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, January 25, 2023

Spinning Records With Marion Merritt + Nani Noam Vazana

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. She grew up in Los Angeles, and St. Louis. She went to college in Columbia, Missouri. She studied art and musical engineering. She saw Talking Heads on their first U.S. tour when they played One Block West, in KCK, in 1978. For over 18 years Marion has joined us on WMM. Marion is also the proprietor of Records With Merritt, a minority owned business at 1614 Westport Rd. in Kansas City, Missouri. More info at: http://www.recordswithmerritt.com.

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. Ryo Kawasaki – “Raisins”
   from: Raisins / Mr. Bongo / 2022  
   [Ryo Kawasaki (February 25, 1947 – April 13, 2020) was a Japanese jazz fusion guitarist, composer and band leader, best known as one of the first musicians to develop and popularise the fusion genre and for helping to develop the guitar synthesizer in collaboration with Roland Corporation and Korg. His album Ryo Kawasaki and the Golden Dragon Live was one of the first all-digital recordings and he created the Kawasaki Synthesizer for the Commodore 64. During the 1960s, he played with various Japanese jazz groups and also formed his own bands. In the early 1970s, he moved to New York City, where he settled and worked with Gil Evans, Elvin Jones, Chico Hamilton, Ted Curson, Joanne Brackeen amongst others. In the mid-1980s, Kawasaki drifted out of performing music in favour of writing music software for computers. He also produced several techno dance singles, formed his own record company called Satellites Records, and later returned to jazz-fusion in 1991. // Ryo Kawasaki was born on February 25, 1947, in Kōenji, Tokyo, while Japan was still struggling and recovering from the early post World War II period. His father, Torao Kawasaki, was a Japanese diplomat who had worked for The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1919. Torao worked at several Japanese consulates and embassies, including San Francisco, Honolulu, Fengtian (then capital of Manchuria, now Shenyang in China), Shanghai, and Beijing while active as an English teacher and translator for official diplomatic conferences. Ryo’s mother, Hiroko, was also multilingual, and spoke German, Russian, English, and Chinese aside from her native tongue Japanese. Hiroko grew up in Manchuria and then met Torao in Shanghai. Torao was already 58 years old when Ryo was born as an only child. // Kawasaki’s mother encouraged him to take piano and ballet lessons, and he took voice lessons and solfege at age four and violin lessons at five, and he was reading music before elementary school. As a grade scholar, he began a lifelong fascination with astronomy and electronics (he built his own radios, TVs and audio systems including amplifiers and speakers as well as telescopes). When Ryo was 10, he bought a ukulele and, at 14, he got his first acoustic guitar. The album Midnight Blue by Kenny Burrell and Stanley Turrentine inspired Ryo to study jazz. // In high school, he began hanging out at coffee-houses that featured live music, formed a jazz ensemble and built an electronic organ that served as a primitive synthesizer. By the time he was 16, his band was playing professionally in cabarets and strip joints. Although he continued to play music regularly, he attended Nippon University, majored in physics and earned his Bachelor of Science Degree. He also did some teaching and contest judging at the Yamaha musical instrument manufacturer’s jazz school. Additionally, he worked as a sound engineer for Japanese Victor Records and BGM/TBS Music, where he learned mixing and editing. // He recorded his first solo album for Polydor Records when he was 22. Although he continued to perform with his jazz group, and at a young age was voted the No. 3 jazz guitarist in a Japanese jazz poll, Kawasaki spent most of the next three years working as studio musician on everything from advertising jingles to pop songs including countless radio and TV appearances. He recorded his second album for Toshiba when he was 24. He played with B.B. King at a blues festival and also met George Benson (they jammed for five hours at Kawasaki’s house).// He also has recorded and worked with notable Japanese jazz musicians such as drummer Takeshi Inomata and Sound limits, saxophonist Jiro Inagaki and Soul Mates, saxophonist Keiichiro Ebisawa, saxophonist Seiichi Nakamura, pianist Masahiko Sato (佐藤允彦), saxophonist Hidehiko Matsumoto (松本英彦) and many others. // In 1973, Kawasaki arrived in New York. A friend picked him up at the airport and offered him an immediate gig with Joe Lee Wilson playing at the Lincoln Center as part of the Newport Jazz Festival. Soon Kawasaki was jamming regularly as part of the jazz community’s “loft scene”, and was invited to play with Bobbi Humphrey. A few months later, Kawasaki walked up to his apartment and found a stranger waiting for him at his front door. It was Gil Evans and he invited Kawasaki to join The Gil Evans Orchestra (David Sanborn, Howard Johnson, Tom Malone, Lew Soloff) which was then working on a jazz recording of Jimi Hendrix compositions, The Gil Evans Orchestra Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix had dreamed up the concept with Evans, but Jimi died a week before the project started in 1970. Kawasaki also played on another Gil Evans album on RCA, There Comes a Time, with Tony Williams on drums. Kawasaki rehearsed for a month with the third edition of Tony Williams’ Lifetime with trio format with bassist Doug Rauch working with Carlos Santana at that time, but Tony left to spend a year in Europe before the band got the chance to perform in public. // Kawasaki followed in the footsteps of Jim Hall, Gábor Szabó and Larry Coryell by becoming the guitarist in the Chico Hamilton Band, playing on a U.S. tour and working on various film scores that Chico recorded in Hollywood. Kawasaki made his debut U.S. album, Juice, in 1976 for RCA and was one of the first Japanese jazz artists to sign with a major label in the States. Sidemen on the project included Tom Coster (Carlos Santana) and Sam Morrison (Miles Davis). Kawasaki followed that recording with two more albums, Prism and Eight Mile Road, for the Japanese label East Wind. He also joined the Elvin Jones Band for a year-long tour of North and South America and Europe. By 1978, Kawasaki was tired of touring with other bands and returned to his own projects. // He explored Music of India, learned ragas and recorded an Audio Fidelity album, Ring Toss, that combined eastern and western music. With Dave Liebman he recorded Nature’s Revenge for the German MPS label and they toured Europe. Ryo also toured European jazz festivals with Joanne Brackeen as piano – guitar duo, and they recorded a pair of albums—AFT and Trinkets and Things—for Timeless Records in the Netherlands. In Japan, Sony’s Open Sky label signed Ryo for three albums—Mirror of my Mind, Little Tree and Live—the latter, recorded in a Tokyo club, was one of the first all-digital recordings. Notable musicians who participated on those recordings include Michael Brecker, Harvey Mason, Leon Pendarvis, Azar Lawrence, Anthony Jackson, Lincoln Goines, Barbara Morillo aka Ilana, Badal Roy, Nana Vasconcelos, Buddy Williams, Larry Willis, and Alex Blake. He also recorded an album called Sapporo for the Swiss label America Sound in 1980 while touring Switzerland and Germany. // Kawasaki invented his own guitar synthesizer in 1979, and used it to perform numerous solo shows at planetariums from 1980 to 1983. He also formed the jazz-rock group The Golden Dragon and performed concerts regularly in early 1980s. Fostex developed the first quarter- inch-tape, eight-track recorder called A8 along with 2 track mastering machine A2 and asked Kawasaki to be the first artist to use it. He recorded the album Ryo in 1981 for Philips Records and gained notoriety for creating all the music himself. He played only a nylon-string acoustic guitar with all his backing tracks created on his guitar synthesizer including the entire original orchestration of Joaquin Rodrigo’s well known Concierto de Aranjuez – Adagio movement. He did another similar recording, Lucky Lady, the next year. // When the Commodore 64 computer came out and was the first computer with a music synthesizer chip built-in (as opposed to a more common sound chip), Kawasaki became fascinated by the possibilities. He learned to write computer programs and devoted 16 hours a day for two years creating four music software programs—Kawasaki Synthesizer, Kawasaki Rhythm Rocker, Kawasaki Magical Musicquill, and Kawasaki MIDI Workstation—distributed by Sight and Sound Music. The first three programs were for school and home use, and the last one was for professional studios. He created an all-synthesized album, Images, in 1987; and the soundtrack, Pleasure Garden, in 1990, for an IMAX film about the preservation of the Earth’s endangered tropical rain forests. // From 1986 to 1990, Kawasaki produced a series of high-charting 12 inch dance singles—”Electric World”, “One Kiss”, “No Expectations”, “Say Baby I Love You”, “Don’t Tell Me”, “Wildest Dreams”, “Life is The Rhythm”, “Pleasure Garden”, and “Acid Heat”—that mixed free-style, house, acid house and ambient sounds. All of the production was done at his home studio, The Satellite Station, and the records were released on his own label, Satellites Records. His band and a dance troupe (organized by the band’s lead singer – Barbara ‘Ilana’ Morillo) also performed extensively in New York dance clubs. In addition, for five years (1988 to 1993), Kawasaki was the New York producer and director of two Japanese national weekly music radio programs, The Music Now and Idex Music Jam. He also collaborated with Japanese koto master Kicho Takano and produced “Crystallization” in 1986. // Kawasaki’s musical direction took another dramatic turn when he was signed by the new jazz and adult contemporary Japanese label One Voice as an artist and record producer. Kawasaki’s return to jazz, and his first album for the label, was the 1992 acoustic solo guitar album Here, There and Everywhere (released on One Voice in Japan and on Satellites Records in the U.S.). Kawasaki has produced and performed on three albums by Brazilian singer and guitarist Camila Benson for this label. Ryo has continued to release a steady string of albums—the acoustic My Reverie (music from Bill Evans, Debussy, Ravel and Gershwin), the electric jazz guitar-oriented Love Within The Universe (which received considerable
   airplay across the country), “Remixes Remixes Vol. 1” (also featuring Benson), “Sweet Life” and CD releases of “Mirror of my Mind” (a jazz ensemble recording with Harvey Mason, Michael Brecker, Anthony Jackson, Leon Pendarvis and vocalist Radha Shottam). // His 1999 release Cosmic Rhythm features British singer lyricist Clare Foster along with Kawasaki’s rhythm section Victor Jones on drums, Lincoln Goines on bass. The album also features David Kikoski on piano and Shunzo Ohno on flugelhorn. All the songs were arranged and recorded by Kawasaki including original ten songs by Ryo himself. // During 1995–1999, three hip hop artists, Puff Daddy, Kool G Rap, and Keith Murray, recorded Kawasaki’s original composition “Bamboo Child” on their latest albums more than twenty years after its original recording. // In 2001, Kawasaki released the live studio album Reval, recorded in Tallinn, Estonia with Estonian musicians Toivo Unt on bass, Aivar Vassiljev on drums, and Kristi Keel on English horn. // His other projects include being a composer, music director as well as a guitarist for the jazz ballet “Still Point” for the Estonian National Opera House during 2000-2002. This ballet is choreographed by Russell Adamson, a native Jamaican who resides in Helsinki. // Kawasaki released his third acoustic guitar solo album E in 2002. // From the year 2000 onwards, Kawasaki further expanded his live appearances into Russia and Baltic region jazz festivals. His quartet has appeared at Rigas Ritmi Jazz Festival in Riga/Latvia, Pori and other jazz festivals in Finland, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Saransk Jazz Ark Festival. He also appeared numerous times at Nõmme Jazz Festival in Estonia while assisting the production of this jazz festival. // Kawasaki’s projects during 2005–2008 included guitar trio project with American drummer Brian Melvin and Estonian bassist Toivo Unt under the “Art of Trio” name, performing in a variety of venues in Finland, Sweden, and the Baltic states, and performing with Estonian vocalist Jaanika Ventsel, while also touring and recording in Japan for the duo project with bassist Yoshio ‘Chin’ Suzuki (鈴木良雄), their duo CD “Agana” was released in February 2007. // In 2008, Kawasaki formed jazz ensemble with Estonian pianist/keyboardist Tõnu Naissoo. Also, his second duo CD with Yoshio ‘Chin’ Suzuki (鈴木良雄) and first CD with “Art of Trio” were completed and released during 2009, while his composition “Raisins” was included on the Grand Theft Auto IV radio station Fusion FM in 2008. // From 2009–2011, Kawasaki further expanded his performing activities in Lebanon with Syrian bassist, Omar Harb and Lebanese drummer, Fouad Afra. The album Live in Beirut which Kawasaki recorded with Lebanese organist, Arthur Satyan and drummer, Fouad Afra was released in 2011. // Overlapping the same time period, beginning in 2007, Kawasaki gradually developed his fourth acoustic guitar solo album Spain in Tallinn, Estonia, which was finally released in 2012. // In 2014, Kawasaki discovered a younger generation of Estonian musicians who inspired him to further develop a fusion, jazz-rock sound using his own compositions. His attention on these directions had somewhat faded away after recording in the early 1980s with his group Golden Dragon. In spring 2016, Kawasaki formed a new quartet called Level 8, exclusively with Estonian musicians: Raun Juurikas (keyboards), Kaarel Liiv (electric bass) and Eno Kollom (drums). Level 8 finished recording a self-titled album focusing on Kawasaki’s compositions both from the past and present utilizing a funk/fusion/jazz-rock sound. The album Level 8 was released in March 2017. // In April 2016, UK independent label Nunorthernsoul released a vinyl EP titled Selected Works 1979 to 1983 by Ryo Kawasaki. A follow-up vinyl EP titled Selected Works Part 2 – 1976 to 1980 by Ryo Kawasaki was released in April 2017. // Kawasaki died in Tallinn, Estonia in April 2020 at the age of 73.]

4. Kikagaku Moyo – “Meu Mar”
   from: Kumoyo Islands / Guruguru Brain / 2022 
   [Kikagaku Moyo (Japanese: 幾何学模様, Hepburn: Kikagaku Moyō) are a Japanese psychedelic band founded in Tokyo. The band’s name translates to “geometric patterns.” They consist of drummer/vocalist Go Kurosawa, guitarist/vocalist Tomo Katsurada, bassist Kotsu Guy, guitarist Daoud Popal, and Go’s brother, sitarist/keyboardist Ryu Kurosawa. // Kikagaku Moyo (in Japanese Kanji 幾何学模様, transliterated Kikagaku Moyō) translates to “geometric patterns”, which the drummer Go Kurosawa suggested as a band name after getting visuals caused by sleep deprivation during a long jam session at night. In a 2014 interview with the It’s Psychedelic Baby! magazine, Go recalls the moment at which he came up with the name: “It means geometric patterns, which I saw on the back of my eyelids after jamming all night long. I was totally in the “zone”, half awake and half asleep, but my hands were tapping the drums involuntarily. Tomo and I both wanted to have a Japanese name with Kanji characters, so it was decided pretty quickly.” // In the summer of 2012 in Tokyo, Go Kurosawa – who came to be the drummer in what would become Kikagaku Moyo – met Tomo Katsurada – the future guitarist – who had come back from studying film in the US. Having similar interests in music, fashion and movies, they decided to start playing music together. Though Go had played piano and Tomo knew the cello, both of them had little to no prior experience in the instruments they wanted to play in the band. Initially, the two often played together in an old studio where their friend worked, from midnight to morning, the reason for that being the high price of playing in the studio during the day. // Disatisfied with their sound, Go and Tomo soon went out to search for more people to join the band. They specifically sought people who didn’t have much experience like Go and Tomo themselves, but wanted to play music together. They started with putting up signs and handing out posters at their college. They eventually met their bassist Kotsoguy who was recording sounds from a vending machine on the street for a drone project. Tomo met their second guitarist Daoud Popal in a smoking area at the college Go and Tomo were attending. Around the same time, the band’s sitarist Ryu Kurosawa, who is Go’s brother, joined the band after coming back from India. The members didn’t have much in common when it comes to musical taste. Go had a mixed music taste and was the only one listening to psychedelic rock while Tomo preferred power pop, Kotsoguy black metal and Daoud hip-hop. In an interview, Go says “We tried to talk, “What have you been listening to?” We could never share anything. So only after we started playing, after one year, we started sharing.” Since most of the members weren’t technically proficient, they decided to adopt a psychedelic, meditative style, as a utilitarian approach to play music together. This style is especially present on their self-titled debut album. // Kikagaku Moyo did not find any great success in Japan, one reason for that being the expensive live shows, since Japanese music venues have a system of charging bands instead of paying them for live shows. According to Go Kurosawa in an interview, bands have to pay around 300$ for a 30-35 minute show. Therefore, the band started busking on Tokyo streets, outside of busy train stations. The group also made an attempt to set up psyche festivals around Tokyo, charging about five dollars for entry, with the aim of providing a cheap and accessible music scene. The band did however not gain any major progress either way. In an interview, Go says “[In Japan,] most people don’t like this kind of thing, they like following the rules”. Furthermore, the crowds were mostly made up of foreigners. This inspired the group to go abroad: their first tour took place in America where they played the Levitation festival in 2014. // Their 2nd LP “Forest of Lost Children” was released on May 20, 2014 by Beyond Beyond is Beyond Records based in Brooklyn, New York. They toured the U.S. in April 2014 in support of the record with appearances at Desert Daze Austin Psych Fest Due to high demand their S/T record was reissued on Cassette tape by Burger Records and a new tape by the name of “Mammatus Clouds” was released on the eclectic Sky Lantern Records in Tucson, Arizona. “Mammatus Clouds” was pressed onto 12″ LP by both Cardinal Fuzz Records (UK) and Captcha Records (US) in June 2014. The band continued to tour throughout 2014 and made their first appearance in the UK that Oct. selling out several shows in London. // In 2015 the band toured extensively through Europe with appearances at Eindhoven Psych Lab[ and Duna Jam. Members of the band also started the record label Guruguru brain in 2015 to showcase the unique music scene in East Asia. They would release their next two records on it: House in the Tall Grass, released in May 2016, and Masana Temples, released in October 2018. // In 2017, they played a string of Gizzfest shows in Australia alongside friends King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, The Murlocs, La Luz, O.R.B and Parsnip. The band visited Australia a second time in March 2020 and played a small boutique festival ‘Nine Lives’ hosted by local record store Jet Black Cat Music. // On Jan. 19, 2022, the band announced they would go on an indefinite hiatus after 2022, and that their next record would be their last. Titled Kumoyo Island, the album was released in May 2022. // Kikagaku Moyo played their last show Dec. 3, 2022 at Meguro Persimmonn Hall in Tokyo].

5. The Brian Jonestown Massacre – “Fudge”
   from: THE FUTURE IS YOUR PAST / A Records / February 10, 2023
   [BJM’s 19th album following the release of FIRE DOESN’T GROW ON TREES in 2022. and. The Brian Jonestown Massacre is an American musical project and band led and started by Anton Newcombe. It was formed in San Francisco in 1990. // The group was the subject of the 2004 documentary film called Dig!, and have gained media notoriety for their tumultuous working relationships as well as the erratic behavior of Newcombe. The collective has released 19 albums, five compilation albums, five live albums, 13 EPs, 18 singles as well as two various-artist compilation albums to date. // The bandname is a portmanteau of deceased Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones and the 1978 Jonestown Massacre.] 

10:22 – Underwriting

6. Black Belt Eagle Scout – “My Blood Runs Through This Land”
   from: The Land, The Water, The Sky / Saddle Creek / February 10, 2023
   [Katherine Paul is a Swinomish/Iñupiaq singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Portland, Oregon. Her music is influenced by post-rock, alternative rock, and Native American traditional music. She has released an EP and two albums under the moniker Black Belt Eagle Scout. Her self-titled EP as Black Belt Eagle Scout was released in June 2014. Her debut studio album, Mother of My Children, was first released by Portland tape label Good Cheer Records in 2017, then re-released in September 2018 by Saddle Creek Records. On April 26, 2019, Saddle Creek released a new Black Belt Eagle Scout single titled “Loss & Relax” on a seven-inch vinyl backed with b-side track titled “Half Colored Hair”. // Paul grew up in the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community on the Puget Sound in Washington. Her earliest musical experiences included listening to and singing indigenous music of the Coast Salish. She was a jingle dress dancer at regional pow wows with her family’s drum group, the Skagit Valley Singers. At a young age, Paul began learning to play the piano and played the flute in her school band. Her interest in the guitar and drums began when she came into the possession of some bootleg VHS tapes of Hole and Nirvana, from which she taught herself to play those two instruments by pausing the tapes and studying the musicians’ fingerings and techniques. // During high school Paul became involved in the small DIY music scene in Anacortes, Washington near the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, driving her parents’ car to attend shows at the Department of Safety venue. The venue, located in an old firehouse, is where she met Canadian artist and musician Geneviève Castrée who became a mentor to Paul. An inspiration of Paul’s, Castrée would attend her early performances, encouraging her and praising her for her playing. // In 2007, Paul moved from Washington to Portland, Oregon to attend college at Lewis & Clark College. While in Portland she became involved with the Rock and Roll Camp for Girls, and later contributed guitar, drums, and vocals for Portland-based bands Forest Park and Genders. // Paul’s first release as Black Belt Eagle Scout was an eight-song self-titled EP in 2014. Her next release was 2017’s Mother Of My Children, Black Belt Eagle Scout’s debut album. Paul played all the instruments on the album including bass, keyboard, percussion, organ, vibraphone, and piano, in addition to guitar, drums, and vocals. The album was recorded at the Unknown recording studio, a converted church in Anacortes. During the recording session, Paul stayed on the reservation with her parents. The first two tracks are accompanied by music videos by Diné filmmakers Demian DinéYazhi’ (“Soft Stud”) and Evan James Wood (“Indians Never Die”). Songs on the album deal with topics such as loss, grief, heartbreak, and Paul’s identity as an indigenous queer woman. In 2016, her mentor Geneviève Castrée died of pancreatic cancer. Paul says music is what helped her process her grief during this time. This Paul accredits to her Native upbringing and the healing, spiritual roles that singing and drumming played for her during her upbringing. The album’s second track “Indians Never Die” is a response to both the Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock and to gentrification occurring in Portland. Paul is open and vocal about her identity as a “radical indigenous queer feminist”. // Black Belt Eagle Scout has been compared to other West Coast bands such as Mazzy Star and Nirvana. The Seattle Times refers to Black Belt Eagle Scout’s sound as “intrinsically Northwest,” because of Paul’s blending of Pacific Northwest rock and Coast Salish traditional music. Pitchfork magazine calls Mother of My Children “a collection of pensive rock songs saturated with an oceanic mood.”]

7. Black Belt Eagle Scout – “Don’t Give Up”
   from: The Land, The Water, The Sky / Saddle Creek / February 10, 2023

8. Makaya McCraven – “In These Times”
   from: In These Times / Nonesuch / 2022
   [Makaya McCraven (born October 19, 1983) is an American jazz drummer and bandleader. // McCraven was born in Paris, France, to jazz drummer Stephen McCraven [fr] and Hungarian singer Ágnes Zsigmondi (of the band Kolinda [fr]), and from the age of three was raised in and around Amherst and Northampton, Massachusetts. At the age of five he played in his father’s drum ensemble, the CMSS Bashers, along with some of his father’s students. In middle school, he and friends formed a band to accompany his mother’s folk singing. In high school, McCraven formed the jazz-hip hop Cold Duck Complex. He studied music at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, becoming part of the university’s jazz orchestra and receiving various DownBeat student awards, but did not graduate. // In 2007 McCraven moved to Chicago, where he performed in the bands of Bobby Broom, Corey Wilkes [de], Willie Pickens, and with the Occidental Brothers, Marquis Hill, and Jeff Parker. He also worked as a studio musician for Apollo Sunshine and Kris Delmhorst. In 2012 he released his debut album, Split Decision, through Chicago Sessions, leading a trio.[4] In the following years he appeared weekly with other musicians, from which he developed concepts for his 2015 album, In the Moment. He also performed with Kamasi Washington. In 2016 he toured mostly in Europe. After several mix tapes, in 2018 he released the double album Universal Beings, on which he was joined by musicians from New York City, London, and Los Angeles; the album was nominated for the Jazz Journalists Association Awards in 2019.[citation needed] In DownBeat’s 2020 Critics Poll, he was the winner in the “Rising Star” categories of best producer and best drummer of the year. In September, 2022, McCraven released In These Times, a full-length album that had been in development since 2015, through International Anthem. // McCraven is married to Nitasha Tamar Sharma, a professor of African-American and Asian-American Studies at Northwestern University as of 2018.]

9. Makaya McCraven – “Autumn In New York”
   from: Deciphering The Message / Blue Note / 2021

10. Yo La Tengo – “Aselestine”
    from: This Stupid World / Matador Records / February 10, 2023
    [Yo La Tengo (YLT; Spanish for “I’ve got it”) is an American indie rock band formed in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1984. Since 1992, the lineup has consisted of Ira Kaplan (guitars, piano, vocals), Georgia Hubley (drums, piano, vocals), and James McNew (bass, vocals). In 2015, original guitarist Dave Schramm rejoined the band and appears on their fourteenth album, Stuff Like That There. // Despite achieving limited mainstream success, Yo La Tengo has been called “the quintessential critics’ band” and maintains a strong cult following. Though they mostly play original material, the band performs a wide repertoire of cover songs both in live performance and on record. // Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley formed the band as a couple in 1984. They chose the name Yo La Tengo, Spanish for “I have it”. The name came from a baseball anecdote that occurred during the 1962 season, when New York Mets center fielder Richie Ashburn and shortstop Elio Chacón found themselves colliding in the outfield. When Ashburn went for a catch, he would scream, “I got it! I got it!” only to run into Chacón, a Venezuelan who spoke only Spanish. Ashburn learned to yell, “Yo la tengo! Yo la tengo!” instead. In a later game, Ashburn happily saw Chacón backing off. He relaxed, positioned himself to catch the ball, and was instead run over by left fielder Frank Thomas, who understood no Spanish and had missed a team meeting that proposed using the words “Yo la tengo!” as a way to avoid outfield collisions.[5] After getting up, Thomas asked Ashburn, “What the hell is a yellow tango?” // Kaplan and Hubley placed an advertisement to recruit other musicians who shared their love for bands such as the Soft Boys, Mission of Burma, and Arthur Lee’s Love.[3] The group’s debut recording was a 7″ single entitled “The River of Water” backed with a cover of Lee’s “A House Is Not a Motel”, released in late 1985 with Dave Schramm on lead guitar and Dave Rick on bass. After recording “Private Doberman” for inclusion on a Coyote Records compilation entitled Luxury Condos Coming to Your Neighborhood Soon, Rick left the band and was replaced by Mike Lewis, the founding bass player of Boston garage-punk bands DMZ and Lyres, who was also a member of Brooklyn garage rock band the A-Bones throughout his tenure in YLT. // In 1986, Yo La Tengo released their first LP, Ride the Tiger on Coyote Records. Produced by former Mission of Burma bassist Clint Conley who also took over bass duties on three songs, the album “marked Yo La Tengo as a band with real potential” according to reviewer Mark Deming. Kaplan was credited as “naive guitar” on the sleeve, and in the liner notes for the 1993 reissue of the album on City Slang Records, went so far as to say “Dave’s guitar playing is inarguably the best thing about the record.” // Schramm and Lewis left the band after the album’s release, with Kaplan subsequently taking on the role of lead guitar and Stephan Wichnewski joining to play bass. The group’s next album New Wave Hot Dogs (1987) sold poorly, but, in the words of Mark Deming, “was a quantum leap over the sound of their debut.” // The release of President Yo La Tengo in 1989 did much to establish the band’s reputation among rock critics including Robert Christgau who praised the “mysterioso guitar hook” in the first song titled “Barnaby, Hardly Working”. Produced by Gene Holder of The dB’s, the album was the band’s last release on Coyote. Despite the positive reception of the album, sales were still poor and Wichnewski left the band not long after. Hubley and Kaplan carried on as a duo and began playing two-electric-guitar shows. Kaplan, though typically a pragmatist, started carrying a bug trapped in amber in his pocket for luck. // Yo La Tengo reunited with Dave Schramm in 1990 to record Fakebook, an album of mostly acoustic tunes, including covers of Cat Stevens, Gene Clark, the Kinks, Daniel Johnston, among others, with five original songs by the band themselves, including an acoustic version of Barnaby Hardly Working. Again produced by Gene Holder, the album’s folk sound was a change of pace for the band. Years later, Kaplan recalled that the album was “just me and Georgia looking for an excuse to record with Dave Schramm and Al Greller” who played guitar and double bass on the album, respectively. // In 1991, with Dave Schramm in tow, Yo La Tengo collaborated with Daniel Johnston on the song “Speeding Motorcycle” which was released as a single. The band also released a 7″ single on Bar/None Records with the song “Walking Away from You” backed with a cover of Beat Happening’s “Cast a Shadow.” Gene Holder produced the single and played the bass. The That Is Yo La Tengo EP released later that year included some tracks that would end up on the group’s next LP. // After the release of That Is Yo La Tengo, James McNew (who also records under the solo moniker Dump) began playing bass with the band, forming the trio that continues to make up the band today. According to McNew, “I originally signed on as a fill-in for a short US tour, and a 4-week summer tour of Europe with Eleventh Dream Day. One night after a show in Munster, I was to look after our box of merchandise while Ira and Georgia went gallovanting through the town, meeting their policemen. Needless to say, during our soundcheck in Hamburg the next day, it suddenly dawned on me that I had left the box filled with copies of this EP back at the club in Munster. Oh man, was I in trouble… Sure… blame it on the rookie.” // The band recorded May I Sing with Me in Boston with Holder producing and Lou Giordano engineering. The album was released on Alias Records in 1992. Three of the album’s eleven songs (“Swing for Life”, “Out the Window” and “Five-Cornered Drone”) were carried over from the That Is Yo La Tengo EP and feature Holder on bass. The Upside-Down EP was released on CD in support of the album, rounding out the band’s releases on Alias. // In 1993, Yo La Tengo began their partnership with Matador Records, releasing a 7″ and CD5 of the song “Shaker” which the band recorded with John Siket in New Jersey. The following LP, 1993’s Painful, was also the beginning of the band’s fruitful creative partnership with producer Roger Moutenot, who has produced all of their subsequent albums up until 2013’s Fade, which was produced by John McEntire. Painful is the first Yo La Tengo album to feature James McNew on every song. Ira Kaplan explains: “I think this group really started when we made the record Painful. . . . Painful was the first record that we made as the three of us, and I think it sounds different from the things that came before it. Even though I can see connections with the earlier records and things we’ve done since, it really seems like mostly we’ve built on that record. Anything from before then is really, really different to me. Since Painful, I think we’ve gotten more confident and more willing to trust ourselves and trust each other, and probably better at dealing with things that go wrong.” // Rob Sheffield, writing in The New Rolling Stone Album Guide remarked that McNew “became an essential part of the sound on Painful, the 1993 album that kept every promise Yo La Tengo ever made and blew their previous highlights away.” Critical reaction was quite positive, with reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine calling it “a subtly addicting album.” Robert Christgau also praised the group once again, writing in his review that Yo La Tengo is “always friendly. This is not the forbidding experimentation of an aspiring vanguard. This is the fooling around of folks who like to go out on Saturday night and make some noise—and then go home humming it.” The band released Electr-O-Pura in 1995 to similar acclaim. For the first time, all songs were credited to the band as a whole rather than individual members; this became the norm for all future releases. // The band’s 1997 LP I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One synthesized the group’s eclectic combination of folk, punk rock, shoegazing, long instrumental noise-jams, and electronic music into a sprawling, multi-faceted style. Critical reaction was extremely positive; Pitchfork awarded the album a 9.7 out of 10, and AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that it was “arguably Yo La Tengo’s finest and most coherent album to date.” Kaplan recalled a turning point in the band’s musical progression: “I think after Electr–O-Pura we’ve had a direction of trying not to worry too hard about what the next album is going to sound like. Everything we’ve ever played on we just do whatever seems right at the moment, we just write a bunch of songs, and then go one baby step at the time and just do what seems right.” // With their critical reputation higher than ever before, the band toured extensively and their fan base continued to grow. In 1998, they collaborated with Jad Fair and released the album Strange but True to mixed reviews. Yo La Tengo had a cameo role as a Salvation Army band in the 1998 Hal Hartley film The Book of Life, and feature on its 1999 soundtrack release.[17] The band entered the studio again in late 1999 to record their ninth LP. And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out was released in February 2000 to a warm reception. The album features some intimate songs with hushed, varied instrumentation and includes the 17-minute meditation “Night Falls On Hoboken”. // In 2001, Yo La Tengo recorded an instrumental score for eight short undersea documentaries by Jean Painlevé, entitled The Sounds of the Sounds of Science. The program debuted at the San Francisco Film Festival and has been performed live approximately twelve times. The band also released an EP with covers of Sun Ra’s “Nuclear War” in late 2002. // The band’s tenth LP, Summer Sun, was released in 2003. Although the album received generally favorable reviews, some critics found the album’s quiet atmosphere “underwhelming.” Others criticized the band for a perceived lack of invention. When asked about the album’s quiet nature, Kaplan stated,”We made a decision at the last second just to leave the loud songs off. We were looking at the material we recorded and just trying to put out the best record that we could. At a certain point, we just thought it seemed right to put out the quiet ones. I’ve been aware that there’s been some surprise about that and people saying it’s even quieter than the last record, which has sort of taken me by surprise.” // Yo La Tengo collaborated with Yoko Ono on the 2003 charity album Wig in a Box: Songs from and Inspired by Hedwig and the Angry Inch in support of the Harvey Milk High School. The band put together their first “best of” compilation entitled Prisoners of Love: A Smattering of Scintillating Senescent Songs: 1985–2003 which was released in 2005. They composed scores for four more films, 2005’s Junebug and Game 6, and 2006’s Shortbus and Old Joy. Their scores for these four films were collected on the 2008 compilation They Shoot, We Score. // Their eleventh LP, I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass, was released in 2006 to universal acclaim. Informed by their soundtrack work, the arrangements included more strings and horns than any of the band’s previous albums. Kaplan told an interviewer: “I think we gained an element of comfort with using that kind of instrumentation, and it became something we could draw on for our other songs.” In addition, the album was book-ended with two guitar jams lasting over ten minutes each. // In 2006, the band released Yo La Tengo Is Murdering the Classics, a compilation of their live impromptu cover-song performances on the New Jersey freeform radio station, WFMU. As part of the station’s annual fundraising marathon, listeners who call in to pledge money to the station may request a favorite which the band will then perform on the spot. In late 2007, the band began performing acoustically for “The Freewheelin’ Yo La Tengo” tour. Audiences were encouraged to request songs and ask questions which, Kaplan stated, the band tried to answer “in a strategic manner so that the answers to the questions will lead to the next song.” // In March 2008, Yo La Tengo performed under the alias “Condo Fucks” at Brooklyn’s Magnetic Field. As Condo Fucks, the band released an album of cover songs, Fuckbook, on Matador in March 2009. // Popular Songs, the band’s 12th album, was released on Sept. 8, 2009. The album was recorded in the band’s rehearsal space in New Jersey and features two songs with elaborate string sections (composed by jazz composer Richard Evans). It entered the Billboard chart at No. 58, the highest entry of the band’s career thus far. // In 2009, Yo La Tengo contributed to Stroke: Songs for Chris Knox, a tribute album for New Zealand rock and roll musician Chris Knox who suffered a stroke in June 2009. Yo La Tengo covered Knox’s song “Coloured”. All proceeds from the album go towards Knox’s recovery. Also in 2009, Yo La Tengo contributed a cover of the song “Gentle Hour” to the AIDS benefit album, Dark Was the Night, produced by the Red Hot Organization. // Preceding their album Popular Songs, Yo La Tengo released an EP entitled Here to Fall Remixes in the summer of 2010. Remixes of their single Here to Fall were done by De La Soul, RJD2, and Pete Rock. This was Yo La Tengo’s third out-of-the-box remix EP in 14 years, following the Autumn Sweater and Danelectro Remix EPs. // In 2012 Yo La Tengo recorded a cover of Todd Rundgren’s “I Saw the Light” for a fund raising cd titled “Super Hits Of The Seventies” for radio station WFMU. In August 2012, they announced the release of an EP in September 2012 to be followed by a full-length album in January 2013. The EP includes three versions of the song “Stupid Things”: the single version, a remix by EYƎ, and the original 12-minute instrumental version. // In 2014 they toured and performed live onstage as film maker Sam Green live narrated an evolving version of his new film The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller in Austin, Burlington, Detroit, Ithaca, Portland, New Orleans and Vancouver. // In 2014, they played an Indiana-based Night Ranger cover band Bobby Night Ranger in the final episode of season 6 of the television series Parks and Recreation. // On August 28, 2015, Yo La Tengo released Stuff Like That There, an album (and “a sequel of sorts to Fakebook”) of re-recorded versions of some of their old songs as well as covers, including songs by The Cure, Hank Williams, and Sun Ra. // In 2016, the band released Murder in the Second Degree, a second compilation of their live impromptu cover-song performances on the New Jersey freeform radio station, WFMU. // In 2017, the band played two dates in New York City with Robyn Hitchcock. The performances included the Hitchcock album “Black Snake Diamond Role” in its entirety, as well as collections of classic Hitchcock songs and covers of other artists. // In 2018, Yo La Tengo released their 15th studio album, There’s a Riot Going On, which Pitchfork decided ‘reflects the group’s greatest and most instantly recognizable strengths’. // In 2020, Yo La Tengo released We Have Amnesia Sometimes which was recorded over a 10-day period from late April to early May amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The album consists of five instrumental, ambient compositions which were recorded with one microphone in the room and the band spread out adhering to social distance protocols laid out by Governor Murphy of New Jersey. // On February 10, 2023, the band will release their seventeenth studio album This Stupid World. // Yo La Tengo have always had the core members Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley. They have had 14 bass players. James McNew has been the bass player since 1992’s May I Sing With Me.]

11:00 – Station ID

11. Regina Spektor – “Becoming All Alone”
    from: Home, before and after / Sire Records / June 24, 2022
    [Home, Before and After is the eighth studio album by singer-songwriter Regina Spektor, released on June 24, 2022, through Sire and Warner Records. It was announced on February 22, 2022, along with the release of its lead single “Becoming All Alone” on streaming platforms. // Regina Ilyinichna Spektor (Russian: Регинa Ильинична Спектор, pronounced [rʲɪˈɡʲinə ˈspʲɛktər]; born February 18, 1980) is a Russian–born American singer, songwriter, and pianist. // After self-releasing her first three records and gaining popularity in New York City’s independent music scenes, particularly the anti-folk scene centered on New York City’s East Village, Spektor signed with Sire Records in 2004 and began achieving greater mainstream recognition. After giving her third album a major label re-release, Sire released Spektor’s fourth album, Begin to Hope, which achieved a Gold certification by the RIAA. Her following two albums, Far and What We Saw from the Cheap Seats, each debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200. 2016’s Remember Us to Life peaked at 23 on the Billboard 200. // Mayor Bill de Blasio proclaimed June 11, 2019, Regina Spektor Day in New York City. Spektor was also inducted into the Bronx Walk of Fame on May 18, 2019, by Borough President Rubén Díaz Jr.// Spektor was born in 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union, to a musical Russian-Jewish family. Her father, Ilya Spektor, was a photographer and amateur violinist. Her mother, Bella Spektor, was a music professor in a Soviet college of music and teaches at a public elementary school in Mount Vernon, New York. Spektor has a brother, Boruch (also known as Bear), who was featured in track 7, “* * *”, or “Whisper”, of her 2004 album Soviet Kitsch. Growing up in Moscow, Regina started taking piano lessons when she was seven and learned how to play the piano by practicing on a Petrof upright that her grandfather gave her mother. She grew up listening to classical music and Russian bards like Vladimir Vysotsky and Bulat Okudzhava. Her father, who obtained recordings in Eastern Europe and traded cassettes with friends in the Soviet Union, also exposed her to rock and roll bands such as the Beatles, Queen, and the Moody Blues. // The family left the Soviet Union for the Bronx in 1989, when Spektor was nine and a half, during the period of Perestroika, when Soviet citizens were permitted to emigrate. She had to leave her piano behind. The seriousness of her piano studies led her parents to consider not leaving the Soviet Union, but they finally decided to emigrate due to the racial, ethnic, and political discrimination that Jewish people faced.zTraveling first to Austria and then Italy, the Spektor family was admitted to the United States as refugees with the assistance of HIAS (the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society). They settled in the Bronx, where Spektor graduated from SAR Academy, a Jewish day middle school in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. Since the family had been unable to bring their piano from Moscow, Spektor practiced on tabletops and other hard surfaces until she found a piano to play in the basement of her synagogue. In NYC, Spektor studied classical piano with Sonia Vargas, a professor at the Manhattan School of Music, until she was 17; Spektor’s father had met Vargas through Vargas’ husband, violinist Samuel Marder. Spektor attended high school for two years at the Frisch School, a yeshiva in Paramus, New Jersey, but transferred to a public school, Fair Lawn High School, in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, where she finished the last two years of her high school education. // Spektor was originally interested in classical music only, but she later grew interested in hip hop, rock, and punk as well. Although she had always made up songs around the house, she first became interested in more formal songwriting during a visit to Israel with the Nesiya Institute in her teenage years when she attracted attention from the other children on the trip for the songs she made up while hiking. // Following this trip, Spektor was exposed to the works of Joni Mitchell, Ani DiFranco, and other singer-songwriters, which encouraged her belief that she could create her own songs. She wrote her first a cappella songs around the age of 16 and her first songs for voice and piano when she was 17. // Spektor completed the 4-year studio composition program of the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College within three years, graduating with honors in 2001. Around this time, she also worked briefly at a butterfly farm in Luck, Wisconsin, and studied in Tottenham (in North London) for one term.]

12. Sunny War – “Higher (feat. David Rawlings)”
    from: Anarchist Gospel / New West / February 3, 2023
    [I feel like there are two sides of me,” says the Nashville-based singer-songwriter and guitar virtuoso known as Sunny War. “One of them is very self-destructive, and the other is trying to work with that other half to keep things balanced.” That’s the central conflict on her fourth album, the eclectic and innovative Anarchist Gospel, which documents a time when it looked like the self-destructive side might win out. // Extreme emotions can make that battle all the more perilous, yet from such trials Sunny has crafted a set of songs that draw on a range of ideas and styles, as though she’s marshaling all her forces to get her ideas across: ecstatic gospel, dusty country blues, thoughtful folk, rip-roaring rock and roll, even avant garde studio experiments. She melds them together into a powerful statement of survival, revealing a probing songwriter who indulges no comforting platitudes and a highly innovative guitarist who deploys spidery riffs throughout every song. // Because it promises not healing but resilience and perseverance, because it doesn’t take shit for granted, Anarchist Gospel holds up under such intense emotional pressure, acknowledging the pain of living while searching for something that lies just beyond ourselves, some sense of balance between the bad and the good. Credits: Produced by Andrija Tokic. Engineered by Andrija Tokic at The Bomb Shelter (Nashville, TN). Assistant Engineer: John Tellmann. Mastered by Dave Gardner at Infrasonic Mastering (Los Angeles, CA).]

13. Floating Points & Pharoah Sanders – “Movement 1 (feat. London Symphony Orchestra)”
    from: Promises (feat. London Symphony Orchestra) / Luaka Bop / Feb. 1, 2021
    [Pharoah: “Many times, people think I might be asleep but in fact, I am just listening to music in my head. I’m always listening to the sounds around me and playing, in my mind and sometimes I dream.”
    Sam: “What were you dreaming about?”
    Pharoah: “I’m on a ship. In the ocean. Bears coming around smoking cigars. The bears are singing, ‘We have the music. We have what you’re looking for.”
    Pharoah: “How you like that take, Sam?”
    Sam: “It’s cool. I think the bit in the middle, where it stops again I think you can hear. We were both kind of confused. I like it as well because it sounds like two musicians that are trying to guide each other.” Pharoah: “I think that’s it right there. It came out different. It came out good though.”
    Sam: “You happy?”
    Pharoah: “Yeah, I’m cool with it.”
    Sam: “Okay. Yeah, I think your playing is beautiful.”
    Pharoah Sanders (born Ferrell Lee Sanders; October 13, 1940 – September 24, 2022) was an American jazz saxophonist. Known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as his use of “sheets of sound”, Sanders played a prominent role in the development of free jazz and spiritual jazz through his work as a member of John Coltrane’s groups in the mid-1960s, and later through his solo work. He released over thirty albums as a leader and collaborated extensively with vocalist Leon Thomas and pianist Alice Coltrane, among many others. Fellow saxophonist Ornette Coleman once described him as “probably the best tenor player in the world”. // Sanders’ take on “spiritual jazz” was rooted in his inspiration from religious concepts such as Karma and Tawhid, and his rich, meditative performance aesthetic. This style was seen as a continuation of Coltrane’s work on albums such as A Love Supreme. As a result, Sanders was considered to have been a disciple of Coltrane or, as Albert Ayler said, “Trane was the Father, Pharoah was the Son, I am the Holy Ghost”. // Pharoah Sanders was born on October 13, 1940, in Little Rock, Arkansas. His mother worked as a cook in a school cafeteria, and his father worked for the City of Little Rock. An only child, Sanders began his musical career accompanying church hymns on clarinet. His initial artistic accomplishments were in the visual arts, but when he was at Scipio Jones High School in North Little Rock, Sanders began playing the tenor saxophone. // After finishing high school in 1959, Sanders moved to Oakland, California, and lived with relatives. He briefly studied art and music at Oakland City College. // Sanders died on September 24, 2022, at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 81.]

14. Mankunku Quartet – “Dedication (To Daddy Trane and Brother Shorter”
    from: Yakhal’ Inkomo /Mr. Bongo / October 22, 2021 [On Vinyl 2022]
    [The Mankunku Quartet’s 1968 album ‘Yakhal’ Inkomo’ clocks in at just over 30 minutes of jazz perfection. This compact, and to-the-point, album would sit comfortably in amongst some of the best works in the catalogues of any of the quintessential jazz labels such as Blue Note, Prestige and Impulse. ‘Yakhal’ Inkomo’, however, was originally released on the South African record label World Record Co., which resulted in it becoming an elusive and sought-after piece for jazz collectors. First press copies sometimes fetch as much as £1,000 on the collectors’ market. It has been long regarded as one of the finest South African jazz albums and DJ / broadcaster Gilles Peterson cemented this when he included it in his “best of genre” focussed radio show, ‘The 20 – South African Jazz’. // Tenor saxophonist Winston “Mankunku” Ngozi recorded the session on 23rd July 1968 at the Manley van Niekerk Studios, in Johannesburg. It was recorded by Dave Challen and produced by Ray Nkwe. The session is built up of two original works by Mankunku on the A-side, ‘Yakhal’ Inkomo’ & ‘Dedication (To Daddy Trane and Brother Shorter)’, and on the B-side, the Horace Silver composition ‘Doodlin’, and a John Coltrane number ‘Bessie’s Blues’. What is striking is how the Mankunku-penned compositions not only hold their own next to Silver and Coltrane but they are, arguably, the better tracks on the record – a testament to the beautiful writing and playing of Mankunku. // ‘Yakhal’ Inkomo’ features the great musicians; Agrippa Magwaza on bass, drummer Early Mabuza, and pianist Lionel Pillay. Pillay was of Indian descent, making this a mixed-race group, thus the very recording of the album was an act of resistance as it broke the apartheid restrictions of the time. The title of ‘Yakhal’ Inkomo’ means “the bellow of the bull”, the Black audience would have understood this as coded community symbolism and an act of protest but it escaped the attention of the white government. // For this edition, we have enlisted the services of Abbey Road Studios mastering, and lacquer-cutting engineer Miles Showell to cut a special half-speed master from the audio taken off the original master tapes. Miles has previously worked on our Arthur Verocai, Marcos Valle and Ian Carr re-issues, and once again we are blown away by the richness and clarity of Miles’ work. We have also presented it as a replica copy using the cover artwork and labels from the primary World Record Co. original version. // On the sleeve notes, Ray Nkwe the producer and the President of the Jazz Appreciation Society of South Africa writes “This is the LP that every jazz fan has been waiting for” and Ray was not wrong, it’s a stone-cold timeless jazz classic.]

15. Samara Joy – “Guess Who I Saw Today”
    from: Linger Awhile / Verve / September 16, 2022
    [Samara Joy McLendon, is known professionally as Samara Joy. She is an American jazz singer. She won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition in 2019 and was named Best New Artist by Jazz Times for 2021. // A native of the Castle Hill section of the Bronx, Joy was born in 1999 into a musical family. Her paternal grandparents, Elder Goldwire and Ruth McLendon, were founders of Philadelphia gospel group The Savettes. Her father, a bass player who has toured with gospel singer/songwriter/producer Andraé Crouch, introduced her to gospel greats like The Clark Sisters, and soul and Motown were also a big presence in her home. // At Fordham High School for the Arts she performed with the jazz band, and won Best Vocalist at Fordham University’s “Essentially Ellington” competition at Lincoln Center. But she first encountered jazz in a meaningful way when she enrolled in the jazz program at SUNY’s Purchase College as a voice major, and was named an Ella Fitzgerald Scholar. Friends there introduced her to the great jazz vocalists like Sarah Vaughan and Fitzgerald and instrumentalists like Kenny Washington, Jon Faddis (with whom she studied)[16] and Ingrid Jensen. While she was still in college, before the release of her first album, film director Regina King called her “a young woman who seems like Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald are both living in her body.” // In 2019, as Samara McLendon, she won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition. // Working with producer and eventual manager Matt Pierson, she recorded her self-titled debut album while still in college, graduating magna cum laude in 2021. Samara Joy was released on 9 July 2021 with Whirlwind Records. // On February 15, 2022 she performed on Today with guitarist Pasquale Grasso and performed again on Today in September 2022.// She released a number of viral video performances, including one that had been viewed over 1.5 million times as of October 2020. These videos had as of November 2022 gaineduding a series of sold-out conc and other festivals, as well as in Europe. // In February 2021 she was featured in Women of Color on Broadway, Inc.’s music video of “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess and on jazz pianist Julius Rodriguez’s album Let Sound Tell All. // Jazz Times named her Best New Artist for 2021. // On June 15, 2022 she was featured at Carnegie Hall’s 16th Annual Notable Occasion. and appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival. On September 16, 2022 she released her second album, Linger Awhile, on Verve Records. The album features drummer Kenny Washington, guitarist Pasquale Grasso, pianist Ben Paterson, and bassist David Wong. // She earned two Grammy Award nominations in 2022, for Best New Artist and Best Jazz Vocal Album for Linger Awhile. Her bookings for winter 2022 include singing with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra on its winter 2022 Big Band Holidays tour.]

16. Samara Joy – “But Beautiful (Feat. Pasquale Grasso )”
    from: Samara Joy / Whirlwind Records / 2022

11:35 – Goodbyes for Marion

Marion Merritt is founder 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 thank you for being out Guest Producer on Wednesday MidDay Medley.

11:36 – Underwriting

17. Noam “Nani” Vazana – “Una Segunda Piel”
    from: Una Segunda Piel – Single / Noam Vazana / March 23, 2022

[Noam “Nani” Vazana plays Greenwood Social Hall, 1715 Belleview Ave,. KCMO on Monday, January 30 at 6:30 PM.]

[Noam “Nani” Vazana is an 2023 official Showcase Artist at Folk Alliance International Conference performing Saturday, February 4, at 6:00 PM in Washington Park Place 3 at the Weston Kansas City at Crown Center, 1 East Pershing Road, KCMO. ] 

[Nani also will play the Heartland Song Network Midwest Music Foundation Private Showcast, Saturday, February 4, at 11:30 PM in Room 542 at the Weston Kansas City at Crown Center, 1 East Pershing Road, KCMO. More information at http://www.nanimusic.com ]

11:42 – Interview with Nani Noam Vazana

Nani Noam Vazana is one of the only artists in the world that write & compose new songs in the endangered Ladino language. In her new album ‘Ke Haber’ (What’s New) she captures the spirit of the ancient, matriarchal language and culture and propels it into the 21st century with socially pertinent lyrics, celebrating migration, gender and female empowerment. The soundscape bridges over tradition and modern life, capturing the sounds and smells of the marketplace and fuses them with raw, flamenco like vocals and surprising instrumentations. Nani’s parents escaped Morocco in the 1950’s and found refuge in Israel. But she rediscovered her heritage on a destined moment in Fez’s medina – hearing people singing on the street, a song her grandmother sang to her when she was a child. A phenomenal powerhouse performer delivering socially pertinent millennial, songs in a dying language. Nani is a professor at the London Performing Academy of Music and the Jerusalem Music Academy, she chairs of the Amsterdam Artist Collective and founded Why DIY Music and Nova Productions. She is a 2022 Edison Award Nominated artist.

Nani Noam Vazana plays Greenwood Social Hall, 1715 Belleview, Mon., Jan 30 at 6:30 PM.

Noam “Nani” Vazana is an 2023 official Showcase Artist at Folk Alliance International Conference performing Saturday, February 4, at 6:00 PM in Washington Park Place 3 at the Weston Kansas City at Crown Center, 1 East Pershing Road, KCMO.

Nani also will play the Heartland Song Network Midwest Music Foundation Private Showcase, Saturday, February 4, at 11:30 PM in Room 542 at the Weston Kansas City at Crown Center, 1 East Pershing Road, KCMO. More information at http://www.nanimusic.com

Noam “Nani” Vazana, Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Nani writes: 6 years ago I embarked on an unexpected journey following a song I rediscovered on the streets of Morocco. After a sold-out performance at the Tangier Jazz Festival I visited Fez, my grandma’s hometown. She spoke #Ladino but my father forbade us to speak to each other in any other language but Hebrew. Instead, she sang some songs in the kitchen, in this mysterious dialect no one could understand. I still remember peeling beans with her, listening to the fascinating rhythms and hope that one day I’ll be able to sing them myself, as well as she did.

Then 20 years later, hearing the same melody sung on the narrow streets of downtown Fez felt like a destined moment. As if I was meant to disconnect from my roots and rediscover them, when I was ready. A traditional Ladino song was sung in Arabic, through the throats of a few hundred people on the square in front of Fez’s blue gate and brought me back to my grandmother’s kitchen.

Now this song is reawakening, the 1st single of a new album of traditional Ladino songs titled “Andalusian Brew”. The language of the Sephardic Jews from the North of Africa and the Iberian peninsula.

Noam “Nani” Vazana is one of the only artists in the world that write & compose new songs in the endangered Ladino language. In her new album ‘Ke Haber’ (What’s New) she captures the spirit of the ancient, matriarchal language and culture and propels it into the 21st century with socially pertinent lyrics, celebrating migration, gender and female empowerment.

The soundscape bridges over tradition and modern life, capturing the sounds and smells of the marketplace and fuses them with raw, flamenco like vocals and surprising instrumentations. Soft choral-like trombones embellish mariachi guitars & percussion with glimpses of piano & cello tracks, make this record a magical realistic mosaic. Nani unveils a piece of history we don’t easily find in other mythology & anthropology.

Nani Noam Vazana plays Greenwood Social Hall, 1715 Belleview Ave,. KCMO on Monday, January 30 at 6:30 PM.

Nani Noam Vazana is an 2023 official Showcase Artist at Folk Alliance International Conference performing Saturday, February 4, at 6:00 PM in Washington Park Place 3 at the Weston Kansas City at Crown Center, 1 East Pershing Road, KCMO.

Nani also will play the Heartland Song Network Midwest Music Foundation Private Showcase, Saturday, February 4, at 11:30 PM in Room 542 at the Weston Kansas City at Crown Center, 1 East Pershing Road, KCMO. More information at http://www.nanimusic.com

Nani ranked the Top-20 on the World Music Charts Europe (#13 Ke Haber), represented the Netherlands at the EU Music Festival in Vietnam and performed at the Kennedy Center USA, BBC Radio 3, the London Jazz Festival UK and the Jodhpur RIFF festival India.

Nani showcased at APAP USA, Jazzahead DE and Injazz NL. The held talks at TEDx Amsterdam NL & hosted 3 WOMEX panels. The Dutch NPO network released a mini documentary about her musical work and she also composed music for BBC4 and NPO documentaries.

Nani is a professor at the London Performing Academy of Music and the Jerusalem Music Academy, she chairs of the Amsterdam Artist Collective and founded Why DIY Music and Nova Productions.

Awards:
ACUM Album Award, IL 2021
PAIS Album Award, IL 2020
SENA Album Award, NL 2019
Arts Council England Premiere Award, UK 2019
Sephardic Music Award, ES 2017
iTunes Top-20 bestseller, NL 2015
ACUM Album Award, IL 2011

Nani Noam Vazana, Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

11:54

18. Nina Noam Vazana – “No Kero Madre”
    from: “No Kero Madre” – Single / Noam Vazana / October 8, 2022 

[Noam “Nani” Vazana plays Greenwood Social Hall, 1715 Belleview Ave,. KCMO on Monday, January 30 at 6:30 PM.]

[Noam “Nani” Vazana is an 2023 official Showcase Artist at Folk Alliance International Conference performing Saturday, February 4, at 6:00 PM in Washington Park Place 3 at the Weston Kansas City at Crown Center, 1 East Pershing Road, KCMO. ] 

[Nani also will play the Heartland Song Network Midwest Music Foundation Private Showcast, Saturday, February 4, at 11:30 PM in Room 542 at the Weston Kansas City at Crown Center, 1 East Pershing Road, KCMO. More information at http://www.nanimusic.com ]

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

Next week on Wednesday, January 25 – Marion Merritt of Records With Merritt returns as Guest Producer

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/WednesdayMidDayMedleyon90.1FM

Show #978