Laundry Day Mix 8.18.2013

Yesterday was laundry day. Holy god was it laundry day. I feel like I have been wearing the same 6 articles of clothing for the last 4 months. Anyways, I had some time on my hands so i decided to put together a list / mix of the songs that have been on steady rotation for me over the last couple weeks. Enjoy.

01. Kris Defoort Trio | Live In Bruges | Riffing Nic

I’m not really sure how I stumbled upon this album, but i am very glad I did. Kris Defoort is a Belgian avant-garde jazz pianist and composer. Bassist Nicolas Thys is deep (check out his work with Bill Carrothers) and drummer Lander Gyselinck has is own thing together. Great feel. I really dig this group. Highly recommended.

02. Shafiq Husayn | Shafiq En’ A-Free-Ka | Dust & Kisses

Where was I in 2009? This album is killing me right now. I have included the instrumental versions. Shafiq Husayn is a producer and member of the Sa-Ra collective. He has done other work with Erykah Badu and Robert Glasper. Get this album.

03. Derrick Hodge | Live Today | Table Jawn

There is something that is just perfect about this: “We were sitting there arguing about something, I think the Clippers versus the Lakers or something stupid,” Hodge says. “And we all started yelling really loud, and one of us raised our voice and started beating on the table to get our point across. And then somehow, it turned into a beat — where one person grabbed a spoon, another person grabbed a coffee cup and we started doing beats to the point [where] my wife Christian grabbed her phone and recorded it.”

04. 24 Carrot Black | Ghetto: Misfortune’s Wealth | Ghetto: Misfortune’s Wealth

Another album that slipped by me somehow – although I have heard most of this album recontextualized (so have you). The drums on this track in particular kill me. Who plays like that anymore? So sparse. So perfect. Well worth a listen as a whole album.

From Wikipedia:
Dale Warren was the nephew of Berry Gordy’s second wife, Raynoma, often known as “Miss Ray”. He became a conservatory-trainedviolinist, and in 1961 was recruited by his aunt to work as a strings arranger for Motown Records. After working for smaller labels including Shrine, he was recruited by Stax Records where he arranged and orchestrated Isaac Hayes’ albums Hot Buttered Soul, The Isaac Hayes Movement and …To Be Continued.  In 1972, Warren was featured as a composer and conductor at the Wattstax concert.

Around this time, Warren met and took under his wing a young soul group from Cincinnati, Ohio, The Ditalians. He persuaded them to change their name to 24-Carat Black, and wrote and produced their only original recording, the late 1973 concept album Ghetto: Misfortune’s Wealth.

05. Los Lobos | Kiko | Angels with Dirty Faces

I spend a large portion of most days “demoing” out songs and searching for the right feel for things – the right groove, the right changes, ect… This has all of that. I love this song. The DRUMS. Yes. This whole album is great.

06. The RH Factor Feat. D’angelo | Distraction | Bullshit

I am still saddened that he canceled his performance @ First Ave earlier this month. Anyone know what happened? Love this song.

07. Kris Defoort Trio | Live In Bruges | Le lendemain du lendemain  

More of this. Always more of this.

08. Parliament | Mothership Connection | Unfunky UFO

Pure awesome. Bootsy.

09. Prince | Batman | The Future

When I was a kid, I was a total Prince junkie. Total. I had an early babysitter that introduced me to Controversy when I was 5 or 6. Then I saw Purple Rain and shit went crazy.  When I was 7, I got the chicken pox about the same time that my BMG music club cassettes showed up. It was mostly Prince or Prince related (The Glamorous Life & The Jesse Johnson Review).  It was amazing. I still remember hearing Lady Cab Driver for the first time and running in to the kitchen to tell my dad about all of the fucked things Prince was saying. Pops was not impressed. Me? Mind blown.

Batman was the first Prince album that didn’t grab me immediately and it bummed me out. It seemed so dated after hearing It Takes a Nation of Millions and Appetite for Destruction. It was odd to not have prince be “the man” I have warmed up to the rest of the album since, but it took me a while to get into this. “The Future” features the sampled strings of Clare Fischer lifted from the then unreleased 1986 track “Crystal Ball”, and samples the Sounds of Blackness choir. It is a bleak song. I dig it.

10. Eddie Henderson | Sunburst | The Kumquat Kids

Harvey Mason. Boom.

11.  Dorothy Ashby | Afro-Harping | Soul Vibrations 

Apparently afro-harping is something you could do to pass time in 1968. Cool album. Vibe city

12. Shafiq Husayn | Shafiq En’ A-Free-Ka | Lost & Found

Chris Dave & Thundercat. Wow. This is the instrumental. Bilal is on the Vocal release. Seriously. Get this album.

13.  Cameo | Cardiac Arrest | Rigor Mortis

Codpiece funk.

14. J Dilla | Welcome to Detroit | African Rhythms 

I love this bassline. Dilla.

15. George Garzone | Audacity | Solar

Super cool Countdownesqe arrangement of a great song.  

Thanks!

More soon.

c