Carlos Nino & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson

Title: Suite For Ma Dukes
Label: Mochilla
Genre: Hip-Hop / Chamber Music
Format: CD

Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Carlos Niño and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson have been working together on a wide variety of projects for several years now. They produced albums for Build An Ark (Kindred Spirits,) Mia Doi Todd (City Zen,) Grace Woodroofe, Ariana Delawari (alongside David Lynch,) as well as a duet album entitled Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson Fill the Heart Shaped Cup (Alpha Pup). They have been a virtual production powerhouse. The colloboration started when Niño hired Atwood-Ferguson's string quartet, Supernova, to perform on Dwight Trible & The Life Force Trio's "Love is the Answer" (Ninja Tune) in 2004. On that same Dwight Tribble album project, Niño met and then licensed a track from one of his heroes, James "Jay Dee/J Dilla" Yancey. After his Dilla's untimely death only two years later from Lupus related complications, Niño and Atwood-Ferguson chose to pay tribute to Dilla by continuing the musical conversation that he had started, but in the contemporary chamber music style that Atwood-Ferguson had been developing. On what would have been Dilla's 33rd birthday, Niño & Atwood-Ferguson sent their strings, brass and reeds-only version of Common's "Nag Champa (Afrodisiac for the World)" to DJs, producers and fans for free via the internet and it caused a big stir among fans and first time listeners alike. Hip Hop had never been given the Chamber music treatment before and never in such a reverential and rhythmic way. Suite for Ma Dukes is the first official release of this music and is Hip Hop as you have never heard. All four tracks cover Dilla's magic, giving treatment to Jay Dee classics from Common, A Tribe Called Quest, and Slum Village. In each, the harmonic and melodic beauty of Dilla's music is liberated. Earlier this year, the project received the official blessing from Ma Dukes herself and part of the proceeds from the record will go to Dilla's heirs.

Tracklist
1. Find A Way
2. Antiquity
3. Fall In Love
4. Nag Champa