News & Updates — edit/remix

Another one gone way, way too young, Suba was already one of Brazil's top producers when he died from a studio fire in 1999 at just 38. Serbian-born, he started playing accordion as a child. Later on he was playing keyboards in punk bands in Yugoslavia and was producing new wave, electronic and experimental ambient music before heading to Brazil in the late '80s to study and work with Afro-Brazilian music. He permanently relocated to São Paulo in the early '90s. His career in Brazil saw him working on jingles and for fashion shows and dance & theater companies, while...

Definitely the world's most famous melodica player, Augustus Pablo was a crucial figure on the reggae and dub scene for two-plus decades. Born Horace Swaby in Jamaica, he learned organ and keyboards while in school before becoming addicted to playing the melodica, a free-reed mouth keyboard mostly used as a tool to teach children music. While still a teenager he cut his earliest sides in '71 for Aquarius Records, taking on the name "Augustus Pablo", which had previously been used by other musicians for records on the label. He began working with Randy's and other labels and "East Of The...

Born day shout-out to Michael Campbell aka Mikey Dread! He operated sound systems, hosted the massively popular Jamaican radio show Dread At The Controls, worked on TV, cut sides with Lee Perry, Sonia Pottinger, Carlton Patterson and Joe Gibbs and performed with the Socialist Roots Sound System. He started his Dread At The Controls label, producing Edi Fitzroy, Sugar Minott, Earl Sixteen, Althea & Donna and Junior Murvin. He also produced music for and toured with The Clash. His contribution can be heard all over Sandinista! and "Bank Robber". In the '80s he worked with Adrian Sherwood and UB40, also...

Long a cult figure, the legend and appreciation of Arthur Russell only increases with time as more of his music gets issued and reissued and re-examined. His ability to cross from disco to minimalism to orchestral to hiphop to singer/songwriter material of unique personality is testament to his creativity. A lot of his worked was unfinished at the time of his passing but clearly brilliant and much of it sees release in a seemingly never-ending stream of fascinating documents. From Iowa, he was a hick with serious artistic aspirations, taking up piano and cello at an early age. He studied...

One of my favorites in recent years, the wonderful Sharon Jones captivated growing legions of audiences in the new millennium with her high-energy, charming personality and powerful voice on stages around the globe. A former security guard who made the big time, despite being told she was "too short, too fat, too old and too black", she worked hard for all of her success. Born in Augusta GA, she grew up in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn. She contributed backing vocals to recording sessions before her work on a Lee Fields studio date convinced the producers that they had a special talent in...