On a gray day in New York City, party promoter Meghan Stabile, 28, is in her home office, beginning her regular routine of multitasking. She replies to numerous emails and a constant stream of text messages and prepares for two meetings scheduled later in the evening.
The first meeting will be with DJ Premier, celebrated hip-hop producer and former member of legendary hip-hop group Gang Starr. Stabile has to edit a video interview and talk to him about plans she has for the upcoming 'Revive Da Live' tribute concert for his Gang Starr partner and MC, Keith "Guru" Elam, who died of cancer last year. After that, she's set to connect with her small staff to finalize the concert's last details.
For Stabile, the show is bittersweet. On one hand, the music of an iconic MC who died sooner than any of his fans expected will be celebrated. On the other hand, the show marks the fifth anniversary of 'Revive Da Live,' Stabile's brainchild she started as a student at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Back when she was a music business major at Berklee, Stabile worked a part-time job as a bartender at the famed Wally's Café, a popular hangout spot and live music venue where many of Berklee's best musicians cut their teeth. There, she was introduced to jazz cats who were all her age and looked no different than the friends with whom she would hang out at hip-hop clubs. "I didn't know what jazz really was," Stabile says. "I just knew about it from whatever I saw on television, but actually being around it all the time, I just fell in love with it."
Stabile's love for the music inspired her to change up its perception. She recalls how irritated she was by her own lack of exposure to jazz until she enrolled at Berklee, and how the talent of the up-and-coming jazz musicians she saw at Wally's were being ignored by the mainstream. "I'm 20-years-old, and thinking where did this music come from? Why didn't I get exposed to it?" she recalls. "The more I thought about it, the more it started bothering me. I came to my own conclusion this is something I ultimately want to fix or fight."
In April 2006, as part of her final project in a concert promotions class, Stabile organized her first 'Revive Da Live' event in Boston. The show, which paired local MCs with the top-notch jazz musicians enrolled at Berklee, was a success. She soon followed with three more shows, but like many of her musician friends, Stabile knew New York City was where she wanted to be and where 'Revive Da Live' would really thrive.
"I moved to New York with $100," says Stabile, who spent the first six months in the Big Apple doing grunt work for booking agencies, interning at Def Jam records, and trying to recreate the magic she made in Boston with the Revive brand. Eventually through her music business connections, Stabile landed a meeting with the owners of Crash Mansion, an East Village nightclub, which resulted in her 'Revive Da Live' New York debut in February 2007.
Since then, 'Revive Da Live' has gained a cult-like following on the New York live-music scene, attracting some of the biggest names in jazz such as trumpeters Nicholas Payton and Roy Hargrove and pianist Robert Glasper. Rappers Talib Kweli and the late Guru have performed there as well. Unlike some hip-hop and jazz collaborations, one style does not overpower the other. Instead both sounds usually work together seamlessly. Despite some purists claiming that the jazz/hip-hop hybrid is not a new concept, the way 'Revive Da Live' presents the combination -- with its focus on big bands -- is wholly unique.
During the 1990's, Guru was arguably the leading proponent of merging hip-hop and jazz, releasing 'Jazzmatazz,' a four album series which fused the genres together. The Brand New Heavies (below), De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest also demonstrated a deep appreciation for jazz through their production and lyrical references. Around the same time, on the jazz front, saxophonist Branford Marsalis reached across the musical aisle with 'Buckshot LeFonque,' a group incorporating hip-hop, R&B, and others genres into the jazz fold. Miles Davis also made an effort with 'Doo-Bop,' his final studio album released in 1991. The album includes production from Easy Mo Bee, a producer most known for his work with rapper Notorious B.I.G.
What also makes 'Revive Da Live' different is that it not only has a musical mission, but there's a social aspect too. Though Stabile doesn't direct or compose any of the music played at the concert, she brings together artists from both genres in hopes that fans of both will come together in one space to appreciate the high level of hip-hop and jazz musicianship.
"The music we were doing, we were already trying to be relevant," says Igmar Thomas, 28, a trumpeter who attended Berklee with Stabile and plays professionally with both jazz and hip-hop artists. He is also co-directing the 'Revive Da Live Guru Tribute' concert band with pianist Marc Cary.
"She came in and was like the yang to our ying," he adds. "She made what we were doing relevant even to Berklee kids, because normally musicians don't check out musicians, but we were packing out shows with musicians and common folk."
The 'common folk' are the people who, much like Stabile once was, are unaware of how musical art forms like jazz and hip-hop can co-exist. "I don't think it's easy for the average person to understand the complexity of a musician and jazz music," she says. "A priority since the beginning has been getting people to appreciate and understand who these musicians are and what they play."
To help cultivate an audience who appreciates both forms, Stabile also started The Revivalist, a Website which is part of the popular hip-hop site Okayplayer and features profiles of musicians who are known in jazz circles but who have also played with some of the leading names in pop music. For example, an April 14 article features an interview with drummer Nikkie Glaspie, one of two drummers who back Beyoncé during her live shows (the other drummer is Kim Thompson).
For Stabile, the 'Revive Da Live' shows, and The Revivalist website, are two-thirds of her grand plan. The final phase is to foster an advocacy group of sorts where jazz artists are more appreciated by their more mainstream counterparts. While she won't name any specifically, Stabile is quick to vent about musicians not being treated properly by some pop artists.
"I don't think it's the artists, it's the managers that don't understand how to work with musicians," she says. "Therefore they're not treated the best." And with more mainstream artists utilizing live instrumentation to back them up as opposed to looping their songs instrumentals, Stabile's work on behalf of musicians has been just as crucial to her vision as the website and the shows.
"The core mission from the beginning was producing shows and exposing people to this combination of two genres of music that is so underground and underexposed," says Stabile. "Our whole point is to put it on a level where everybody can have access to it and know that it exists."