Welcome to Philadelphia Jazz Project
PJP Mixtape - Sun Ra Edition
Sep 8, 2014
This fall, the Philadelphia Jazz Project will create a 12 song, mixtape celebrating the 100th birthday of longtime Philadelphian, visionary musician, philosopher, composer and band leader, Sun Ra.
We are looking for DJs, producers, electronic musicians, turntablists and anyone that understands the sampling sport to create instrumental tracks that will receive vocals from singers, poets, and/or rappers, as well as solos by instrumentalists.
If you have never worked with Jazz music as source material, this opportunity will help to sharpen your skills. Sun Ra was one of the most prolific and most musically adventurous artists in the Jazz pantheon. He pioneered the use of synthesizers and electronic instruments long before it became fashionable. His musical palette was broad enough to include the swing of Fletcher Henderson to the mInimalism of Post-WWII avant-garde composers, like John Cage. If you think Sun Ra was all about bright lights and pretty colors, you are in for a wild ride. Just listening to this music is a musical education that you wouldn’t receive anywhere else.
Expect to do something different rhythmically with this project. If we think of a normal drum loop as a circle...and a circle as a tire on a car. So then, a beat feels like riding in a car. However, artists like Sun Ra don't do circles. They push and pull that circle into an ellipse. Now, imagine riding in a car with elliptical tires. The tires still have a rotation like a circle, but the orbit or spin is “very” different. How does that sound? How does that feel musically? We want you to go there.
We have provided a folder of Sun Ra music for your usage. It includes some studio sessions and live recordings. The music is accessible via Dropbox at Sun Ra Mixtape Project. Be sure to follow all instructions.
While you will not be paid for this project, every download of the mixtape will be free advertisement for you and your work. You will be given full credit for the work you do and a photograph of you, your brief bio and links to your website and social media will be included on our website.
The completed mixtape will consist of 12 songs, pushing creative limits and merging elements of Jazz, Hiphop and other musical forms. The mixtape will be available to the public for free via downloads from our website, sometime after January 1st, 2015.
To participate you must:
▪ Be 21 years of age.
▪ Use only audio source material from our Dropbox collection to sample from
▪ Identify where in the collection your samples come from
▪ Send photo, bio and artist information
▪ Send links to your website & social media
▪ Send your completed song to PJP by October 31st, 2014
**Attention - We Have Extended The Deadline.**
**The New Deadline is Now December 5th, 2014**
Send all materials to info@philajazzproject.org
If your work is chosen, you will be informed promptly. Others will receive a thank you. Philadelphia Jazz Project retains the right to make edits and alterations to any materials used on our mixtape.
Philadelphia Jazz Project is a sponsored project of the Painted Bride Art Center, with funding provided by The Wyncote Foundation.
