The Pharcyde - Drop

Spike Jonez's utterly magical video for Pharcyde's track Drop off of the (mostly produced by Jay Dee) album Labcabincalifonia. Read more about video here: http://deliciousvinyl.com/mrdelicioussez/?p=30 I remember deejaying a house party back in 1996 and this girl handed me this album to play. I had sadly slept on this album when it came out in 1995 and was blown away at how good it was when I first gave it a spin at the party. The girl never returned to claim her album that night and I was then the owner of what would become one of my favorite hip hop albums produced by my favorite producer of all time. The production is still so very fresh. Thank you Jay Dee.

Onra and Quetzal - Caramel Dream

I think I could listen to this track on repeat for the rest of my day and still enjoy it. Tribute by Onra & Quetzal is a really nice album sprinkled with Dilla influences throughout.

Cumbia Colombiana- La Zenaida- Armando Hernandez

This is a great example of traditional Cumbia: La Zenaida by Armando Hernandez. Cumbia is by far my biggest musical obsession of 2010. Colombian Cumbia is my favorite though there are so many countries that have produced (and are producing) quality Cumbia that I can't say for sure which style is my favorite. The music is often amazing but the musicians and the dancers together live (as sort of shown here) are even more of a total package. Cumbia is truly American roots music which is currently undergoing a modern transformation. Nu Cumbia (Nueva Cumbia) or Cumbia Digital is the updating, remixing and creating of fresh new Cumbia with a more digitized sound. It is part of the loosely labled "Tropical Bass" genre that is quietly taking the world by storm. Here's a tip for DJs: Recognize this genre/movement or risk getting left behind in your basement while the rest of us are on a beach dancing our asses off to something fresh. I will be posting more about Cumbia in the future...

Shuggie Otis - Aht Uh Mi Hed

This track is off the 1974 Shuggie Otis album Inspiration Information. The album had taken almost three years to finish, and all the songs were written and arranged by Otis, who played almost exclusively every instrument on the album. However, Inspiration Information was far from a commercial success. After the album's release, Otis was approached by Billy Preston on behalf of The Rolling Stones, asking him to join the band for their upcoming world tour. He declined the offer, along with the chance to work with Quincy Jones in helping produce Otis's next album, which was never recorded. After a series of similar refusals and concert incidents, Otis gained the reputation of being a prima donna, and became less sought after as a session musician. Otis lost his recording contract with Epic Records and his fame diminished by the late 1970s.

He is best known for Strawberry Letter 23 (covered and made famous by The Brothers Johnson in 1977) which is on Inspiration Information but my favorites from the album are "Aht Uh Mi Hed" and "Inspirational Information". It's a damn shame that so many music lovers have slept on Shuggie for he blended soulful and funky as good as anyone ever has and was way ahead of his time. 

OF TWO MINDS

OF TWO MINDS is an amazing blog by Charles Hugh Smith. I try to read it everyday to grow my brain mo bigger. Check out this piece he does on the limits of the consumerism based pursuit of happiness myth. Mad accurate. I wish i could shove this in the pie hole of every economics teacher I have ever had. 


Oversupply of Old Failed Ideas, Undersupply of New Pragmatic Ideas

Ballad of the Black Gold

This track is on another level altogether. There is an interview about what inspired it on Okayplayer. I'm amazed Talib Kweli references Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogani people of Nigeria in his rhyme.  If you don't know this story, now is a good time to familiarize yourself with it. Truly some history filled, social movement fueled, progressive lyrics on this one.

The track is definitely hip hop pushing forward, but watching this video along with the track is truly watching hip hop pushing (us) forward. Ballad of the Black Gold

                                                

Brilliant Solo Piano

Ethiopiques vol. 21 is an album in the Ethiopiques series (focusing on brilliant Ethiopian Jazz from the 60s) featuring Ethiopian pianist Tsegue Maryam-Guebrou. Her piano work has an enchanting sound giving the listener a blend of emotions, often sounding haunting, playful, melancholy and just plain beautiful all at the same time. She had a 35 year gap in performing until someone tracked her down and got her to play again at a concert in Washington D.C. in 2008. The story of her life is extraordinary as you may guess from the emotion she plays with:


Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou is a nun currently living in Jerusalem. She grew up as the daughter of a prominent Ethiopian intellectual, but spent much of her young life in exile, first for schooling, and then again during Mussolini’s occupation of Ethiopia’s capitol city, Addis Ababa, in 1936. Her musical career was often tragically thwarted by class and gender politics, and when the Emperor himself actually went so far as to personally veto an opportunity for Guèbrou to study abroad in England, she sank into a deep depression before fleeing to a monastery in 1948. Today, she spends up to seven hours a day playing the piano in seclusion and even gave a concert to some lucky ducks in Washington D.C. a few years ago. A compilation of her compositions was re-issued on the consistently great Ethiopiques label. You can read more about her life at the Emahoy Music Foundation. (to teach classical and jazz music to children in Africa and assist American children to study music in Africa.)