The Witzard Premiere: Sulu & Excelsior's "The News Today" from The Tiny Desk Sessions/Eddie Romero (Slow Jam King Productions)
Although, they haven't released any additional material—aside from holiday single, "THE OVER UNDER"—since their 2016 debut, Eddie Romero, Sulu & Excelsior are still emphatically pushing the album, nearly two years later. I'm not exactly gonna get into it again within this space, but The Witzard & Steve "Sulu" Mallorca have worked extensively together on a wide array of unique content since Eddie Romero's 2016 release, including exclusive premieres, comprehensive interviews, Funk-tastic features, and much, much more. For those unaware, Sulu & Excelsior's sound has rather perfectly been described as something to the effect of "Johnny Mathis meets Mos Def meets Stevie Wonder meets Nat King Cole" or most recently, "a Hip-Hop version of Duke Ellington."
Listen If You Like: BadBadNotGood (BBNG) Beastie Boys, Durand Jones & The Indications, El Michels Affair, Jon Batiste & Stay Human, Mayer Hawthorne & The County/Tuxedo, OutKast, P.I.C. & The Roots. Sulu & Excelsior will be a playing a live set this Saturday, June 2nd at The Bitter End; Sulu and a slightly expanded Excelsior will go on at 8:00pm and the event is 18+ with a $10 cover. For those interested in attending, The Bitter End is located on 147 Bleecker St. NYC, NY 10012.
"When we decided to enter the 2018 NPR Music Tiny Desk Contest, we had so much fun that we actually, ended up filming a bunch of songs.... even though, we could only submit one," Steve "Sulu" Mallorca wrote within an emailed press statement. Sulu & Excelsior recorded a bunch of Eddie Romero tracks and ended up sending in a "miniature" version of "Up to You" as their 2018 NPR Tiny Desk Contest submission. "My initial gut reaction was to enter this song, "The News Today"—I just love that there are so many changes in the song and they vary from me rhyming to doing some Soul crooning to a big falsetto bridge and a piano solo," Sulu continued. However, Steve "Sulu" Mallorca took it like a champ, stating: "hard not to second-guess myself, since we didn't win the Tiny Desk Contest, but I think, the whole experience was great and the community they built is really supportive and filled with talent."
We, here at The Witzard, are ecstatic to be premiering Sulu & Excelsior's "The News Today" from what they've fittingly dubbed The Tiny Desk Sessions. For The Tiny Desk Sessions rendition of "The News Today," Sulu & Excelsior give it a bit more dimension and slightly different instrumentation than the original version. Eddie Romero is currently available to stream or purchase on Sulu & Excelsior's Bandcamp page in a number of assorted formats including: limited edition CD, "Up to You" B/W "Misery Luv" 7-inch single, and standard high-quality digital download. Shout-out to Sulu & Excelsior for shouting out both myself and The Witzard within the "Thank-You's" sections of the 7-inch and CD versions of Eddie Romero!
"The News Today" - The Players:
Steve "Sulu" Mallorca - Lead Vox/Keys
DJ Mas - Turntables, Back-up Vox, Melodica
Bernard O'Reilly - Bass
Twig Charity - Guitar
Hotel Podell - Tenor Sax
Moat Caitlin - Alto Sax
Cybernetiko - Percussion
Video/Audio Crew:
Camera Operators: Colin Rivera, Jaclyn Amor & Jean-Baptiste "J.B." Sankara
Editor: Steven E. Mallorca
Audio: Adam Charity, Masaki Yamagata & Hiroaki Nishijima
