Skip to main content

Playlist: Some Magic Monday

Ellen Carter, host of the Morning Brew Jazz Notes Edition, kicked my day off with David Sanborn's "Snakes" (1992), highlighting Spaceman Patterson's rhythm guitar. Patterson jammed with Miles, and he's playing at the upcoming DC Jazz Festival. (These are the things you learn on a Monday morning spent with 89.9 WPFW.) This track is new to me, and it's the perfect sound for a recently risen sun on a late summer morning. For this playlist, I let the feel of "Snakes" knock down similar musical dominos. Not stylistic dominos, but dominos designed to elicit a similar feeling. That of a late summer Monday. The start of a good week. The scent of wishful thinking.

Take note of the Parliament "Flashlight" interlude on Maceo Parker's swinging version of Cannonball Adderley's "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy." Make sure to queue up the correct version of "Ain't Got No - I Got Life." You want the second version on the "'Nuff Said!" remaster. It's the one with the funk. Less melancholic but just as inspired.

"Be Thankful" is our third cover, and it's a short, sweet rendition of the original. Its reggae rhythm shifts us into a pure reggae block, continuing with Junior Murvin's "Cool Down the Heat." That album recently re-released on VP Records/Greensleeves, remixed by King Jammy. I'm planning to spin that all week long.

The closer, "Walk That Walk, Talk That Talk," brings the funk back. This one accompanied me as I drove into the sunset. It's got an *On The Corner* feel.

Hope you enjoyed your Monday as much as these tracks tried to get me to enjoy mine.

  1. "Snakes" - David Sanborn from Upfront (1992)
  2. "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" - Maceo Parker from Southern Exposure (1993)
  3. "I Got the..." - Labi Siffre from Remember My Song (1975)
  4. "Ain't Got No - I Got Life" - Nina Simone from 'Nuff Said! (1968)
  5. "Higher Ground" - Stevie Wonder from Innervisions (1973)
  6. "Mr. Policeman" - Rick James from Street Songs (1981)
  7. "Be Thankful" - Lord Echo feat. Lisa Tomlins from Rarities 2010 - 2020: Japanese Tour Singles (2023)
  8. "Cool Down the Heat" - Junior Murvin from Cool Down the Heat (2025)
  9. "Reincarnated Souls" - The Wailers from Burnin' (1973)
  10. "A Who Say" - Sly Dunbar from Sly, Wicked and Slick (1979)
  11. "My Father Version" - Shuggie Otis from Here Comes Shuggie Otis (1970)
  12. "I Need Love" - Carol Cleveland from Looking Up (1980)
  13. "Walk That Walk, Talk That Talk" - Weldon Irvine from Cosmic Vortex (Justice Divine) (1974)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

State of the Blog (Part 1?)

No posts since October 2024 and then four since August 24? One of these posts is a random playlist and another is review of a Conan the Barbarian eBook? What’s going on around here? What’s the point of this blog? Practice is the point. I love writing, and I never write. I love creation, and I never create. So this is an exercise in commitment. Not that I have commitment issues. Rather, what I regularly commit to rarely fulfills me. I commit to my job, but if I didn’t have to work it, I wouldn’t work it. Two hours a day on the commute circuit? Two hours a day of poisoning the atmosphere and wearing down my body? No thank you. I commit to cleaning the house. To building habits and routines. To feeling productive. But that’s all a racket. True commitment is creating. It’s loving. So here I am, in a hotel room outside of Princeton, New Jersey typing these words and learning more about myself than I knew five minutes ago. I need to commit less often to the arbitrary. I need to commit less ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Conan: Black Starlight (Book Review)

Conan: Black Starlight (2023) - John C. Hocking Before diving into this series of e-books, which promises to capture the spirit of the original Conan tales, I'd read very little Robert E. Howard. I've since started reading the complete Conan stories, and I've found that this one really did nail it. Firstly, props to Hocking for crafting Black Starlight to be entirely accessible to any reader despite being a direct sequel to his own Conan and the Emerald Lotus . He doesn't include an exposition dump, yet he is able to clue the reader in just enough to keep them from getting lost. What you have is an extremely accessible sword-and-sorcery tale that is riveting from start to finish. In an effort to cross the River Styx undetected, Conan and friends end up in what seems to be a ghost town, but they are soon set upon by zombies and richly described demons that attempt to kill the travelers and steal the sorceress Zelandra's supply of E...
Post a Comment
Read more

Album of the Day: Danger - Mallwalker

Danger (2023) - Mallwalker This one's been in my Bandcamp collection for a while, and despite listening a few times and digging it, I didn't realize it's a memorial to Mallwalker's late singer Sarah Danger. I jammed to it a few times and wanted more, which led me to Kerry Cardoza's moving obituary of the young punk. Mallwalker was loud, snotty, quick, and juvenile: everything right with DIY punk through the ages. Here you'll find the deadly serious "Hunt You Down" that speaks to eradicating sex pests from the scene. You'll hear gleeful nihilism with a cover of semi-obscure punk of yesteryear: Flux of Pink Indians' "Tube Disaster" (complete a with snarling faux-British accent). You'll hear the delightfully stupid "Parent Trap" ("Don't kiss your honey when your nose is runny!/You might think it's funny but it's snot !"), which would be unbearable in any other talent's hands. This is not the case ...
Post a Comment
Read more