First and foremost, welcome to the official Super 8 music blog!
The band Super 8 was created by Houston-native high school students Hank Bond, Ryan Pennington, and myself (Mitchell Watson). Since January 2016, the band has explored countless genres and playing styles, using radical experimentation as a method of self-discovery and growth. Our philosophy is somewhat laissez-faire; we let whatever musical inspirations we cross paths with carry us in its general direction, and we just see what happens. This collective attitude will hopefully produce an authentic sound that defines Super 8 as one of the most original and well-versed bands of high schoolers across the country.
With that being said, this blog is a weekly update on our findings in the big wide world of music. Each post will delve into a specific song, album, or technique of a certain sub-genre that the band has found interesting -- and it will discuss its significance as a part of Super 8's library of inspiration.
I hope readers of this blog will gradually expand their music catalog, just as our band has done throughout the year.
Below you will find a link to our Soundcloud (expect more music by the end of October)!!
Bobbi Humphrey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhSLVcGO0-U
The first honorary bit of Super 8 inspiration comes from a neo-jazz flutist, who, at her prime in the 70's, made quite a big splash in NYC with hit albums that merged classic jazz elements with soul and funk. There had been very few famous flute jazz musicians in the past, so when female Bobbi Humphrey hopped on the scene, heads turned. She frequently collaborated with the Mizzel Brothers, other pioneers of the time.
This song in particular, "New York Times," is quite a busy tune. It never lessens up or intensifies drastically; it's a full-time party. I could imagine a montage playing along in my head to this tune, specifically one involving a clustered New York City, blurring with speed and newfound joy for the future. The flute in this song sounds as happy and cartoonish as it sounds smooth. It's a curious mixture, never been done before, that evokes colorful images and smiling dances. The voices in this song are very barbershop-quartet, creating a specific compounded style found all over 70's fusion R&B songs.
What peaked my interest of this song after some days of visiting were its parallels to modern hip-hop. Or I should rather say - modern hip-hop's parallels to this type of music. A common trend in music of the 90s and 2000s has been to sample old jazz. Producers like Madlib, J Dilla, and Pete Rock, along with artists like A Tribe Called Quest all popularized electronically sampling classic jazz elements behind a kicking beat. Humphrey's "New York Times" seems like it was ahead of the game in many ways in that it already took old jazz ideas and used them as if they were a sample behind funkier dance music. This way of merging styles of different time periods music is seen in the work of similar modern musicians like Robert Glasper.
As music progresses, more things get old, so now Bobbi Humphrey's old-inspired music has been used frequently in the form of samples in the 2010's. One of her songs was sampled in producer Madlib's track, "Stepping Into Tomorrow,"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M1UJmfQ-Kk
& this song -- a remixing of Humphrey -- has been sampled in a Tyler, the Creator track, "Cult Shit,"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UStE0ZFVBGQ
which is a total modern clusterfuck.
Bobbi Humphrey's original idea of fusion has been through so many new types of fusion-filters now.
Super 8 has been extremely interested in sampling and resampling. With technology, there is nothing one can't do with the manipulation of music, but the real challenge is being able to manipulate with taste. And I don't know if Tyler, the Creator achieved exactly that, but he does know his R&B history (seen in the interview below).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNrrzQ6_zh0
At about the 5 minute mark, Tyler discusses Bobbi Humphrey with the interviewer. This is actually how Super 8 came across the flutist as well.
SUPER 8 SOUNDCLOUD:
https://soundcloud.com/super8band
