We finally get a video for Karriem Riggins' Alone Together album. This is "Summer Madness" (also incorporating a piece of "Matador"). Directed by Donavan Glover and Gerard Victor; Video Producer: Kay Mohamed; Production Company: Shot Selection.
In the store | Alone Together
On iTunes | Alone Together
Some words about the album from around the way…
NYTIMES
For about 15 years Karriem Riggins has been one of the better drummers in jazz, with Betty Carter and Ray Brown and Mulgrew Miller and Diana Krall. He’s also been a hip-hop producer, working with Slum Village, the Roots and Erykah Badu. His first solo album, Alone Together (Stones Throw), is a collection of intuitive sketches made in his Detroit home studio, an unvarnished take on the sounds in his head. It’s ’70s-obsessed crate digger’s music
PITCHFORK
7.3 | Because the producer is such a talented chameleon– evoking with the 34 tracks here a whole range of his fellows– the album ends up functioning as a sort of survey course: every piece, based on its distinct construction and influences, will lead the curious listener down a rabbit hole of wonderful sounds.
CMJ
The scope of Riggins’s album is staggering, and it’s impressive that he was able to cover so much ground … The star of the bunch is “Summer Maddness S.A.,” a fleeting moment of a song that succeeds not only due to its infectious hook but because it marks the moment where Riggins’s jagged left turns work most strongly to the track’s advantage.
THE QUIETUS
Los Angeles-based Stones Throw didn't invent the breaks record, but the label has taken the concept and run with it. From the off, the record is infused with the sound of the MPC – in itself refreshing as so many producers have ditched making their beats on The Box to use computer-based set-ups like Ableton or Logic. Classy MPC workouts like 'No Way' and 'Bring That Beat Back (next time)' show why this is a much-missed medium.
BBC MUSIC
On Alone Together, Riggins vacillates between his jazz and hip hop roots, peppering this album with impressive vignettes worthy of the Motor City’s rich musical foundation … Like Dilla’s Donuts project, Alone Together should be appreciated in its entirety. While there are standouts, the whole is greater than its parts.
POTHOLES
Much has been written of the spiritual connections between hip-hop and jazz music over the years, and though hardly a household name even in the rap world, few could hope to embody this musical romance more effectively than Karriem Riggins.
