Soul Sessions was conceived in 2004 as an experiment in live instrumentation and improvised rhymes; an evening designed to pair local emcees with classically-trained musicians and collectively marvel at the outcome. The very first session took place on a Thursday (9.23.04) at the famed Fais Do Do club in Los Angeles. Shortly after its debut, Soul Sessions was re-established as a bi-monthly Wednesday night at its current home, the Grand Star Jazz Club in LA's historic Chinatown. After quickly gaining momentum and beginning its evolution into a soul dance party, the sessions were moved to 2nd & 4th Fridays, and the rest is history.
In 2006, Soul Sessions broke new ground by presenting the community with California Soul, its annual indoor/outdoor block party. Never before had there been a music festival of this magnitude in the Chinatown community, effectively combining two levels of music, live performances, an outdoor stage, live artists, visual projections and a vendor village. After drawing over a thousand people to the event, word soon traveled around town and things started moving quickly for the crew.
Fast forward to 2011. To date, Soul Sessions has played host to the likes of Kool Herc, Mix Master Mike, Quantic, DMC (of RUN-DMC), Sweden's GAMM Records, DJ Vadim, Shepard Fairey, J. Rocc, DJ Numark, Waajeed, Fort Knox Five, Rhettmatic, J Boogie, The Gaslamp Killer, Arabian Prince, Dam Funk, Exile, Shortkut, DJ Day, Aloe Blacc, J Davey, Blu, Egyptian Lover, Ta'Raach, DJ Center, Neil Armstrong and DJ Sabo among many, many others. The bi-monthly party has been featured in numerous magazines, TV programs, documentary films and hundreds of websites. Showing no signs of slowing down, the current roster of five is excited for the evolution of the speakeasy Thursday jam session that transformed into an LA institution.
Often imitated...NEVER duplicated...The ORIGINAL...Soul Sessions.
Welcome to the Soul Sessions Family...
