#4

In the sentimental spirit of the holidays, I decided to do something different this week. This playlist consists of 100 songs that have been significant to me throughout the years for various reasons. Some tracks were formative, some are connected to specific memories or periods of time, and some have just been satisfying and stuck with me. Technology was making it hard to put them in the order I wanted, so I suggest playing this one on shuffle. Additionally, there were songs I wanted to add that were not available on either Spotify or Tidal. So it goes. 

https://tidal.com/playlist/90da74bf-45e9-4f62-9255-efbfebfe7666

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3jvdURjdMHB1ArV4TxgQfd

playlist:

1. Hard Times Come Again No More - Stephen Foster

2. Dream In Blue - Los Lobos

3. Nowhere Man - The Beatles

4. I Want You (She's So Heavy) - The Beatles

5. When You Awake - The Band

6. Station Man - Fleetwood Mac

7. The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll (Live at Boston Music Hall, 1975) - Bob Dylan

8. Little Miss Lover - Jimi Hendrix

9. Voodoo Child (Slight Return) - Jimi Hendrix

10. Power To Love - Jimi Hendrix 

11. Tales Of Brave Ulysses - Cream

12. Come As You Are - Nirvana

13. Tourette's - Nirvana

14. Runaways - XTC

15. Beating Of Hearts - XTC

16. Maru-Bihag - Ravi Shankar

17. Vital Transformation - Mahavishnu Orchestra

18. La Danse Du Bonheur - Shakti

19. Black Market - Weather Report

20. Boogie Woogie Waltz - Weather Report

21. Finger Lickin' Good - Beastie Boys

22. Pow - Beastie Boys

23. Jet Pilot - System Of A Down

24. I'm Not Down - The Clash

25. Glass - Gang Of Four

26. We're A Happy Family - Ramones

27. God Save The Queen - Sex Pistols 

28. Don't Try - Built To Spill

29. Footprints - Miles Davis 

30. Chan Chan - Buena Vista Social Club

31. I Can't Wait Much Longer - Robin Trower

32. Dee moo woor - Orchestra Baobab

33. Love Song - Tony Williams

34. Seize The Rainbow - Sonny Sharrock

35. Joy Spring - Clifford Brown & Max Roach

36. All Wrong - Morphine

37. Come Rain Or Come Shine - Art Blakey

38. Three Blind Mice - Art Blakey

39. Prince of Darkness - Miles Davis

40. The Sorcerer - Hancock/Brecker/Hargrove

41. Deluge - Wayne Shorter 

42. Speak No Evil - Wayne Shorter 

43. The Awakening - Ahmad Jamal

44. Ponta De Areia - Wayne Shorter

45. Theme From A Symphony (variation one) - Ornette Coleman

46. Lonely Woman - Ornette Coleman

47. Beyond Games - Tony WIlliams

48. Dreams - Fleetwood Mac

49. Evinrude-Fifty (Trembling) - Brian Blade Fellowship

50. Promises Kept - Sonny Sharrock

51. Respiration - Black Star 

52. Timeless - John Abercrombie

53. Memories Live - Reflection Eternal

54. There Was A Time - James Brown

55. The Payback - James Brown 

56. Mother Popcorn - James Brown 

57. Super Bad - James Brown 

58. It Aint What You Think - Dirty Dozen Brass Band 

59. Masqualero - Wayne Shorter 

60. Mondays - Black Uhuru 

61. Natty Dread - Bob Marley 

62. Life Is A Journey - Clinton Fearon 

63. The Invasion (aka "Black Wa-Da-Da") - Burning Spear 

64. Throw Down Your Arms - Burning Spear 

65. Soldiers - Steel Pulse 

66. All Matter - Robert Glasper Experiment feat. Bilal

67. Brahms Intermezzo no. 7 in A minor - Glenn Gould 

68. Get A Hold - A Tribe Called Quest 

69. Stressed Out - A Tribe Called Quest 

70. Sara Mabo - L'Orchestre Kanaga De Mopti 

71. War - Wailing Souls 

72. Liberation - Outkast 

73. West Savannah - Outkast 

74. Train With No Love - Andre Nickatina 

75. Saw A Gangsta Cry - Andre Nickatina 

76. Astray - Bilal

77. Pretty Dancer - Mos Def

78. Meditations/Leo - John Coltrane 

79. Malachi - Andrew Hill

80. Dusk - Andrew Hill

81. Positive Vibration - Bob Marley 

82. Happy Just To Be Like I Am - Taj Mahal

83. Carry The Zero - Built To Spill

84. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man

85. Peeni Walli - Eek-A-Mouse 

86. Mothership Connection - Parliament

87. Children Of Production - Parliament

88. I Never Cared For You - Willie Nelson

89. Magazine - Krondon

90. Dollaz + Sense - DJ Quik 

91. Do My Thang - 7 Days Of Funk 

92. Till It's Done (Tutu) - D'Angelo and the Vanguard 

93. Rest In Pleasure - Esperanza Spalding 

94. I Wanna Be Your Lover - Prince 

95. Computer Blue - Prince & The Revolution 

96. One Mo'Gin - D'Angelo

97. Wars Of Armageddon - Funkadelic

98. With You - Terrace Martin

99. Actual Proof - Herbie Hancock

100. Bad Card - Bob Marley 

#3

quick note: #13 has an alternate track for Spotify because they do not have the full Akira soundtrack in their database. I highly recommend this album, which was re-released on 180 gram vinyl last year. The group that composed it is one of a kind: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geinoh_Yamashirogumi

The Life I Live - Pete Rock

I had a conversation with a friend a while back about our favorite hip hop producers. As I recall, both of our top two were J Dilla and Pete Rock, except his number one was Dilla and mine was Pete. He was surprised by my choice, considering how pioneering Dilla was. I fully acknowledge Dilla's genius as well as the profound influence he has had on modern music, but there is something about Pete's aesthetic that resonates with me more personally. I love repetition in music. When a loop is composed or constructed well, it can be repeated forever and I won't get tired of it. (Another context where this comes up in the music I listen to is with 1970's Malian groups such as Super Biton de Segou and L'Orchestre Kanaga de Mopti.) Pete Rock's loops are deep and hypnotizing. I enjoy playing drums along to his beats to practice pocket, but also because the act of playing one phrase continuously is meditative. I get to a point where my limbs are on auto pilot, locked in to the music, and I am visualizing the sounds. 

https://tidal.com/playlist/d30360c7-2873-4e08-9015-ec75e09713d8

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5oe5eVYpqkebTMsh80PB3w

playlist:

1. Plaid Pants - The Black Tones 

2. Big Time - Omer Avital

3. Friday Morning - Khruangbin

4. Graduation Day - Ethan Iverson

5. RollSkate - DJ Harrison

6. untitled 06 | 06.30.2014 - Kendrick Lamar

7. Brother's Keeper - Anderson .Paak, Pusha T

8. Street Pharmacy - Butcher Brown

9. Do It Together - The Midnight Hour

10. Reggae To The High Tower - Don Cherry

11. We Got To Live Together - Buddy Miles

12. The Life I Live - Pete Rock

13. (Tidal) Exodus From The Underground Fortress - Geinoh Yamashirogumi

13. (Spotify) Kaneda - Geinoh Yamashirogumi

14. Track B - Duet Solo Dancers - Charles Mingus

15. I'll Be Good To You - Quincy Jones

16. Honey - Astronote

17. Alienman - Stone Mecca

18. Brown Liquor - Bearaxe

#2

A lot of great new music came out in the last couple of months. Some of the artists with new music featured in this week's playlist include Georgia Anne Muldrow, Kurt Vile, Yoko Ono, Ambrose Akinmusire, Aaron Parks, and Braxton Cook. Now, if you don't mind, I will expound on a couple of chosen tracks.


Rollin With The Flow - Kurt Vile

This cover song is not indicative of the album as a whole, which is otherwise comprised of Vile's chill, riffy, originals, but I have a specific memory connected to it. This summer I was helping a local fix-it guy do some work on my mother-in-law's house. We would listen to music via an Echo, which was a new gadget for this old-timer. He would say, "Alexa, play OLD country music". This would yield a playlist of about 30 songs, which we would listen to on repeat all day while he would sing along to almost every song no matter how many times it came on. The Charlie Rich version of "Rollin' With The Flow" was one of these songs. So, hearing this song is a good way to remember a great summer. Vile's version stays pretty true to Rich's, plus the drums really roll...with the flow.


Woman Power - Yoko Ono

Ono's new album consists of new versions of older tunes from her career. I had never actively listened to her music before this album, but I was drawn to it by the personnel, which includes Melvin Gibbs, Marc Ribot, and Kassa Overall. I have heard criticisms of her abrasive, dissonant vocal stylings, but I like the vocal improvisation parts of these tunes. On "Woman Power", Ono will sometimes draw the end of a spoken word out into a tone in a way that puts an extra emphasis on the phrase and creates tension.


https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0rPXhg3oyIw9MeREJmRlme

https://tidal.com/playlist/d2732af2-8af4-43cf-b55e-387fffa8856c

playlist:

1. Blam - Georgia Anne Muldrow

2. Love And It's Glory - Minnie Riperton

3. When It Comes Down To It - Minnie Riperton

4. Get You It Together - L.T.D.

5. We Major - Braxton Cook

6. Just A Thing - Black Milk & Nat Turner

7. Digital Society - Aaron Parks

8. Americana / the garden waits for you to match her wilderness - Ambrose Akinmusire

9. The Lung - Hiatus Kaiyote

10. La Luna (Ending) - Sun Araw

11. Rollin With The Flow - Kurt Vile

12. Woman Power - Yoko Ono

13. Children Power - Yoko Ono

14. Runabout - Little Dragon

15. O Superman - Laurie Anderson

#1

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/13ckuzxXfZ2Gg3jsY3KcBA

https://listen.tidal.com/playlist/e93f94c9-508b-4716-a854-2b23fee643db

playlist:

1. True Lies - Black Milk

2. Salt & Pepper Wings - Killiam Shakespeare

3. The Backward Step (Live) - Nicholas Payton

4. The Gift - Roy Hargrove

5. Computer Getto - Traxman

6. Where We Stand - Harriet Tubman

7. After The Dance - Marvin Gaye

8. Leftist - The Revolutionaries

9. No Enemies (free nino) - Romaro Franceswa

10. Carl Winslow - Jarv Dee

11. Cult Of Personality - Living Colour

12. Dripping Sun - Kikagaku Moyo

13. Sunburst - Gene Lake

14. Orange Skyline - Gifted Gab

15. OOPS - Lil Yachty

16. Don't Give Me Up - Gothic Tropic

17. It Might Be Gold - Ray Angry