Hi kids, welcome back. Last week was embarrassing, so this week I’m working on rebuilding any taste-based trust you might have once had in me. This week’s playlist is exactly the kind of music I tend to listen to the most— lo-fi, largely rooted in the 60s and 70s, a little gritty, a little nasty, a lot weird, and literally all over the map. Let’s get right into it:
08.1 Conquistadores, Chico Hamilton (1965)
First off, let’s discuss that strong wardrobe choice. Chico Hamilton is the man, and also that’s the inimitable Gábor Szabó on guitar and Willie Bobo on drums. My favorite thing ever in a song is unhinged yelling at random intervals— Chico Hamilton getting really into Gabor Szábó’s solo at 1:40 feeds me (“Yes, there you go! Now you did it!”). Overall, Paul from the YouTube comments has the right idea:
08.2 The Dump, Soul Vibrations (1973)
Excellent in its own right, and also masterfully sampled by Handsome Boy Modeling School in the track Holy Calamity [Bear Witness II].
08.3 There Was A Time, Dee Felice Trio (1969)
This track is from the album Gettin Down To It by James Brown—which was mostly him singing a bunch of standards in a much more frenetic, weird, typically-James Brown fashion, interspersed with a handful of Dee Felice covers of his own songs. A review of the album at the time of its release described it as an offering that could “scare the shades off Ray Charles”, and I’m unsure of whether that was meant as an insult or a compliment. You decide.
08.4 Take Me Back, Golden Hands (1977)
The bass here is so sick. Golden Hands is a Moroccan group, although they were based largely in France.
08.5 Go up Moses, Roberta Flack (1971)
This is a kind of flipped take on the traditional spiritual Go Down Moses.
08.6 We Need Order, The Chi-Lites (1973)
08.7 Billy Jack, Curtis Mayfield (1975)
The fact that this doesn’t even scratch the top ten? fifteen? best Curtis Mayfield tracks is a testament to how legendary his discography truly is.
08.8 Save Their Souls, Bohannon (1973)
This song has been sampled to death, as has much of Bohannon’s music, but I hadn’t heard the original until this week and it’s crazy good. Fun fact: Hamilton Bohannon was primarily a percussionist and grew up playing with Jimi Hendrix. He also played with a 13-year old Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, The Supremes, The Four Tops— I could go on.
08.9 Fishman, The Beginning of the End (1972)
The Beginning of the End are Bahamian, and are largely regarded as the one-hit-wonder group behind Funky Nassau. To clear up any confusion, this song is not about a fisherman or a fish man but, in fact, a man who sells fish.
08.10 Today, Tom Scott & The California Dreamers (1967)
I was simply vibing to this excellent cover of Jefferson Airplane’s Today when 1:38 came along and absolutely slapped me in the face.
08.11 A Time For Us, Joe Pass (1977)
This track manages to be both very pretty and bombastic, which is a delicate balance. Weirdly, it’s also a heavily-altered cover of the love theme from Romeo and Juliet, originally by Henry Mancini. A little bit of trivia for you— that song actually knocked the Beatles Get Back off the top of the Billboard 100 chart after its five-week run in 1969, but let’s change the subject before I slip back into clown behavior.
On another weird note, this compilation album, Late Night Tales, was put together by Belle & Sebastian, who I really just don’t like. It hurts to admit that their taste in music, outside of their own, is pretty impeccable— this album has a ton of stuff I really fuck with from Dorothy Ashby to Mulatu Astatke to Milton Nascimento.
08.12 Looking For You, Nino Ferrer (1974)
This song is the reason for this week’s newsletter, honestly. Buckle up because I have a lot to say! First of all, this song is so, so killer and 95% of its power is housed within that mind-blowing ambient recording of a sportscar— Ferrer, full last name Ferreri, was a car collector. I know what you’re thinking, but apparently there’s no relation and yes, I’m also dyslexic. Before being an internationally-successful musician and throwing around Rolls Royce-sums of money, apparently Ferrer was an archaeologist who excavated in Melanesia. Life’s weird like that.
Also weird like that: one of Ferrer’s biggest tracks is Mirza, which he recorded in 1966. This shocked me because apparently Mirza by Jalil Bennis Et Les Golden Hands, a perennial favorite of mine that I included in 03. I’m expanding your horizons, is a cover of Ferrer’s track. Who knew. Even weirder, that Golden Hands is the same Golden Hands up above from 08.4 Take Me Back. At least I’m consistent.
08.13 Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am, My Morning Jacket, Britney Howard, & Merrill Garbus (2013)
Only Fela Kuti could do this. Once I saw Tune-Yards in concert in a weird, horrible suburb in Colorado, where Merrill Garbus stopped the show about halfway through to address the crowd and hold a ceremonial funeral for a species of small shrew that had officially gone extinct earlier that month. There was a moment of silence and everything.
08.14 Pula Yetla, Letta Mbulu (1967)
God, this song is good. There’s this slow, droning wind up to this really bombastic bridge and then it just absolutely drops out— then you hear people shouting from what sounds like the next room over— before returning to that same opening rift. The original vocal version is equally as cool but with a very different feeling.
08.15 My Queen Is Nanny of the Maroons, Sons of Kemet (2018)
The Sons of Kemet are a tuba-forward British group that incorporate a ton of African and Caribbean influences into more traditional western music. All of the tracks on the album Your Queen is a Reptile reference a different influential black woman throughout history. This one, obviously, is about Nanny of the Maroons.
Anyway, is this jazz? Please discuss. I’d like to think it’s not since, historically, I am Not A Fan, but I know I’m probably kidding myself. I did call in an expert, but his answer was non-committal:
08.16 East of Any Place, Rogér Fakhr (late 1970s)
Habibi Funk extended my lifespan by releasing an entire second album of Rogér Fakhr tracks late last year. Fakhr was a Beirut-based singer-songwriter, who left home at 17 and literally walked across Lebanon with his guitar. He self-released a small run of 200-some cassette tapes in the late 1970s before immigrating first to France and then to the United States during the Lebanese Civil War. All of his recordings were done in a single day. All of his music is gorgeous, but this one is something special.
08.17 Lost in A Lonely World, The Ethics
This, of course, is the track sampled in Road of the Lonely Ones by Madlib. This is also the closest I’ll get to including a bummer in one of my newsletters.
08.18 If I Had a Little Love (rehearsal), Majestic Arrows (1973)
08.19 Les Fleurs, Minnie Riperton (1969)
Shoutout to Maya Rudolph’s mom. I narrowly chose this track over the original Ramsey Lewis version, largely because I can’t listen to that song without getting Apple Juice Break stuck in my head.
08.20 Love Is Everywhere, Pharoah Sanders (1972)
File this under “songs that almost made me cry this week”— it was sunny in Chicago after three, grueling weeks of gray, soul-crushing weather. I’m starting to think I might be a houseplant. Love really is everywhere!! Love really is stored in this song!!!
Anyway, that’s all I’ve got. Happy friday.
xoxo em