TURNTABLE SESSIONS #3
Bowery Poetry Club - NYC, NY
07/24/02 - 08/14/02

In the Summer of 2002, downtown's newest venue for adventurous music and poetry, Bob Holman's Bowery Poetry Club, hosted Billy Martin's ongoing musical journey, the Turntable Sessions. Every Wednesday night from July 24 to August 14, Billy Martin was joined by a stellar lineup of DJs, instrumentalists and vocalists to present the third installment of this innovative approach to controlled improvisation. Participating artists included Scotty Hard, DJ Olive, DJ Mutamasic, Shelley Hirsch, Leroy Jenkins, Marty Ehrlich and Matt Moran.

Each Turntable Session featured a different DJ performing duets over the course of the evening with several different guest musicians, ranging from horn and string players to keyboardists and vocalists. These pairings allowed the audience to have an intimate and direct experience with the DJ, as he or she created a sonic environment and interacted with an acoustic instrument or voice. The music was an exploration into the world of controlled improvisation, featuring some of New York's top hip-hop, jazz and experimental musicians. See below for a list of performers and sound samples.

This installment of the Turntable Sessions coincided with the release of Billy's pioneering breakbeat and remix album, DROP THE NEEDLE. Drop The Needle, the first in an intended series of releases featuring Martin's beats, shows the vast diversity of music that can be made when a single element is filtered through the creative processes of many different musicians from various styles and backgrounds. Martin's beats form the foundation for avant-garde experimentation (Sex With Robots' "Moderndicksealand"), trance dreamscapes (Spacefuzz's "Out of Your Mind"), hip-hop (contributions by Stainless Steele and Bombay Sapphire), sultry funk ("Double Game") and instrumental pop (Monk-One's album closer "Sun Flower"). In addition to submissions by popular musicians, Billy also solicited and included submissions by fans. The idea to have people send in the music they made with Martin's first breakbeat record illy B Eats Vol. 1 came just before the record was sent off to stores. "At the last minute, I decided to stick in an insert that said, 'Send in your mixes for possible inclusion on a follow-up compilation," Martin says. "The only rule was that it has to groove."

Says Martin of the concept for The Turntable Sessions: "It should be fun collaborating in this way, which was my intention when I made the breakbeat record. The Turntable Sessions at The Bowery Poetry Club will allow some of my favorite musical artists to come together to compose, improvise, and basically see what happens in an environment that has no boundaries. The only difference is that the live Turntable Sessions don't have to groove."

Photos

Sound Samples

TURNTABLE SESSIONS #2
Boulder Theater - Boulder, CO
02/19/02 - 02/20/02

The Turntable Sessions in Boulder, Colorado featured DJ Olive and Scotty Hard on turntables.

The other musicians joining them were...
Charlie Burnham (violin)
Min Xiao Fen (pipa)
Mike iLL (vocals/guitar)
Chris Wood (bass)
Billy Martin (host/percussionist)
John Medeski (keyboards).

Each DJ improvised while the other musicians rotated on and off the stage. At times there was a duet setting, and at others three or four musicians would be onstage. Each show ended with an encore featuring the entire ensemble.

Click here for photos of the Turntable Session on 02/19/02
Click here to read the preview that appeared in Denver's Westword paper

The Turntable Sessions originated in the Summer of 2001 in collaboration with Exit Art's LP Show in NYC. You can listen to sound clips of those performances in the section below. Click here to go to Turntable Sessions #1.

TURNTABLE SESSIONS #1
Exit Art Gallery - NYC, NY
07/11/01 - 08/01/01

In the Summer of 2001, I curated four musical events at Exit Art Gallery in NYC. The featured exhibit, The LP Show, was amazing and got a lot of exposure. My friend (and booking agent) Limor Tomer suggested I curate some gigs that coincided with the show. Right around the same time, I was just about to release my first breakbeat vinyl, illy B Eats Vol.1 - Groove, Bang and Jive Around, on my own Amulet recording label.

The chemistry was unique each week...
July 11th Turntablist Scotty Hard with Steve Cannon (Spoken Word), Mike Ill (guitar,vocals/rap), Dean Bowman (vocals), Cyro Baptista (percussion) with illy B sitting in on percussion from time to time.
July 18th Turntablist DJ Olive w/ Chris Wood (bass guitar), Ikue Mori (electronics via laptop computer), John Medeski (keyboards) and illy B.
July 25th Turntablist DJ Logic with Steven Bernstein (trumpets), Danny Blume (guitar), Marty Ehrlich and illy B
Aug.1st Turntablist Mark Anthony Thompson w/Daniel Carter (sax, trumpet, flute), Charlie Burnham (violin), Raphael Moses (rap), Bob Moses (drums, percussion) and illy B

-Billy Martin aka illy B

Sound Samples