Carlos Nino And Friends-High With A Little Help From

Fans of Carlos with know from his work with Build An Ark, The Life Force, AmmonContact, Hu Vibrational, What’s The Science?, Carlos Y Gaby, Mia Doi Todd and many more that when we’re talking friends, he’s got access to a whole orchestra stretching from hip-hop atheistic, to acoustic folk, modern classical and minimal ambient; and he manages to squeeze all this into High With A Little Help From.

And fans of his Spaceways Radio Show (Spaceways KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles) will know he’s as likely to play some classical music as The Long Lost, or Mulatu Astatke (don’t forget the FLY podcast HERE) as The Beatles, CSNY as Yusef Lateef, Pharoah Sanders or Arthur Verocai or Joyce or any other Brazilian loveliness; you get the idea. So even as this album is mostly on a relaxed downtempo mood, expect inspiration to come from any musical avenue.

At one extreme, the track ‘Friends’ goes from a tribal percussive to experimental drone (featuring an explosive short burst of the beautiful Dwight Trible) to the gentle acoustic guitar breeze of ‘Rabbit Island’. These two tracks are the longest on the CD with the rest being shorter “collages” of sound as the concept for High With A Little Help From started in 2006 when Carlos was working on new tracks with members of Build An Ark and his other friends that was on Love Is The Answer.

Not that this is a Love Is The Answer Vol 2 as it’s far more ambient and experimental that is more sample based but taken from a live sessions; like outtakes but more cohesive.

Niño is so much of a driving force in the musical community of LA, as much an organizer (like the Luckman shows) as producer, arranger, composer and musician. The African rhythms on ‘Aquarius’ fade into the film score of ‘Lonely Joined By Happy’; ‘With Azul’ is gentle guitar folk (Azul is Carlos’ son) compared to the ‘9 Moons Full’ experimental modal space jam beats. Our man certainly is a cosmic space warrior and there are two wonderful short tracks on this album, ‘Ants And Elephants’ and ‘9 Moons Return’ that nod at a Ra and Alice Coltrane in an ambient way.

This album is the antidote to Dorian Concept’s When Planets Explode and both are destined to be as influential as each other in their different ways; Carlos yes, yes your music is absolutely beautiful.
label kindred spirit
style spirit jazz/psyhedellia
release 2009

1. Thursday, August 9, 2007
Features a stereo field recording of The Universal
Consciousness Orchestra, under the direction of Miguel
Atwood-Ferguson, performing live in tribute to Alice
Coltrane, on the corner of 1st & Central in Little Tokyo,
Los Angeles.

2. 9 Moons Full

3. With Azul
Features Jesse Peterson on Acoustic Guitar and Farfisa
Organ, and Azul Nino on acoustic guitar, produced, arranged,
recorded and mixed by Carlos Nino and Jesse Peterson.

4. Ants And Elephants
Features Rebekah Raff on electric harp, and Miguel
Atwood-Ferguson on violin and viola, string arrangement
by Miguel Atwood-Ferguson.

5. Aquarius (Rough Mix)
Features Dexter Story on electric bass, electric guitar,
Micro Korg and Moog Opus 3.

6. Lonely Joined By Happy
Features a stereo field recording of Our Cry For Peace,
recorded during a radio concert at KPFK 90.7FM Los Angeles,
November, 2001, and Jesse Peterson on bells and special
effects, bells and special effects recorded by Jesse Peterson.

7. Rosarito
Features Gaby Hernandez on kalimba and Adres Rentaria
on melodica and percussion, kalimba, melodica and percussion
recorded by Gaby Hernandez and Andres Rentaria.

7. Creative Cries
Features a stereo field recording of Build An Ark, (session
unkown), and Gaby Hernandez on Kimball Organ, Kimball Organ
recorded by Gaby Hernandez.

8. Friends
Features a stereo field recording of Dwight Trible & The
Oasis of Peace, performing live at Temple Bar, July, 2001,
a poprtion of "Nino's Deeds". by Otis Jackson Jr.'s Young
Jazz Rebels, Dntel on synths and special effects, Jesse
Peterson on Acoustic Guitar and Farfisa Organ, and James &
Linda Richards on gong.

9. 9 Moons Return

10. Rabbit Island
Features Jesse Peterson on Acoustic Guitar and farfisa Organ,
produced, arranged and mixed by Carlos Nino and Jesse Peterson,
recorded by Jesse Peterson.

11. Wonder Wheel
Dedicated, in love and music:
To Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Miriam Makeba,
John "Mitch" Mitchell, and Heath Ledger.

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