Been inserted into the Marvin week day rotation a few times lately, and since I’ve been getting lounge crowds more suited to hanging out than raving, I’ve been playing Refuge style sets… and enjoying it. Hope you dig it too. There are a few more of these on the hard drive that I’ll share in coming weeks.

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Tuesday night at Marvin: a Refuge special (pt. 1)

The Roots – Spain (ft. Chick Corea)
Matt Hudson – Trippin’ On Your Love
Kaidi Tatham – On A Vibe
Nicky Thomas – Soul Power
James Brown – Lowdown Popcorn
Randolph – Golden Days
The Memphis Horns – Soul Bowl
Monty Alexander - Love And Happiness
Tony Allen – Pariwo
Omar – Ghana Emotion
Amel Larrieux – Nadie Mas (CASAMENA Kitchen RMX)
Oddisee – Viva Brasil
Dorothy Ashby – Canto de Ossanha
Herbie Hancock – Trust Me
Jill Scott – High Post Brotha feat. Common
Oddisee – All Because She’s Gone feat. Phonte (clean)
King – The Story
Frank Ocean – songs for women
Kev Brown – What Ruling Means (feat. Grap Luva)
Dwele – Too Fly
DJ Day – Sunday
A Tribe Called Quest – 1nce Again feat. Tammy Lucas
Nas ft. AZ – Life’s a Bitch/Doonit
The ARE – Lyrics To Stay
Donwill – I See You ft Ragen Fykes

I forgot this existed until I dug up some old cd’s while cleaning up the studio. Synergy was like Refuge, except it was a long, long time ago, back in the solely vinyl days.

This still sounds really good, especially for a live recording. And the style is also a fitting compliment to Gaia this Sunday.

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Beanfield – Corso
Vikter Duplaix – Manhood
John Coltrane – Naima (4hero mix)
Chick Corea – The Slide
Angie Stone – Wish I Didn’t Miss You
Seek – Surrender
Gwen Guthrie – Ain’t Nothing Going On But the Rent (dub mix)
Lucy Pearl – Don’t Mess With My Man
Earth, Wind & Fire – Evil
Minnie Riperton – Gettin’ Ready For Your Love
Petal Pusher – Rely On Me
Tortured Soul – How’s Your Life? Part One
Abstract Truth – Get Another Plan
Seek – The Story Of Us
Meikbar – Sunshine
Kaskade – Brighter Day
Banda Favela – Samba 1250 (Alex Phountzi rmx.)
Shaun Escoffery – Let It Go
Nuspirit Helsinki – Get Over

Think it could work?

Here are some of the joints I pulled out early in the night when I was in that mood.

Middlewood Sessions – “Fall Back”

Fitting that since I invoked Gilles Peterson above, this was released on his Brownswood label.

Lonnie Smith – “Apex”

Records like this are why I still buy vinyl.

Jukka Eskola – “1974″

What a gorgeous smoker of a tune from this young Finnish trumpeter. This is one of those songs that you wonder where it’s been all your life once you hear it. It’s a bit hard to find. First released as a b-side to the “Buttercup” 12-inch in the image above, it was also on his 2005 debut album as well as a Raw Fusion compilation. I must thank Tigallo for putting me up on this one. Homie’s got a jazz ear too.

Every Wednesday I’ve always got more treats to share.

Nuspirit Helsinki – “Silent Steps”

I can’t believe it’s going on eight years since I first got hip to the wave of future hybrid jazzy soul that was rolling out of Scandinavia. The Gothenburg scene was popping in Sweden. Copenhagen was kragenoff. Even Finland was getting it in. The first Nuspirit Helsinki album is so mandatory. It’s held up really well over time.

Mica Paris – “I Should’ve Known Better”

The B-side wins again, which is why I posted the 12-inch label instead of an album cover displaying this luscious singer. Remember when the flip side of every single contained an exciting new adventure? This tune dropped in 1990 but was never officially released on an album until 1998. By then it was a well-established classic. I feel like I can never be a big enough stan for black Brit soul. Did y’all know Mica dropped a new record this year? Honey had the scoop on that this summer.

J. Rawls – “Hebejeebees”

Sometimes I feel like the Liquid Crystal Project jazz albums by this Ohio producer best known for his hip-hop work with Lone Catalysts are some sort of well-guarded secret. If that’s the case, they’re a secret I’d rather share.

Antonio Adolfo – “Cascavel”

I would have missed out on this tasty slice of funky Brazilian fusion jazz if it weren’t for Gilles Peterson. Compilations are your friends.

Want more? Come hang.

Since Tami is dropping heat rocks left, right and all over the place, it seemed like a good time to take it back.

We did this project in ’05 after we did an EP in 2003. She wanted something to hustle at WMC that year and it worked better than we could have anticipated.

The Alice in Wonderland theme was Kat‘s idea. Ed handled the interlude segments (lady on the Metro = Ed’s mama, Metro conductor = Ed) and I recorded all of the re-envisioned takes on some of our favorite beats at the time then assembled it in mix form. Listen for early versions of the big records that Tami is now known for.

Tamara Wellons – Tamara in Wonderland

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1. Ferry Ride (reprise) feat. Naima Jamal
2. Caught Up
3. Hold Me
4. Don’t Change
5. Can’t Be Found
6. Blue Skies
7. All This Time
8. Oh Well
9. Free
10. Moonwalk (acapella)
11. Like Rain feat. K’Alyn & Black Picasso
12. And So….

Vibe Conductor Pick:

As much as I like to smash off a party, I also enjoy just sharing tunes with a room full of folks socializing and appreciating the sounds. Early in the night I dropped one of my favorite tracks from the Jazz Refreshed compilation, Femi Temowo’s “Wood & Strings”.

Click the album cover to listen to the project in its entirety.

When I read that Femi took up jazz guitar after being inspired by Wes Montgomery, I wasn’t surprised. Here’s why:

Peoples’ Pick:

Slakah the Beatchild – “D.A.N.C.E.”

I ended the night with this one, and for those who haven’t heard it in my sets and mixes since this summer, it was an instant earworm. Toronto’s got some freshly ground goodness brewing these days. Been seeing Slakah the Beatchild in album credits, on blogs and in music press for a minute.

Nostalgia Pick:

Brownstone – “If You Love Me”

Sometimes you just want the ladies to get really happy and sing along really loud. We DJs enjoy that.

Digging In The Crates Pick:

Madonna – “Human Nature”

Forgot about this one, didn’t ya? Still goes hooard in the clurb. Word to Madge.

See you next week, right? Of course!

As soon as the first stanktastic bar kicked in, I bugged, and not just because Dante was rhyming like Ali hitting the speed bag in his prime. This bamma pulled a Ghostface and straight rhymed over a whole existing song! One of my favorite songs by a group I first got hip to on my trip to Brazil last year. Vinyl heads on the internets were already on the case, digging up the original Banda Black Rio joint for comparison.

I would have known about this if I actually went to Mos Def shows because he’s been rocking this joint live for like the past five months. At this point, I wouldn’t be mad if he did a whole album rhyming over funky, contrapuntal jazz fusion classics. Some Return to Forever maybe? Weather Report? Head Hunters! Let’s go!

But before I get carried away, let’s take a moment to trace the origins of a tune that Mos also discovered (and kirked out over) on a trip to Brazil.

“Casa Forte” was originally written and recorded by Edú Lobo for his North American debut Sergio Mendes Presents Edú Lobo. Lobo was already pushing the development of Musica Popular Brasileira after building on the work of Jobim and Gilberto but despite his important contributions to bossa nova, his acoustic rendering of “Casa Forte” takes a back seat to the many cover versions of what is now a standard.

A few of my favorites:

Sergio Mendes gives it a pretty straight interpretation, but with the trademark vocal style of Brasil ’66. (listen / buy)

Legendary vocalist Flora Purim‘s take is less pretty and a bit psychedelic. She gives the tune a wild edge. (listen / buy)

Ellis Regina lends a slightly mournful feel to her version and her rhythm section sounds like they’d also been playing some bop over the course of the recording session. (listen / buy)

Madlib teamed up with original Azymuth drummer Ivan “Mamão” Conti for the Jackson Conti project. Their rendition of “Casa Forte” puts the samba percussion up front and features what sounds like a melodica running through a wah pedal carrying the main melody of the tune. Probably Madlib’s idea. While he was high. Loving the keyboard work on this. (listen / buy)

And finally, DMV beat scientist Nick Tha 1da snuck in a version of “Casa Forte” on his Bossa Bang! mixtape last year. Since it’s a seamless combination of vinyl finds and re-worked productions, I’ve had the damnedest time ID’ing the origin*. Maybe I’ll ask him next time I see him. I ain’t too proud to train-spot. Click the cover above to download the whole project.

Update:
*Nick came through! Crate-diggers never reveal their secrets, but I guess he was feeling generous that day. Dig up a copy of this record and you’ll find another unique Casa Forte to add to your collection.

I’ve hinted here and there about this jazz project I’ve been involved in. The cat’s officially out of the bag now. Check out the myspace page for E44 and give a listen to our EP in the music player.

Res with E44 & DJ Stylus
April 23, 2009, 8:30 pm
Liv
2001 14th St NW, WDC
$20

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Underrated Female Soul Singer Spotlight: Tamara Wellons (SITKOL)
Soul Watch: Tamara Wellons (Honeysoul.com)

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EXPERIENCE:

October 29, 2008
Bohemian Caverns
2001 Eleventh Street NW WDC 20001
Doors open at 7pm, Show starts at 8pm

I’ve been back for a while so I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’m not going to get around to detailing all the historical, cultural and social experiences I had in Bahia. This weekend I carved out some time to hit a pile of not yet listened to vinyl so I can at least post the digging wrap-up of my trip (with covers, since that’s a big part of the fun.)

Unfortunately, the holy grail remains outside of my grasp, even though I did visit their hometown. I saw a couple of vinyl copies that cats were not trying to part with and it’s been out of print forever. I’ll probably have to find a questionable Japanese bootleg or something.

I didn’t have much room to bring stuff back to the U.S. so I kept my aspirations low. I scouted out four spots and managed to hit three of them. One of them had massive stock but everything was too beat to be worth buying. Record condition was a recurring problem that I had been warned about.

Right around the corner is another spot I highly recommend to anyone traveling in Salvador. Cana Brava is all CD so it caters to you normal folks that don’t share the wax addiction. Pardal runs the store with his wife and he’s very helpful and knowledgeable. We ended up talking music for so long that I almost forgot to shop. But on impulse I came away with…

Banda Black Rio – Gafieira Universal (CD) [Basically the Brazilian Earth, Wind & Fire. I saw the afros and the disc pretty much jumped off the shelf into my hand. My hunch was rewarded by not a single fast-forwardable track on the whole record. Word to reissues. They've got four other albums that you can find with some due diligence.]

The main transaction went down in this random closet of a store in Barra. The mission posed several challenges. I had to whittle down a huge stack to a handful of critical purchases while dealing with a language barrier, no turntable to screen the records and large holes in my knowledge about the artists.

Then I had to haggle. I was somewhat concerned that I might have been hustled but my gut told me that the proprietor was a serious music head who recognized a kindred spirit. As I dug and asked questions in infant level Portuguese, he went deep into the stacks pulling more stuff and explaining it to me. I definitely paid more than the pieces would be worth in the U.S. but I haggled him down by a significant amount, had fun and most importantly, learned a lot in the process. That’s worth a few reais. Here’s the haul:

Egberto Gismonti – Corações Futuristas (LP) [Fusion bordering on free jazz. Definitely bugged out. I asked for something like Chick Corea and Azymuth and this was the recommendation. Apparently out of print and not often seen stateside.]

Miucha & Antonio Carlos Jobim (LP) [Sweet bossa jazz that's been reissued on CD.]

Olodum – A Música Do Olodum Banda Reggae (LP) [The sound of Salvador and an organization for community activism as well as partying. They even reminded Mike that he's black welcomed MJ with open arms.]

Cesar Camargo Mariano, Victor Assis Brasil, Helio Delmiro – Performance (LP) [Electric jazz cats I'd never seen or heard of. Quite luscious with killer guitar action. This is going to yield some juicy beat fodder. I think I made a come-up.]

Zezé Motta – Dengo (LP) [Lightly funky post-'70s tropicalia with pop accents from this major brazilian actress who also had a singing career.]

Elis Regina – Elis (LP) [If you're ever at a loss for a place to start exploring Brazilian music, you can't go wrong with Pimentinha. Her tone and phrasing are unforgettable]

MPB-4 – Antologia (LP) [This is a 1974 compilation of MPB (otherwise known as Música Popular Brasileira) and it's quite a goldmine. It sounds like an in-house vocal group at the record label doing medleys of the works of significant composers but I have to study up more to get the back story.]

After funneling huge chunks of my income to Dusty Groove for years, I finally had a chance to visit them in person. I’ve been to bigger spots and have had transcendent digging experiences elsewhere but I’ve not had a more significant, extended relationship with any shop outside of DC than Dusty Groove. They put an enormous amount of care into their stock and that discerning hand is prominently reflected in my collection. For this trip, I had to really blind myself to the beckoning shelves of enticing re-issues and left field jazz and soul bits from around the world. I could order all that stuff online from them like I usually do. If I was going to be there in person I had to focus on things that I’d miss if I weren’t putting my fingers through the bins. And I also had to grab a few instant gratification joints that I might not see again for a while.

IG Culture presents Zen Badizm (CD) [Another one that I had to find out about from Jahsonic.]

Beady Belle – Belvedere (CD) [This group CAN DO NO WRONG with me. I've been a stan since 2001 and they're completely incapable of making anything that isn't stunning. What I love about them is that every album is a unique experience that touches different styles from the others. You really never know what you're going to hear every time they drop a new record. Most of my favorite artists share this same characteristic. So many fans want their favorite groups to re-hash the stuff they love best. I prefer a gift-wrapped surprise package.]

D’Angelo – Live At the Jazz Cafe, London (CD) [More Japanese import action.]

Zo! & Tigallo – Love the 80′s EP (CD) [Y'all know what it is. And these joints are selling out everywhere too.]

Carmen McRae – You’re Lookin’ At Me: A Collection of Nat King Cole Songs (LP) [Sometimes they just jump out at you from the dollar bin.]

De La Soul – Buddy & Ghetto Thang (12″) [Don't see that picture cover too often. Might just frame this one for wall display]

Def Jef – Droppin’ Rhymes On Drums (12″) [Etta James + dancers in bleached denim + fast rap = mandatory vid embed]

K9 Posse – Ain’t Nothin’ To It (12″) [YESSS!!! I was on a hot streak. Word to Vernon.]

Phase N’ Rhythm – Swollen Pockets/Hook-N-Sling (12″) [I knew I could finish my odyssey at this point. I'd been looking for this for a long time. Wasn't cheap either, but worth it. It's out of print and I caught a promo. R.I.P. Paul C.!]

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The homie Murph asks a question that has been haunting me for a minute.

Amazingly he’s launching this real talk missile from behind enemy lines. He’s definitely invested in fighting the good fight and I marvel at how he persists in the face of indifference.

In this case, his wake up call is too crucial to be ignored, even for someone like me who was devouring the Harper Brothers, Giant Steps and Headhunters in high school.

I don’t keep up like I used to. The last new jazz record I bought was indeed a Robert Glasper album, but it had been a long time since I sought out and tracked down the newest happenings in the jazz world. I still dig for classics but I don’t put in the same amount of work compared to the soul, hip-hop and electronic nuggets I’m always chasing.

I actually prefer to consume my jazz in the live setting. The dynamics of a jazz combo are more gratifying to me that way: observing how the pianist comps the changes, how the drummer embellishes the soloist’s lines, creating a push and pull conversation. Subconsciously though, there’s an element of doing my part to pay the life support bill. You can experience really great jazz for free in DC but occasionally I’ll pony up the big dough to catch someone who’s on my personal checklist of people I need to see. I’m acutely aware of the fact that few in my age range do the same thing, and pretty much no black people younger than myself have similar priorities.

As more and more jazz legends pass on, many of whom have labored in obscurity, I can’t help but see the future of hip-hop. It’s current state of inanity is rapidly digging a deep grave of obsolescence. By the time cats like Ken Swift, KRS-One or even EPMD are ready to take their final bow, will the generation raised on Weezy and Soulja Boy even care? Will black people ever acknowledge the amazing peerless career that The Roots have had or will they get one of those belated Lifetime Achievement Awards 20 years after their final record?

It’s really not looking good.

And if we really are on the way to discarding jazz like an old pair of shoes, there goes another huge component of a collective black soul that’s on its way to being a memory.

1. Jazz Samba Encore – Saudade Vem Correndo
2. Visioneers – Runnin’ (extended)
3. Nicola Conte – Bossa per Due
4. Tom & Joy – Imagina
5. Evinha – Que Bandeira
6. Jeff Bradshaw – Soul of Bahia
7. Miyazawa – Anjos Ilrmaos (Rainer Truby Trio mix)
8. Jay Dee – Rico Suave Bossa Nova
9. Los Hombres Calientes – Brazilian Sugar
10. Los Hombres Calientes – Mulher Bahiana
11. Montefiori Cocktail – Gypsy Woman
12. Marcos Valle – Para De Fezer Besteira (4hero Mix)
13. Nature’s Plan – Broken Samba
14. Taylor McFerrin – The Song I Promised You
15. The Randy Watson Experience feat. Bilal – Can’t Hide Love
16. Karen Ramirez – Troubled Girl (MAW rmx)
17. Luisito Quintero – Aquilas Coisas Todas
18. The Rebirth – Talking Me Down
19. Nomumbah – Tudo Que Voce Podia Ser

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