Ancient space man7/22/2023 ![]() Spaceman with James Brown photo by Jessica BurstinĪ continuum doesn’t flow just one way. He’ll hear something and say, ‘Ah, yeah, that’s good.’ We wind up finding the elements that work in a particular sequence of sounds.” (For instance, Ocean sometimes ran his vocals through guitar effects.) ![]() He’s a creative kind of guy that’s very introspective. Both, he says, brought the ability to “stretch the envelope” while also keeping the music accessible. Of all the greats that Spaceman has worked with, he compares Ocean to Miles Davis. “It wasn’t defined: ‘OK, this is Endless,’ or ‘this is Boys Don’t Cry or Blonde’ or whatever the working titles were,” Space adds. So something may happen, and say, ‘Oh, that’s nice, let’s try this here.’ So it winds up becoming a thing, and then I wind up doing a lot of different kind of textures.” Engineer Caleb Levan would leave on the red recording light just in case the musicians stumbled onto an idea worth preserving. How much music? “We had like 14-hour, 15-, 16-hour sessions,” he says. Reached by phone at his Harlem home, Spaceman isn’t kidding when he says, “Look, I’m the only guitarist you know who’s played for everyone from Sun Ra to Kathie Lee Gifford.” And now, Frank Ocean. Space speaks of backing up a pre-fame Alicia Keys as she was developing her breakthrough hit “Fallin’.” He remembers a show with Pharoah Sanders where the audience was “standing on the tables, screaming,” because the music was so intense. One such gig: Bandleader on the ’90s TV police drama “New York Undercover,” where weekly musical guests ranged from established legends including James Brown and Stevie Wonder, to younger stars like Aaliyah and Notorious B.I.G. ![]() Spaceman often occupies the kind of supporting roles that don’t necessarily show up in official credits. Though Spaceman declines to give his age (“I’m young ancient we’re eternal beings,” he demurs), a Berklee School of Music spokesperson confirms he attended there from 1972 to 1974. And these are just the gigs that can be readily verified with outside sources. He was even one of Bill Cosby’s longtime musical consiglieres, if that still means anything. Since that cosmic christening, Spaceman has performed or recorded with everyone-from Miles Davis and Ornette Coleman, to the Bomb Squad and Boogie Down Productions, to the prolific Jamaican rhythm section Sly & Robbie (on Larry Levan-remixed classics, no less).
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