As a creative offering on his 30th birthday (February 16, 2007), acclaimed producer Carlos Niño joined together with the incredibly gifted multi-instrumentalist/composer Miguel Atwood-Ferguson to make an inspired, instrumental soul record of what he calls "intimate-epic" proportions. "Fill The Heart Shaped Cup is a project that came about after I finished work on Ammoncontact's With Voices (Ninja Tune) and The Life Force Trio's Living Room (Plug Research) in early 2006," Niño explains. "It's the next step in a wonderfully natural progression for me as a producer/composer. I've been working closely with Miguel and featured him on With Voices and Living Room. He's one of the most amazing musical talents that I've ever come into contact with. I haven't been as excited working with somebody new [to me] since 1996 when I met Dwight Trible and 1999 when I met Daedelus."
Niño is largely credited for bringing one of the world's most celebrated avant-garde soul-jazz singers to prominence: Dwight Trible. A vocalist in the Pharoah Sanders Quintet and long-time choir director for Horace Tapscott's Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, Trible gave Niño his first record production job when he agreed to Niño's offer to produce what would become a jazz classic, Dwight Trible's Horace. This was not only a great learning experience for Niño, but it allowed him to work with Billy Higgins, one of the greatest and most recorded drummers of all time. Niño has continued to work with Trible to this day, having produced 2005's Dwight Trible & The Life Force Trio's Love Is The Answer (Ninja Tune) and the just finished master-work Build An Ark's Dawn (In-stores worldwide and on-line Tuesday, September 25, 2007,) the follow up to the world renowned Build An Ark debut Peace With Every Step (Kindred Spirits) by the great L.A. based creative soul ensemble that Niño founded, with Trible as the lead singer, and Atwood-Ferguson as the newly named musical director.
As one of the original resident DJs on Dublab.com, Niño took to a young creative genius who did a show after his own on Tuesdays. "When I first met Daedelus," Niño recalls, "I wasn't sure what to make of him. In fact, I can't say that I was all that open to his show and overall musical taste, until one day I heard something that he started his show with that blew my mind. I ran into the studio to ask what it was and he humbly mentioned that it was something that he had been working on. I'd say that from that moment on, I was non-stop helping Daedelus develop his talents." Niño executive produced Daedelus' Invention (Plug Research) and his next two EPs The Quiet Party (Plug Research) and The Household (Eastern Developments)." Niño adds, "Daedelus is one of the greatest creative artists in music today! I call on him as often as I can to do sessions, collaborations and remixes."
Enter Fall 2006. Niño looks back at a year of releases that started with the first two volumes of his Various Artists 12-inch series The Sound of L.A. (Temple Bar Records/Plug Research) and ended with the latest full-length release by his cosmic-percussion group Hu Vibrational Boonghee Music 3: Universal Mother (Soul Jazz.)
Forward to Summer 2007. Niño is looking forward to the Fall release of his collaboration with Atwood-Ferguson and Mia Doi Todd on her latest full-length Gea, as well as the release of Grace Woodroofe's Kensington With Lloyd (Executive Produced by Heath Ledger,) and his latest projects La Voz Sabia De Los Cosmos (Alpha Pup) with Gaby Hernandez and What's The Science? (Shaman Work) with MC Lil Sci. With all of this, Niño still devotes a great deal of his time to his son Azul and somehow finds room in his schedule to do his Friday night radio show, Spaceways on KPFK 90.7FM, that he's been doing for over 11 years. Look out for Niño's first official mix CD Spaceways Radio Collage (Listen Recovery,) and a self-released 10 year production retrospective coming later this year.
Fill The Heart Shaped Cup is a culmination of all of his past work in the form of ten new tracks. "It's influenced by the sea, the sun and all the sounds in life," Niño shares. "It's an exploration and it's a creative expression." Along with Niño's first ever published love poems, printed in white type over red hearts found in the CD booklet, Fill The Heart Shaped Cup is special to Niño because, "it's the first project that prominently features Miguel up front. Having been trained classically since he was four on violin and viola, writing symphonies and songs since his early teens, leading groups over the years and having made recording and/or live sessions with everyone from Ray Charles to OutKast, John Cale to Stevie Wonder, Leon Ware to Essa Pekka Salonen, Common to Henry Grimes and hundreds of others, Miguel, at 27, is ready to emerge as his own artist playing and recording his own compositions."
Suffice to say, expect big things from Niño and Atwood-Ferguson in the future. Currently they're working on The Life Force Trio Aquarius (Plug Research) with Dexter Story, Gaby Hernandez, Andres Renteria and special Aquarian friends including producer Dntel and harpist Rebekah Raff, and Dilla Classics - the full-length project of beautiful orchestral arrangements by Atwood-Ferguson, of some of James "Jay Dee/J Dilla" Yancey's most celebrated and incredible works. Nag Champa, from this concept, was recently released as part of the great new compilation, put together by our friend Andrew Lojero, From L.A. With Love (Milan Records.) Stayed tuned to this page for more! Peace and love!
