Ocote Soul Sounds “Look Sharp / Divinorum” 45 - circa 2000 / 2001

I wrote a bunch of stuff in the early days of Antibalas that wasn’t quite Antibalas big-band vibes, but had to somehow see the light of day. I recorded these two songs, along with “Justicia” and two other unfinished joints with Nick Movshon and Leon Michels who later went on to do El Michels Affair, Menahan Street Band and lots of other good stuff. Jeff Silverman aka Jeff Dynamite was on tambourine and went on to cofound Big Crown Records. We tracked this one night at Philip Lehman’s dad’s house in Manhattan before the Soul Fire Studios moved out to Brooklyn. 

Bobbito Garcia put this out on his Fruitmeat label, which for me was a huge honor. I had spent the better part of my formative NYC years listening to him and Stretch Armstrong late Tuesday nights on WKCR radio and in 99 was invited up with my horn to rock live in the studio with him as he cut up some Roots/Femi Kuti tracks. It was a limited pressing of 500 or so and sold out quick but led to many good things down the road when I partnered up with Adrian Quesada (Grupo Fantasma, Black Pumas, Brownout) to make four records. 

This is one of two copies. I’m keeping the other one for myself. 