The Philadelphia Experiment

Supergroup comprising Ahmir Thompson, Christian McBride and Uri Caine, brought together by the Ropeadope label. Ahmir Thompson is the drummer and a founding visionary of the Grammy award winning hip-hop group The Roots. He is also a member of The Soulquarians, one of the most prolific instrumental and production collectives in contemporary music. Their credits include D'Angelo, Common, Erykah Badu, Musiq Soulchild and Macy Gray to name just a few. He is the most requested drummer alive, both for touring and in the studio. He is also long-time friend and high school homeboy of the man who would gleefully join him as the bass player on this album. Christian McBride has risen to the top of his craft as the leading acoustic bassist of the younger generation of jazz masters. The relentless drive and technical transparency of his playing makes everyone he plays with sound as good, or at times even better, than they ever have. His dedication to swing above ego places him squarely in the pantheon of selfless greatness that all important artists occupy. He spent hours in high school playing James Brown rhythm charts with Ahmir Thompson at the Philadelphia High School of Creative and Performing Arts, when you really listen to this album, that little known fact will become quite obvious to you. Christian used to be picked up from his house (and dropped off afterward) to play on some of his earliest jazz gigs by the remarkable pianist who got on board with him on the Philadelphia Experiment. Uri Caine is recognized around the globe as one of the most provocative contemporary classical keyboard players and composers, both at the end of one millennium and the beginning of another. He is a pianist who has almost superhuman command of the keyboard, while at the same time this dazzling talent remains in service to a profound and complex artist who brings his personal insight to bear on every gig he plays. His orchestration and playing on a Sun Ra composition from the early 60's will have other piano players shaking their heads in disbelief. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.