The New Orleans underground music scene has a bevy of progressive talent quietly blurring genre lines and regularly fusing acoustic with electronic instruments. These experimental artists might not receive the same type of media coverage as their more traditional musical peers, but prolific producer and serial boundary-pusher, Jneiro Jarel thinks it’s high time this creative class of young musicians in the Crescent City gets some shine. On Wednesday, December 11, Jarel will present the debut of his New Orleans-composed Viberian Experience Orchestra for a Red Bull Music Academy session to be recorded live at new uptown multi-media venue, Gasa Gasa.

A recent transplant to New Orleans, Jarel is a producer’s producer. He was born and bred in Brooklyn, but is a self-proclaimed bohemian; his home is wherever he hangs his hat. A few cities he has called home in particular though stand out, he says, New Orleans being one of them. Jarel spent a number of years in Philadelphia and maintains strong ties to the City of Brotherly Love’s music community and its sound. In fact, his own indy record imprint, Label Who?, is an affiliate of the Philadelphia-based Rope-a-Dope Records — the label that put out the Sister Gertrude Morgan project with New Orleans’ Preservation Hall and Philly’s King Britt, among several other indy releases that have relationships to the Crescent City.

CHOPPING IT UP WITH JJ

OffBeat had the opportunity to chat with Jarel recently about his move to New Orleans and his new music. When asked what he likes about New Orleans, he says that “the thing I appreciate about NOLA is the same thing I appreciate about Philly: people are really secure with who they are. New Orleans is its own planet, I love it for that. There’s a lot of weirdos here; man, I love it, I fit right in.”

Jarel also spent the last several years in Los Angeles, where he helped to pioneer what is now the wildly popular “L.A. Beat Scene.” The minimal yet profound electronic music that has come out of the L.A. Beat Scene in recent years is, in many ways, the next evolution of its jungle and drum ‘n’ bass counterparts of the late 1990s. Electronic artists like Flying Lotus and Gaslamp Killer bubbled up from the LA underground at experimental club nights alongside hip-hop innovators like Madlib and J Rocc in the early 2000s. Nights such as Low End Theory set the pace for what would become one of the most influential sounds in contemporary party culture. And while he was an integral part of making the music, Jarel never really cared for the club scene itself. “I don’t really like ‘scenester’ scenes in general, regardless of where it is. Some cities have more of that than others. I really just don’t like to be in the limelight,” he explains. This is probably one of the reasons his name does not flash in neon lights very often, like many of the other LA Beat Scene originals’ do.

Growing weary of the demands of the “scene to be seen,” was a part of his decision to move to New Orleans in 2010. That, and the fact that his wife, an actress working in Los Angeles at the time, has immediate family roots in New Orleans (though she was born in L.A.) and had just landed a gig in HBO’s Treme, which was filming on location here. Making the move to New Orleans gave her the opportunity to work on Treme, along with her father who also stars in the series, and to be near family again. It provided Jarel with a fresh place to begin work on his next project — one he says will be a bit of a departure from the last. Plus, where else should the producer with the primary alias Dr. Whodat? be creating music, but in the WhoDat Nation?

Jarel’s big release of 2012 was his collaboration with alternative hip-hop MC, DOOM (a/k/a MF DOOM). As the duo JJ DOOM, the two produced Key to the Kuffs for the UK’s Lex Records. Like many of their respective previous releases, Kuffs boldly addresses global current events and social issues through witty lyricism and carefully-crafted beats. JJ DOOM caught the ear of music innovators around the world, including Radiohead’s Thom Yorke (a frequenter and sometimes special guest of LA’s Low End Theory night), who claimed the single, “Guv’nor,” from the Kuffs album as his “favorite track of 2012,” Jarel recalls.

 

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The JJ DOOM album has a few connections to New Orleans. Though it was not all recorded in the city, Jarel did mix down several tracks at the (now closed) Piety Street Studios. While he was working on some of the mix-downs for Kuffs at Piety Street, he remembers peeking through the fence outside several times before finally wandering next door to see what was going on with the curious structure being erected there. Then he discovered this structure was the famed (also now closed, but set to re-open) New Orleans Music Box, created by New Orleans Airlift. It was not long before Jarel was among the many artists playing in the Music Box, and ended up recording some of the interludes on the JJ DOOM project there.

Producing quality hip-hop is a skill to which Jarel is no stranger since he affirms that he is a product himself of the golden “boom-bap” era in New York. It’s no surprise that he would play an active role in maintaining contemporary hip-hop’s “quality control,” so to speak. However, boxing him in solely to a hip-hop category does not nearly do Jarel’s body of work, nor his dynamic skill set, due justice. He has produced an array of music from house and hip-hop to techno and jazz. Though his name and face often fly inconspicuously under the radar, accumulating a myriad of aliases, he has been behind some of the 21st century’s most innovative fusion projects. Departing from the hip-hop of JJ DOOM and the minimal drum ‘n’ bass of the LA Beat Scene for his next project here in New Orleans, Jarel is taking fusion to the next level.

THE COLLABORATOR’S COLLABORATOR

Perhaps his first introduction to the grand possibilities of his collaboration with Crescent City master musicians came upon his introduction to Preservation Hall creative director Ben Jaffe through their mutual friend and collaborator, King Britt of Philadelphia. Britt had worked with Jaffe on the King Britt Presents: Sister Gertrude Morgan remixes project, and knew that Jarel and Jaffe were like-minded, forward-thinking artists. On one of Jarel’s first visits to a Preservation Hall jazz performance in early 2011 to link up with Jaffe, drummer Shannon Powell was the special guest. Inspired by Powell’s style, Jarel immediately began a conversation with him about potential collaboration. “We just started talking, and he was like, ‘why don’t you play over this,’ like it was nothing,” Jarel says. Soon Jarel was recording Powell on drums for his new album. “Shannon just did what he did [with me] because he was feeling it — not for a trend. I really respect cats like that, they’re not on a soapbox about what they do and why they do it — they just do it.”

Aside from getting to know some of New Orleans’ jazz elite, Jarel also started a new club night at uptown’s Gasa Gasa earlier this year, dubbed the “Viberian Experience.” He actually had the idea for this type of acoustic-electronic fusion night while he was still in Los Angeles, but never got it off the ground. With all the eclectic collaborations he’s been working on since relocating to New Orleans, launching the night here “just seemed right.” At the Viberian Experience (VEX) residency, Jarel’s role is more of a curator and host rather than a regular performer. Though he does occasionally perform, “this night is more about giving exposure to some of New Orleans’ and Louisiana’s underground electronic musicians and fusion artists,” he explains.

ON THE NEW ORLEANS ELECTRONIC FUSION SCENE

Jarel observes that “the [electronic fusion] scene [here] isn’t super-developed yet, but there is tremendous potential. There’s a ways to go before it’s a real healthy scene, but I’m not trying to come in and change things — I’m just here to be a part of it, and embrace NOLA for what it is.” He asserts that he desires to be a part of the educational process among experimenting artists in New Orleans, like with any type of music that’s new in any given city. And he absolutely denies that more electronic music in New Orleans means less soul; “There’s a certain kind of soul that comes with the territory in places like NOLA. So even if it’s electronic [instruments], that doesn’t mean it’s not soulful. My intention is simply to encourage more New Orleans electronic musicians to collaborate more with local acoustic musicians. At the end of the day, it’s all about collaboration.”

Hosting the VEX night at Gasa Gasa led to Jarel meeting Grammy Award-winning master drummer and percussionist, Bill Summers. The two crossed paths in between rehearsal times at Gasa Gasa when Summers was recording his next disc, DRUMANOLA, there this fall. “I felt privileged to be asked by him to collaborate, and to contribute to his new project. And he’s going to play on one of my tracks on my new album I’m working on now too.” This chance meeting was one of Jarel’s dreams come true, he says, having admired Summers’ work for years. “Bill is not only a musical mentor now, but he’s schooled me on [music] publishing — he’s the master of that game too.”

The new music scene at Gasa Gasa also provided Jarel with what is now his working string section for the Viberian Experience Orchestra, making its debut at Wednesday’s Red Bull Music Academy live recording session. Impressed with the innovative musicians at the venue’s “Strung Out” October showcase, he was soon collaborating with several of the collective’s members. Violinists Tarrah Reynolds and Trenton “T-Ray” Thomas, along with cellist Monica McIntyre, are each set to perform with the VEX Orchestra on December 11. The diversity among this group of musicians runs deep, as Reynolds performs with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and Thomas is an educator at UNO and the Lower Ninth Ward Youth Orchestra, while McIntyre also works as a community healer.

Other New Orleans musicians Jarel is excited to work with soon include modern jazz trumpeter and composer Christian Scott, as well as saxophonist and contemporary funk impresario Khris Royal. Although formal connections have not yet been made, he also hopes to be able to collaborate with Kermit Ruffins before he finishes his current album. “I know it’s kind of cliche to pick him, but man, it’s just everything about that dude — from his style of playing to his fly style of dress, to his whole cool demeanor — I can’t wait to link up with Kermit. After talking to him at Red Bull Street Kings this year, I’m convinced.”

He would not reveal all the details about his forthcoming album, but in addition to the New Orleans artists who are already part of the aforementioned project, what Jarel will say is that this release will be more funky, and more dance-oriented, than his last. “This one is dedicated to celebration, to festive life. And it’ll be no secret that it’s very Prince-influenced.” Of course, that may have something to do with the fact that he has been working with acclaimed Prince producer, Dr. Fink, on the album this season as well.

On Wednesday, December 11, Jneiro Jarel presents the first edition of his Viberian Experience Orchestra at Gasa Gasa (4920 Freret Street). Doors are at 7:30 p.m. and the show will be recorded live for streaming on the Red Bull Music Academy’s international website, the event’s sponsor. Admission is free of charge, and is open to ages 21 and up.

ABOUT RBMA SESSIONS

The Red Bull Music Academy had recently been looking for the best opportunity to record some of the sounds of the current electronic fusion scene happening in New Orleans, and invited Jarel, an RBMA alumni and endorsed artist, to curate the December 11 edition of this series. Wednesday’s event “is a chance for some of the other RBMA grads to play with some of New Orleans’ progressive artists,” says Jarel.

 

Special guests performing on December 11 include Louisiana’s own AF THE NAYSAYER (a resident of Jarel’s VEX club series), the UK’s Om Unit and Brainfeeder Records’ Samiyam, hailing from Los Angeles by way of Michigan. Both Om Unit and Samiyam are RBMA alumni. Jarel will also perform a live PA set Wednesday, filtering the VEX Orchestra through his arsenal of beat machines and other electronic instruments. New Orleans hip-hop MC Truth Universal will host the show. More Info: www.redbullmusicacademy.com

Sample some of Jneiro Jarel a/k/a Dr. Whodat’s sounds here:
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