Dakah Hip Hop Orchestra - San Francisco Debut

If Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington, Etta James, Jimi Hendrix and Snoop Dogg got together for a gig, it might sound something like this performance by the daKAH Hip Hop Orchestra.

Recorded live at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts on July 31, 2004, and released later in the year as a two-CD album titled San Francisco Debut, it’s daKAH’s second album, following on the heels of Live At California Plaza, Los Angeles, out in early 2004.
The L.A.-based aggregation pays homage to and defies musical convention whenever and wherever possible.
Let’s start with the orchestra’s size: daKAH is the world’s largest hip-hop group, with 60-65 members on any given gig, including this one at San Francisco’s PFA.
Each clique, or section of the orchestra, gets a chance to bust out for a movement within a long piece. Meanwhile, the other cliques chill respectfully, bobbing to the beats and listening to the messages, occasionally punctuating the flow with a musical “YEE-ah!” or “HELL, YEE-ah!”
This dynamic unfolds with dramatically cinematic effect on the three extended pieces which comprise the first disc of San Francisco Debut – “Reepus II in A Minor, Movement I” (8:07), “II” (13:14) and “IV” (26:50). (“Movement III” was cut from the show for time considerations.) Only “IV” suffers a creative breakdown – the MC’s rap degenerates into a confrontational “What the fuck do you WANT RIGHT NOW?” chant – but resolves in the last few minutes with a more melodic section.
Disc 2 opens with a relatively short (3:01) but soulfully sweet take on Ashford & Simpson’s “California Soul,” featuring daKAH diva Fanny Franklin on vocals. “Rootriology” at 10:09 resumes the extended multi-genre workouts, which also includes “Gang Star Remix” (18:20) and “Gruntriology” (8:55, with nods to James Brown’s JBs, The Isley Brothers and ublic Enemy).
The set climaxes with a medley of “Rain Revolution” (co-authored by Double G and Rachel Kann, who guests on the mike) and P-Funk’s “Come In Out of the Rain” (with Franklin on vocals and Amir Yaghmai ripping the electric violin solos). Double G’s goodnight to the appreciative audience wraps the show.

Disc: 1
1. Reepus II in A Minor Movement I
2. Reepus II in A Minor Movement II
3. Reepus II in A Minor Movement IV
Disc: 2
1. California Soul
2. Rootrilogy
3. Gang Starr Remix
4. Gruntrilogy
5. Rain Revolution/Come In Out Of The Rain

http://rapidshare.de/files/349...ancisco_Debut-2Cd-2004-Ftd.rar