An Album (Or Two) In My Head 0068

I’m listening to fresh-from-the-factory Soul Jazz that hits from another decade and planet, and a Fania release from even further back … Nicholas PaytonDrip2023Paytone Records Payton pulled off transtemporal travel when his album took it back to ‘79 — peace be unto O.D.B. I plead to the headz: let’s not re-ignite debates about Jazz purity, […]

Album in the Crosshairs: Saoul — Popsicle | 2023 | Phreakyamind Inc

Saoul’s Popsicle may be one of the most sobering groovalicious parties in your ear this summer — a satisfying album in the face of “cookie-cutter” celeb culture and politico worship that have packaged themselves to become a new phallic north star for unicultural market appeal. Had enough of unhealthy celeb admiration, and public debates about […]

It’s the Day After Christmas — And You Still Need to Get Patsy Moore’s “Winter Wonderland” Song

I think you should get all of her Holiday releases … I just remembered that Patsy Moore releases annual Christmas music when she recently shared one in a social media update. I don’t feel great about that since I call myself a fan. Released about 11 years ago, “Winter Wonderland” (Volume I) is part of […]

Aural Dive: Dreamscape 2023; “No Words”

Do some vinyl digging to explore the early days of Chicago House. You’ll find many synth-forward tracks with Euro Disco on the edges. This is the flavor I picked up after today’s listen to Dreamscape — an artist active during the 90s — who is back with “No Words” from a forthcoming album. Given the number […]

Aural Dive: “Lebron Jordan” by Division X

“I keep ten steps away from whatever the radio is doing,” says Division X lyricist North. The group’s latest single release, “Lebron Jordan” from their War Drum Symphony album, delivers on that declaration. Hard beats, scratching(?), matching but clearly understood lyrics, and a dose of metaphors are hard to find in today’s commercial rap music […]

An Album or Two in My Head (0065)

SAOUL TWATEAU 2022 SELF-RELEASED To my American friends — consider how most of you were recently asked, multiple times, to choose between a woman’s womb and the price of bacon in Walmart, while others remain willing to convince themselves that a bulky football legend wearing a post-domestic-violence court suit and possible brain damage can be […]

Album in the Crosshairs: Saoul — Seldom Oddity EP | Special Edition | self-released | 2019

Saoul wants you to taste the bread. And be sexy while doing it. Plus, he has a new release, Seldom Oddity, to help you along … The unsuppressed, sensual funkiness of the multi-instrumentalist’s EP mirrors writer James Baldwin’s admonition to view sensuality — despite the unequal and on-the-brink times we live in — as a […]

AN ALBUM (OR TWO) IN MY HEAD 0064

GEORGE BENSON THE NEW BOSS GUITAR OF GEORGE BENSON WITH THE BROTHER JACK MCDUFF QUARTET 1964 Understanding why guitarist George Benson is often called Bad Benson requires a simple exercise going play any song with him on it. Bad Benson — who also released a studio album with that moniker in 1974 — made his […]

AN ALBUM (OR TWO) IN MY HEAD (0060)

ANDY BEY PAGES FROM AN IMAGINARY LIFE HIGH NOTE 2014 Andy Bey has a high position on my shortlist of favorite living Jazz vocalists, even though his discography is disappointingly thin. He also appears to be full of surprises like D’Angelo when his record company released Pages from an Imaginary Life late last year. The […]