Ramen Noodles, NBA, wrestling aside: Master P will get back to basics for Rupp show
Master P
7:30 p.m. March 1 at Rupp Arena, 430 W. Vine. $42-$132. 859-233-3535, 800-745-3000. rupparena.com, ticketmaster.com.
Over two decades ago, Percy Miller, better known to the hip-hop and pop worlds as Master P, was telling fans he was through as a solo artist. The future – at least the future as it appeared in 1998, just before what would become his best-selling album, “MP Da Last Don,” was released – had more in store for him than music.
Sure enough, Miller’s career soon involved overseeing his own record label and cable television network. There was also ongoing involvement in TV and film production, pro wrestling promotion, successive contracts to play basketball with two NBA teams, an acting career that ran concurrently with his musical endeavors and even, as of late 2019, his own brand of Ramen Noodles.
“You spread out because you never know when it’s going to end,’‘ Miller told Neil Strauss of the New York Times in 1998. ‘‘Business is like a seesaw going up and down. When one goes down, I have the other one going up. You have to think like that if you want to survive.” Strauss went on observe that “talking to Master P is like auditing a business school course.”
This weekend, though, Miller (who turns 50 in April) gets back to basics. Specifically, he is bringing his No Limit Record Reunion Tour to Rupp Arena on March 1.
No Limit remains the vehicle with which the rapper has made his biggest musical imprint. It began as a meager indie label run out of a Richmond, Calif. record store before gaining prominence with a move to New Orleans in 1995. Within three years, No Limit produced 10 platinum-selling albums. “MP Da Last Don” topped the list with sales of over four million copies.
The No Limit Record Reunion Tour reunites Miller with several of the label’s key signees. Among the artists scheduled to join him at Rupp this weekend are Silkk the Shocker, Mystikal, Fiend and Mia X.
Brazukas
7 and 9:15 p.m. Feb. 29 at Tee Dee’s Bluegrass Progressive Club, 266 E. Second St. $15 (each show), $25 (both shows). originsjazz.org.
Anyone up for a trip to Brazil? If so, the Origins Jazz Series is ready to stamp your passport to the country’s expansive and immensely rhythmic music this weekend.
The band at hand is Brazukas, a quartet of musicians and friends whose members each hail from a different region of Brazil. Curiously, the common base of operations for these artists isn’t South America, but Louisville. Pianist Diego Lyra is a native of Pernambuco and currently serves as an adjunct faculty instructor at the University of Louisville. Saxophonist Thomaz Souza comes from Minas Gerais and lives in Louisville following work with such jazz luminaries as Monica Salmaso and Mike Hyman. Bassist Andrey Junca Goncalves came to Louisville from Espirito Santo and performances with such stylistically varied artists as Alan Broadbent and Jim Carroll. Rounding out Brazukas is drummer and percussionist Kiko Sebrian of Sao Paolo. Like Goncalves, he is pursuing a master’s degree in performance at U of L.
A Brazuka is defined the same as Brazilian - a native of Brazil. In its bio material, Brazukas defines itself in three equal measures – happy music, happy environment and happy music. The musical component breaks down into a blend of original works along with the quartet’s take on compositions by such giants as Antonio Carlos Jobim, Luis Bonfa, Milton Nascimento, Hermeto Pascoal and Gilberto Gil.
John Conlee
7 p.m. Feb. 29 at the Weisiger Theatre of the Norton Center for the Arts, 600 W. Walnut in Danville. $38.50-$52.50. 859-236-4692. nortoncenter.com, johnconlee.com.
With a Kentucky country music homecoming taking over Rupp Arena this weekend via Friday’s concert with Sturgill Simpson and Tyler Childers, it is perhaps easy to overlook another regional returnee heading our way on Saturday.
Performing at the intimate Weisiger Theatre at Danville’s Norton Center for the Arts will be John Conlee, the Versailles native who sent seven singles (including “Backside of Thirty,” “Common Man” and “In My Eyes”) to No. 1 between 1978 and 1986.
A veteran of numerous Farm Aid performances, Conlee, 73, holds the distinction of being possibly the only country music artist who is also a licensed mortician.
Conlee’s most recent single is a composition by Vince Gill and Leslie Satcher titled “Bread and Water.”