From hip-hop pioneers to a legendary jazz bassist, KMHD’s October music highlights

I want to start with a show that's happening this Saturday at the Star Theatre in Portland, a pianist named Kiefer.

Who is he?

Okay, so Kiefer, I think, is a person that, um, when you hear his music, it immediately lowers your blood pressure.

Let me just give you that as a sort of an intake on what you can expect when you hear it.

Um, lots of nice soul and sort of deep groove playing out of a keyboardist, usually using electric keys a lot of the time.

I have heard him on a grand piano and sounding great, but more of this, like, lo-fi soul jazz sound that I think, as a community, we all really need.

Like I said, lowering the blood pressure.

Kiefer has been doing a lot of projects where he works with other musicians, producers, um, instrumentalists, gets together, and it sounds like you're sitting in a living room where friends are just playing music and hanging out, and I love that.

Hmm.

All right, let's listen to, uh, one of his tracks.

Uh, this is called Memory Bomb.

[jazzy music] This is Memory Bomb by Kiefer featuring Walter Smith III, Flanify, and Shibo.

Meg, um, uh, the bassist Shibo is also going to be performing this week.

What can you tell us about him, one of his collaborators?

Yeah, Shibo, I think when I read about h- the way that he works and the way that he creates music, um, he is a bass player, but he also works in this idea of making a sample, which we would normally take from another song that exists and throw into music.

He actually creates a live sample to use, which is, like, on this tune, you can kind of hear that sort of old recording crackling sound.

That's kind of part of it.

It's very J Dilla of him, where you're making your own samples and then putting them into new music, especially with live instruments.

So I think you're going to be able to see some of that process on the stage, which is cool, and also just kind of reach into this what we call jazz without boundaries at KMHD, where you're like, "Oh, is this hip-hop? Is this soul? Is this jazz? What is it?"

Hmm.

We don't know, but it feels good.

[laughs]

I want to start with a show that's happening this Saturday at the Star Theatre in Portland, a pianist named Kiefer.

Who is he?

Okay, so Kiefer, I think, is a person that, um, when you hear his music, it immediately lowers your blood pressure.

Let me just give you that as a sort of an intake on what you can expect when you hear it.

Um, lots of nice soul and sort of deep groove playing out of a keyboardist, usually using electric keys a lot of the time.

I have heard him on a grand piano and sounding great, but more of this, like, lo-fi soul jazz sound that I think, as a community, we all really need.

Like I said, lowering the blood pressure.

Kiefer has been doing a lot of projects where he works with other musicians, producers, um, instrumentalists, gets together, and it sounds like you're sitting in a living room where friends are just playing music and hanging out, and I love that.

Hmm.

All right, let's listen to, uh, one of his tracks.

Uh, this is called Memory Bomb.

[jazzy music] This is Memory Bomb by Kiefer featuring Walter Smith III, Flanify, and Shibo.

Meg, um, uh, the bassist Shibo is also going to be performing this week.

What can you tell us about him, one of his collaborators?

Yeah, Shibo, I think when I read about h- the way that he works and the way that he creates music, um, he is a bass player, but he also works in this idea of making a sample, which we would normally take from another song that exists and throw into music.

He actually creates a live sample to use, which is, like, on this tune, you can kind of hear that sort of old recording crackling sound.

That's kind of part of it.

It's very J Dilla of him, where you're making your own samples and then putting them into new music, especially with live instruments.

So I think you're going to be able to see some of that process on the stage, which is cool, and also just kind of reach into this what we call jazz without boundaries at KMHD, where you're like, "Oh, is this hip-hop? Is this soul? Is this jazz? What is it?"

Hmm.

We don't know, but it feels good.

[laughs]