Karriem Riggins - Alone Together

When you speak of J Dilla's protege, Black Milk is usually the character that comes to mind.  But certainly the accolade would be just as well suited to jazz drummer and hip hop producer Karriem Riggins.  Riggins, who moved to New York at the age of 19 from his native Detroit, joined the Ray Brown Trio in 1998. He has recorded and performed with Donald Byrd, Hank Jones, Mulgrew Miller, Milt Jackson, Oscar Peterson, Cedar Walton, Roy Hargrove, and Bobby Hutcherson and Paul McCartney.

The dulcid tones of his touring life as a member of Diana Krall's quartet contrast obliquely with his production work for hip hop artists including Slum Village, Erykah Badu, Common, J Dilla, The Roots, Talib Kweli, Phat Kat, Consequence, and Dwele.

Most famously Riggins completed production on J Dilla's post-mortem release The Shining which was 75% complete at the time of his death.  Hip Hop lore attributes to Riggins having found the Bobby Caldwell sample Open Your Eyes that became one of Dilla's most anthemic productions The Light from Common's Water For Chocolate.

Karriem Riggins released his first solo album Alone Together on Stone's Throw in 2012. The title is taken from a jazz standard by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz that begin with the words, “Alone together, above the crowd.” 

The songs or productions which range from 14 seconds to a little over three minutes bear a vein of similarity in both their audaciousness and alacrity to those of James Yancey's.  On J Dilla The Greatest his tools are fittingly a sparse Gretsch drum kit, a Rhodes synthesizer and an MPC 3000.  The New York Times described the release well as:

 

a collection of intuitive sketches made in his Detroit home studio, an unvarnished take on the sounds in his head. It’s ’70s-obsessed crate digger’s music, with tiny unnamed looping samples — he credits his digital gear, but not the song sources — from all kinds of soul and pop and Brazilian records, and other recorded sound. Beneath all that lie Mr. Riggins’s own synthesizer melodies and his programmed or live drum-set beats, slow and deep with delayed groove.
 

 



Inside J Dilla's studio with Frank n Dank, Common

As the long awaited release of Black Milk's completely appropriately titled Album of the Year looms on the horizon perhaps our readers need a glimpse into Milk's (born Curtis Cross) mentor Jay Dilla aka Jay Dee's (born James Yancey) studio and technique.

Here is a very rare guided tour by no lesser production figures than Frank N Dank (with Common working in the studio and Dilla picking up some samples studiously).



The point to grasp here may be that while J Dilla had a copious and expansive musical sense, was a very strong MC and clearly the greatest Hip Hop producer likely ever - it may be that his production 'techniques' are impossible to duplicate. Frank N Dank allude to the fact that there are other rooms full of 'secret' gear.