A Native of Northern VA, J Laine is making his mark as a music mogul.
He has performed with artists including Aretha Franklin, El DeBarge, Erykah Badu, Common, Steve Coleman, Meshell N'Degeocello, Dwele, Louie Bellson, Charlie Byrd, Fred Wesley, Frank Wess, Jimmy Heath, Yusef Lateef and was the drummer for OMAR's "Sing...if you want it" national tour.
He also performs with local artists including W. Ellington Felton, Aaron Broadus, Panacea and SITALI. J Laine has traveled internationally the past year to Paris, Prague and South America and recently to the 2007 Moers jazz festival in Germany with Opus Akoben.
His passion is immensely growing in the music production scene as he has produced for several local acts including Felton (A Dub Supreme, Postcards from the Edge mixtape, the Last Temptation of Wes Felton), DJ Roddy Rod (Take N Stride) Aaron Broadus (All This Love) and Antithesis. Laine made his debut as co-executive producer for veteran singer/songwriter K'Alyn's 3rd LP "Verse 1, Chapter 3" along side his production partner, T Fox, aka the Wonderboys (www.myspace.com/ladylucymusic). With those recordings under his belt and more coming up, Laine expects his production company, FastLaine Music, to be seen as an in demand product.
When J's all around favorite beat maker and dj J Dilla passed, he found several ways to coordinate tributes including the J DILLA memorial concert featuring performances by Felton, Raheem DeVaughn, Wayna, Grap Luva, DJ Roddy Rod, Asheru and Cy Young. J Laine sat as music director for the night which added Dilla's premier group Slum Village as the headliner.
APPLE JONS is a 32 track instrumental album created in the style of "Donuts" and has been acclaimed by top producers and djs in the nation. Releasing advanced copies last year at his release party, J received a call from Tastefullicks records to re-release it under the label this summer.
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