Music Director for Masta Ace’s “The Falling Season”
This late spring season has been full of surprises!! Not on my agenda (but happy it did) was becoming Music Director for Masta Ace’s play “The Falling Season”. Yes, Masta Ace! Now, I remember watching Video Music Box as a kid and seeing his videos like “The Symphony”, “Music Man” and the “Me & the Biz”. Then as a teenager, my cousin bought the “SlaughtaHouse” album!! That’s when I realized how crafty he was with wordplay. Also, we can’t forget his Crooklyn Dodgers verse and INC freestyles with The Cella Dwellas and Paula Perry. Ok, I’m a Hip Hop nerd…whatever (lol). However, as an independent artist, he put out an incredible album, “Disposable Arts”. Maaaaaaan listen…this cemented what I already knew about him. Masta Ace was in a league of his own. He followed up with another insanely dope album called “A Long Hot Summer” (go find all of this music if this sounds like gibberish, lol). Anyhow, I got to meet Ace as he worked alongside my bro, Marco Polo on collaborative songs like “Nostalgia” and their album “A Breuklen Story” ( I spit an adlib line for Lil Fame of M.O.P on their collab). Suffice it to say, his trust in me to do this was and is a BIG deal.
After a discussion between him and Marco, he was convinced that I was the man for the job. He called me and all I kept thinking was “I’ve never done this and don’t want to ruin this production”. From my time traveling with PMJ and even my band, a music director makes sure that musicians have charts, and music is in proper key and tempo, among other things. As the GM told me, I had one of the hardest jobs. There were no charts this go round and it was teaching pre-recorded, sometimes “out of the ordinary” harmonies to professional actors, some who were not considered natural singers. With less than two weeks to prepare, this cast and crew worked HARD to create something special!! Todd, the director was amazing in not only staging but allowing the actors to bring meaning and purpose to each scene. Bill, our producer was time efficient. Making sure things were running close to schedule and as smoothly as possible. I was nervous in the beginning but after day one, I realized this was a challenge I needed. These guys not only rose to the occasion, but they also exceeded the expectations (in my humble opinion). There were scene read-throughs and staging/choreography, in addition to learning these songs. It was an honor to work with each and every one of them!! I even got to meet some of the writers and beat makers, who created the songs like E Smitty and NasteeLuvsYou.
The first night’s reading went well and though I couldn’t be there (Yacht Rocking) the second night, I was told went REALLY WELL!! I’m excited to see what the future holds for this production. If this initial reading was any indicator, then it can only be bold and bright!! Ace has written an incredible “coming of age” story that a young man from Brooklyn, like myself can relate to. I truly believe it can change the scope of how Hip Hop is represented in theatre. I can’t wait until the world gets to see the power of this play!!
SIDE NOTE…The woman with the afro below, Is Tina Fabrique, the singer of the “Reading Raiiiinbowwwww” theme song (WHAAAAAT). As a kid, that theme song was everything; letting us inner-city kids know we could be and achieve more than we could ever imagine, Well, this kid has gone on to do some great things. All of the work over the past two-plus decades has led to moments like this. This is and will continue to be an amazing journey.
