Gyenyame (Only God)

Description

Hailing from a city of timeless innovations in jazz, blues, gospel, footwork, and house music, Shannon Harris created his own musical imprint, Urbanicity Recordings, to showcase Chicago’s dynamic artistry. In early 2000, he was introduced to a band named Ascendant and another perfect collaboration was born. Years later Kael Mboya, Ascendant’s bandleader and keyboardist, became one of the few session players recording on many of Shannon’s recordings. Gyenyame, originally written and performed by Ascendant at shows around Chicago, became one of Harris’ favorites. He eventually approached and invited the band to do a collaborative recording of it for Urbanicity. The original recording session was over 20 minutes with repetitive melodies, hooks, and a funky, thick bassline layered over Shannon’s provocative drum programming and auxiliary percussion.

The versions released on vinyl in 2005 were shortened, trimmed, and rearranged by Shannon with percussion overdubs by Michael Lockett and extra keyboard arrangements/solos by Kael. The sweet DooWop style vocal harmonies were sung by Aleata Holloway, Kael, and Michael into one microphone… together! To expand the sonic quality and create an even richer listening experience, Shannon decided to multitrack the arrangements on 16 track reel to reel. Can it get any better than that?! Unfortunately dozens of copies of this recording were destroyed in a flood leaving only 40 copies for the public.

Urbanicity – 2006 – URB05