Toronto Spiritual Jazz Collective astral RIDDIMS Honour Late Pocket Dwellers Bandmate Sheldon Moore With “Shel Of Moor”

The producer and writer was the final word for his bandmates in Pocket Dwellers. One of them, Dennis Passley, has now carried Sheldon’s memory into his Toronto ensemble astral RIDDIMS with a gorgeous, two-part tribute.

“Shel Of Moor” is the emotional centrepiece of ‘The Big Band Theory,’ the band’s debut album, out now, and it captures everything that makes this 13-piece collective so thrilling: deep groove, open hearts and a sound big enough to fill the sky.

“The story behind ‘Shel Of Moor’ is personal,” says Passley, the band’s leader. “It’s written in memory of Sheldon Moore, known to a lot of people as DJ S Luv, a bandmate who passed from colon cancer. Sheldon was the voice of reason in the room. No song was ever finished until it had been through him. His ear as a writer and producer was the last checkpoint before anything got called done, and that kind of trust doesn’t just disappear when someone’s gone. It shows up in the work.”

That spirit shaped the song’s whole architecture. “Sheldon Moore was a Moor in more than spelling, everything he touched carried an element of wisdom and love,” Passley explains. “So, the track is built in two movements to hold both.

The first is ‘Tamusni,’ (tah-moos-nee), the Moorish word for wisdom, which was Sheldon in the room: the ear nothing got past, the standard everything had to clear. The second is ‘Tayri,’ (tie-ree), the Moorish word for love, which was Sheldon’s name before it was ever a title. DJ S Luv for the love he put into the craft and the love he had for his family and friends. So ‘Shel Of Moor’ isn’t just a title, it’s homage and one way of keeping him in the room.”

Lala Noel’s vocals float over a lush bed of horns, with Passley on tenor sax and mellotron, Ernesto Barahona on trombone, Tom Moffett on trumpet and Yvonne Moir on baritone sax. Underneath, the rhythm section locks in tight: Tom Juhas on guitar, Dave Leitao on keyboards, Jon Hyde on drums, Dave Gouveia on percussion and Josh Daignault on bass. Dave Plowman engineered and mixed the track, Kevin McPhee mastered it at East End Mastering, and the single arrived September 17 ahead of the full album on September 30.

Passley leads astral RIDDIMS like a conductor of good vibrations, with horns, strings, keys and rhythm all leaning into one huge, warm sound. Spiritual jazz, jazz funk, soul and global groove swirl together, loose and deep, with the past always close at hand. Every player gets room to speak while the whole band reaches back through an ever-widening spiral of tradition, answering it and pushing it forward. Fans of Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders, Yusef Lateef, Kamasi Washington, Sons of Kemet, Adrian Younge and El Michels Affair will feel right at home.

The full album rotates its horn and string players from track to track. Anh Phung and Karen Ng bring flutes, Ng adds alto sax, Moir doubles on bass clarinet, Maddie Kay and Brendan Rogers lay down violin and cello, and Martino Lozej joins on keyboards. Passley also adds bass clarinet across the record. ‘The Big Band Theory’ sets a scene and invites you to step inside, a vibrant mix of styles, moods and roots made to be felt in the body as much as heard. Keessa Lynch created the artwork, and Nehal El-Hadi wrote the liner notes.

The best way to hear this band is live, and Toronto gets two chances this fall, starting with a full album release party at Longboat alongside Skratch Bastid and Joe Claussell.

Tour Dates:

November 15 Toronto, ON @ BSMT 254 (with Disaster Pony)