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Little Axe
Electronica / Dub / Hip Hop

""Skip McDonald Official Site"

HARTFORD, Connecticut
United States

Profile Views:  34337




Last Login:  7/6/2008
View My: Pics | Videos

   Contacting Little Axe

 MySpace URL: 
  http://www.myspace.com/littleaxesound  

   Little Axe: General Info
Member Since4/17/2006
Band Websitelittle-axe.com
Band Members
Little Axe :

Skip McDonald --> Vocals/Guitars
Adrian Sherwood --> Dubs


Doug Wimbish --> Bass/Vocals/Ambiance
Keith LeBlanc --> Drums/Percussions




Influences


Sounds Like
Real World 2007 Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow on 31 January. The legendary guitarist Skip McDonald, aka Little Axe, joined by the renown rhythm section of Doug Wimbish and Keith LeBlanc with Bernard Fowler Keven Gibbs And Saz Bell on vocals.


Record LabelReal World Records
Type of LabelIndie





   Upcoming Shows ( view all )
Jul 24 2008 8:00P
Womad Festival Charlton Park, near Malmesbury in Midlands
Aug 9 2008 8:00P
Wim-BASH @ Sully’s Pub Hartford Ct

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Little Axe @ Real World, London, UK  (view more)

New Little Axe album on Real World  (view more)

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   About Little Axe

Skip McDonald has been one of On-U Sound's most loyal and hard working musicians for 20 years. This is the story of him and his musical journey to the Blues of Little Axe:

Born Bernard Alexander on 1 September 1949, Dayton, Ohio in the USA. Skip McDonald learned to play the blues on his father's guitar from the age of 8, although by the time he was 12 years old he had opted to perform doo-wop. Though says Skip:

"It was really the blues that impressed me. My father played blues, he was from Tuskeegee, Alabama. He listened to Muddy Waters, Blind Boy Fuller, Bo Diddley, and to gospel like the Soul Stirrers, the Swan Silvertones. As a teenager I got away from it, but I think I've found my way back with Little Axe."

Having completed his high school education Skip left Dayton with a band called the Ohio Hustlers, which broke up not long after relocating to New York City. His first professional work as a musician began when he formed the Entertainers who toured the east coast through to the mid-70s:

"I ended up moving to New Haven, doing a bit of lounge work, then moving to Hartford. That's where I met Doug Wimbish, in a band called Wood, Brass & Steel. It was a progressive funk band with hints of jazz. We played the college circuit, a few clubs, and we recorded one-and-a-half albums for All Platinum Records, Sylvia and Joe Robinson's label. It was 1976, and the Robinsons were hot with the Moments, Shirley & Company. In the years that followed me and Doug really learned how to play together, in every little club and college around New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts."

"The Message" LP by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five In 1979, Skip and Doug Wimbish teamed up with Keith LeBlanc and collectively they began working for Sylvia Robinson's Sugarhill Records as their house band:

"We had added Keith LeBlanc when we came back to the Robinsons and began playing on rap records for their new Sugarhill label: Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, Funky Four + I More, Sequence, Crash Crew, Treacherous Three. The benefit of that experience was in the knowledge of the studio. The bad side, at the end of the day, was who got paid and who didn't. But it was a learning process, and I learned a lot about the side of music that's not about playing the instrument."

The trio played on some of the earliest rap hits such as "The Message" and "White Lines (Don't Do It)" with Grandmaster Flash. While they worked at Sugarhill, LeBlanc also freelanced at Tommy Boy records where he first met Adrian Sherwood. LeBlanc introduced his colleagues to Sherwood and the trio were persuaded to relocate in London. Skip recalls:

"We were working on a studio project with a horn section called Chops, who worked with the Police and others. That fell through, but it initiated our exit from Sugarhill. We ended up in London with Adrian Sherwood, whom we'd met at the New Music Seminar. About six months later we came over to England and just started experimenting."

Upon their entry into the On-U Sound fold, the group formed a production team: "Programming was coming in heavily and the studio work was falling off. That kinda pushed us into writing and recording, and putting out these little obscure records. 'Stormy Weather' under the name Fats Comet was our first project. We recorded as Dub Syndicate, African Head Charge, Barmy Army, then Tackhead, the Strange Parcels and now Little Axe."

The partnership developed and metamorphosed into a fully-fledged band, Tackhead. Though good working relationships remain to this day, the dispersion of Tackhead in the early 1990s saw Keith and Doug pursue more of their own projects and play less often together. For Skip the time since has seen him work ever more closely with Sherwood, both on his own projects and as a musician or guest vocalist on many other of Adrian's On-U Sound productions - such as by Junior Delgado, Bim Sherman, Dub Syndicate and African Head Charge, sometimes along side Keith and / or Doug.

"The Wolf That House Built" album Skip has been the prime mover behind Little Axe since around 1992. Providing guitars, bass, keyboards, vocals and co-production, Little Axe is Skip's return to the blues that are his roots. Under a name inspired by Bob Marley's "Small Axe" and gospel singer Willmer "Little Ax" Broadnax, the debut album "The Wolf That House Built" was a personal take on blues and dub, and was released to critical acclaim in 1994. This had followed a partial release in Japan compiled in a slightly different form and with a different title ("Never Turn Back" (ON-U LP 62)) the previous year:

"We were working on the last Tackhead album, and [Tackhead vocalist] Bernard Fowler had a vast collection of blues, various tapes and things. I listened to all this stuff and really liked it. After Tackhead, Adrian and I started talking about the blues and he said 'let's delve into that, the best of your blues, the best of my dub.'"

The album that resulted was a much looser environment than traditional blues in which pungent percussion, creepy guitar, keyboard loops, thick ambience, and pithy vocal samples move freely, nodding to one another as they move through Sherwood's hallucinogenic soundscapes. It would later be credited as having been an important influence on Moby's highly successful album "Play". The second Little Axe album "Slow Fuse", perhaps stood in the shadow of its predecessor but was still well received and promoted at festivals in the UK and across Europe.

The "Hard Grind" album In 2002, after several years of on-and-off work and convoluted attempts to gain major label backing, Skip's third Little Axe album "Hard Grind" (ON-U CD 1001) became the first release for four years on Sherwood's revived and re-launched On-U Sound label with a mixture of raw blues and reggae, and guest appearances by Ghetto Priest and Bim Sherman. The album takes pleasurable, unexpected twists and turns as it takes the listener on a haunting and spiritual journey of blues history with a mystical and lingering blend of synthetic and organic instrumentation.

The recording commences with a read of Blind Willie Johnsons "Dark As The Night Cold Is the Ground", where the legendary blues pioneer speaks of the blues. On "All Night Party", the late Junior Kimbroughs voice is mixed with absent friends, preachers and black historians with harmonica fills provided by Alan Glen. While "Hard Grind" will no doubt will also draw comparisons to Moby's "Play", it was Skip who pioneered the fusion of Blues and Electronic music with Little Axe. Moreover, he understands the Blues as he has actually played it.

By the time 2004's "Champagne & Grits" album (ON-U CD 1006) was released, Skip was starting to get the recognition and promotion his music deserved. This was evident, and in no small part helped by air-play and invited session recordings for BBC national radio in the UK on more than one occasion. There have also been a raft of compilation appearances in recent years and a track of his even featured on the soundtrack of the 2003 major release film "Holes".

Skip McDonald's prolific involvement in On-U Sound productions for many years means it is hard to imagine the label without him. That said, there will surely be plenty more to be heard.

2005 saw Little Axe opening on the West Coast leg of the American Tour of Robert Plant.

   Little Axe's Friend Space (Top 20)
Little Axe has 3336 friends.
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 TACKHEAD 





Little Axe's Friends Comments
Displaying 50 of 453 comments  ( View All | Add Comment )
FRIZZ RECORDS





Jul 3 2008 6:45 PM

Greetings Skip and Adrian

Thanks for the add!

Enjoy the music...

Raphael
douglas





Jul 3 2008 7:48 AM

thanks for the music guys.
when you coming to scotland?
Mike Milligan and The Altar Boyz





Jul 3 2008 5:55 AM

Thanks for the add...keep the faith...peace & music from Austin.....mike
Aldoush & The Human Exchange





Jun 28 2008 10:27 AM

Hi dear,
Thanks for beautiful music and freindship.
Aldoush and Davood
3x0





Jun 26 2008 2:15 PM

Hello!
Thank you very much for ur friendship.
Please, enjoy my music and keep in touch.
Soon
Ill-it.com





Jun 20 2008 11:17 AM

Thanks for the add
DILDOS





Jun 19 2008 5:03 AM

THANKS FOR ADD!!
LONG WAY TO GO = GREAT MUSIC!!
╪►Suzy◄╪





Jun 18 2008 10:53 PM

Thanks for the add!!

Greetings from Belgium xx :)
G. Calvin Weston





Jun 13 2008 5:44 AM

ALL SOUNDS GREAT TO ME ...KOOL..THANKS..
Mad 45





Jun 12 2008 2:28 PM

Hey there MAD 45 here, thanks for the add, hope you are doing well…had a chance to talk while you were in the studio a while a go....I hope you are doing well and I am looking forward to new material....keeping it political!!...I finished up some videos for the next project…with some good footage of my art cars and other such fun….hope everything is gong well….stay strong!
Don@Online Drum Recording





Jun 11 2008 11:45 AM

Hello,
How are you doing? Please have a listen to the two new songs on my page if you will. They are called 'The Whole Shebang' and 'Highlands'. Hope you like it.

All the best,
Don
www.onlinedrumrecording.com
Custom Drum Tracks over the Internet
Quintus





Jun 10 2008 2:59 PM

Hey Little Axe, I just bought you as my PET! <br/><a href='http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=361263053&source=ni_comment._link...._buy....._v5......'>Click here to find out how much I think you're WORTH!</a><br/><br/><a href='http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=361263053&source=ni_comment._img1...._buy....._v5......'><img src='http://cdn1.slicezero.com/oyf_prod/images/ffs_directory.png' border='0' /></a><br/> <br /><br /> -------------------------------<br /> <i>This comment was sent by your friend via the <a href="http://www.myspace.com/361263053">Own Your Friends!</a> application. To block comments sent via Apps. click <a href="http://profileedit.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=accountSettings.applicationSettings">here</a>.</i> <br />
Quintus





Jun 10 2008 2:59 PM

Hey Little Axe, I just bought you as my PET! <br/><a href='http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=361263053&source=ni_comment._link...._buy....._v5......'>Click here to find out how much I think you're WORTH!</a><br/><br/><a href='http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=361263053&source=ni_comment._img1...._buy....._v5......'><img src='http://cdn1.slicezero.com/oyf_prod/images/ffs_directory.png' border='0' /></a><br/> <br /><br /> -------------------------------<br /> <i>This comment was sent by your friend via the <a href="http://www.myspace.com/361263053">Own Your Friends!</a> application. To block comments sent via Apps. click <a href="http://profileedit.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=accountSettings.applicationSettings">here</a>.</i> <br />
MARIJUANA MUSIC AWARDS





Jun 10 2008 1:29 PM

ENTER YOUR SMOKE SONG IN 2008 MARIJUANA MUSIC AWARDS!! GLOBAL MMA WINNERS ANNOUNCED 20 SEP @ TEXAS NORML'S SMOKEOUT! CLOSING DATE 18 JULY. 2008 AMERICAN MMA WINNERS ANNOUNCED 10-13 OCT @ NEW YORK HARVEST FESTIVAL! CLOSING DATE 8 AUGUST. CHECK OUT MMA TO ENTER!
Jay Johnson





Jun 9 2008 1:07 PM

thanks for the add...

peace,

jay
guma guma





Jun 2 2008 2:44 AM

what a pleasure to hear you!!! so magic!!
Jon T-Bone Taylor





May 31 2008 3:50 AM

Hi Skip, Good to catch up with you the other night. Jon
overlow





May 29 2008 1:00 AM

Hi overthere.
Many thanks for inspiration.
Cheers
$**LoyalT**$ **(JSC)**





May 22 2008 1:05 PM

Jus Rollin thru 2 say thanx 4 D add** Much RAspect** T.
Manéo





May 20 2008 6:40 PM

Thank you,
with love and kindness!!
Wild Wolf





May 18 2008 12:31 PM

Thanks for adding Wild Wolf
JAH ARMY HIGHWEAR





May 17 2008 12:55 PM

Yes ayah,
check di nu Jah Army Summercollection "Protect I" fi di king & queen dem on jah-army.com
1love
PuRRR !





May 10 2008 7:16 AM

super !!!
thanks for the add
and the friendship
bless and one love
respect
sista selecta





May 7 2008 11:06 PM

... have been an avid fan for many years ... any chance you might come "down under" sometime??
No Matter What!





May 5 2008 8:17 AM

Diggin the sound...gobbling it up!!

Love what u two are doing here!

Any chance of blessing us in NOLA soon?

pleeeeeease?;-)

Ride on....
Lamar





May 5 2008 1:43 AM

Hey Skip, heard a lot about you growing up as a teen in Dayton. Good to see you still plugging away with your music. Peace and blessings, and thanks for the add.

PS - Michael Manley told me you had some new stuff coming out.

Lamar aka: Tdubs
Robert Karasek - Keyboardist





May 4 2008 1:30 AM

Thanx for the add.
Cool to meet you up here...

Let's do some business ;)

Robert
triplicane productions





May 2 2008 1:13 PM

Thanks for your friendship.
Ride on!
//Michael
GLblues





Apr 28 2008 11:48 PM

Very good.Great sound.Love your tunes!
Glad to be your friend.Thanks and welcome on my french blues page!
GL
Kevin





Apr 28 2008 8:33 PM

Thanks for the Add
Koot





Apr 28 2008 6:20 PM

thanks for the add
STAN SYLVANDER™





Apr 23 2008 4:11 AM

Thanks for the friendship in the name of rockn roooooollll!!!!!

Best wishs from Norway
Stan Sylvander- vocal
Livingston Studios





Apr 23 2008 2:33 AM

Hey Skip! We miss ya. Love and peace, Lise & Co. XXX
Kindread ElectroDub