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, February 23, 2022

Spinning Records With Marion Merritt

Mark welcomes back to the show, Marion Merritt as our special “Guest Producer.” Marion Merritt is our most frequent contributor to WMM. For over 18 years now Marion has been sharing her sonic discoveries and information from her musically encyclopedic brain. 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 small, independent, minority owned business, at 1614 Westport Rd. in Kansas City, Missouri. More info at: http://www.recordswithmerritt.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 / Yellow Productions – Atlantic / June 11, 1996
   [Debut studio albumm from Dimitri from Paris was born Dimitrios Yerasimos, on October 27, 1963. He is a French music producer and DJ of Greek descent. His musical influences are rooted in 1970s funk and disco sounds that spawned contemporary house music, as well as original soundtracks from 1950s and 1960s movies such as Breakfast at Tiffany’s, La Dolce Vita and The Party, which were sampled in his album Sacrebleu. Dimitri fused these sounds with electro and block party hip hop he discovered in the 1980s. // Contrary to his musical pseudonym, Dimitri was born not in Paris but born in Peckham, South London, to Rûm parents (Greeks of Turkey), Dimitri grew up in France where he discovered DJing at home, using whatever he could find to “cut and paste” samples from disco hits or in to montages heard on the radio, blending them together to make tapes. This early experimentation helped him launch his DJ career. // He started out by DJing at the French station Radio 7, before moving on to Skyrock and finally to Radio NRJ, Europe’s largest FM radio network, in 1986. There, he introduced the first ever house music show to be broadcast in France, while simultaneously producing under the direction of sound designer Michel Gaubert, runway soundtracks for fashion houses such as Chanel, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Hermès and Yves Saint-Laurent. He also released two solo EPs from 1993 to 1994 and contributed to the Yellow Productions compilation La Yellow 357. // In 1996, Dimitri gained worldwide recognition with the release of his first full album, Sacrebleu, released on Yellow Productions. A blend of diverse influences including jazz, original film soundtracks, samba, and organic house, Sacrebleu sold 300,000 copies worldwide and was named Album of the Year by UK’s Mixmag magazine. // In 2000, Dimitri followed Sacrebleu up with A Night at the Playboy Mansion (Virgin) and Disco Forever (BBE), followed by My Salsoul in 2001, After the Playboy Mansion in 2002. In 2003, Cruising Attitude was released, to be closely followed by his first outing on UK’s premier dance music label Defected: Dimitri from Paris In the House. // He has followed a somewhat glamorous musical path by recording soundtracks and advertising campaigns for fashion houses Chanel, Jean-Paul Gautier and Yves Saint Laurent and remixing hundreds of artists as diverse as Björk, The Cardigans, James Brown, Michael Jackson, New Order and Quincy Jones. He also did the music for the anime Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase and mixed the soundtrack for the French luxury dessin animé Jet Groove produced by Method Films. // 2005 saw Dimitri go back to his Funk and Disco roots, with Japanese hip hop producer and über collector DJ Muro for Super Disco Friends a double CD mixdown. In 2006 he offered his House of Love outing to Valentine’s Day’s lovers. Later on Dimitri produced Los Amigos Invisibles “Super Pop Venezuela” album which grabbed a nomination for a Grammy Award. // 2007 saw the release of the Cocktail Disco project with longtime partner BBE, a handful of disco classics remixes and other surprises down the line. // 2009 saw the release of the Night Dubbin’, a post-disco R&B compilation remix album.]

3. Timo Lassy – “Subtropical”
   from: Trio / We Jazz / August 27, 2021
   [Timo Lassy was born in 1974. He is a Finnish jazz saxophonist, composer and bandleader. He is best known for Timo Lassy Band with whom he has recorded 6 albums together. Prior to his solo career he was a member of U-Street All Stars and The Five Corners Quintet. Timo Lassy has had three albums on the Finnish National album charts. In with Lassy in 2012, Love Bullet in 2015 and Moves in 2018 all of which have also received nominations for Jazz album of the Year at the Emma Gaala. The album Moves reached #6 on the Physical album chart on week 18/2018. “Moves” won the Emma award for Jazz Album of the Year. Timo Lassy Band recorded a feature concert YLE Live: M1-Studiossa Timo Lassy Band which was broadcast nationally on Sunday 5 May 2013 and is available worldwide at YLE Areena. On February 3, 2018 WDR 3 broadcast a live television and radio concert by Timo Lassy from Theater Gütersloh.]

4. Charlie Megira – “The Girl Who Was Frightened of Ashtrays”
   from: The Abtomatic Miesterzinger Mambo Chic / Numero Group / 2001-2022
   [The bastard love child of Elvis and Lux Interior, Israeli guitarist Charlie Megira brewed a heady amalgam of ’50s trash rock, surf tremolo, and reverb-drenched goth during his all-too-brief 44 trips around the sun. Armed with only an Eko guitar, a black tuxedo, and his signature wrap-around shades, Charlie Megira was a mold-breaking artist who disintegrated while we were all staring at our phones. // Even in this age of near-total Internet accessibility, Charlie Megira is a modern mystery. A casual search turns up little aside from a few cryptic articles. His brief career unfolded during a changing of the guard in the music industry, opening on the death of the compact disc and ending just prior to Spotify’s IPO. For an artist like Megira, living far away from a major music outpost, there was more chaos than structure for his recordings to exist and find an audience. This collection is the first attempt at putting the pieces together, compiling a life’s work of an artist whose spark almost shined unto the world. // His was a music both familiar and entirely alien at once. It touches on corners of darkness, an isolation both lonely and sweet, all wrapped in a cold glow that draws the listener into each note, each melancholy melody triggering unrecorded experiences. His various projects put out music which began as a junction point between Link Wray’s surf guitar and the theatrical psychobilly of The Cramps, took a turn towards goth-inflected post-punk, and towards the end of his career would sojourn back into his earlier musical fascination with late 1950s and early 1960s rock ‘n’ roll. // The Israeli guitarist recorded seven albums worth of material in 15 years during his all-too-brief 44 trips around the sun.Tomorrow’s Gone collects 24 of these tracks for a double album journey across his career, accompanied by a lavish booklet that documents his tragic existence. Armed with only an Eko guitar, a black tuxedo, and his signature wrap-around shades, Charlie Megira was a mold-breaking artist who disintegrated while we were all staring at our phones.]

5. Charlie Megira – “Tomorrow’s Gone”
   from: The Abtomatic Miesterzinger Mambo Chic / Numero Group / 2001-2022

6. Cat Power – “I Think Of Angels”
   from: Flag Day (Original Soundtrack) / Republic / August 21, 2021
   [Charlyn Marie “Chan” Marshall was born Jan. 21, 1972. She is known by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, occasional actress, & model. Cat Power was originally the name of Marshall’s first band, but has become her stage name as a solo artist. // Born in Atlanta, Marshall was raised throughout the southern U.S. and began performing in local bands in Atlanta in the early 1990s. After opening for Liz Phair in 1993, she worked with Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth and Tim Foljahn of Two Dollar Guitar, with whom she recorded her first two albums, Dear Sir (1995) and Myra Lee (1996), on the same day in 1994. In 1996, she signed with Matador Records, and released a third album of new material with Shelley and Foljahn, What Would the Community Think. Following this, she released the critically acclaimed Moon Pix (1998), recorded with members of Dirty Three, and The Covers Record (2000), a collection of sparsely arranged cover songs. // After a brief hiatus she released You Are Free (2003), featuring guest musicians Dave Grohl & Eddie Vedder, followed by the soul-influenced The Greatest (2006), recorded with numerous Memphis studio musicians. A second album of cover tracks, Jukebox, was released in 2008. In 2012 she released the self-produced Sun, which debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200, the highest-charting album of her career to date. // Critics have noted the constant evolution of Cat Power’s sound, with a mix of punk, folk & blues on her earliest albums, and elements of soul and other genres more prevalent in her later material]

7. Cat Power – “Bad Religion”
   from: Covers / Domino / January 14, 2022
   [Covers is the eleventh studio album by American musician Cat Power, the stage name of American singer-songwriter Chan Marshall. Her third collection of cover songs, following 2000’s The Covers Record and 2008’s Jukebox, the album was released worldwide on January 14, 2022, by Domino Recording Company. // Covers is Marshall’s third collection of cover songs, following 2000’s The Covers Record and 2008’s Jukebox. The album was recorded alongside Marshall’s live band: guitarist Adeline Jasso, bassist and keyboardist Erik Paparozzi, and drummer Alianna Kalaba. Marshall was not planning on recording a covers album, and was originally intent on recording original compositions. She explained: “I got in the studio and I wanted the band to relax, so I started composing improvisationally, just getting them to play certain things that sounded good together. For the first four songs we recorded that day, I had no idea what the vocals would be or what the song would be. They were four songs that I had no intention of covering. I just wanted the band to warm up, and when I got them to play something that I liked the sound of, I went to the vocal booth and I said, ‘Just don’t stop.’ Then I was like, ‘What cover should I sing over this music that is playing?’]

8. Lucinda Williams – “Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker”
   from: You Are Cordially Invited… A Tribute to the Rolling Stones / Highway 20 Records /2022
   [Lu’s Jukebox is a six-volume series of mostly full-band performances recorded live at Ray Kennedy’s Room & Board Studio in Nashville, TN. Each volume features a themed set of songs by other artists curated by the multi-Grammy award winner, Lucinda Williams. // Lucinda Gayle Williams was born January 26, 1953. She is an American rock, folk and country music singer, songwriter and musician. She recorded her first albums, Ramblin’ on My Mind (1979) and Happy Woman Blues (1980), in a traditional country and blues style and received little public or radio attention. In 1988, she released her eponymous third album, Lucinda Williams, to critical raves. Widely regarded as “an Americana classic”, the album also features “Passionate Kisses”, a song later recorded by Mary Chapin Carpenter, which garnered Williams her first Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1994. Known for working slowly, Williams’ fourth album, Sweet Old World, appeared four years later in 1992. Sweet Old World was met with further critical acclaim, and was voted the 11th best album of 1992 in The Village Voice’s Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of prominent music critics. // Williams’ commercial breakthrough came in 1998 with Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, an album presenting a broader scope of songs that fused rock, blues, country and Americana into a distinctive style that remained consistent and commercial in sound. Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, which includes the singles “Right in Time” and the Grammy nominated “Can’t Let Go”, became Williams’ greatest commercial success to date. The album was certified Gold by the RIAA the following year, and earned her a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album, while being universally acclaimed by critics. Williams’ follow up album, Essence, appeared three years later in 2001, to further critical acclaim and commercial success, becoming her first Top 40 album on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 28. Featuring a more downbeat musical tone, with spare, intimate arrangements, the album earned Williams three Grammy nominations in 2002, including Best Contemporary Folk Album, while the single “Get Right with God” won her the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. // One of the most celebrated singer/songwriters of her generation, Williams has released a string of albums since that have earned her further critical acclaim and commercial success, including World Without Tears (2003), West (2007), Little Honey (2008), Blessed (2011), and Good Souls Better Angels (2020). Among her various accolades, she has won three Grammy Awards, from 17 nominations, and has received two Americana Awards (one competitive, one honorary), from 11 nominations. Williams ranked No. 97 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Women in Rock & Roll in 1999, and was named “America’s best songwriter” by Time magazine in 2002. In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked her as the 79th greatest songwriter of all time. In 2017, she received the Berklee College of Music Honorary Doctor of Music Degree, and ranked No. 91 on Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Country Artists of All Time. In 2020, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road ranked No. 97, and Lucinda Williams ranked No. 426, on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.]

10:33 – Underwriting

9. Bill Fay – “Dust Filled Room (Still Some Light)”
   from: Still Some Light: Pt. 1/ Coptic Cat / January 19, 2010 / Reissued on Dead Oceans
   [William Fay was born in North London on December 20, 1943. He is an English singer, pianist and songwriter. His early recordings were released by Deram, but following the release of his second album in 1971, Fay was dropped by the label. His work enjoyed a growing cult status in the 1990s, and his older works were re-issued in 1998 and 2004/2005. Fay’s 2012 album, Life Is People, was his first album of all-new material since 1971. His most recent album, Countless Branches, was released on January 17, 2020. // His first single, “Some Good Advice” / “Screams in the Ears”, was issued on the Deram label in 1967, and was followed by two albums, Bill Fay in 1970 and Time of the Last Persecution in 1971. The recordings did not sell well, and Fay was dropped from Deram soon after the release of his second album. They were re-issued in 1998, and then again in 2005. //Despite returning to the recording studio in the late 1970s, the follow-up to Time of the Last Persecution was not released until January 2005, following the reissues of his earlier works. // Bill Fay’s work enjoyed a growing cult status in the 1990s. His first two albums were re-issued in 1998, an event which Bill Fay described in 2012 as follows: Up until 1998, when some people reissued my albums, as far as I was concerned, I was gone, deleted. No one was listening. But then I got the shock that people remembered my music. I was doing some gardening, and listening to some of my songs on cassette, and a part of me thought they were quite good. I thought, “Maybe somebody will hear them someday.” That same evening, 14 years ago, I got a call from a music writer telling me that my two albums were being reissued. A shock is not gonna get much bigger than that, David […] It was astonishing to me. I won’t ever really be able to believe that it happened. That’s how I feel about it. I had come to terms with the fact that I was deleted, but that I had always kept writing songs anyway and that was good enough. // In 2004, the British label Wooden Hill released a collection of demos recorded between 1966 and 1970 entitled From the Bottom of an Old Grandfather Clock. In 2005 his late 1970s recordings were released January 2005. Entitled Tomorrow, Tomorrow & Tomorrow, it was credited to the Bill Fay Group and was released on the Durtro Jnana label. // The compilation album Still Some Light appeared on the Coptic Cat label in 2010, a double CD containing a mix of older material and newer, home-recorded songs. // Life is People, released 21 August 2012 on Dead Oceans, is his first new studio LP in over 40 years. // A new album by Bill Fay was released in April 2015, titled Who Is the Sender?’. The second album track, “War Machine”, came out as a single in February 2015. // A feature article entitled “Bill Fay Was a Hidden Gem. One Musician Made Finding Him a Mission” was published in the New York Times on January 15, 2020. // His most recent album, Countless Branches, was released on January 17, 2020. // The American band Wilco has played Fay’s song “Be Not So Fearful” in live performances and the band’s singer, Jeff Tweedy, can be heard singing it in the documentary, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco. Fay has joined the band and Tweedy onstage for the rendition of the song at shows at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in 2007, and at the Union Chapel, Islington in 2010 respectively, both in London. // The English singer-songwriter and pianist John Howard recorded a cover version of the song “Be Not So Fearful” for his E.P. Songs for the Lost and Found (2008). The song “Be Not So Fearful” was also covered by Ed Harcourt on the benefit compilation album Songs to Save a Life – In Aid of Samaritans (2011). // A cover version of Fay’s “Pictures of Adolf Again”, by producer and musician Jim O’Rourke and Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche, can be heard in the film from Kōji Wakamatsu, United Red Army. The title track of “Time of the Last Persecution” became a live standard of the British Apocalyptic folk group, Current 93. // The band Okkervil River covered Fay’s song “Plan D” on their Golden Opportunities 2 EP in 2011. // The American band The War on Drugs covered Fay’s song “I Hear You Calling” at shows throughout 2014. // His song “Be Not So Fearful” got a cover by A.C. Newman in 2014, and was used in the episode “Us” of The Walking Dead. // In 2008 the English singer Marc Almond recorded a live version of “Cosmic Boxer” and it was released on his album In ‘Bluegate Fields’: Live at Wilton’s Music Hall.]

10. Kevin Morby – “I Hear You Calling”
    from: I Hear You Calling – Single / Dead Oceans / December 13, 2021
    [A single release with Bill Fay singing “I Hear You Calling” on Side B. On October 16, 2020 Kevin Morby released Sundowner, ranked #20 on WMM’s 120 Best recordings of 2020 and the 6th release from Kevin Robert Morby born April 2, 1988. follow up to his 2019 release Oh My God. Kevin Morby released City Music in 2017. Kevin learned to play guitar when he was 10. In his teens he formed the band Creepy Aliens. 17-year-old Morby dropped out of Blue Valley Northwest High School, got his GED, and moved from his native Kansas City to Brooklyn in the mid-2000s, supporting himself by working bike delivery and café jobs. He later joined the noise-folk group Woods on bass. While living in Brooklyn, he became close friends and roommates with Cassie Ramone of the punk trio Vivian Girls, and the two formed a side project together called The Babies, who released albums in 2011 and 2012. He began a solo career in 2013 releasing his debut album Harlem River. His 2nd album Still Life was released in 2014. His album Singing Saw was in WMM’s The 116 Best Recordings of 2016. His album City Music was in WMM’s The 118 Best Recordings of 2018].

11. Kenny Cox – “Clap Clap! The Joyful Noise”
    from: Clap Clap! The Joyful Noise / 180 Proof/ 2012 / Reissued – Barely Breaking Even / 2022
    [from http://www.45turns.com: A BBE Music excavation of Detroit jazz history, in collaboration with Detroit’s 180 Proof Records and DJ Amir. // Kenny Cox was a jazz pianist from Detroit, probably most notable for two LPs on Blue Note with his Contemporary Jazz Quintet (see here and here). These records fit snugly into the post-bop picture of Blue Note’s late 60s output forged in the wake of Miles and Johns’ trailblazing modal expeditions, and they are fine records, for what they’re worth. // But if post-bop gave Kenny Cox a seat at the table of US jazz history, its the twenty-first century penchant for ‘exotic’ old recordings that brings Clap Clap! The Joyful Noise out of those proverbial Detroit warehouses and onto the reissue radar. Cox’s third album was an exploration of breezy bossa and Afro-Cuban jazz, with flourishes of fusion and the nascent soft rock jazz funk sensibilities of the mid 70s, brought out on his own evanescent imprint, Strata Records and resurfaced here by DJ Amir. // Front to back, this is a spectacular record, not least for its ability to evoke those halcyon images of the landscapes of Brazil and the Caribbean, which Cox admits he’d “never seen”. With Clap Clap! , rather than a gaudy revamp of bossa motifs na moda Americana, Cox imparts a magical imperfection that, in itself, rings true to the places and feelings he takes as inspiration. This is an endearing homage to those places and sounds so ingrained in the consciousness of devotees of this sort of music, avoiding that gushing, effusive replication that litters scores of bargain bins in the flea markets of European capitals. // The eponymous opening track is squishy reco-reco and bright, quivering keys, their infectious bossa rhythms punctuated by the sound of sea lapping over sand on the praia: an easy-going exploration that doesn’t take itself too seriously, although it has every reason to. An even-tempered track with gorgeous, fusion-inspired vocal wanderings from Ursula Walker, and seven minutes of everything being just alright. // ‘Samba De Romance’ is free-and-easy on nylon strings, a straightforward serenade to-ing and fro-ing in the balmy Carioca night, soft and understated in its elegance. // Onto the other side and third track ‘Island Song’ moves proceedings further north with its Trinidadian skank and gleeful brass reprise, swaying its way into nine-odd minutes of casual, unceremonious joy where every player gets a few minutes to let loose – that’s Buzz Jones on sax, Charles Moore on flugelhorn and of course Kenny Cox on the keys, with Ronald Johnsons and Victor Reeves laying down percussions. // Onto the other disk and we have ‘Lost My Love’, which reminds me of the sort of West Coast / AOR / Yacht Rock kitsch reissued by Charles Maurice on Favorite Recordings, and then final track ‘Beyond The Dream’. This is the masterpiece moment, the 13-minute soul searching track that seems a natural culmination of all the things that make this LP wonderful. Its a little more restrained, almost tense, moving away from that laid-back carefree joie de vivre into something a bit ritualistic as the sun gets back down under the sea. It channels that reaching out into the cosmos mood à la 1970s Miles Davis, with interjections from humans in the studio, babbling and clapping, cheering and cajoling, in cahoots to carve out the limits of their own musical world before sunrise. A singular piece of music that ties a knot around Kenny Cox’s masterful album solitaire. Clap Clap! The Joyful Noise is serious business. A recording to make some noise about. // You can pick up Clap Clap! The Joyful Noise from 180 Proof Records w/ heavyweight tip-on gatefold sleeve. // Kenny Cox (November 8, 1940 – December 19, 2008) was a jazz pianist performing in the post bop, hard bop and bebop mediums. Cox was pianist for singer Etta Jones during the 1960s and was also a member of a quintet led by trombonist George Bohannon. By the end of the late 1960s he had formed his own Kenny Cox and the Contemporary Jazz Quintet, which recorded two albums for Blue Note Records before the end of the decade. Cox has appeared as a contributor on various albums, and has also performed live with such musicians as Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Eddie Harris, Jackie McLean, Roy Haynes, Ben Webster, Wes Montgomery, Kenny Dorham, Philly Joe Jones, Kenny Burrell, Donald Byrd, Roy Brooks, Charles McPherson, and Curtis Fuller. During the 1980s he formed the Detroit-based Guerilla Jam Band, a group which performed with Regina Carter, James Carter, Tani Tabbal, and Craig Taborn.Cox was responsible for the short-lived Strata Records. // He died in his Detroit home of lung cancer at the age of 68.]

12. Galactic – “Magalenha (feat. Casa Samba)”
from: Carnivale Electricos / Anti / February 21, 2012
[Galactic is an American jam band from New Orleans, Louisiana. Formed in 1994 as an octet (under the name Galactic Prophylactic) and including singer Chris Lane and guitarist Rob Gowen, the group was soon pared down to a sextet of: guitarist Jeff Raines, bassist Robert Mercurio, drummer Stanton Moore, Hammond organist Rich Vogel, Theryl DeClouet on vocals, and later adding saxophonist Ben Ellman.// The group was started when Raines and Mercurio, childhood friends from affluent Chevy Chase, Maryland, moved to New Orleans together to attend college at Tulane and Loyola Universities,[3] became enamored of the local funk scene, populated by such legendary acts as The Meters and Dirty Dozen Brass Band and inspired by local legends such as Professor Longhair. There they teamed with noted New Orleans drummer Stanton Moore, saxophonist/harmonica (now producer) Ben Ellman, Rich Vogel, and Theryl de Clouet. In 2004, the band parted ways with vocalist DeClouet, and continued as an instrumental group until 2007 when they released From the Corner to the Block featuring rappers ranging from Juvenile, Chali 2na, Boots Riley, and Lyrics Born. They continue to tour with different vocalists: 2011 and 2012 with Cyril Neville, 2011 through 2014 with Corey Glover, 2014 with Maggie Koerner, from 2015 with Erica Falls. They have also toured with trombonist Corey Henry from 2009 through 2016 and trumpet player Shamarr Allen from 2016. They have been releasing albums consistently since 1996. // The band has developed a unique sound as a result of their influences, including: rock, funk, brass band, blues, jazz, hip hop, electronic, and world music. Many of their songs include performances by other artists of various styles of music, like hip-hop artists Boots Riley (of The Coup), Gift of Gab (of Blackalicious) and Chali 2na (of Jurassic 5), to vocalists Macy Gray, Mavis Staples, Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas, David Shaw, Mystikal, Mannie Fresh, and JJ Grey & Mofro. On the European version of From the Corner to the Block there are two tracks more than on the US version. One of those tracks (“Valley Of Pain”) features the German rapper Dendemann. // The band’s sound has evolved from organic New Orleans funk to a more modern style, incorporating elements of hip hop, electronica, fusion, and jazz. This change has been largely characterized by the increased use of electronic effects on guitar, bass, saxophone, and drums. Drummer Stanton Moore uses phrase samplers to sample a rhythm which he can then play over, producing intricate and layered drum sounds. Ben Ellman, saxophonist and harmonica player, often distorts his instruments to the degree that they sound similar to an electric guitar. In 2007, the band began to produce their own albums (mainly Ben Ellman and Robert Mercurio). This opened them up to more studio experimentation and exploration resulting in their loop, edit and production heavy album Ya-Ka-May.]

13. Juan Pablo Torres y Algo Nuevo – “Y que bien”
from: CUBA: Music and Revolution: Culture Clash In Havana Cuba-Experiments in Latin Music 1975-85 Vol. 2 / Soul Jazz Records / 2021
[From http://www.allmusic.com: Ten months after the initial volume of CUBA: Music and Revolution: Culture Clash in Havana: Experiments in Latin Music 1975-85, England’s Soul Jazz Records continues its excavation of material from Havana’s EGREM Studios and Areito Records with another double-disc. This volume, also compiled by Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker, picks up where the first left off. Both are soundtracks for the coffee table book Cuba: Original Album Cover Art of Cuban Music. // After the revolution, musicians were state-employed and labels were subsidized. Music was made in a vacuum where artists could create, but performing outlets were restricted to block parties and state-sanctioned festivals; nightclubs were closed. This climate proved fertile ground for experimentation; it led many artists to innovate on traditional styles — son, songo, rhumba, mambo, guaguancó, etc. — aided by effects pedals and electronic keyboards. The renaissance of Cuban jazz during the period is reflected on these releases, as are integrations with disco, funk, soul, tropicalia, and MPB. // Check opener “Y Que Bien” by Juan Pablo Torres y Algo Nuevo. A funky salsa vamp offered by jagged synths and distorted electric guitars is framed by fingerpopping brass, fretless bass, and many layers of percussion. Interlocking circular vamps emerge in place of a melody until the middle, when Torres begins scatting near the end. The historic Los Van Van and Juan Formell are represented by a gloriously remastered “Por Que lo Haces?” juxtaposing rumbling son with strings, horns, wah-wah guitars, and bass. The multi-part vocal harmonies, swirling choruses, and Afrobeat guitars frame frenetic timbales, congas, and claves. The combined effect sounds like Mandrill jamming with Irakere. Los Papines offers “Solo de Tumba y Bongo.” It simmers with son alongside jazz, spidery funk, and Colombian cumbia in a steamy mix. Disc one closes with Grupo Raices Nuevas’ wooly “Baila Mi Guaguancó,” where guaguancó meets salsa, jazz fusion, and disco, led by killer zig-zagging synths. // Disc two offers Orquesta Riverside’s “En Casa del Trompo No Bailes.” It begins as a darkly tinged disco exercise in drum funk before erupting into an orgy of hard-swinging big-band salsa. Los Brito’s “El 4-5-6” bubbles with dueling male and female vocal choruses atop rumbling, syncopated, salsa-fied jazz. Grupo Los Yoyi contributes “Tu No Me Puedes Conquistar,” an experiment in psychedelic jazz with wonky fuzz guitars and organs leading the way over deep, rumbling percussion. Speaking of psychedelia, Grupo de Experimentacion Sonora del ICAIC’s “Cuba Va” weds distorted acoustic and electric guitars atop a shuffling rock beat; later, it morphs into danzon over a folk-pop melody. Closer “Finalizo un Amor” by Los Reyes 73 swaggers across funk, rock, jazz, and son with layered strings, spacy organ, rippling guitar, and a rubbery bassline under a loopy vocal. The booklet is annotated with copious, authoritative liner notes, discographical info, and rare photos. Like its predecessor, CUBA: Music and Revolution: Culture Clash in Havana: Experiments in Latin Music 1975-85, Vol. 2 is essential listening for fans of Afro-Latin music.]

11:00 – Station ID

14. Bill Callahan & Bonnie “Prince” Billy – “Od’d in Denver (feat. Matt Sweeney)”
    from: Blind Date Party / Drag City / December 10, 2021 / 2022
    [From http://www.stereophile.com: Bill Callahan and Bonnie Prince Billy—the latter is a stage name for Will Oldham—did not set out to make an album together. They were just trying fill the long pandemic months with music. In 2020, they started singing other people’s songs together, broadcasting them to fans via Zoom. They recorded the tracks, choosing a different guest musician to contribute to each song. Eventually they amassed recordings of enough covers, plus reimaginings of some original works, to create this album for Drag City, where they’re both signed artists. It’s an endlessly interesting and clever project, full of musical exploration. Some of the covers nearly outshine the original versions. // Part of the album’s success surely stems from the yin/yang of the two driving personalities and musical approaches. Callahan’s previous releases show a quiet cynicism, sorrow wrapped in wonder, delivered in a deep, golden voice. Oldham, on the other hand, specializes in quirky humor and a sardonic worldview, backed with banjos and a smirk. That interplay led to an eclectic collection of songs full of good surprises. // For an album to stand the test of time, it needs solid bookends. Callahan and Oldham went with steel-infused marble: They open with Cat Stevens and close with John Prine. The Stevens song is “Blackness of the Night,” which has lyrics dealing with rebellion and loneliness. A plucked acoustic guitar contrasts with mournful synth chords while the duo sings in close harmony. Guest electric guitarist Azita provides a sad and angry solo at the bridge. As for the Prine, “She Is My Everything” gets a heart-tugging treatment. The decision to use Oldham’s thin, sincere voice as the lead was brilliant: Prine’s wordy, naturalistic lyrics, flecked with humor, work best with a human-scale mouthpiece. Saxes (soprano and baritone) twine around guest guitarist Sir Richard Bishop’s harmonic core. // Part of the fun of this album is the contrast from one track to the next. Billie Eilish’s “Wish You Were Gay” gets a disco pulse and deadpan backup singing from Sean O’Hagan, utterly contrasting with the dreamy, ethereal reading of Heather Summers’s “Red-Tailed Hawk,” which precedes it. Robert Wyatt, a veteran of the British prog rock and jazz fusion scene, wrote “Sea Song,” one of the album’s highlights; you would hardly expect its surreally disjointed, dissonant sounds to act as a segue into Lowell George’s “I’ve Been the One,” presented in standard folksinger-with-guitar mode. // For all the imagination behind Callahan and Oldham’s vocal arrangements and their own instrumental playing, the guests contribute much of the distinctiveness to each track. Improvisatory guitarist Bill MacKay twists the harmony of Donald Fagen’s “Deacon Blues,” which is quite an accomplish-ment considering how innovative Steely Dan is when it comes to chord progressions. Guitarist Cory Hanson, who earlier this year strayed from his usual psychedelia and acid rock to explore Americana on the album Pale Horse Rider, provides country backing on Michael Burton’s “Night Rider’s Lament.” And then there’s George Xylouris, who plays Cretan laouto (lute), the most inspired addition to this banquet of musical sounds. The haunting resonance of the instrument’s deep wooden body and gut strings adds a touch to Lou Reed’s “Rooftop Garden” that we never knew it needed (but it did). // Most often, the lead voice is Callahan’s intense baritone, with Oldham’s shaky tenor in the background. Oldham even hands over his own song, “Arise Therefore,” in a Bowie-esque electronic arrangement that distorts Callahan’s usually smooth voice. This cover arrangement is the biggest change from the original song of any on this record. What had been, in Oldham’s 1996 recording, the slow, quiet creep of an animal emerging from its hole after the nuclear winter now becomes a furious human holding the A-bomb. It’s shocking and affecting. // Oldham does have moments to show his own expressive power. The best is Leonard Cohen’s “The Night of Santiago,” a historical vignette inspired by a Lorca poem. The sensual Spanish-style melody is laid over handclaps and syncopated guitar work from David Grubbs. Dave Rich’s country waltz “I’ve Made Up My Mind” also features Oldham. His simple delivery, without vibrato but decorated with short vocal turns, has an authentic-seeming mountain gospel openness. // Anyone who has tried to make music with others in this time of remote interaction has experienced the challenges of ensemble playing. Here, the sound production, apparently the result of sharing files online and taking turns tweaking them, has ragged edges as the various participants try to fit into the musical whole. There are moments when the threads in the sound fabric become dangerously loose. But that imperfect, homemade quality gives the proceedings a pleasing intimacy, even if it’s not completely human, like a Zoom chat with an old friend.—Anne E. Johnson.]

15. Bill Callahan & Bonnie “Prince” Billy – “I’ve Been the One (feat. Meg Baird)”
    from: Blind Date Party / Drag City / December 10, 2021 / 2022

16. Cate Le Bon – “Dirt On The Bed”
    from: Pompeii / Mexican Summer / February 14, 2022
    [Le Bon’s 6th album and her first album since her 2019 release REWARD (released May 23, 2019) which received a Mercury prize nomination and was #12 onWMM’s 119 Best Recordings of 2019. “Pompeii was written and recorded in a quagmire of unease. Solo. In a time warp. In a house I had a life in 15 years ago. I grappled with existence, resignation and faith. I felt culpable for the mess but it smacked hard of the collective grit imposed by religion and original sin,” said Le Bon in a press release. // Throughout the entire album, Le Bon plays every instrument, aside from drums and saxophone. She also recorded the album herself along with long-term collaborator Samur Khouja. // Le Bon elaborates more on the meaning behind the album by stating, “The subtitle is: You will be forever connected to everything. Which, depending on the time of day, is as comforting as it is terrifying. The sense of finality has always been here. It seems strangely hopeful. Someone is playing with the focus lens. The world is on fire but the bins must go out on a Tuesday night. Political dissonance meets beauty regimes. I put a groove behind it for something to hold on to. The grief is in the saxophone.” // Cate Le Bon who was born Cate Timothy on March 4, 1983. She is a musician and producer. She sings in both English and Welsh. She has released four solo albums, three EPs and a number of singles. Le Bon has toured with artists such as St. Vincent, Perfume Genius and John Grant. In 2018, she joined John Cale on stage at The Barbican with the London Contemporary Orchestra. Le Bon was born in Penboyr, Carmarthenshire, Wales, and first gained public attention when she supported Gruff Rhys (of the Super Furry Animals) on his 2007 solo UK tour. She appeared as a guest vocalist on Neon Neon’s 2008 single “I Lust U” from their album Stainless Style. Under her original name she provided backing vocals on Richard James’s debut solo album The Seven Sleepers Den in 2006. She also appeared on his second solo album, We Went Riding, from 2010. Her first official release was a Welsh language EP, Edrych yn Llygaid Ceffyl Benthyg (“Looking in the Eyes of a Borrowed Horse”, similar to the English expression “to look a gift horse in the mouth”), on Peski Records in 2008. She also self-released the double A-side debut single “No One Can Drag Me Down” / “Disappear” (described by Gruff Rhys as “Bobbie Gentry and Nico fight over a Casio keyboard; melody wins!”) on her website. Le Bon worked alongside Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci’s Megan Childs, who contributed violin, and Super Furry Animals and Thrills collaborator John Thomas, who added pedal steel. Her debut album, Me Oh My was released in 2009, followed by Cyrk and the Cyrk II EP in 2012. In January 2013, Le Bon moved to L A to further her career in the US. Her third album, Mug Museum, was released November 2013. It was produced by Noah Georgeson and Josiah Steinbrick in Los Angeles, and featured Stephen Black (bass) & Huw Evans (guitar). She provided guest vocals on the track “Slow Train” from Kevin Morby’s debut album Harlem River. In 2015, Le Bon collaborated with Tim Presley as DRINKS and released the album Hermits on Holiday in August 2015. DRINKS released their second album Hippo Lite in April 2018. Le Bon released her fourth studio album, Crab Day, on April 15, 2016 on Drag City to generally favourable reviews. The album was produced by Josiah Steinbrick and Noah Georgeson, and again featured Stephen Black (bass) & Huw Evans (guitar), w/ Stella Mozgawa (drums). She noted how the collaboration with Presley had made her realise “that I make music because I love to, not because I have to”. On tour she was supported by Black and Evans and on occasion by Steinbrick and Josh Klinghoffer, a five-piece that also performs instrument improvisations under the name BANANA. In January 2017, Le Bon released the four-track EP Rock Pool via Drag City. It includes her version of the track “I Just Want to Be Good” featuring Perfume Genius, which she wrote for Sweet Baboo’s 2015 album The Boombox Ballads. In the same month Leaving Records released Live by BANANA, recorded live during the band’s 2016 tour and Le Bon remixed Eleanor Friedberger’s ‘Are We Good?’ In 2018, Le Bon signed with Brooklyn based record label Mexican Summer.]

17. Mitski – “Working For The Knife”
    from: Laurel Hell / Dead Oceans / February 4, 2022
    Mitski Miyawaki was born Mitsuki Laycock-Miyawaki on September 27, 1990. She is a Japanese-American singer-songwriter. Mitski self-released her first two albums, Lush (2012) and Retired from Sad, New Career in Business (2013), while studying at Purchase College’s Conservatory of Music. After graduating, she released her third studio album, Bury Me at Makeout Creek (2014), through Double Double Whammy. She then signed with Dead Oceans in 2015, where she released her critically acclaimed albums Puberty 2 (2016), Be the Cowboy (2018) and Laurel Hell (2022). The Guardian dubbed her the “best young songwriter” of the United States. // Mitski Miyawaki was born Mitsuki Laycock-Miyawaki on September 27, 1990, in Japan to American father and a Japanese mother. Her first language was Japanese, growing up in a small town in Mie Prefecture. She moved frequently while growing up due to her father’s job at the United States Department of State, living in countries such as Turkey, China, Malaysia, the Czech Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo before settling in the United States. She sang in a choir in high school and was 18 when she wrote her first song on the piano. // After enrolling at Hunter College to study film, Mitski decided to pursue music instead and transferred to SUNY Purchase College’s Conservatory of Music, where she studied studio composition. During her time at Purchase College, she recorded and self-released her piano-based first and second albums, Lush (2012) and Retired from Sad, New Career in Business (2013), as student projects. While there, Mitski also met Patrick Hyland, who has produced each of her albums after Lush. // After graduating, she served as the vocalist for the short-lived prog-metal band Voice Coils and began work on her third studio album, Bury Me at Makeout Creek, which was released on November 11, 2014, through Double Double Whammy. The album represented a sonic departure from Mitski’s orchestral and classical piano background found in her first two albums, exchanging it for raw, impulsive guitar. It garnered acclaim from numerous publications. // On December 22, 2015, Mitski signed with Dead Oceans before releasing new music the following year. She announced her fourth studio album, Puberty 2, on March 1, 2016, and shared the lead single, “Your Best American Girl”. She released another single, “Happy”, before the release of the album on June 17. The album was recorded over a two-week period at Acme Studios in Westchester County, New York and was produced by longtime collaborator Patrick Hyland. The album received widespread acclaim from music critics. “Your Best American Girl” was named the 13th best song of the 2010s by Rolling Stone. // In a 2016 episode of the Cartoon Network show Adventure Time, her song “Francis Forever” was covered by Olivia Olson as the character Marceline the Vampire Queen. // On February 21, 2017, the Pixies announced US tour dates with Mitski as a supporting act. On May 1, a compilation album consisting of 100 songs by different artists titled Our First 100 Days was released. It includes Mitski’s cover of One Direction’s song “Fireproof”. The compilation aims to raise funds for organizations that support causes threatened by Donald Trump’s proposed policies. Mitski played a cover of the song in 2015, but that version has since been taken down. Mitski also covered Frank Sinatra’s 1951 classic “I’m a Fool to Want You” for the 7-Inches For Planned Parenthood compilation album. On October 4, 2017 Lorde announced Mitski will be an opening act for selected dates as part of her Melodrama World Tour. On November 1, a short film starring Mitski called Sitting was released. // On April 20, 2018, Mitski teamed up with the experimental band Xiu Xiu on the song “Between the Breaths” for the soundtrack of the sci-fi comedy film How to Talk to Girls at Parties, based on the short story of the same name. // On May 14, 2018, Mitski’s fifth studio album, Be the Cowboy, was made available for pre-order without prior announcement. The lead single, “Geyser”, was released on the same day alongside its accompanying music video. The second single, “Nobody”, was released on June 26, 2018, accompanied by the music video, and the third and final single to precede the album, “Two Slow Dancers”, was released on August 9 alongside a lyric video. Be the Cowboy was released on August 17, through Dead Oceans. It was critically acclaimed and named the album of the year by publications including Pitchfork, Vulture and Consequence of Sound. // On tour in 2019, Mitski began incorporating choreography into her live performances inspired by Butoh, a form of dance theater developed in post-war Japan, in which “performers draw on chaotic internal emotions but depict them with precise, repetitive gestures.” The approach reflected her wish to “give audiences something new” on her second headlining tour since Be the Cowboy’s release, as well as a desire “to develop her own, idiosyncratic ways of maintaining a grip on an audience,” since she’d learned “that the jumping around onstage, getting everyone pumped up, doesn’t come naturally to me.” Mitski worked with performance artist Monica Mirabile to devise the tour’s “highly stylized, sometimes unsettling” movements. Butoh influenced choreography was also used in her music video for “Working for the Knife”. // In August 2019 Mitski ended her hiatus from social media to post a statement denying allegations made by a Tumblr user that she had been involved in a child trafficking ring. In the statement Mitski stated “I don’t know the accuser, and I don’t know how or why they have come to associate me with their trauma.” // In September 2019 at the final performance of her Be the Cowboy Tour in Central Park, Mitski announced that it would be her last indefinitely. She later talked about how she planned to quit music completely and “find another life.” By early 2020, Mitski had changed her mind and decided to return to music, partly because she owed her label another album and partly for her herself. She described making the decision to continue, “What it came down to was, ‘I have to do this even though it hurts me, because I love it […] This is who I am. … I’m going to keep getting hurt, and I’m still going to do it, because this is the only thing I can do.’ ”]

18. Aldous Harding – “Lawn”
    from: Warm Chris / 4AD / March 25, 2022
    [Hannah Sian Topp was born in 1990. She is known professionally as Aldous Harding, is a New Zealand folk singer-songwriter, based in Cardiff, Wales. // Topp comes from a musical family in Lyttelton, New Zealand: her mother is folk singer Lorina Harding. One of the first musicians who came across her was New Zealand folk-pop singer/songwriter Anika Moa. Moa asked Harding to play support for her that night after finding her busking outside the venue she was about to play at. // She has released music through independent record labels Flying Nun, Spunk, and 4AD. She has collaborated with Marlon Williams, John Parish, Mike Hadreas and Fenne Lily. // 4AD announced Harding as a new signing in early 2017 just prior to the release of her second album, Party. Party was nominated for IMPALA’s European Album of the Year Award. Singer-songwriter Aldous Harding, released Designer is the third studio album on April 26, 2019 by 4AD. The song “The Barrel” won the 2019 APRA Silver Scroll award. // As of 2020, she is based in Cardiff, Wales, where she had previously lived with partner and collaborator H. Hawkline.]

11:23 – Underwriting

19. Bonobo – “Shadows (feat. Jordan Rakei)”
    from: Fragments / Ninja Tune / January 14, 2022
    [Simon Green (born 30 March 1976), known by his stage name Bonobo, is a British musician, producer, and DJ based in Los Angeles.[1] He debuted with a trip hop aesthetic, and has since explored more upbeat approaches as well as jazz and world music influences. His tranquil electronic sound incorporates the use of organic instrumentation, and is recreated by a full band in live performances. // Green’s work has attained a cult following, and he has collaborated with a variety of other artists. // Green debuted in 1999 on the Tru Thoughts compilation When Shapes Join Together. His stage name Bonobo is a reference to the Bonobo chimpanzee species. Following the releases of the EP Scuba, released on Brighton based label Fly Casual Recordings, and the single “Terrapin”, Bonobo was offered label deals with XL recordings and Mute records, but he chose to remain in Tru Thoughts. // His first album Animal Magic was released on the same label in 2000 to mixed reviews. Paul Cooper of Pitchfork stated that it “breaks no new ground for chill-out”, while PopMatters said Bonobo “[showcases] smooth breakbeat loops, synth sounds, and aforementioned dub effects. [And his] electronic music draws on live playing.” Reviewer Dean Carlson also said that the album “slowly takes shape as a solid debut of narcoleptic downtempo.” In spite of reactions, Animal Magic has given Bonobo a cult following. Its accompanying compilation album titled “One Offs…”, was issued in 2002 and contains reworked songs and rarities. // In 2001, Bonobo was signed to Coldcut’s label Ninja Tune and in 2003, he released Dial ‘M’ for Monkey. John Bush of AllMusic stated in a review that Bonobo’s influences were drawn more towards alternative rock and world music rather than hip-hop or trip hop. The album tracks “Pick up” and “Flutter” were featured in the snowboarding game SSX on Tour. // In 2005, Bonobo contributed to the Solid Steel series, with It Came from the Sea. The mix features several exclusive tracks as well as remixes and re-edits. His third album, entitled Days to Come, was released on October 2, 2006. An AllMusic review states that “[Bonobo] breathes new life into a well-worn genre.” With the album as well as his future work, he featured vocalists such as Bajka, thus “adding [an] organic and vibrant musicality that’s rare in electronic music.” Days to Come was voted Best Album of 2006 by Gilles Peterson’s listeners. The song “Nightlite” appeared on UEFA Champions League 2006–2007, and “Recurring” was used in a surfing film broadcast on Fuel TV/ // Bonobo’s seventh studio album Fragments was released on 14 January 2022. Five singles were released ahead of the album’s release. The first single, “Rosewood”, debuted on October 6, 2021, followed by “Tides” on October 20, 2021, a collaboration with Jamila Woods. A third single, “Otomo”, was released on 10 November 2021, a collaboration with O’Flynn, followed by “Shadows”, with Jordan Rakei, on the 1st of December. The fifth and final single, “From You”, with Joji, was released on 3 January 2022. // Bonobo’s sound is oriented on beats and samples but typically “soothing”, combining influences ranging from club music to world music. Pitchfork named him a key figure in the 2000s downtempo electronica scene while The Guardian associated him with the recent popularity of “ambient world electronica”. While his earliest work was firmly based in trip hop, his style soon became more upbeat and delved into genres such as jazz (which has led him to be described as a nu jazz artist) and traditional Indian music. He has collaborated with various artists, including Bajka, Andreya Triana, Erykah Badu, and Rhye who contributed vocals to songs on his last four albums Days to Come, Black Sands, The North Borders, and Migration, respectively. He also performed with Robert Luis of the Tru Thoughts label under the alias of Nirobi and Barakas. // Whilst often touring solo, and performing DJ sets and residencies, in 2010 Bonobo opted to start touring with a full band for the Black Sands tour. The band plays live renditions of studio material, with a singer, keyboardist, guitarist, saxophonist, string section, electronics, and drummer, often with improvisations and solos. His albums employ sampling, for example ‘Behind the Light’ (from Pick Up EP, 2003) uses a clip of ‘Judy’ from John Renbourn.]

20. Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad – “Sunflowers (feat. Roy Ayers) [Instrumental]”
    from: Jazz Is Dead 009 Instrumentals / Jazz Is Dead / 2021
    [Under Jazz Is Dead, younger artists are elaborating upon conversations started decades ago; jazz icons are utilizing vintage equipment to create new masters with Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad; the same equipment that recorded their coveted catalogs. The vitality embedded in the new masters epitomizes our quest for new life in music: Jazz Is Dead.]

21. Pino Palladino & Blake Mills – “Just Wrong”
    from: Notes With Attachments / Impulse Records / March 12, 2021 / 2022
    [Notes with Attachments is an instrumental collaboration between bassist Pino Palladino and guitarist/multi-instrumentalist/producer Blake Mills. Recorded in stages over two and a half years and initially conceived as a solo project for Palladino, the album brings together a shared cohort of musicians from jazz, R&B, pop, and beyond. It also features drummer Chris Dave, keyboardist Larry Goldings, and saxophonists Sam Gendel, Marcus Strickland, and Jacques Scwartz-Bart.]

22. Dr. Lonnie Smith – “Bright Eyes (Live)”
    from: Breathe / Blue Note / March 26, 2021
    [From http://www.allmusic.com: Veteran Hammond B-3 master Dr. Lonnie Smith pairs with punk icon Iggy Pop on his inspired and deeply funky 2021 album Breathe. Smith initially came into his own in the 1960s, releasing a string of groove-based albums for Blue Note, including 1968’s Think!, that helped define the sound of forward-thinking organ jazz. Over 30 years after his last album for Blue Note, he returned to the label with 2016’s vibrant Evolution and 2018’s All in My Mind; albums that found him recapturing the earthy energy of his original recordings. Continuing this latter-career resurgence, Breathe again finds him working with producer Don Was, and backed by an energetic ensemble of all-stars including guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg and drummer Johnathan Blake, who make up his core trio. He also expands the group to a septet on several tracks, bringing trumpeter Sean Jones, tenor saxophonist John Ellis, baritone saxophonist Jason Marshall, and trombonist Robin Eubanks on board. Smith’s work with Pop bookends that album as they offer a smoky, Doors-esque rendition of Timmy Thomas’ 1972 soul anthem “Why Can’t We Live Together” and a relaxed, boogaloo-style work-up of Donovan’s ’60s classic “Sunshine Superman.” Both of these songs were recorded in studio and feature added percussion from Richard Bravo. They are wry, ebullient recordings that make a surprising case for Pop as a jazz crooner. The core of the album finds Smith leading his band through a series of energetic performances captured live at The Jazz Standard in New York City. Among these are several inspired Smith originals including “Bright Eyes,” a breezy 3/4 anthem that brings to mind his ’60s work. Equally engaging are the slow-grooving “Track 9,” which spotlights a fiery solo from trumpeter Jones, and the gospel-inflected “Pilgrimage,” featuring vocalist Alicia Olatuja. Smith also jumps into a bug-like take on Thelonious Monk’s “Epistrophy” that evokes the spacy sound of Herbie Hancock’s 1973 Sextant album. Few legacy artists are as capable at conjuring the urgency and youthful energy of their classic recordings as Smith has been since returning to Blue Note, and Breathe is no exception.]

23. Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio – “Pull Your Pants Up”
    from: Cold As Weiss / Colemine / February 11, 2022
    [Over the course of the last five years, the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio have established themselves as the world’s premier funky organ trio. The organ trio, along with founder and manager Amy Novo, continues to devise the perfect blend of raw, passionate music and engaging industry practices. Through a firm partnership with label Colemine Records, the trio has garnered Billboard charting albums, sold out shows, tens of thousands of albums sold, and millions of streams. Lofty accomplishments for an instrumental organ trio. // Now, with permanent drummer Dan Weiss behind the kit, DLO3 is proud to present Cold As Weiss, their third studio album to date that finds them tighter than ever, and continuing to push funky instrumental music to a new generation of fans.. // The band features organist Delvon Lamarr, a self-taught virtuosic musician, with perfect pitch who taught himself jazz and has effortlessly been able to play a multitude of instruments. On guitar is the dynamo Jimmy James who eases through Steve Cropper-style chanking guitar, volcanic acid-rock freak-out lead playing, and slinky Grant Green style jazz. From Reno, Nevada is drummer Dan Weiss (also of the powerhouse soul and funk collective The Sextones). Dan’s smoldering pocket-groove drumming locks in the trio’s explosive chemistry. // Founded by Lamarr’s wife and manager Amy Novo, the trio started from humble beginnings in 2015, but since then has released two Billboard charting albums and toured the world to sold out venues.]

24. Khruangbin & Leon Bridges – “B-Side”
    from: Texas Moon EP / Dead Oceans / 2022
    [Follow up to 2020’s Texas moon EP and the 5th EP from Khruangbin a trio from Houston, Texas, with Laura Lee on bass, Mark Speer on guitar, and Donald Ray “DJ” Johnson Jr. on drums. The band has also released 3 albums. The band is known for blending global music influences, classic soul, dub and psychedelia. Their debut studio album, The Universe Smiles Upon You (2015), draws from the history of Thai music in the 1960s, while their 2nd album, Con Todo El Mundo (2018), has influences from Spain and the Middle East. Todd Michael “Leon” Bridges was born July 13, 1989. He is an American soul singer, songwriter and record producer from Fort Worth, Texas. He is best known for his song “Coming Home”, which received regular airplay and was also a Top 10 Most Viral Track on Spotify. Bridges’ debut album, also titled Coming Home, was released on June 23, 2015, on Columbia Records and subsequently nominated for Best R&B Album at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards. Texas Sun is her 2nd EP. He has also released 2 full length records.]

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

Next week on March 2, WMM presents More New and MidCoastal Releases from the new band Prairie Brigade, plus music from: The Creepy Jingles, Erik J. Pearson, Beach House, and more. {bus we welcome Special Guest Ivory Blue who shares music from their new album COMPOUND LOVE.

Thank you to all who donated to KKFI’s Winter Fund Drive. Through our Wednesday MidDay Medley On Air Fund Drive Shows and facebook Fundraiser a total of 57 people donated a total of $3575.00. We love our listeners and welcome you!

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

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Show #930