Wednesday MidDay Medley
Produced and Hosted by Mark Manning
90.1 FM KKFI – Kansas City Community Radio
TEN to NOON Wednesdays – Streaming at KKFI.org

Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Spinning Records With Marion Merritt + A Visit with Jairy

Mark welcomes Marion Merritt, of Records With Merritt, who joins us as “Guest Producer” to share sonic discoveries and information from her musically-encyclopedic-brain. Marion Merritt is our most frequent contributor to WMM. For over 17 years Marion has been bringing music that is just not played on other radio stations. Marion grew up in Los Angeles, and St. Louis. She went to college in Columbia, Missouri. She studied art and musical engineering. After nearly two decades of managing Kansas City’s largest music department store, Marion left the corporate world and went independent. With her partner Ann Stewart, Marion is the proprietor of Records With Merritt, a minority owned business at 1614 Westport Rd. in Kansas City, that features new vinyl. More information at: http://www.recordwithmerritt.com

Marion Merritt, Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

1. “Main Title Instrumental – It’s Showtime Folks”
   from: Orig. Motion Picture Soundtrack All That Jazz / Casablanca / December 20, 1979
   [WMM’s Adopted Theme Song]

2. Dimitri From Paris – “Prologue”
   from: Sacrebleu / Atlantic / 2001

3. Roberta Flack – “What’s Going On”
   from: “What’s Going On” – Single / Rhino Entertainment / February 12, 2021
   [In celebration of Roberta Flack‘s 84th birthday, an unreleased cover of Marvin Gaye’s iconic ‘What’s Going On’ has been unearthed from the vault. Roberta Cleopatra Flack was born February 10, 1937. She is an American singer. She is known for her No. 1 singles “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”, “Killing Me Softly with His Song”, “Feel Like Makin’ Love”; and “Where Is the Love” and “The Closer I Get to You”, two of her many duets with Donny Hathaway. // Flack is the only solo artist to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in two consecutive years: “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” won at the 1973 Grammys and “Killing Me Softly with His Song” won at the 1974 Grammys. // Flack lived with a musical family, born in Black Mountain, North Carolina to parents Laron Flack, a Veterans Administration draftsman, and Irene Council Flack a church organist, on February 10, 1937 (some sources also say 1939 – 1940 Census states Roberta was 3 years old) and raised in Arlington, Virginia. Growing up she often accompanied the choir of Lomax African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church by playing hymns and spirituals on piano, but she also enjoyed going to the “Baptist church down the street” to listen to contemporary gospel music, such as that performed by Mahalia Jackson and Sam Cooke. // When Flack was nine, she started taking an interest in playing the piano, and during her early teens, Flack so excelled at classical piano that Howard University awarded her a full music scholarship. By age 15, she entered Howard University, making her one of the youngest students ever to enroll there. She eventually changed her major from piano to voice, and became an assistant conductor of the university choir. Her direction of a production of Aida received a standing ovation from the Howard University faculty. Flack is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority and was made an honorary member of Tau Beta Sigma by the Eta Delta Chapter at Howard University for her outstanding work in promoting music education. // Roberta Flack became a student teacher at a school near Chevy Chase, Maryland. She graduated from Howard University at 19 and began graduate studies in music, but the sudden death of her father forced her to take a job teaching music and English in Farmville, North Carolina. // Before becoming a professional singer-songwriter, Flack returned to Washington, D.C. and taught at Banneker, Browne, and Rabaut Junior High Schools. She also taught private piano lessons out of her home on Euclid St. NW. During this period, her music career began to take shape on evenings and weekends in Washington, D.C. area night spots. At the Tivoli Club, she accompanied opera singers at the piano. During intermissions, she would sing blues, folk, and pop standards in a back room, accompanying herself on the piano. Later, she performed several nights a week at the 1520 Club, again providing her own piano accompaniment. Around this time, her voice teacher, Frederick “Wilkie” Wilkerson, told her that he saw a brighter future for her in pop music than in the classics. She modified her repertoire accordingly and her reputation spread.[citation needed] Flack began singing professionally after being hired to perform regularly at Mr. Henry’s Restaurant, on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC in 1968. // The atmosphere in Mr. Henry’s was welcoming and the club turned into a showcase for the young music teacher. Her voice mesmerized locals and word spread. A-list entertainers who were appearing in town would come in late at night to hear her sing. // As restaurant owner Henry Yaffe recalled, “She told me if I could give her work there three nights a week, she would quit teaching.” He did and she did. // To meet Roberta’s exacting standards, Yaffe transformed the apartment above the bar into the Roberta Flack Room. “I got the oak paneling from the old Dodge Hotel near Union Station. I put in heavy upholstered chairs, sort of a conservative style from the 50s and an acoustical system designed especially for Roberta. She was very demanding. She was a perfectionist.” // Les McCann discovered Flack singing and playing jazz in a Washington nightclub. He later said on the liner notes of what would be her first album First Take noted below, “Her voice touched, tapped, trapped, and kicked every emotion I’ve ever known. I laughed, cried, and screamed for more…she alone had the voice.” Very quickly, he arranged an audition for her with Atlantic Records, during which she played 42 songs in 3 hours for producer Joel Dorn. In November 1968, she recorded 39 song demos in less than 10 hours. Three months later, Atlantic reportedly recorded Flack’s debut album, First Take, in a mere 10 hours. Flack later spoke of those studio sessions as a “very naive and beautiful approach… I was comfortable with the music because I had worked on all these songs for all the years I had worked at Mr. Henry’s.” // In 1971, Flack participated in the legendary Soul to Soul concert film by Denis Sanders, which was headlined by Wilson Pickett, along with Ike & Tina Turner, Santana, The Staple Singers, Les McCann, Eddie Harris, The Voices of Harlem, and others. The U.S. delegation of musical artists was invited to perform for 14th anniversary of African independence in Ghana. The film was digitally reissued on DVD and CD in 2004 but Flack declined permission for her image and recording to be included for unknown reasons. Her a cappella performance of the traditional spiritual “Oh Freedom” retitled “Freedom Song” on the original Soul to Soul LP soundtrack is only available in the VHS version of the film. // Flack’s cover version of “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” hit number 76 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972. Her Atlantic recordings did not sell particularly well, until actor/director Clint Eastwood chose a song from First Take, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” written by Ewan MacColl, for the sound track of his directorial debut Play Misty for Me; it became the biggest hit of the year for 1972, spending six consecutive weeks at #1 and earning Flack a million-selling Gold disc. It finished the year as Billboard’s top song of 1972. The First Take album also went to #1 and eventually sold 1.9 million copies in the United States. Eastwood, who paid $2,000 for the use of the song in the film, has remained an admirer and friend of Flack’s ever since. It was awarded the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1973. In 1983, she recorded the end music to the Dirty Harry film Sudden Impact at Eastwood’s request. // In 1972, Flack began recording regularly with Donny Hathaway, scoring hits such as the Grammy-winning “Where Is the Love” (1972) and later “The Closer I Get to You” (1978), both million-selling gold singles. Flack and Hathaway recorded several duets together, including two LPs, until Hathaway’s 1979 death. // On her own, Flack scored her second #1 hit in 1973, “Killing Me Softly with His Song” written by Charles Fox, Norman Gimbel and Lori Lieberman. It was awarded both Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female at the 1974 Grammy Awards. Its parent album was Flack’s biggest-selling disc, eventually earning double platinum certification. In 1974, Flack released “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” which became her third and final #1 hit to date on the Hot 100. That same year, Flack sang the lead on a Sherman Brothers song called “Freedom”, which featured prominently at the opening and closing of the movie Huckleberry Finn. Also in that same year, she performed “When We Grow Up” with a teenage Michael Jackson on the 1974 television special, Free to Be… You and Me. Then, in her only film role, she served as the narrator for The Legend of John Henry. // Flack had a 1982 hit single with “Making Love”, written by Burt Bacharach (the title track of the 1982 film of the same name), which reached #13. She began working with Peabo Bryson with more limited success, charting as high as #5 on the R&B chart (plus #16 Pop and #4 Adult Contemporary) with “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love” in 1983. Her next two singles with Bryson, “You’re Looking Like Love To Me” and “I Just Came Here To Dance,” fared better on adult contemporary (AC) radio than on pop or R&B radio. // In 1986, Flack sang the theme song entitled “Together Through the Years” for the NBC television series Valerie, later known as The Hogan Family. The song was used throughout the show’s six seasons. In 1987 Flack supplied the voice of Michael Jackson’s mother in the 18-minute short film for Bad. Oasis was released in 1988 and failed to make an impact with pop audiences, though the title track reached #1 on the R&B chart and a remix of “Uh-Uh Ooh-Ooh Look Out (Here It Comes)” topped the dance chart in 1989. Flack found herself again in the US Top 10 with the hit song “Set the Night to Music”, a 1991 duet with Jamaican vocalist Maxi Priest that peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and #2 AC. Flack’s smooth R&B sound lent itself easily to Easy Listening airplay during the 1970s, and she has had four #1 AC hits. // In 1999, a star with Flack’s name was placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. That same year, she gave a concert tour in South Africa; the final performance was attended by President Nelson Mandela. In 2010, she appeared on the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, singing a duet of “Where Is The Love” with Maxwell. ” In February 2012, Flack released Let it Be Roberta, an album of Beatles covers including “Hey Jude” and “Let It Be”. It was her first recording in over eight years. Flack knew John Lennon and Yoko Ono, as both households moved in 1975 into The Dakota apartment building in New York City, and had apartments across the hall from each other. Flack has stated that she has already been asked to do a second album of Beatles covers. She is currently involved in an interpretative album of the Beatles’ classics. // At age 80, Flack made her most recent recording, Running, the closing credits song of the 2018 feature documentary 3100: Run and Become with music and lyrics by Michael A. Levine. // Flack’s minimalist, classically trained approach to her songs was seen by a number of critics as lacking in grit and uncharacteristic of soul music. According to music scholar Jason King, her work was regularly described with the adjectives “boring”, “depressing”, “lifeless”, “studied”, and “calculated”; AllMusic’s Steve Huey said it has been called “classy, urbane, reserved, smooth, and sophisticated”. In 1971, Village Voice critic Robert Christgau reported that “Flack is generally regarded as the most significant new black woman singer since Aretha Franklin, and at moments she sounds kind, intelligent, and very likable. But she often exhibits the gratuitous gentility you’d expect of someone who says ‘between you and I.'” // Reviewing her body of work from the 1970s, he later argued that the singer “has nothing whatsoever to do with rock and roll or rhythm and blues and almost nothing to do with soul”, comparing her middle-of-the-road aesthetic to Barry Manilow but with better taste, which he believed does not necessarily guarantee more enduring music: “In the long run, pop lies are improved by vulgarity.” // Flack is a member of the Artist Empowerment Coalition, which advocates the right of artists to control their creative properties. She is also a spokeswoman for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; her appearance in commercials for the ASPCA featured “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”. In the Bronx section of New York City, the Hyde Leadership Charter School’s after-school music program is called “The Roberta Flack School of Music” and is in partnership with Flack, who founded the school, which provides free music education to underprivileged students. // Between 1966 and 1972, she was married to Steve Novosel. Together, they had a son, Bernard Wright, who became a successful funk and jazz keyboardist and producer. Flack is the aunt of professional ice skater Rory Flack. // According to DNA analysis, she is of Cameroonian descent. // On April 20, 2018, Flack was appearing onstage at the Apollo Theater at a benefit for the Jazz Foundation of America. She became ill, left the stage, and was rushed to the Harlem Hospital Center. In a statement, her manager announced that Flack had suffered a stroke a few years prior and still was not feeling well, but was “doing fine” and being kept overnight for medical observation. More info at http://www.robertaflack.com]

4. Marcos Valle – “Estrelar”
   from: Marcos Valle / Columbia Records / January 1, 1983 [Reissued on Mr. Bongo / 2021]
   [Marcos Kostenbader Valle (born 14 September 1943)[1] is a Brazilian singer, songwriter, and record producer. He has produced works in many musical styles, including bossa nova, samba, and fusions of rock, soul, jazz, and dance music with Brazilian styles. Valle is regarded as one of the greatest Brazilian artists of all time. // Valle’s talent was evident from his high school years, which coincided with the explosion of the bossa nova movement in Rio. His classmates included future legends such as Edu Lobo and Dori Caymmi, and his composition “Sonho de Maria” was included on the Avanco album by the influential Tamba Trio in 1963. With his brother Paulo Sérgio Valle as his lyricist, he had already built an impressive portfolio of songs, prompting Odeon Records (a subsidiary of EMI) to sign him as a singer. His debut album Samba “Demais”, was released in April 1964. His reputation quickly spread, and his fellow musicians (including Wilson Simonal, Elis Regina, and Nara Leão) lined up to record his songs. A second album, O Compositor e o Cantor, followed in 1965, and featured what would become his most recognisable song, “Samba De Verão” – known in English as “So Nice (Summer Samba)” – along with other hits such as “Deus Brasileiro,” “Gente”, and “A Resposta”. // 1966 brought Valle’s first trip to the United States, where he and his then-wife Anamaria briefly teamed up with Sérgio Mendes in an early version of what would later become Brasil ’66. The threat of being drafted and sent to Vietnam caused Valle to return quickly to Brazil, although the following year saw him back to the United States and enjoying some success, including the release of his U.S. debut album, Braziliance!, on Warner Bros. Records, and several appearances on The Andy Williams Show. Following session work on Verve Records releases by compatriots Walter Wanderley and Astrud Gilberto, the label released Valle’s Samba ’68 featuring English-language versions of songs from his earlier Brazilian releases. // Shortly thereafter, feeling homesick, Valle returned to Brazil and entered a new creative phase. Viola Enluarada (1968) was more mature and introspective, far removed from the frothy feel of Samba ’68. The title track was a duet with Milton Nascimento and became one of Valle’s signature compositions in Brazil. It also betrayed a political consciousness largely absent from Valle’s previous work – he would become more overtly political in the years to come. The album as a whole pointed to a broader range of musical influences (particularly the Northeastern Brazilian styles he had enjoyed listening to since his childhood days) that moved him out of the “strictly ‘bossa nova artists’ club.” // This process continued on 1969’s Mustang Cor de Sangue ou Corcel Cor de Mel, another leap forward that incorporated rock, soul and pop idioms, all stamped with Valle’s own melodic style. His work on the album reflected the sophisticated pop approach of American songwriters such as Jimmy Webb and Burt Bacharach as well as the influence of The Beatles. // Around this time, Valle began writing music for TV programs and telenovelas (soap operas), which over the next few years would become one of the main outlets for his work, along with advertising jingles. Marcos Valle (1970) (often referred to as The Bed Album due to its cover shot of Valle in bed) contained his most adventurous as well as his most rock-influenced and psychedelic music up to that point. Backed by Milton Nascimento’s band Som Imaginario, Valle explored a more eccentric approach, with a number of futuristic tracks and an extended instrumental suite not unlike the work of U.S. composer and producer David Axelrod. Garra (1971) was a career highpoint that summed up his music and still stands as one of the finest pop albums of the era, Brazilian or otherwise. Its effervescent pop, jazz, soul, bossa, and film soundtrack stylings were matched by lyrics that attempted to reconcile Valle’s hippie leanings with his status as a wealthy young musician who was also a successful businessman because of his successful novela soundtracks and corporate advertising accounts. Telenovelas he provided some or all of the music for during this period included O Cafona, Uma Rosa com Amor, Minha Doce Namorada, Pigmalião 70, Os Ossos do Barão, and, most prominently, Selva de Pedra. He also wrote the score for the film O Fabuloso Fittipaldi (1973). // Vento Sul (1972) found Valle long-haired and bearded, and backed by the progressive rock band O Terço. His most experimental effort to date (he even flirted with heavy metal on the song “Mi Hermoza”), it was a sales flop, although it has acquired admirers over the ensuing decades. The following year’s innovative Previsão do Tempo fared better. It was made in conjunction with the band that initially formed to back Valle at live shows and named itself after one of his songs, Azimuth (soon to change the spelling to Azymuth). This album had a notable jazz fusion feel thanks to Valle’s enthusiasm for the Fender Rhodes piano and Azymuth keyboardist Jose Roberto Bertrami’s expertise on the Hammond organ and assorted synthesizers such as the Mini-Moog and the ARP Soloist. This sound would prove a decisive influence on the acid jazz scene in Europe twenty years later. Another innovation in Previsão do Tempo was the use of vocal percussion on the track “Mentira”, ten years before hip-hop artists introduced beatboxing. Valle emulates a drum kit with his voice to perform a pattern and a fill. // From 1972 to 1974, Valle provided the music for Vila Sésamo, Brazil’s version of Sesame Street. In 1974, he also released his final album for Odeon, again self-titled. This album differed yet again from its predecessors in pursuing a piano-pop sound reminiscent in turns of Elton John, Todd Rundgren, and Bread, and replete with elaborate vocal arrangements. // At this point, Valle had grown tired of the strictures of living and working under Brazil’s military dictatorship, then in its darkest and bleakest phase. He therefore decided to return to the U.S., where he spent the rest of the decade. Settling in Los Angeles, he entered into collaborations with artists as diverse as Sarah Vaughan, Chicago, and R&B singer and songwriter Leon Ware. Valle and Ware found themselves especially compatible, and wrote many songs together. Valle appeared on several of Ware’s Elektra Records releases. // Valle returned to Brazil in early 1980 and completed two albums, 1981’s Vontade de Rever Você, and 1983’s Marcos Valle. These albums had prominent boogie, soul and funk influences. These had been present in Valle’s work since the beginning of the 1970s and would be permanent influences on his music, also being solidified by his work with Leon Ware and Chicago. His single “Estrelar” (1982), a boogie dance track marketed as “workout music” at the time, proved to be his best-selling record ever with a total of about 90,000 copies sold. In 1984, he released another boogie single, “Bicicleta”, but his recording label (Som Livre) decided to dismiss its entire cast and concentrate on soap opera LPs and Marcos was unable to complete a new album. His final album from the eighties was 1986’s Tempo da Gente, after which he took a break from recording. Nevertheless he kept on playing gigs (something he did not do in his “Estrelar” days) and writing songs for many different artists such as Tim Maia, Roberto Carlos, and Ricky Martin. // In the meantime, many listeners had become acquainted with Valle’s work of the 1960s and 1970s, and his music started to find favour with European and American fans, as well as connoisseurs of dance music. Valle recorded a new album in 1999, Nova Bossa Nova, which reached back to his roots in bossa nova and added contemporary electronic influences to his music. At this point Valle had signed with the London-based Far Out Recordings, which specialised in Brazilian musicians such as Azymuth (his backing band on 1973’s Previsão do Tempo) and Joyce. In 2001 Valle also produced two other discs, Live in Montreal with guitarist Victor Biglione and a backing band, and Bossa Entre Amigos, a release aimed at the Brazilian market that featured Valle sharing the bill with Brazilian guitarist and songwriter Roberto Menescal and singer-guitarist Wanda Sá. // Escape, and especially its follow-up, Contrasts (released in 2003), showed increased electronic influences, mediated by London-based producer Roc Hunter. Valle showed on these releases that he was able to stay true to the roots of his sound while remaining open to modern influences and integrating them into his style. On 2005, Valle released Jet Samba, an all-instrumental collection featuring reworked compositions from past albums, as well as several new songs. // In 2010, he released Estática, an album which saw him return to a more organic approach, albeit with the use of some analog synthesisers. The record features expansive horn and string arrangements and has been referred to as a “masterpiece” by some. In 2011, he collaborated with the Phenomenal Handclap Band to contribute a version of the song “Tudo o Que Você Podia Ser” to the Red Hot Organization’s fund-raising album Red Hot + Rio 2, proceeds from the sales of which were donated to fight AIDS/HIV. Valle continues to perform in Brazil and throughout Europe.]

5. Marcos Valle, Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad – “Our Train”
   from: Jazz Is Dead 003 / Jazz Is Dead / February 12, 2020
   [From Rolling Stone. March 19, 2020 by Hank Shteamer // Hear Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Adrian Younge Team With Jazz Royalty on New Comp ‘Jazz Is Dead 001’ features new tracks created by the Midnight Hour duo in collaboration with esteemed veterans like Roy Ayers, Gary Bartz // On new comp ‘Jazz Is Dead 001,’ Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad team up with jazz veterans like Roy Ayers, pictured, and Gary Bartz. // In 2017, the Los Angeles promoter Andrew Lojero had an idea for a new jazz concert series. Along with A Tribe Called Quest DJ-producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad and prolific R&B and hip-hop composer-producer Adrian Younge — the duo behind throwback soul project the Midnight Hour and the Luke Cage soundtrack — he began putting together bills featuring esteemed jazz veterans such as Roy Ayers and Gary Bartz, and rising stars of the genre like Keyon Herrold. Lojero dubbed the series Jazz Is Dead. // “I thought the name was bold, provocative and exactly what was needed to stir things up,” Muhammad writes in an email. “For us it’s more than a show; it’s a celebration of our treasured bastions of freedom.” // Now, three years later, the team is furthering the project with the launch of a new label bearing the same name. The first release, Jazz Is Dead 001 — officially out March 20th and premiering below — is a compilation on which Younge and Muhammad team up with their musical heroes to create brand-new tracks. // The track list is studded with artists who have been sampled for years by hip-hop heavyweights such as A Tribe Called Quest, Dr. Dre, Nas, and J Dilla: jazz-funk vibraphonist Ayers; Bartz, the saxophonist, NTU Troop leader, and onetime Miles Davis sideman; Brian Jackson, who collaborated with Gil Scott-Heron on a long string of landmark Seventies albums; bossa nova luminaries João Donato and Marcos Valle; keyboardist Doug Carn, whose Seventies LPs on Oakland’s Black Jazz label are highly prized by crate diggers; and Brazilian jazz-funk outfit Azymuth. // “We want them to feel the love for what they have given us in a time where a spotlight may not be shining brightly on their works,” Muhammad says of the artists featured on Jazz Is Dead 001. // Every one of the tracks — from “Distant Mode,” on which Bartz’s alto sax dances over a simmering groove to “Down Deep,” a beautifully chill ballad featuring Carn’s potent Hammond B3 organ — was a full collaboration between the featured artist, and Muhammad and Younge, both of whom play keys, guitar, bass, and more on the record. (Various other musicians contribute drums, vocals, horns, and keys throughout.) A balmy title track, “Jazz Is Dead,” by Muhammad and Younge’s own the Midnight Hour, rounds out the album. // “To see Ali with Gary Bartz or João Donato, two artists that meant so much to A Tribe Called Quest, is crazy,” Younge writes, reflecting on the sessions that went into Jazz Is Dead 001. “When they sampled their compositions, they never thought it would come full circle. I never thought I’d be sitting in the studio with Marcos Valle or Lonnie Liston, writing with Brian Jackson and Azymuth; writing with Jean Carne and Doug Carn. It’s insane. It’s as if my career was meant for this moment.” // “Seeing someone that you sampled long ago blowing fresh notes onto something we have written just for them was emotional,” Muhammad adds. “Admiring the way they are playing right in front of your eyes when at one time it was a dream to wonder what they were thinking about when they recorded their songs. Feeling humbled at the respect they give us for the music that we have made for them. Wondering how this wave of new music will be transferred by the next generation.” // Jazz Is Dead 001 is merely a prelude for the label. Later this year, they’ll reveal seven full-length albums, one featuring each of the guests heard on the comp. They’re also planning live shows featuring artists from their roster and other like-minded musicians. To learn more about all upcoming Jazz Is Dead activities, visit: ww.jazzisdead.co or http://www.instagram.com/jazzisdead%5D

6. Amythyst Kiah – “Black Myself”
   from: Black Myself – Single / Rounder Records / February 19, 2021
   [With an unforgettable voice that’s both unfettered and exquisitely controlled, the Tennessee-bred singer/ songwriter expands on the uncompromising artistry she most recently revealed as part of Our Native Daughters, an all-women-of-color supergroup whose Kiah-penned standout “Black Myself” earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best American Roots Song and won Song of the Year at the 2019 Folk Alliance International Awards. When met with the transcendent quality of her newly elevated sound, what emerges is an extraordinary vessel for Kiah’s songwriting: a raw yet nuanced examination of grief, alienation, and the hard-won triumph of total self-acceptance. // This new studio version of “Black Myself” is a glorious collision of two vastly different worlds: the iconoclastic alt-rock that first sparked her musical passion, and the roots/old-time-music scene. Produced by Tony Berg (Phoebe Bridgers, Amos Lee, Andrew Bird) the track was recorded at the legendary Sound City Studios in Los Angeles. More info at: http://www.amythystkiah.com]

7. Rhiannon Giddens – “Avalon (with Francesco Turrisi)”
   from: They’re Calling Me Home (with Francesco Turrisi) / Nonesuch Records / April 9, 2021
   [Rhiannon Giddens (born February 21, 1977) is an American musician. She is a founding member of the country, blues and old-time music band Carolina Chocolate Drops, where she is the lead singer, fiddle player, and banjo player. // Giddens is a native of Greensboro, North Carolina, an alumna of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, and a 2000 graduate of Oberlin Conservatory at Oberlin College, where she studied opera. // In addition to her work with the Grammy-winning Chocolate Drops, Giddens has released two solo albums: Tomorrow Is My Turn (2015) and Freedom Highway (2017). Her 2019 album, There Is No Other, is a collaboration with Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi. Her latest album, They’re Calling Me Home (2021) continues her collaboration with Francesco Turrisi. She appears in the Smithsonian Folkways collection documenting Mike Seeger’s final trip through Appalachia in 2009, Just Around The Bend: Survival and Revival in Southern Banjo Styles – Mike Seeger’s Last Documentary (2019). In 2014, she participated in the T Bone Burnett-produced project titled The New Basement Tapes along with several other musicians, which set a series of recently discovered Bob Dylan lyrics to newly composed music. The resulting album, Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes, was a top-40 Billboard album. // In 2005, Giddens, who at that time was spending time competing in Scottish music competitions (specializing in the Gaelic lilting tradition, also known as mouth music), attended the Black Banjo Then and Now Gathering, in Boone, North Carolina. There she met Dom Flemons and Sule Greg Wilson. The three started playing together professionally as a “postmodern string band”, Sankofa Strings. During that same time period, Giddens was also a regular caller at local contra dances and featured in a Celtic music band called Gaelwynd. Later in 2005, after both Gaelwynd and Sankofa Strings had released CD albums, Giddens and Flemons teamed up with other musicians and expanded the Sankofa Strings sound into what was to become the Grammy winning Carolina Chocolate Drops. // In 2007, Giddens contributed fiddle, banjo, “flat-footin'” dancing and additional vocals to Talitha MacKenzie’s album Indian Summer. // Performing as a soprano, Giddens and mezzo-soprano Cheryse McLeod Lewis formed a duo called Eleganza to release a CD in 2009. Because I Knew You… consists of classical, religious, theater, and movie music. Giddens and Lewis were middle school classmates who reconnected after college while working in the same office. The friends started singing together in 2003, but did not begin recording until 2008. // As of November 12, 2013, Giddens became the only original member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. // In 2013, Giddens began pushing further into her solo career. Giddens participated in “Another Day, Another Time”, a concert inspired by the Coen brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis. Many critics have stated that Giddens had the best performance at what was called “the concert of the year”. Late in 2013, Giddens contributed the standout a cappella track “We Rise” to the LP We Are Not For Sale: Songs of Protest by the NC Music Love Army – a collective of activist musicians from North Carolina founded by Jon Lindsay and Caitlin Cary. Giddens’ protest song joins contributions from many other Carolina musical luminaries on the Lindsay-produced compilation (11/26/13 via Redeye Distribution), which was created to support the NC NAACP and the Moral Monday movement. // In early 2014 Giddens recorded for Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes alongside Elvis Costello, Marcus Mumford, Taylor Goldsmith & Jim James. The album was produced by T-Bone Burnett and is a compilation of partial, unreleased lyrics written by Bob Dylan. // In February 2015, Giddens released her debut solo album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, on Nonesuch Records. Also produced by Burnett, the album includes songs made famous by Patsy Cline, Odetta, Dolly Parton, Nina Simone, among others. The Wall Street Journal said the album “confirms the arrival of a significant talent whose voice and distinctive approach communicate the simmering emotion at the core of the songs.” Additionally, the Los Angeles Times called the album “a collection that should solidify her status as one of the bright new lights in pop music.” // In July 2015, she had a big stage at world music folk and dance festival at TFF Rudolstadt in Germany. Her performance was also broadcast live by the German national public radio Deutschlandfunk. Rhiannon appears on Jon Lindsay’s single “Ballad of Lennon Lacy” (Redeye Distribution, August 21). The song tackles the mysterious hanging death of Lennon Lacy, a black teen from rural Bladenboro, North Carolina. The case is currently under investigation by the FBI, and widely suspected to be a lynching. // On November 27, 2015, to coincide with the Black Friday Record Store Day event, Giddens released Factory Girl (EP) on Nonesuch Records, which contained music culled from the same T Bone Burnett–produced sessions that yielded Tomorrow Is My Turn. A digital version of Factory Girl was made available December 11, 2015. The sessions for the album and EP took place in Los Angeles and Nashville, with a multi-generational group of players assembled by Burnett. Musicians on Factory Girl include Burnett; fiddle player Gabe Witcher and double bassist Paul Kowert of Punch Brothers; percussionist Jack Ashford of Motown’s renowned Funk Brothers; drummer Jay Bellerose; guitarist Colin Linden; veteran Nashville session bassist Dennis Crouch; and Giddens’s Carolina Chocolate Drops touring band-mates, multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins and beat-boxer Adam Matta. // Rhiannon appeared on Jools Holland’s Hootenanny on December 31, 2015, shown on BBC Two. She performed songs from her 2015 album Tomorrow Is My Turn, including “Waterboy” and a cover of “St James Infirmary Blues” with Tom Jones. // She was selected to take part in Transatlantic Sessions in January 2016. This collaboration between American and Celtic musicians is a coveted honor. The ensemble performed as part of Celtic Connections in Glasgow, and a short UK/Irish tour. Her performances on the tour included the stirring tribute to David Bowie “It Ain’t Easy”. Later in the year, Giddens became the first American to be honoured as Folk Singer of the Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Later in the year, it was also announced that she would be receiving the prestigious Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass. Winning this award makes Giddens both the only woman and the only person of color to receive the prize in its six-year history. In 2016, it was also announced that Giddens and the Carolina Chocolate Drops would be inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. // In 2017, Giddens became only the fourth musician to perform at both the Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals. Later that year, she delivered the keynote address at the World of Bluegrass Business Conference 2017. According to Bluegrass Today, “Giddens shattered long-held stereotypes…By the time she was done, she had systematically dismantled the myth of a homogenous Appalachia.” In June 2017, Giddens appeared in the multi award-winning documentary The American Epic Sessions, directed by Bernard MacMahon, where she recorded “One Hour Mama” and English folk ballad “Pretty Saro”, on the restored first electrical sound recording system from the 1920s. Both performances were released on Music from The American Epic Sessions: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. Upon hearing the playback of these direct-to-disc recordings, she exclaimed “you feel like your soul is coming out of the speaker.” // In October 2017, Giddens was named one of the 2017 class of MacArthur “Genius” Fellows. The organization noted, “Giddens’s drive to understand and convey the nuances, complexities, and interrelationships between musical traditions is enhancing our musical present with a wealth of sounds and textures from the past.” Rhiannon further demonstrated the broad range of her musical interests with several subsequent projects. In early November, she performed as a soprano with the Louisville Orchestra in Teddy Abrams’ multimedia tribute to Muhammad Ali, The Greatest. A week later, she sang with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra for their live recording of American Originals: 1918, which explored the early development of jazz during the post WWI era. In January 2018, Giddens co-produced (with Dirk Powell) Songs of Our Native Daughters for Smithsonian Folkways. Written and recorded with fellow artists Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell, “The album confronts the ways we are culturally conditioned to avoid talking about America’s history of slavery, racism, and misogyny.” Also in early 2018, the Nashville Ballet announced that Rhiannon Giddens has been commissioned to write the music for Lucy Negro, Redux, a new dance choreographed by artistic director, Paul Vasterling. Based on the book by Caroline Randall Williams, its premise is that Shakespeare’s Dark Lady was of African descent. The ballet premiered in February 2019. Then in March 2018, Giddens fulfilled a previously announced engagement as guest curator for the Cambridge Folk Festival by inviting Peggy Seeger, Kaia Kater, Birds of Chicago, Amythyst Kiah, and Yola Carter to perform at the event. // Giddens recorded vocals for Silo Songs, an audio installation created by composer Brad Wells for Hancock Shaker Village. She contributed a song, “Mountain Hymn”, to the popular video game Red Dead Redemption 2 which was released in October 2018. The song was written with Daniel Lanois. Beginning in December 2018, she is hosting a podcast called Aria Code with Rhiannon Giddens produced by the Metropolitan Opera and WQXR-FM. The program examines why individual arias have a lasting impact on audiences and how singers prepare to perform them. In 2019, Giddens released two studio albums: Songs of Our Native Daughters with Allison Russell, Leyla McCalla and Amythyst Kiah, and There Is No Other with Italian musician Francesco Turrisi. // For the 2020 Spoleto Festival USA, Giddens was commissioned to create an opera based on the autobiography of Omar Ibn Said, an enslaved Muslim-African man who was brought to Charleston, South Carolina in 1807. Giddens wrote the libretto and served as lead composer with help from co-composer Michael Abels. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world premiere of Omar was postponed until 2021. In July 2020, Giddens was named Artistic Director of the cross-cultural music organization Silkroad (arts organization). The position had been vacant since 2017 when Silkroad’s founder, Yo-Yo Ma, stepped down. // On August 17, 2020, Giddens guest-hosted the BBC Radio 2 Blues Show whilst its regular host Cerys Matthews was on her holidays. // Giddens earned an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for her lasting impact on the UNCG community and work in music. She sang “Calling me Home” by Alice Gerrard at a virtual commencement after accepting the degree in December 2020

10:30 – Underwriting

8. Shabaka and the Ancestors – “Go My Heart, Go To Heaven”
   from: We Are Sent Here By History / Impulse Records / March 13, 2020
   [Shabaka Hutchings is a British jazz saxophonist, clarinettist and band leader. He leads the bands Sons of Kemet and Shabaka and the Ancestors. He is also a member of The Comet Is Coming, performing under the stage name King Shabaka. Hutchings has played saxophone with the Sun Ra Arkestra, Floating Points, Mulatu Astatke, Polar Bear, Melt Yourself Down, Heliocentrics and Zed-U. // Hutchings was born in London, but moved to Birmingham at the age of two. From the age of six he was raised in his parents’ native Barbados. There, as a nine-year-old, he picked up the clarinet and practised along to the hip hop verses of Nas, Notorious BIG and Tupac, as well as the rhythms of Crop Over. He returned to England to receive a classical-music degree on the instrument. In London he joined the Tomorrow’s Warriors programme, a blues workshop led by British bassist Gary Crosby, Janine Irons and expat New Orleans trumpeter Abram Wilson, where Hutchings met many of his future collaborators in the burgeoning South East London jazz scene. // Hutchings and many of his contemporaries shrug off the “jazz” label, eschewing the restriction especially as the many groups reflect influences ranging from acid house and drum & bass, to hiphop and soca, with less of a blues influence than jazz, which reviewers have noted marks a distinction between the London scene as represented by Hutchings and American jazz music. // Shabaka and the Ancestors debuted in 2016 with the album Wisdom of Elders on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings label. The Comet Is Coming, a trio with keyboardist Dan Leavers and drummer Max Hallett, received a Mercury Prize nomination for their debut album Channel the Spirits, released on The Leaf Label in April 2016. Sons of Kemet, a quartet of saxophone, tuba and two drummers, launched with the album Burn in 2013, followed up with Lest We Forget What We Came Here to Do in 2015, both on the Naim Jazz label, before moving to Impulse! for Your Queen Is a Reptile in 2018, which coincided with a breakout into wider public consciousness of the UK jazz scene, captured by the attention on the Hutchings-directed compilation We Out Here on Brownswood. // In November 2018, Hutchings curated part of the programme for the Dutch Le Guess Who? festival. // In March 2020, Shabaka and the Ancestors released We Are Sent Here by History under Impulse! Records.]

9. Sons Of Kemet – “Let The Circle Be Unbroken”
   from: Black To The Future / Impulse Records / May 14, 2021
   [Sons of Kemet are a British jazz group formed by Shabaka Hutchings, Oren Marshall, Seb Rochford, and Tom Skinner. The group uses saxophone and clarinet (Hutchings), tuba (Cross), and two drummers (Skinner, Hick) to make their music and plays a mixture of jazz, rock, Caribbean folk, and African music. Cross replaced Oren Marshall on tuba. // On September 9, 2013, Sons of Kemet released their debut album Burn, which received the Arts Desk Album of the Year 2013 and a nomination for Gilles Peterson’s Album of the Year. Their next album Lest We Forget What We Came Here to Do received the same nomination for the year 2015. The group won Best Jazz Act at the 2013 MOBO Awards. // On March 30, 2018, Impulse! released the band’s third album, Your Queen Is a Reptile. It was nominated for the 2018 Mercury Prize. // Discography: Burn (Naim, 2013) // Lest We Forget What We Came Here to Do (Naim, 2015) // Your Queen Is a Reptile (Impulse!, 2018) // Black to the Future (Impulse!, 2021)]

10. Female Species – “Tale of My Lost Love”
    from: Tale of My Lost Love / Numero Group / April 9, 2021
    [This is the story of two sisters who nurtured a dream for half a century and never let it die. Vicki and Ronni Gossett launched their musical career as teenagers in Whittier, California in 1966. They called themselves the Female Species. Members came and went; their base of operations moved to Las Vegas, back to LA, and over to Nashville. Along the way their sound transformed from garage rock to lounge to country-pop, the only constant being an innate mastery of hooks and harmony. These ladies had it. // Along the way, they crossed paths with The Carpenters, Paul Revere & The Raiders, The Judds, and seemingly half of the industry’s power players, rebuffing all untoward advances, focused always on their craft. In the 1980s they became staff songwriters for music publishing companies in the hit-making business. Relentless pushing landed them a once in a lifetime audition before the court of RCA’s top executives — the kind of new talent showcase that almost never happens after 30. Vicki and Ronni were by then in their 40s. // Tale of My Lost Love is the whole story from beginning to end of two sisters who gave everything to their dream, yet never made a single record… until now. Sometimes great music just isn’t enough to break through — until it is. Numero Group is thrilled and proud, at long last, to introduce Female Species. More info at: http://www.femalespecie.bandcamp.com]

11. Clairo – “Blouse”
    from: Sling / Clairo – Fader – Republic / July 16, 2021
    [On her second album, reluctant Gen Z ambassador Clairo turns back the clock, embracing classic touchstones of 1970s folk. // Claire Cottrill was born August 18, 1998. She is known professionally as Clairo, and is from Carlisle, Massachusetts. Her fame escalated after releasing “Pretty Girl” in 2017, a lo-fi-produced song that attracted over 35 million views on YouTube. She credited her sudden popularity to the website’s algorithm system. Claire was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the daughter of marketing executive Geoff Cottrill. According to her, “Pretty Girl” was inspired by 1980s pop music, and that although she was tagged with the “bedroom pop” label, it was not her intention to make that style of music. After the popularity of “Pretty Girl”, Clairo signed a record contract with Fader. Clairo’s father, Geoff Cottrill, formerly held top positions at Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Converse, and MusiCares a philanthropic organization associated with the Grammy Awards. Between 2015 and 2017, he was president of American operations at MullenLowe Lintas Group. Claire began recording covers at the age of 13 and taught herself guitar from Internet tutorials. During this time, MTV contacted her to record a song to be used as background music for one of their shows, but the song was never used. Under the names Clairo and DJ Baby Benz, she began posting music to Bandcamp while in high school before beginning to post covers and songs in addition to DJ mixes of rap music on SoundCloud. She also maintained a YouTube channel where she would post covers and short films. In 2017, she began attending Syracuse University. Clairo’s “Pretty Girl” was recorded for an indie rock compilation benefiting the Transgender Law Center. According to her, she recorded the track “using the resources around me which were pretty shitty. I used like a little keyboard that I had and I was really into ’80s pop music — my mom is obsessed with it — so it kind of inspired me to do something like that.” The video also became popular on vaporwave-centric Facebook groups. Another video that was uploaded to YouTube a month earlier, “Flamin Hot Cheetos”, garnered 3 million views by July 2018. The success of “Pretty Girl” led to interest from major labels such as Capitol, RCA, and Columbia. Clairo signed a 12-song record contract with Fader Label. According to The New York Times, this was made possible by her father’s connection to Jon Cohen, co-founder of The Fader and an executive at the publication’s marketing agency, Cornerstone. He signed Clairo to the magazine’s associated record label. Clairo is managed by Mike Ahern and Jimmy Bui. “The whole ‘do-it-yourself’ attitude is everything that I’m about. […] I think it’s really important to be genuine and authentic with everything you do.” —Claire Cottrill, 2017 interview with Fader. In October 2017, an article about Clairo was published by Fader, in which she stated that she was most inspired by Brockhampton, and cited their “do-it-yourself ‘attitude'” as her ethos. Some online communities criticized her comments as disingenuous, arguing that her professional career was borne from nepotism, and thus she should not be considered a true DIY musician. They accused her of being an “industry plant”, in other words, an artist who has backing from the music industry to advance or kick-start their careers, but are deceptively presented as an independent start-up. Such discussion appeared mostly on Reddit. One of the widely shared posts lamented that, although the user enjoyed her music and thought she was an “inspiring” songwriter, they could not fathom why none of her articles and interviews acknowledged her father’s significant industry connections. Clairo described the “industry plant” accusation as sexist and denied that there was “a man behind my success”. The Ringer contributor Lindsay Zoladz commented that it would have likely been more difficult for Clairo to get a record contract without her father’s connections, and that “it is impossible to imagine Clairo’s success in a Gen X world, so vital is the internet to her appeal.” On May 25, 2018, Fader Label released Clairo’s debut record, titled Diary 001. In her review for Pitchfork, Fader contributor Sasha Geffen wrote that the EP ought to subside the “legions of naysayers who dismissed her as a one-hit fluke or an industry plant.” By then, “Pretty Girl” had amassed more than 15 million views on YouTube. A piece written by Joe Coscarelli of The New York Times said that the work: “bridges both worlds, building on the coy, understated bedroom pop of ‘Pretty Girl’ and ‘Flamin Hot Cheetos’ toward sturdier numbers like ‘4EVER’ and ‘B.O.M.D.'”. That same month, she announced a headlining tour throughout North America, opening for Dua Lipa on multiple dates. Her July performance at the Bowery Ballroom in New York was a sold-out show. In October 2018, she performed at Lollapalooza. She is scheduled to perform at Coachella 2019. Clairo played Middle of The Map Fest, October, 4 at The Uptown Theatre, 3700 Broadway, KCMO with Snail Mail, Beabadoobee, and Hello Yellow.]

10:58 – Station ID

12. Terry Pollard Quintet – “The More I See You”
    from: Terry Pollard / Bethlehem Records / March 1, 2015 [orig. 1955]
    [Terry Pollard (August 15, 1931 – December 16, 2009) was an American jazz pianist and vibraphonist active in the Detroit jazz scene of the 1940s and 1950s. She has been described as a “major player who was inexplicably overlooked.” // Pollard began her career by collaborating with other Detroit musicians, such as Billy Mitchell (and Elvin Jones, in the house band at the Blue Bird Inn), Johnny Hill, and the Emmitt Slay Trio. She was discovered by Terry Gibbs and toured with him in the early 1950s, playing piano and vibraphone. They recorded several albums, including Terry Gibbs Quartet – Featuring Terry Pollard. Pollard appeared with Gibbs on an episode of The Tonight Show hosted by Steve Allen. Her collaborations with Gibbs from 1953 to 1957 marked the height of her career. // Pollard also performed with John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Nat King Cole, Dinah Washington, Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald. // Pollard recorded a self-titled solo album for Bethlehem Records in 1955 and won DownBeat magazine’s New Artist award in 1956. Pollard retired from her full-time music career shortly thereafter in order to raise a family, but she continued to play locally in Detroit and performed with artists including Diana Ross and the Supremes. She was inducted into the Michigan Jazz Hall of Fame. // Her contributions to the mid-century Detroit jazz scene were recognized in the book Before Motown: A History of Jazz in Detroit 1920-1960, by Lars Bjorn and Jim Gallert.]

13. Terry Gibbs – “Lonely Dreams”
    from: Terry Gibbs / Verve / 1955 [Reissued by Verve – UMG / 2001]
    [Terry Gibbs (born Julius Gubenko; October 13, 1924) is an American jazz vibraphonist and band leader. // He has performed or recorded with Tommy Dorsey, Chubby Jackson, Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, Alice Coltrane, Louie Bellson, Charlie Shavers, Mel Tormé, Buddy DeFranco, and others. Gibbs also worked in film and TV studios in Los Angeles.// In the 1950–1951 season, Gibbs was a popular guest on Star Time on the DuMont Television Network. Thereafter, he was a regular in 1953–1954 on NBC’s Judge for Yourself. // In the late 1950s, he appeared on NBC’s The Steve Allen Show, on which he regularly played lively vibraphone duets with the entertainer and composer. In 1997, he appeared on Steve Allen’s 75th Birthday Celebration on PBS. Gibbs was also the bandleader on the short-lived That Regis Philbin Show. As an instrumentalist, together with his big band, the Dream Band, Gibbs has won prestigious polls, such as those of Downbeat and Metronome. // When Gibbs moved from New York to California in 1958 he began planning for his next big band album. In early 1959 he booked extended residencies at two Los Angeles night clubs, the Seville and the Sundown, for what became known as the Dream Band. // The band usually played on a Sunday, Monday or Tuesday night when the cream of Hollywood jazz and studio musicians would be available. The core band always remained stable with Mel Lewis holding down the drum chair. // Some of the key players were lead altoist Joe Maini, tenor saxists Bill Holman and Med Flory, trumpeters Al Porcino and Conte Candoli and trombonists Frank Rosolino and Bob Enevoldsen. // New arrangements were commissioned from Bill Holman, Marty Paich, Med Flory, Manny Albam and Al Cohn, among others, to feature Gibbs’ vibes in front of the band. The band released four albums from 1959 to 1961. // In the mid 1960s, Gibbs opened a music store in Canoga Park, California, with former Benny Goodman drummer Mel Zelnick. Terry Gibbs and Mel Zelnick Music Stop was also the first teaching facility of the drum guru Freddie Gruber[6] and Henry Bellson, brother of Louie.]

14. Mdou Moctar – “Chismiten”
    from: Afrique Victime / Matador / May 21, 2021
    [From http://www.mdoumoctar.bandcamp.com: With “Afrique Victime” the prodigious Tuareg guitarist and songwriter rips a new hole in the sky – boldly reforging contemporary Saharan music and “rock music” by melding guitar pyrotechnics, full-blast noise, and field recordings with poetic meditations on love, religion, women’s rights, inequality, and Western Africa’s exploitation at the hands of colonial powers. // If “Ilana” was a late ’60s early ’70s ZZ Top and Black Sabbath record – “Afrique Victime” is mid-’70s to early ’80s Van Halen meets Black Flag meets Black Uhuru. The ferocity of Moctar’s electric guitar and the band’s hypnotic rhythm section are on awe-inspiring display “Chismiten” and the mournful yet incandescent title track. Elsewhere, Moctar finds inspiration in highlighting lesser-known facets of the group: “While people have gotten to know Mdou Moctar as a rock band, there is a whole different set of music with this band done on acoustic guitars, which we wanted to incorporate into this album in order to go through a sonic journey,” he says. Mdou pays homage to one of his heroes Abdallah Ag Oumbadagou, the legendary Niger musician and political revolutionary, on songs “Ya Habibti” and “Layla”. “Abdallah was a contemporary of Tinariwen and helped to pioneer the sound of Tuareg guitar music blended with drum machines and electronic sounds”. // “Afrique Victime” sounds and feels like a Tuareg hand reaching down from the sky, and we are very lucky for this chance to get lifted.]

15. Tinariwen – “Kel Tinawen (feat. Cass McCombs)”
    rom: Amadjar / Wedge SARL – Anti Records / September 6, 2019
    [Tinariwen is a group of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali. The band was formed in 1979 in Tamanrasset, Algeria, but returned to Mali after a peace accord between 1990 and 1995. The group first started to gain a following outside the Sahara region in 2001 with the release of the album The Radio Tisdas Sessions, and with performances at Festival au Désert in Mali and the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. // Their popularity rose internationally with the release of the critically acclaimed album Aman Iman in 2007. NPR calls the group “music’s true rebels”, AllMusic deems the group’s music “a grassroots voice of rebellion”, and Slate calls the group “rock ‘n’ roll rebels whose rebellion, for once, wasn’t just metaphorical”. // Tinariwen was founded by Ibrahim Ag Alhabib who, at age four witnessed the execution of his father, a Tuareg rebel, during a 1963 uprising in Mali. As a child he saw a western film in which a cowboy played a guitar. Ag Alhabib built his own guitar out of a “plastic water can, a stick and some fishing wire”, according to future bandmate Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni. Ag Alhabib first lived in Algeria in refugee camps near Bordj Badji Mokhtar and in the deserts around the southern city of Tamanrasset, where he was given a guitar from a local Arab man. // Later, Ag Alhabib resided with other Tuareg exiles in Libya and Algeria. He acquired his first real acoustic guitar in 1979. During this period he formed a band with Alhassane Ag Touhami and brothers Inteyeden Ag Ablil and Liya Ag Ablil to play at parties and weddings. While the group had no official name, people began to call them Kel Tinariwen, which in the Tamashek language translates as “The People of the Deserts” or “The Desert Boys.” // In 1980 Libyan ruler Muammar al-Gaddafi put out a decree inviting all young Tuareg men who were living illegally in Libya to receive full military training. Gaddafi dreamed of forming a Saharan regiment, made up of young Tuareg fighters, to further his territorial ambitions in Chad, Niger, and elsewhere. Ag Alhabib and his bandmates answered the call and received nine months of training. During such exercises, the band met additional Tuareg musicians and formed a loosely-organized collective, now known as Tinariwen, to create songs about the issues facing the Tuareg people. They built a makeshift studio and vowed to record music for free for anyone who supplied a blank cassette tape. The resulting homemade cassettes were traded widely throughout the Sahara region. // In 1989 the collective left Libya and moved to Ag Alhabib’s home country of Mali, where he returned to his home village of Tessalit for the first time in 26 years. In 1990 the Tuareg people of Mali revolted against the government, with some members of Tinariwen participating as rebel fighters. After a peace agreement known as the Tamanrasset Accords was reached in January 1991, the musicians left the rebel movement and devoted themselves to music full-time. In 1992 some of the members of Tinariwen went to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire to record a cassette at JBZ studios. They played occasional gigs for far-flung Tuareg communities throughout the Sahara region, gaining word-of-mouth popularity among the Tuareg people. // In 1998 Tinariwen came to the attention of the French world music ensemble Lo’Jo and their manager Philippe Brix. That group traveled to a music festival in Bamako and met two members of the Tinariwen collective. In 1999, some members of Tinariwen traveled to France and performed with Lo’Jo under the name Azawad. The two groups organized the January 2001 Festival au Désert in Essakane, Mali with Tinariwen as the headliners, and in cooperation with the Belgian Sfinks Festival. Their debut commercial album, The Radio Tisdas Sessions, was recorded by Justin Adams and Jean-Paul Romann at the radio station of the same name in Kidal, Mali (the only Tamashek-speaking station in the region) and released in 2001. It was Tinariwen’s first recording to be released outside of northern Africa. // Since 2001 Tinariwen have toured regularly in Europe, North America, Japan, and Australia. Their 2004 album Amassakoul (“The Traveller” in Tamashek) and the 2007 album Aman Iman (“Water Is Life” in Tamashek) were released worldwide and gained the notice of celebrity fans including Carlos Santana, Robert Plant, Bono and the Edge of U2, Thom Yorke of Radiohead, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Henry Rollins, Brian Eno, and members of TV On The Radio. In 2005, Tinariwen received a BBC Award for World Music, and in 2008, they received Germany’s prestigious Praetorius Music Prize. The band’s 2009 album Imidiwan: Companions was recorded in a mobile studio by Jean-Paul Romann in the village of Tessalit, Mali. The band appeared at Glastonbury in 2009. // Also since 2001 the Tinariwen collective has added several younger Tuareg musicians who did not live through the military conflicts experienced by the older members but have contributed to the collective’s multi-generational evolution. New members include bassist Eyadou Ag Leche, percussionist Said Ag Ayad, guitarist Elaga Ag Hamid, guitarist Abdallah Ag Lamida, and vocalists Wonou Walet Sidati and the Walet Oumar sisters. // In 2010 Tinariwen represented Algeria in the opening ceremony of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, and completed a lengthy American tour. The band released their fifth album Tassili on August 30, 2011. Tassili included guest appearances by Nels Cline, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio. Ian Brennan was a producer on the album. The album later won the Award for Best World Music Album at the 54th Grammy Awards. In July 2011, the collective set out for a new world tour that included performances at the End of the Road Festival in September and All Tomorrow’s Parties in December. Tinariwen appeared on The Colbert Report on November 29, 2011 with Adebimpe and Malone to play “Tenere Taqqim Tossam” and “Imidiwan Ma Tenam” from Tassili. Group members Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, Alhassane Ag Touhami, and Eyadou Ag Leche participated in a translated interview with Colbert. // In early 2012 there was another Tuareg rebellion in Tinariwen’s home region of northern Mali, with the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) declaring independence and forming the short-lived unrecognized state Azawad. In August 2012, another party in the rebellion, the militant Islamist group Ansar Dine, denounced the presence of popular music in the territory and stated “We do not want Satan’s music. In its place will be Quranic verses. Sharia demands this. What God commands must be done.” Tinariwen was targeted specifically during this campaign. In a January 2013 confrontation, most band members evaded capture, except Abdallah Ag Lamida who was abducted while trying to save his guitars. A few weeks later, Tinariwen reported that Ag Lamida had been released and was “safe and free.” // During Ag Lamida’s captivity, several other members of Tinariwen fled from the conflict and resettled temporarily in the southwestern United States to record their sixth album, Emmaar, with guests including Josh Klinghoffer, Fats Kaplin, Matt Sweeney, and Saul Williams. Recording took place at Joshua Tree National Park in California, which features a desert environment similar to that of Tinariwen’s homeland. Emmaar was released worldwide in February 2014. Tinariwen then embarked on a tour of Europe and North America, but without group leader Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, who decided to remain in Mali to attend to family issues caused by the latest political crisis. Bassist Eyadou Ag Leche assumed the role of musical director, and a new singer/guitarist named Iyad Abderrahmane was recruited to perform Ag Alhabib’s parts during the tour. In 2016, the group returned to Joshua Tree National Park to record their seventh album, Elwan, with additional recording in France and Morocco. The album was released in February 2017 and features guest appearances by Matt Sweeney, Kurt Vile, Mark Lanegan, and Alain Johannes. Tinariwen then embarked on an American tour with Dengue Fever as support. The group also toured Europe and Asia in 2017, and toured Australia, New Zealand, and North America in 2018. // Upon returning from the international tour in support of Elwan in 2018, Tinariwen were unable to return to their home area in northern Mali due to ongoing sectarian violence and threats from Islamist militants. The group instead decamped in Morocco and embarked on a multi-month journey through Western Sahara and Mauritania, collaborating with local musicians at several stops along the way and writing songs while camped out in the desert. Their eighth full-length album Amadjar was recorded outdoors with mobile equipment near Nouakchott and was released on September 6, 2019. Amadjar features guest appearances by Noura Mint Seymali, Micah Nelson, Cass McCombs, Stephen O’Malley, Warren Ellis, and Rodolphe Burger. // The Tinariwen sound is primarily guitar-driven in the style known as assouf among the Tuareg people. The Tinariwen guitar style has its roots in West African music and other traditional styles practiced by the Tuareg and Berber peoples, and has often been categorized as “desert blues”. Tinariwen was also influenced by traditional Malian musicians, most notably Ali Farka Touré, and regional pop singers like Rabah Driassa. While the Tinariwen style is possibly a distant relative of blues music, via West African music, members of Tinariwen claim to have never heard actual American blues music until they began to travel internationally in the early 2000s. Tinariwen was also influenced by American and British rock bands whose bootlegged albums had made it to the Sahara region, such as Dire Straits, Santana, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, and Jimi Hendrix. // Tinariwen has been named as a formative influence on a growing Tuareg rock scene, made up of younger musicians who were not rebels like the members of Tinariwen but have experienced their region’s recent struggles with poverty and terrorism. The band Imarhan is led by Sadam Iyad Moussa Ben Abderamane, who has collaborated with Tinariwen and is the nephew of longtime Tinariwen bassist Eyadu ag Leche. Kel Assouf and Tamikrest have also gained notice as younger Tuareg rock bands that cite Tinariwen as a fundamental influence. // Tinariwen is a collective of singers, songwriters, and musicians who come together in different combinations to play concerts and to record. This is because of the nomadic lifestyle of the Tuareg people and the difficulties of transportation and communication in the Sahara region. The group has never brought exactly the same line-up on its international tours, though several members tour regularly. // One of the group’s founder members, Inteyeden Ag Ablil (brother of guitarist Liya Ag Ablil) died of a virus in the desert in 1994, and singer Wonou Walet Oumar (sister of former lead vocalist Mina Walet Oumar; not directly related to another former member, Wonou Walet Sidati) died of a kidney infection in 2005.]

16. Gabor Szabo – “Fire Dance”
    from: Dreams / Fresh Sound Records / March 1969 [Reissued by Ebalunga 2021]
    [Dreams is an album by Hungarian guitarist Gábor Szabó featuring performances recorded in 1968 and released on the Skye label. The design was made by David Stahlberg, and features artwork by English illustrator John Austen entitled “Vision.” // Gábor István Szabó (March 8, 1936 – February 26, 1982) was a Hungarian American guitarist whose style incorporated jazz, pop, rock, and Hungarian music. // Szabó was born in Budapest, Hungary. He began playing guitar at the age of 14. In the aftermath of the Hungarian revolution of 1956, he moved to California and later attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston between 1958 and 1960. // In 1961, Szabó became member of a quintet that was led by Chico Hamilton and included Charles Lloyd, playing what has been described as chamber jazz, with “a moderate avant-gardism.” Szabó was influenced by the rock music of the 1960s, particularly the use of feedback. In 1965 he was in a jazz pop group led by Gary McFarland, then worked again with Lloyd in an energetic quartet with Ron Carter and Tony Williams. The song “Gypsy Queen” from Szabó’s debut solo album Spellbinder became a hit for rock guitarist Carlos Santana. During the late 1960s, Szabó worked in a group with guitarist Jimmy Stewart. He started the label Skye Records with McFarland and Cal Tjader. // Szabó continued to be drawn to more popular, commercial music in the 1970s. He performed often in California, combining elements of Gypsy & Indian music with jazz. He returned often to his home country of Hungary to perform, and it was there that he died just short of his 46th birthday. // On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Gábor Szabó among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire. // While visiting family in Budapest during the Christmas holiday, Szabó was admitted to the hospital and finally succumbed to the liver and kidney ailments he suffered from and died on Feb. 26, 1982. He was buried in Farkasréti Cemetery.]

17. Laura Mvula – “Got Me”
    from: Sharecropper’s Son / Easy Eye Sound / May 21, 2021
    [Laura Mvula (née Douglas; born April 23, 1986) is a British recording artist, songwriter and composer. A native of Birmingham, Mvula has gained experience as a young member or leader of a cappella, jazz/neo-soul, and gospel groups and choirs. She was classically trained. In 2012, she signed with RCA Records and released extended play, She, to critical acclaim. // Mvula released her debut studio album, Sing to the Moon (2013), to favorable reviews, earning two MOBO awards and a Mercury Prize nomination. In 2014, orchestral re-recording with the Metropole Orkest was released. Her second album, The Dreaming Room (2016), was received to critical acclaim, won the Ivor Novello award and garnered a Mercury Prize nomination as well. Mvula then wrote the music for 2017 theatre production of Antony & Cleopatra by the Royal Shakespeare Company. While working on her third album, she released the 1/f EP in February 2021. // In 2018, Mvula received an honorary doctorate of music from her alma mater, Birmingham City University. // Laura Mvula grew up in the Birmingham suburbs of Selly Park and Kings Heath with two younger siblings. Her mother is a humanities professor and is from Saint Kitts. Her father is from Jamaica and is a youth legal protection educator. She took up piano and violin at primary school and later attended Swanshurst School for girls. In her teens, she sang with Black Voices, an a cappella group set up by her aunt Carol Pemberton; in 2005 they toured Italy and other countries. In 2008, Mvula formed a jazz/neo-soul group called Judyshouse, singing lead vocals and writing material for the band. She was Director of the Lichfield Community Gospel Choir, founded by Black Voices and Lichfield Festival in 2009. She has also previously directed the Alvechurch Community Choir in Alvechurch. // In 2008 Mvula graduated from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire with a degree in composition. She worked as a supply music teacher, and later as a receptionist for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, when she began to write songs. Her sketches caught the attention of composer Steve Brown, and his manager, Kwame Kwaten, who also became Mvula’s manager. In a 2013 podcast for The Daily Telegraph, she admitted to suffering from “crippling stage fright”. // In May 2012, after several showcases, Laura Mvula was signed by Colin Barlow to Sony subsidiary RCA. She released her debut extended play, She, on November 16, 2012. The title track is the first song she ever wrote. On December 6, she was shortlisted for the Critics’ Choice award at the 2013 BRIT Awards. On December 9, she was nominated for the BBC’s Sound of 2013 poll and later finished in fourth position. On February 1, 2013, she gave her first live TV performance on The Graham Norton Show on BBC One, singing “Green Garden”. // Her debut studio album, Sing to the Moon, was released on March 4, 2013. She worked on the album with producer Steve Brown and mix engineer Tom Elmhirst. It was preceded by the single “Green Garden”, an elegy to her home in Kings Heath. Paul Lester from The Guardian described her music as “gospeldelia”, calling it a new musical genre. The album was met with a largely positive reception, receiving a perfect score from The Independent, and 3.5/5 from Rolling Stone. It reached number 9 on the UK Albums Chart and within the top 100 in seven other countries, and reached 173 on the US Billboard 200. // Mvula won awards for Best Female Act and Best R&B or Soul Artist at the 2013 MOBO awards, which took place in October. She was also nominated for two Brit awards, Sing to the Moon was shortlisted for a Mercury Prize, and during 2013–14, she garnered over a dozen award-nominations in different categories altogether. The same year, she recorded a cover of the popular 1935’s song “Little Girl Blue”, which ended up being part of original soundtrack for the 2013 acclaimed film 12 Years A Slave. The track was produced by Troy Miller as their first collaboration. // In March 2014, the artist re-recorded an orchestral version of her debut album in collaboration with the Metropole Orkest and conducted by Jules Buckley. This was released on June 23 as a high quality download via Bowers & Wilkins’ Society of Sound and on CD on 11 August. On August 19, she performed with the Metropole Orkest at the Albert Hall as a part of the 2014 BBC Proms Season, supported by Esperanza Spalding and ElectricVocals. // In July 2015, Mvula performed with fifty musicians of the Metropole Orkest at the North Sea Jazz Festival, one of the biggest indoor jazz festivals in the world. The same year, she recorded a track “You Work For Me”; director Guy Ritchie chose it as a part of soundtrack for his 2015 film The Man From U.N.C.L.E., the song’s clip was also used in the US trailer of the movie. // In January 2016, Mvula released “Overcome”, a collaboration with Nile Rodgers, and the lead single from her forthcoming second studio album, The Dreaming Room. She recorded “Sing to the Moon” with Snarky Puppy for their jazz fusion album Family Dinner – Volume 2, which was released on February 12. She began promotion for The Dreaming Room by performing “Overcome” on The Graham Norton Show on 29 January and on The Andrew Marr Show on February 14. On March 19, Mvula played the first live show of the album at the Jazz Maastricht Festival. On 22 March, she previewed the entire album at the Islington Assembly Hall. On 7 April, the singer released “People” from the album, a collaboration with Wretch 32. On April 19, she released the second single from The Dreaming Room, “Phenomenal Woman”. The third single, “Show Me Love”, was released on 27 May. // The Dreaming Room was released on June 17, 2016, and received universal acclaim from music critics. Writing for Exclaim!, Ryan B. Patrick gave the album a rave review, calling it “a subconscious succession of visuals, emotions and ideas – sometimes abstract, sometimes allegorical, but always dredging up something for the conscious mind to ponder. The Dreaming Room is this and more.”. This album is more political than her first; the sound, the orchestration and the rhythms more explicitly refer to her Jamaican and Caribbean influences. The song “Phenomenal Woman” is a happy feminist hymn, inspired by the book of poems of the same title by African-American writer and activist Maya Angelou. The Dreaming Room was produced with Troy Miller and the instrumental crew of The London Symphony Orchestra. In the same June, the singer performed on the Glastonbury Pyramid stage for a second time. In July, she performed with Tom Odell in the first UK event for “Global Citizen” and “Chime For Change”, at The View from The Shard in London. The evening followed the launch of #SheWill campaign, aimed at breaking down the barriers that prevent millions of girls worldwide from attending school. On October 30, she appeared on BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing singing her fourth single “Ready or Not”, the cover of The Delfonics’ song, which was released on 4 November. The song was used in 2016 Christmas campaign of House of Fraser. // The album was shortlisted for the 2016 Mercury Prize among others, and in May 2017, won the Ivor Novello award. Mvula was also nominated for four MOBO awards. In January 2017, the artist revealed that she had been dropped by Sony. She composed the music for the 2017 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Antony and Cleopatra, which opened at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon in March and later transferred to the Barbican Centre in November. In April, she presented a Woman’s Hour documentary discussing anxiety. // In April 2018, she performed “I Put a Spell on You” as part of BBC One’s The Queen’s Birthday Party from the Royal Albert Hall in London. The same year, Mvula and Buika were invited by Carlos Santana to collaborate on his band’s album Africa Speaks. // Mvula’s “Sing to the Moon” was performed at the 2019 BBC Last Night of The Proms. In that year, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by her alma mater, Birmingham City University, for her services to music. // In February 2021, Laura Mvula announced the pending release of new music and a livestream concert on February 24, 2021, titled “Under a Pink Moon”. During the live stream, she premiered four new songs taken from her forthcoming album due to be released by Atlantic Records in 2021. The new songs were “Safe Passage”, “Conditional”, “What Matters” featuring Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro, and “Church Girl”. New versions of the songs “Green Garden”, “Show Me Love” and “Sing to the Moon” were also performed, which are included on the 1/f EP released the next day. Both Elisa Bray of iNews and Sylvia Unerman of The Upcoming gave the concert five stars 5/5. // The EP released on February 25 includes also a cover of Diana Ross’ 1971 hit “I’m Still Waiting”. As wrote Nick Levine of BBC America, this mini-album is a “heartening musical comeback” and “showcases an intriguing new direction: Mvula’s music is still soulful, but now has balmy ’80s beats underpinning her lush melodies. […] it’s a mouthwatering start to her second chapter”. Pitchfork’s Jessica Kariisa pointed out “daring musicianship”. // March 3, Mvula released the single “Safe Passage” alongside a video. The second single, “Church Girl”, was released on 17 March with details about Mvula’s third album, Pink Noise, which was released on 2 July. “Got Me”, the third single, was released on May 12. // When Mvula was a (very) young girl, her great desire was to be a member of the R&B girl group Eternal. In 2013, she said: “I think that is when I really started to pay attention to singing in a different way to the way we did in church”. Together with her siblings and encouraged by parents, who personally favored jazz and traditional gospel, she performed using their garage as a dance studio. // She stated her influences include Nina Simone, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, Des’ree, Omar, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald, The Jackson 5, and Diana Ross.]

11:30 – Marion Merritt thanks for being out Guest Producer on Wednesday MidDay Medley.

Marion is the creator of Records With Merritt, a small, independent, minority owned business, at 1614 Westport Rd. in KCMO. More info at: http://www.recordswithmerritt.com

Marion Merritt will be back with us in two weeks for our show #901 all about 90.1 with 9 guests who all make radio happen at 90.1 FM KKFI.

11:30 – Underwriting

10:32 – Interview with Jared Bajkowski

KC native, bass player for Momma’s Boy, producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jared Bajkowski about his pop music project Jairy. The music of Jairy explores dissociation, hallucinations, sexuality and the despair of living in a capital-driven world via smooth, sassy & theatrical 1970s & 1980s inspired pop sounds. Jairy released “Into the Morning,” in early 2020, offering a maximalist and melodramatic pop debut just before the pandemic went into full effect. Ironically, the song deals with coming out of hiding, but the rest of the year would see Jairy and the world lying low and working in the studio recording new music, including Jairy’s new single, “Pool Floors featuring: Momma’s Boy band mate Peter Beatty a.k.a. R.I.Peter and Manor Records label-mate Catty Cline. The single will be released Friday July 30, 2021. Info: http://www.manorrecords.com or http://www.jairy.bandcamp.com

Jared Bajkowski thanks for being with us on WMM.

Jairy is the pop project of Kansas City-native Jared Bajkowski, acting as producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. The music of Jairy explores dissociation, hallucinations, sexuality and the despair of living in a capital-driven world via smooth, sassy and theatrical 70s- and 80s-inspired pop sounds.

Jairy “Pool Floors” Single Release Show @ Deep Space Co-op, 1664 Broadway Blvd, Kansas City, MO, Friday, July 30 PREMIERE PARTY – Pool Themed – Doors at 7:30 PM Music at 8:30 PM. Food, Drinks and More! AND Saturday, July 31, with Paris Williams, R.I.Peter, FACEFACE, Pale Tongue, Jairy with R.I.Peter & Catty Cline and the Jairy Band. Doors at 7:00 PM and music at 8:00 PM. http://www.jairy.land/merch/p/advance-ticket-pool-floors-single-release-show

The single delivers a one-two punch of atmospheric, Collins-esque introspection and a saccharine, ear-catching chorus that is perfect for basking in the sun near any body of water. The single will be released Friday July 30, 2021. Info: http://www.manorrecords.com or http://www.jairy.bandcamp.com

11:38

18. Jairy – “Pool Floors (feat: R.I.Peter & Catty Cline)”
    from: Pool Floors (feat: R.I.Peter & Catty Cline)” – Single / Manor Records / July 30, 2021
    [Jairy is the pop-focused solo project of Jared Bajkowski, bass player of KC indie outfit Momma’s Boy. The music of Jairy explores dissociation, romance, hallucinations, sexuality and the despair of living in a capital-driven world via smooth, sassy and theatrical 70s- and 80s-inspired pop sounds. Jairy released “Into the Morning,” January 27, 2020 Info: http://www.manorrecords.com or http://www.jairy.bandcamp.com]

[Jairy “Pool Floors” Single Release Show @ Deep Space Co-op, 1664 Broadway Blvd, Kansas City, MO, Friday, July 30 PREMIERE PARTY – Pool Themed – Doors at 7:30 PM Music at 8:30 PM. Food, Drinks and More! AND Saturday, July 31, with Paris Williams, R.I.Peter, FACEFACE, Pale Tongue, Jairy with R.I.Peter & Catty Cline and the Jairy Band. Doors at 7:00 PM and music at 8:00 PM. Tickets are $10.00 in advance / $15.00 at door. http://www.jairy.land/merch/p/advance-ticket-pool-floors-single-release-show%5D

10:43 – More Interview with Jared Bajkowski

We are talking with KC native, bass player for Momma’s Boy, producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jared Bajkowski about his pop music project Jair. The music of Jairy explores dissociation, hallucinations, sexuality and the despair of living in a capital-driven world via smooth, sassy & theatrical 1970s & 1980s inspired pop sounds. The single will be released Friday July 30, 2021.

Info: http://www.manorrecords.com or http://www.jairy.bandcamp.com

In early 2020 Jared Bajkowski’s musical project Jairy, released the single, “Into The Morning” through Manor Records. “Into The Morning” was produced by Ross Brown.

Jairy released “Into the Morning,” in early 2020, offering a maximalist and melodramatic pop debut just before the pandemic went into full effect. Ironically, the song deals with coming out of hiding, but the rest of the year would see him and the world lying low and working on recording new material, including the 2021 summer single, “Pool Floors (feat. R.I.Peter & Catty Cline)”, working alongside Momma’s Boy bandmate Peter Beatty a.k.a. R.I.Peter and Manor Records label-mate Catty Cline.

For the past 5 years Jared has played bass and sand lead on a few songs in the Kansas City based band, Momma’s Boy. Entering the world of music as a bass player (as seen in the KC indie outfit Momma’s Boy), Jairy’s music is groove-inducing and always seeks to get the body moving.

Jared Bajkowski is Senior UX Designer at H&R Block

Jared Bajkowski Studied Entrepreneurship at Missouri State University

Jared Bajkowski lives in Kansas City, Missouri

Jared Bajkowski is from Lee’s Summit, Missouri

Jared Bajkowski thanks for being with us on WMM.

Jairy’s new single, “Pool Floors featuring: Momma’s Boy band mate Peter Beatty a.k.a. R.I.Peter and Manor Records label-mate Catty Cline. The single will be released Friday July 30, 2021. Jairy “Pool Floors” Single Release Show @ Deep Space Co-op, 1664 Broadway Blvd, Kansas City, MO, Friday, July 30 PREMIERE PARTY – Pool Themed – Doors at 7:30 PM <iusicat 8:30 PM. Food, Drinks and More! AND Saturday, July 31, with Paris Williams, R.I.Peter, FACEFACE, Pale Tongue, Jairy with R.I.Peter & Catty Cline and the Jairy Band. Doors at 7:00 PM and music at 8:00 PM. Info: http://www.manorrecords.com or http://www.jairy.bandcamp.com

For WMM, and Jairy, I’m Mark Manning. Thanks for listening!

11:55

19. Jairy – “Into The Morning”
    from: Into The Morning / Manor Records / January 27, 2020
    [Jairy is the pop-focused solo project of Jared Bajkowski, bass player of KC indie outfit Momma’s Boy. The music of Jairy explores dissociation, romance, hallucinations, sexuality and the despair of living in a capital-driven world via smooth, sassy and theatrical 70s- and 80s-inspired pop sounds.]

[Jairy “Pool Floors” Single Release Show @ Deep Space Co-op, 1664 Broadway Blvd, Kansas City, MO, Friday, July 30 PREMIERE PARTY – Pool Themed – Doors at 7:30 PM <iusicat 8:30 PM. Food, Drinks and More! AND Saturday, July 31, with Paris Williams, R.I.Peter, FACEFACE, Pale Tongue, Jairy with R.I.Peter & Catty Cline and the Jairy Band. Doors at 7:00 PM and music at 8:00 PM. Tickets are $10.00 in advance / $15.00 at door. http://www.jairy.land/merch/p/advance-ticket-pool-floors-single-release-show%5D

20. Noel Coward – “The Party’s Over Now”
    from: Noel Coward in New York / drg / 2003 [orig. 1957]

Next week on WMM, on July 28, WMM presents our 900th show and we welcome back some of our Most Favorite Musical Guests: Calvin Arsenia, Krystle Warren, Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear and Ivory Blue

AND…In two weeks on August 4, we bring you our 901st show with 9 special guests who all help KKFI 90.1 keep going! These nine guests will tell stories about 90.1 FM that have never been spoken on the radio before. KKFI Guests include: Tom Crane, Judy Ancel, Barry Lee, Dorothy Hawkins, Marion Merritt, Maria Vasquez Boyd, Ebony Johnson, Catina Taylor and Leslie Pories.

Our Script/Playlist is a “cut and paste” of information.
Sources for notes: artist’s websites, bios, wikipedia.org

Wednesday MidDay Medley in on the web:
http://www.kkfi.org,
http://www.WednesdayMidDayMedley.org,
http://www.facebook.com/WednesdayMidDayMedleyon90.1

Show #899