Sunday 13th June / Midlands Arts Centre, Cannon Hill Birmingham

Schedule

• 1pm until 3pm: Open Jazz Dance Workshop with Irven Lewis
• 4pm: Film Screening of The Jazz Room & Q&A with Snowboy & Paul Bradshaw at 4pm, £6 (£4.50)
• 5pm: Book Launch & DJ Bruce Q Live

Beyond the Ballroom is an afternoon of dance, music, film and discussion with the leading contributors to UK jazz heritage. Dancers and DJ’s will dig deep to show off their dancing DNA, with movements from the streets to the dancefloor, illuminating it’s major part in the development of UK club culture. Whether you’re an old skool jazz soldier or first time follower, Beyond the Ballroom gives you all you need to know in jazz dance history….

At 4pm we will present a premiere screening of Dick Jewell’s film The Jazz Room, with a lively Q&A hosted by Paul Bradshaw and UK Acid Jazz mainstay Mark “Snowboy” Cotgrove.

To book tickets to this screening click here.

If that’s not enough, we end with good vibes in the bar with a special BASS Festival DNA DJ set from Birmingham’s own Bruce Q – what else would you want to be doing on a summer Sunday?

Presented in partnership with mac, Edge 10, UK Vibe and Liquid Fusion

The legendary hip hop MC, Guru (Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal) died last month aged 43, following a battle with cancer. His work with Gangstarr, Jazzmatazz and later as a solo artist was revered around the world by fans and musicians from all backgrounds.

Here in Birmingham, Hip Hop collective Heducation are proactively pulling together a tribute to Guru with all proceeds going to cancer charities; Cancer Reseach UK, Macmillian, Myeloma UK, African Caribbean Leukemia Trust (ACLT) and Teenage Cancer Trust. I will be playing some records along with the extended family of Guru fans.

Friday 28th May at The Hare and Hounds all the info is here.

Here is a ‘sample’ of what is in store with a clip of Caesar Frazier…

Lead by award winning saxophonist and rapper Soweto Kinch and featuring a stellar rostra, The Flyover Show returns to Birmingham with dynamic and challenging performances on the 29th May. Now in its third year the unconventional inner city festival transforms the grey space beneath the Hockley Flyover into an oasis of cultural expression, celebrating generations of black British music and art. For the first time this show explores the specific theme of black female identity.

Not long now until this year’s Flyover Show, well worth a look if you are in Birmingham. Especially like this year’s theme! For more info check here. For the revolution see the video below…

To Have & To Hold – Taster Tape from Jony Lyle on Vimeo.

So us Mamas are back in our old stomping ground The Bulls Head in Moseley tomorrow night for Freestyle. Sam Redmore is the main man behind Freestyle which has a regular slot every Friday hosting many top local heroes and folks big in the DJ game such as Adam Regan and Bootsy plus many many more .

A musical feast of funk, soul, hip hop, house, disco, rock, latin and reggae, as well as everything in between.

We are looking forward to our slot on Friday and will be providing our discerning listeners with a whole manner of Afrocentric rhythms and soulful waxy bits. With only a nibble on the door at £3 after 10pm and a whole bunch of drinks promos we think it is well worth a frequent.

Friday 19th February 2010

Sister 45 & Bobbalin Hot (Mama Feel Good!)
Sam Redmore (Leftfoot)

Bull’s Head, Moseley
9-2am, free entry before 10pm, £3 thereafter

All the details can be found here. We look forward to seeing you then!

The latest MFG! show is available from Rhubarb Radio just click on the drop down to listen to the last show on 28th May…Enjoy

We are going to be playing records for the big and little people coming to Baby Loves Disco on Sunday 24th May at The Patrick Centre, Hurst Street, Birmingham from 2pm-4pm.

Baby Loves Disco is an afternoon dance party for little kids (6 months-7 years) and (especially) their parents: featuring Mama Feel Good! DJs playing feel good disco, soul and funk tracks guaranteed to get those little booties moving and grooving.

The fun spills out from all corners of the coolest club in town: bubble machines, baskets of instruments, a chill-out room (with tents, books and puzzles), and dancing, LOTS of dancing (and yes, the cash bar will be open for mummy and daddy!). But at its core, Baby Loves Disco is a community event that brings kids together with kids and parents together with parents, guaranteed to be the best time you’ve had at a kids event!

Check the DanceXchange website for more info, tickets are £5 each and non walking babies get in for free – perhaps its worth laying off those development sessions for a while and saving some cash. Bobbie and I are looking forward to this, seeing all them cute kids wiggling around, little boys sliding on their knees and hard working mums and dads getting a chance to wind down and chat whilst their wee ones tear up the dance floor.

My biological clock is ticking pretty loudly these days, I am in my late twenties now and sometimes I find myself looking at my other half, with my head tilted to one side, with one eye slightly squinted thinking about whether our baby boys will have his shoulders and my nose or his nose and my shoulders.

If you haven’t got babies yet, then try to borrow one for this – whatever you do, don’t miss out!

“A SUITE FOR MA DUKES”

James Yancey (1974-2006), better known as J Dilla was born in Detroit. His work as a producer had a defining role in Hip-Hop. He produced hits for A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Common and Erykah Badu to name a few. At 32, he passed away in Los Angeles in the care of his mother, Ma Dukes of lupus related illness. Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson pay tribute to Dilla by interpreting his music with a 40-piece orchestra.

I got this heads up from my beau Blacksmile; (DJ, producer, beat maker and J Dilla fanatic). A Suite for Ma Dukes is phenomenal. This iconic EP will surely go down in history as one of the best tributes to the legendary J Dilla there has ever been. And certainly a completely unique interpretation of some of his productions.

As a soul/funk DJ my ears are usually turned off by classical music, I need the familiar structure and syncopation of a well constructed soul record. I usually like some strings but want them crafted into a melody that I can tap my feet to. This EP by Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood Ferguson is orchestral and beautifully soulful, with a jazzy emotive lean. Fall in Love features dreamy harps and dramatic swooshes. But Find a way is my favourite, and will be getting much air play from the Mama Feel Good! camp.

Here is some more info from Stones Throw.

Carlos Niño and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson have been working together on a wide variety of projects, beginning in 2004 when Niño hired Atwood-Ferguson’s string quartet to perform on Dwight Trible & The Life Force Trio’s Love is the Answer (Ninja Tune). The J Dilla production “Antiquity” also comes from this project.

Suite for Ma Dukes initially began in 2007, on what would have been Dilla’s 33rd birthday, when Niño & Atwood-Ferguson recorded and released their strings, brass and reeds-only version of J Dilla & Common’s “Nag Champa” to DJs, producers and fans over the Internet for free. They had written the entire piece to accompany the record as a their tribute to Dilla, feeling that the producer was still in the track not by his presence but by his absence.

The 4 tracks on Suite for Ma Dukes cover Dilla’s productions from “Antiquity” and “Nag Champa”, A Tribe Called Quest’s “Find a Way” and Slum Village’s “Fall in Love”.

Early in 2009 the project received the official blessing from Ma Dukes herself. The EP is available from Stones Throw. As stated by Mochilla, proceeds from the record will go to Dilla’s heirs.

MAMA AFRICA Celebrates Women in Music and music rooted in Africa, raising awareness and funds for three African women’s charities.
Featuring some of the best female DJs in the UK collectively demonstrating a range of musical styles deeply rooted and fused with African rhythms; Funk, Soul, Afrobeat, Broken Beat, Acid Jazz, Latin, Conscious Hip hop, Jazz Funk, Rare Groove, Reggae, Afrikan Fusion and Neo Soul.

This one off event will be held on Saturday 6th June at The Bulls Head, Moseley, Birmingham. More details including DJ line up to follow.
MAMA FEEL GOOD! Are using this event to raise money and awareness of the following charities;

Global Mamas envisions women in Africa to be economically independent. Global Mamas is the name brand for fair-trade goods produced through the efforts of Women in Progress, an international not-for-profit organization assisting women of Africa in attaining economic independence. Global Mamas reduces the economic inequality of women by significantly increasing the revenues and profits of woman-owned businesses in Africa. This in turn increases employee wages, generates new jobs and improves the standard of living. By helping women to help themselves, Global Mamas is taking small steps towards helping end Africa’s dependence on foreign aid and creating a sustainable society.

The Kanga Project supports the work of grassroots women-led organisations in Tanzania that strive to overcome the social, cultural, economic and political marginalisation of women. Through education, new skills, business start up loans and lessons in empowerment, civic rights and capacity building, these organizations are initiating a renaissance of African society based on equality, dignity and access to resources

ACTSA’s Dignity! Period campaign
A pack of sanitary towels in Zimbabwe can cost more than double the average monthly wage. Women have been forced to use newspaper, rags or leaves as a substitute for sanitary pads which can cause serious infections for which there is little available medication. Worse still, these infections are often mistaken for STIs, leading to social embarrassment and domestic violence.
ACTSA’s Dignity! Period campaign, with the support of the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and Bodyform, raises awareness and funds to distribute sanitary products to the women and girls of Zimbabwe to halt this immediate danger that will affect their long term health and wellbeing. Since launching the campaign in 2005, ACTSA with the ZCTU has distributed more than 5 million sanitary products to the women and girls of Zimbabwe.

Mama Africa is dedicated to the late Miriam Makeba who was a South African Singer and civil rights activist.