Where Will You Be
Yaw
Brownswood Bubblers 3, 2008

Where Will You Be
Khari Lemuel
Happy To Be, 2006?

I missed the first two discs in this series but I definitely need to go back and check them because this one is excellent (I would expect no less from Gilles Peterson). It was hard to decide what song to post (a close second place went to “How Bout Us” by Katalyst featuring Steve Spacek) but I decided on this one because I just received an extremely similar version the week before (thanks Pure P).

I first thought it was the same song with two different artist names but when I decided to get to the bottom of it, I realized they are actually different versions. Both artists are from Chicago and they’re in each other “top friends” on myspace. I wonder which one of them wrote the song. If it’s Khari, it must really suck that his version didn’t make it onto the Gilles Peterson compilation! Especially because I like it better so far. His singing seems a little rougher around the edges and has more of a distinct style. His version also has better dynamics. He drops the percussion out completely at the “oh oh oh” part (2:25) and uses more layers of harmony than Yaw, who just keeps the song moving along without really digging into that potentially cathartic moment. More plainly, that part of Khari version makes me put a hand in the air like I’m in church and the Yaw version doesn’t. Also, the ending of Yaw’s version just does a repeat-and-fade where the Khari’s version drops down to just bass and brass (3:41) and then moves into a much more interesting ending.

Give it up for friendly competition.

Songs are available for two weeks.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 14th, 2008 at 2:42 pm and is filed under Music Appreciation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.