LINEUP: Thundercat, Shabazz Palaces, Dada Plan and Nina Mendoza.
Date/Time: Jun 18 2016, 9:00 pm to 11:59 pm
Vancouver, ImperialAge: 19+
Cost: $25.00
Find tickets: here
Timbre Concerts, in partnership with Levitation, are proud to present Levitation Vancouver 2016: an international and local artist, multi-venue music festival taking place in the heart of downtown Vancouver BC, June 16th-18th, 2016.
Austin’s LEVITATION has grown from a small word-of-mouth event to an internationally acclaimed, full weekend event that attracts attendees from all over the world. To bring the festival to Vancouver, The Reverberation Appreciation Society partnered with Timbre Concerts, founding Levitation Vancouver in 2015. Now in it’s second year, the festival returns to Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park, with night shows in select downtown venues. Levitation Vancouver’s programming maintains the spirit of LEVITATION in Austin, TX, offering a wide range of international and local talent across the musical spectrum, with an emphasis on artists with an experimental and/or psychedelic edge. Levitation Vancouver works closely with community partners to provide a safe, accessible and environmentally conscious experience for all festival-goers while championing local and independent Vancouver businesses and artists.
Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner spent the last part of the new millennium’s first decade becoming the go-to bassist for practically every artist in black vanguard music. His nimble, syncopated, groove-heavy basslines were heard on albums by Erykah Badu, Sa-Ra, Flying Lotus, and others. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Bruner had the good fortune to be part of a music family. His father, Ronald Bruner Sr., was an accomplished drummer, working with artists like Diana Ross, the Temptations, and Gladys Knight. Bruner’s older brother, Ronald Jr., a Grammy-winning drummer, has worked with esteemed artists such as Kenny Garrett and Stanley Clarke. The Bruner brothers were members of Young Jazz Giants, a quartet with Kamasi Washington and Cameron Graves, that released a self-titled album in 2004. Bruner’s first major work came as a teenager; while still in high school, he joined Ronald as part of the L.A.-based punk band Suicidal Tendencies, replacing Robert Trujillo, who moved on to play with Metallica. At live shows, the young Bruner displayed flair and dexterity, playing some of Trujillo’s three-finger riffs with just his thumb. Possessing a kinship and interest in the L.A.-led movement of genre-mixing black music, Bruner began collaborating with some of its foremost creators. His basswork on “The Cell” was, perhaps, the standout musicianship on Badu’s New Amerykah, Pt. 1. He appeared on J*Davey’s version of Frank Zappa’s “Dirty Love,” Sa-Ra’s “Love Czars,” Shafiq Husayn’s “Cheeba,” and Bilal’s “Levels,” and even collaborated with bass legend Bootsy Collins on Snoop Dogg’s “We Rest in Cali,” among dozens of other cuts. During that time, he performed live with conductor Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, who led the Suite for Ma Dukes orchestra, a contemporary ensemble that revisited J Dilla’s Donuts. Bruner’s most prolific and fruit-bearing musical relationship has been with DJ/producer/instrumentalist Flying Lotus, for whom he provided both bass and vocals for 2010’s Cosmogramma. Lotus then served as executive producer for Bruner’s 2011 debut, The Golden Age of Apocalypse, which he released under his Thundercat moniker on Brainfeeder. Golden Age received considerable acclaim, notably for Bruner’s acrobatic bass and his repurposed take on ’70s-inspired fusion from George Duke and Jaco Pastorius, the bassist to whom he’s most compared. Bruner’s darker second album, 2013’s Apocalypse, was recorded in the wake of close friend and collaborator Austin Peralta’s passing.
The first hip-hop crew signed to the Sub Pop label, Shabazz Palaces is the brainchild of Ishmael “Butterfly” Butler, although the Digable Planets member wasn’t so quick to admit it. In 2009, Shabazz Palaces released two EPs — one self-titled, the other titled Of Light — but Butler’s name didn’t appear on either. No promo shots, no social networking sites, no interviews, and no press releases were issued by the enigmatic, Seattle-based project, but that didn’t stop the local press from throwing praise at these EPs, which hit much harder than Digable while retaining that forward-thinking wordplay. The EPs became favorites at the Sub Pop offices, too, and in 2010, the usually indie rock label signed the project, releasing their debut album, Black Up, in 2011. Next, it transpired that Tendai Maraire — son of the famous mbira player Dumisani Maraire — was responsible for most of the instrumentation on that record and that Shabazz Palaces was, in effect, a duo. Both Butler and Maraire were relatively quiet in the ensuing years, but found time to make a guest appearance on AwE NaturalE, the 2012 debut by fellow Seattle alternative hip-hop duo THEESatisfaction. The pair also teamed up with Hussein Kalonji to create the March 2014 album riZe vadZimu riZe under the Chimurenga Renaissance moniker, before they returned that same year with a second Shabazz Palaces studio album, Lese Majesty
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