Saul Williams Meets Carlos Niño & Friends

Legendary MC Saul Williams and percussionist Carlos Niño perform their mountain-born live album of spiritual jazz-poetry. 

For over 50 years, the conservationists at TreePeople have been helping protect the hills in Coldwater Canyon, just off Mulholland Drive. It’s here, under black walnut trees and oaks, that Saul Williams met Carlos Niño and six other members of LA jazz’s new guard to record an open-hearted missive of revolutionary thought and melodic release.

The set marks a return of sorts for Williams, who helped popularise slam poetry in the late 90s with the film SLAM, which he wrote and starred in, before becoming one of hip hop’s most formidable poet-MCs. In this collaboration, he pushes back past hip hop into older Black oral traditions, with words that sprawl like a cosmic vista—from the exploits of the Dutch East India Company onto the lecterns of the ‘President of Archaeological Indifference.’ It's a plea to ‘air it out and let it breathe’, lifted by Niño and his septet, whose beds of electro-acoustic improvisation rise and fall with the power of the words.

Presented by Melbourne Recital Centre x RISING

Praise for Saul Williams and Carlos Niño  

‘Musically ambitious, exploratory, and principled, this is a necessary statement for our times.’ – WIRE Magazine 

‘An album of invocation, memory, resistance, and release, it bridges generations, disciplines, and intentions.’ – Cast the Dice 

‘Urgent and immensely powerful.’ – FLOOD 

‘Williams lifts a suite of soothing ambient jazz into something powerful, optimistic and inspiring.’ – The Quietus 

‘It’s a message his country – and the rest of the world – needs to hear, and on this beautiful, angry and groundbreaking live album, he gets that message across with unrivalled eloquence.’ – KLOF 

‘Deep and moving.’ – mxdwn 

‘This album marks a new enterprise and platform for greater harmony and a safe place for experimentation.’ – Monolith Cocktail  

Ticket Prices

A Reserve $79
B Reserve $69

A Transaction Fee between $4 and $8.50 applies to orders made online and by phone. Delivery Fees may also apply. A ticket limit of six is in place online to ensure fair ticket access for all. Want to bring a bigger party? Call our Box Office during business hours on (03) 9699 3333 to book.

About the Artists 

Saul Williams

Saul Williams is a writer, musician, poet, director, and actor who came into public attention with the release of the internationally acclaimed film Slam (dir. Marc Levin), which Saul co-wrote and starred in, introducing the world to the Slam Poetry movement, and winning Sundance's Grand Jury Prize and the Cannes Camera D'Or in 1998.

In 2014, Saul made his Broadway debut as the lead in Broadway's first hip-hop musical, Holler If Ya Hear Me, based on the lyrics and poetry of Tupac Shakur. He starred in the 2021 film Akilla’s Escape, for which his performance earned him a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Actor. His Directorial Debut, Neptune Frost, premiered at Cannes 2021 and saw theatrical release in June 2022. It has been lauded by critics worldwide. 
 
Saul has performed in over 30 countries and read his poetry at more than 300 universities, with invitations that have spanned from the White House, the Sydney Opera House, Lincoln Center, The Louvre, The Getty Center, Queen Elizabeth Hall, to villages, townships, community centers, and prisons across the world. Saul has published five books of poetry which have been translated into several languages. Saul’s writings and lesson plans surrounding his work have been added to the curriculum of schools and universities around the world. 
 
As a musician, Saul has released six albums and toured or collaborated with dozens of artists including: Nas, Janelle Monae, Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against The Machine, The Roots, Mos Def, The Mars Volta, David Cross, Allen Ginsburg, Amiri Baraka, Gil Scott-Heron, Jose James, Arthur H, Camille, Ayo, TV On The Radio, System Of A Down, KRS ONE, DJ Krust, DJ Spooky, Cold Cut, Matisyahu, Blackalicious, K'naan, K-OS, and Erykah Badu. 
 
Carlos Niño 
 
A prolific album producer, expansive percussionist, experimental composer, connector, communicator, Carlos Niño is known primarily for his main project, Carlos Niño & Friends, and for his extensive work on André 3000's New Blue Sun. Previously, Niño made albums as/with Ammoncontact, Build An Ark, The Life Force Trio, and others.

Niño describes his 'Carlos Niño & Friends' sound as 'spiritual, improvisational, space Collage.’ He qualifies: ‘Why Spiritual? Because there is always a spiritual intention and center, feeling, and vibrational message in these records. Why Improvisational? Because I approach the making of this music without any preconceived structures, I just open up to what I am hearing and feeling and experiment until I get the pieces where I want them. The preparation and information in the improvisations is our whole lives. It's an open state of communication. Why Space Collage? Because it's all about relationship and perspective, interval, layering, moving, listening, and massaging the mixes…’