Photo: Alex Lear

We met at a conference and did a blues-based number together without rehearsal. The performance went so well, we decided to work together on more collaborations. The result of poet/writer Kalamu ya Salaam hooking up with bassist/producer Scot Brown is the album Catfish & Yellow Grits featuring my niece Aminisha Ferdinand who brings a special flavor to the proceedings, including an extended recitation that significantly ups the sensitivity of the entire project.

After we laid down the basic voice and music tracks, it all got even mo’ better. The arrangements were slamming, and then a couple of the tracks rose to even higher heights with re-mixes. You can hear it all here on Youtube.   Plus, the tracks are streaming on Spotify and iHeartradio. And, if you have Apple Music, you can stream and purchase.

Dig it or not, clearly this is some 21st century “ish”. Scot is a beast as a producer, not to mention his booming bass lines. He is also responsible for making Catfish & Yellow Grits available on four different platforms. My man know what he be doing when it comes to using the internet to distribute audio.

There is a hard-ass, ultra-funky track we did not use on the album: “The Day I Got Killed”. This nasty cut might even be called the autobiography and death of a pedophile. Describing the narration in the New Orleans vernacular, all I got to say is: It ain’t nothing nice.

Kalamu ya Salaam
October 2020, New Orleans