip-hop artist Lupe Fiasco on the 2006 single “Daydreaming” showcased her versatility and set the stage for her collection *Collaborations*, released on January 30, 2007. This compilation paved the way for her next studio album, *The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Vol. 3*, which was released on September 25, 2007.
In addition to her musical achievements, Jill Scott has made a mark in acting. She portrayed detective Precious Ramotswe in the BBC’s dramatization of Alexander McCall Smith’s series of books, “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.” Scott also appeared in the Tyler Perry film, “Why Did I Get Married” (2007), and its sequel, “Why Did I Get Married Too” (2010).
The Recôncavo is an almost invisible center-of-gravity. Circumscribing the Bay of All Saints, this region was landing for more enslaved human beings than any other such throughout all of human history. Not unrelated, it is also birthplace of some of the most physically & spiritually uplifting music ever made. —Sparrow
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers: Personal recording engineer for Prince, inc. "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"... Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory
I'm Pardal here in Brazil (that's "Sparrow" in English). The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
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 MUSICAL
The Matrix was built below among some of the world's most powerfully moving music, some of it made by people barely known beyond village borders. Or in the case of Sodré, his anthem A MASSA — a paean to Brazil's poor ("our pain is the pain of a timid boy, a calf stepped on...") — having blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south, before he was silenced. (that's me left, with David Dye & Kim Junod for U.S. National Public Radio) ... The Matrix started with Sodré, with João do Boi, with Roberto Mendes, with Bule Bule, with Roque Ferreira... music rooted in the sugarcane plantations of Bahia. Hence our logo (a cane cutter).