Zo!
Zo! & Tall Black Guy (feat. Debórah Bond)
Cafe Wha?
115 Macdougal St
New York, NY 10012
Dec 8, 2024
6:00 PM EST
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About this concert
Zo! & Tall Black Guy (feat. Debórah Bond)
LIVE in NYC
Doors: 6:00p | Show: 7:00p
When it comes to innovative takes on R&B, you can't go wrong with Zo! and Tall Black Guy and their next-level creations that invoke the genre's classic sound while pushing it forward. So what happens when these two guys collaborate? You get a progressive joint album like Abstractions.
The set showcases the undeniable chemistry between the musicians while inviting a whole host of their friends — including Phonte, BeMyFiasco, Sy Smith, Omar, Darien Brockington, Muhsinah and many more — to play alongside them. This means that the fellas have all the talent they need to create music as beautiful as the artwork by Rachel Stewart that graces the cover.
Lead singles "Talkin' To Myself" and "Hold My Hand" already gave listeners the tone for the project, with the majority keeping things laid-back and mid-tempo. They further explore this when they get into tracks like "The Ride," which features Sy alongside rhymers Black Milk and Elzhi. The groove here is undeniable, with a bumpin' kick made to ride to as Sy delivers a staccato melody on the chorus while Black and Elzhi trade rhymes that pay tribute to Detroit with style.
Things heat up a bit more when Omar joins the fray on "I Love The Way." On the song, the duo matches the sensuality of his rich baritone with a smoldering bass-and-guitar led groove and percolating drums. By the time we get to the Josh Milan-featuring "Connected," however, the fellas are ready to party.
They mix a bit of downtempo house into the mix and while rounding out the groove with keys, warm synth flourishes and an elastic bass line that will have you running to hit repeat as soon as the final notes play.
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What fans are saying
Rahsaan
July 1st 2024
Zo!, Tall Black Guy, Debórah and the gang did it again. An amazing show in the most amazing city in the country. Keep doing your thing and puffin’ on for the city.
Detroit, MI@El Club
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About the venue
Cafe Wha? is a music club at the corner of MacDougal Street and Minetta Lane in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The club is important in t...
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Zo! Biography
While Zo! could have been classified as a beatmaker based on his early hip-hop releases and productions for others in the first few years of the 2000s, he has always been a musician first. Foremost a keyboardist, yet one who also plays bass, drums, and guitar, and writes, arranges, and produces his own material, he has subsequently thrived with a sound that has put a contemporized twist on soul and jazz-R&B fusions of the late '70s and early '80s, inspired by multi-tasking originators like Stevie Wonder, Larry and Fonce Mizell, and Leon Sylvers III. From 2010 through 2019, beginning with ManMade and closing out the decade with FourFront, Ferguson issued solo albums every three years with the support of primary collaborators the Foreign Exchange, and ventured into writing and producing music for film and television, including the series Black Dynamite and Sherman's Showcase. He has since entered the 2020s with the Tall Black Guy collaboration Abstractions (2021).
Throughout his childhood, Lorenzo Ferguson balanced his love for music and baseball. The Detroit-area native was drafted as an outfielder by the Toronto Blue Jays in 1996, rounds ahead of future MLB all-stars Orlando Hudson, Juan Pierre, and Barry Zito. Ferguson accepted a full-ride athletic scholarship to Western Kentucky University, however, and earned a degree in graphic design. He began his recording career shortly thereafter with Ablyss (2001), the first of several instrumental releases. His profile increased the next few years as he issued albums such as Passion & Definition (2004), Freelance (2006), and the Asylum 7 collaboration Overdue Process (2009), as well as the covers EPs ...just Visiting, Zo! and Tigallo Love the '80s, and ...just visiting Too (2006-2009). All the while, Ferguson was earning a Master's degree in special education and contributing to recordings from the likes of Slum Village, Platinum Pied Pipers, and Little Brother.
During the latter half of the 2000s, Zo!'s deepest bond was made with the Foreign Exchange. The group's Phonte had become a regular collaborator on ...just visiting. Zo! then produced material for the Foreign Exchange's Leave It All Behind and co-leader Nicolay's City Lights, Vol. 2: Shibuya, and eventually became FE's musical director. The second ...Just Visiting EP was Zo!'s first release through Foreign Exchange Music and led to a triennial series of solo full-length projects. SunStorm (2010), ManMade (2013), SkyBreak (2016), and FourFront (2019) each featured a shifting cast of guest vocalists and songwriters, most commonly Phonte, Sy Smith, and frequent touring/performing partner Carmen Rodgers. The increasingly refined and stylistically adventurous albums were evenly spaced amid Zo!'s work as an educator, and instrumentation and production for other artists, including all things Foreign Exchange and related. Zo! also branched out with music for documentaries and television, ranging from the animated series Black Dynamite to Making SkyBreak and Bike Vessel. He and Phonte wrote and produced many of the songs for Sherman's Showcase, a sketch comedy series for IFC. Joined by a mix of longtime and new associates including Omar and Josh Milan, Zo! and Tall Black Guy teamed to make Abstractions, a brief, feel-good set released in 2021.
Read MoreThroughout his childhood, Lorenzo Ferguson balanced his love for music and baseball. The Detroit-area native was drafted as an outfielder by the Toronto Blue Jays in 1996, rounds ahead of future MLB all-stars Orlando Hudson, Juan Pierre, and Barry Zito. Ferguson accepted a full-ride athletic scholarship to Western Kentucky University, however, and earned a degree in graphic design. He began his recording career shortly thereafter with Ablyss (2001), the first of several instrumental releases. His profile increased the next few years as he issued albums such as Passion & Definition (2004), Freelance (2006), and the Asylum 7 collaboration Overdue Process (2009), as well as the covers EPs ...just Visiting, Zo! and Tigallo Love the '80s, and ...just visiting Too (2006-2009). All the while, Ferguson was earning a Master's degree in special education and contributing to recordings from the likes of Slum Village, Platinum Pied Pipers, and Little Brother.
During the latter half of the 2000s, Zo!'s deepest bond was made with the Foreign Exchange. The group's Phonte had become a regular collaborator on ...just visiting. Zo! then produced material for the Foreign Exchange's Leave It All Behind and co-leader Nicolay's City Lights, Vol. 2: Shibuya, and eventually became FE's musical director. The second ...Just Visiting EP was Zo!'s first release through Foreign Exchange Music and led to a triennial series of solo full-length projects. SunStorm (2010), ManMade (2013), SkyBreak (2016), and FourFront (2019) each featured a shifting cast of guest vocalists and songwriters, most commonly Phonte, Sy Smith, and frequent touring/performing partner Carmen Rodgers. The increasingly refined and stylistically adventurous albums were evenly spaced amid Zo!'s work as an educator, and instrumentation and production for other artists, including all things Foreign Exchange and related. Zo! also branched out with music for documentaries and television, ranging from the animated series Black Dynamite to Making SkyBreak and Bike Vessel. He and Phonte wrote and produced many of the songs for Sherman's Showcase, a sketch comedy series for IFC. Joined by a mix of longtime and new associates including Omar and Josh Milan, Zo! and Tall Black Guy teamed to make Abstractions, a brief, feel-good set released in 2021.
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