Putting music into words: a 2019 Retrospective

It’s hard for me to remember everything I listened to in the last year. Honestly it would be a miracle if I could remember half, since I am always hunting for music that is new & fresh to my ears. I did a significantly less number of mix uploads this year, however, I did complete more live gigs than ever before & had my first on-air radio broadcast. It was a very productive year for me musically, although I was plagued with the ever-present self-doubt that comes with playing empty rooms, playing the most amazing song to very little response, and ultimately wondering things like “am I making a difference here” or “am I moving in the right direction?” DJing has been just as much a journey of self-discovery & learning the ins and outs of the politics that accompany music programming and the industry at large. I've had my ups & downs, but it has been one of the most rewarding experiences in my life, so I intend to keep at it for a very long time.

All throughout the year, I strove very hard to stick to the original reason I got into DJ in the first place: share great music and make people happy. My mission as a DJ has led me to scour record bins, CD racks, websites, & the far-reaches of YouTube to find records from the past both forgotten & unforgotten, recently reissued records, heavily curated compilations, playlists, & new releases, always keeping an ear out for the best, most inspiring sounds. I don’t really care  when an album is released or if it is “new” or “old,” because what I care most about is the quality of the music. Sometimes a song with all the right pieces doesn’t quite do it. Sometimes a song that shouldn’t work just does. It all comes down to soul & passion I think, which, probably, is what continues to bring me back to music that draws heavily on the legacy of jazz & funk. I think these genres are capable of capturing energy, excitement, & grooves in a way that perhaps music that is not informed by them cannot. Artists tend to find their best expression in these songs because they are both tight & loose, they follow rules & break them, and allow for musicians to “stretch-out,” and create something unique & authentic.

All of this is to say, it’s really, freaking hard to sum up my year in current releases. So instead here are some albums & artists that have grabbed my attention this year. I have a tendency to make these lists far too extensive, so I will attempt to just list the highlights. If there are any glaring omissions, please know that I spent a much time thinking hard & long about this and well, nobody’s perfect… 

Leroy Hutson: 

I think the first big obsession I had at the start of the year was with Leroy Hutson. Acid Jazz Records had just put out a short film about him & I was making all kinds of connections. His work with Donny Hathaway, Curtom records, the fact that he produced Arnold Blair (whose single “Trying To Get Next To You” was already seared in my memory and in heavy rotation), in addition to the fact that his music was just so amazing, made me want to keep listening to his tracks. I kept finding stuff by him all throughout the year, and was lucky enough to find Feel The Spirit (1976) at a local store in mint shape. Whether I was getting my funk face on to “Let’s Be Lonely Together,” soaring to the disco-grooves of “Unforgettable,” or enjoying the sheer funky-soul delights that are “Never Know What You Can Do,” “Don’t It Make You Feel Good,” “Lucky Fellow,” “Love The Feeling,” “Lover’s Holiday,” or “All Because of You,” I knew I had come across a truly special artist who would stay with me for many years to come. I am also thankful that Leroy’s work has been getting some much-deserved re-evaluation & recognition in the recent years.

Rasputin’s Stash:

I found this release of vaulted recordings from '76 put together by Family Groove Records on Record Store Day without much previous knowledge. It seemed like they took the tracks for the single from side A, which was good, but side B really knocked my socks off. “Children of the Lord,” into “Time,” into “Cool When You Don’t Know It,” into “Paradise”? My mind was blown and my neck had been thoroughly tired out from furious bobbing. Another Family Groove release would catch my attention a big way later in the year, but this release opened me up to some great connections & increased my inspiration for curating a Chicago Soul Tape that I released in May. I was intrigued by the amount of records from Chicago I found particularly compelling this year, but to paraphrase the notes to that mix: Chicago soul captures the paradox of life that is the coexistence of hope & despair. Given the many hardships & life-circumstance I’ve endured in the last couple of years, it made sense that music fusing gospel & the blues appealed to me so much.

Marcos Valle:

Brazilian music has been of particular interest to me of late– if you’ve talked to me about music for even a second, this should be blatantly obvious. Last year was marked probably by obsessions over Jorge Ben, Banda Black Rio, Seu Jorge, & Erasmo Carlos, and while I have continued to shamelessly fawn over these artists, I found myself finding one artist I started listening to last year particularly interesting: Marcos Valle. 

Valle had already won me over with the Azymuth assisted Previsao Do Tempo (1973) and his boogie excursions of “Estrelar” & “A Paraiba Nao E Chicago,” but his 1971 album was something else entirely. With Garra, Valle succeeds in delivering clever critiques of the military regime with lush instrumentation that effortlessly merges pop, baroque influences, mpb, bossa, samba, funk & rock. Songs from this album pop up constantly as repertoire for singers like Clauida & Evinha, and “Wanda Vidal” was sampled by a certain rapper/actor/director that had his own hit-social-critique-song recently with “This is America.” Do yourself a favor and go listen to this album, I’m sure it will bring you much joy. I would also strongly recommend listening to Claudia’s version of “Com Mais de 30.” It is a dearly special rendition to me: I get goosebumps every time I hear it. 

This year was sealed as the year of Marcos Valle, as he released his much anticipated boogie-funk album Sempre in June. This album served as the perfect soundtrack for summer with jams like “Alma,” “Olha Quem Ta Chegando,” “Vou Amanha Saber” and “Odisseia” (which brought the Azymuth classic "Jazz Carvinal to mind) delivering heavy on groove, much to my delight. With Azymuth backing him up, there was no way this album was not going to deliver. 

Anderson Paak - Ventura:

Towards the end of July I had one of the most special moments in my life: I got married to my record-digging partner in crime, Evelina. We had both been huge fans of Paak’s output, but particularly Malibu. Both being somewhat underwhelmed by Oxnard, Ventura reminded us of the Paak that we love: sweet, soulful, cheeky, honest & vulnerable. The lead single “King James” bubbled with resilience & jazzy grooves, while the Smokey Robinson collab “Make It Better” captured my warm feelings perfectly as an ode to commitment & building a loving relationship. The rest of the album delivered on this more ‘soulful’ side of Paak and is a great listen from start to finish. Paak isn’t as adventurous here as he might have been on Malibu, but he does what he does so well, and with so much soul, I don’t need him to reinvent the wheel to command my attention.

Yamashita Tatsuro:

The wedding season also brought family from near and far. In addition to everything else wonderful about the season, it also resulted in some memorable musical exchanges, as well. My brother has been listening to a lot of Japanese rock & 70s stuff like Haruomi Hosono, Kosaka Chu, & Happy End and had pointed me in this direction, probably around 2017. When he came stateside for the wedding, he brought more Japanese music with him like Yamashita Tatsuro, Yellow Magic Orchestra, & Tin Pan Alley. It’s strange to me that it took leaving the country to appreciate so much of Japanese culture & art, but I guess sometimes you can’t see what’s right in front of you. Yamashita Tatsuro was certainly a familiar name to me, but the work he was famous for in Japan was a bit more poppy and not to my taste. It must’ve been my new found interest in Japanese music, the current obsession with “city pop” (catch all term for Japanese pop, AOR, & disco from 70s/80s) in DJing circles, and titles like “Funky Flushin’” that made me give Yamashita’s work another chance, but, boy, am I glad that I did. Especially his earlier albums simmer with pop-funk perfection, from downtempo cuts like “Solid Slider,” “Paper Doll,” & “Windy Lady,” to disco-funk monsters like “Silent Screamer,” “Bomber,” and the aforementioned “Funky Flushin’” I was sold. Soaring guitar solos, slap bass, & crunchy drums abound on these impeccably produced tracks. I am so glad to be able to reclaim some of my upbringing & re-connect with japan through music. As a side note, this year also saw a reissue of Minoru Muraoka’s amazing Bamboo & the worldwide release of the Minyo Crusader’s immense Echoes of Japan. This continues a trend of re-evaluation of Japanese music & bringing it to a wider audience, which I couldn’t be happier about, because it is AMAZING MUSIC that deserves to be heard! 

HE3 Project:

The Herman Ebertizch 3 Project. An unreleased jazz funk/spiritual soul project from Herman Evertizch III, unearthed and compiled by Family Groove records. I bought Chapter 1 on sale through Mr Bongo, on strength of the track “Make It Sweet” which was later re-done by Coke Escovedo, but I was so pleased when I listened to it in its entirety. I had never heard of Herman Ebertizch until this year, which makes sense, given that none of his sessions from the 70s were previously issued. I am so glad these recordings saw the light of day, with amazing tracks like “Funk Punk,” “Make It Sweet,” “Life is Tortured Love Affair,” and the luscious, spaced-out “Rapture of the Deep” making this release quite the tour de force. 

I was on the lookout for vol 2 & 3, but seeing how they had sold out in most outlets, I had contented myself with having vol 1 for now, hoping to run into the other two volumes eventually. Evelina managed to track down the 2LP vol 3 for me for Christmas, so I am excited to have the chance to listen to more by this amazing group. While he worked with such luminaries as Tiki Fulwood & Coke Escovedo, because his original work was not released until recently, I am afraid Ebertizch's work may remain obscure. It is a real shame because his music captures a hopeful attitude that deserves wider attention. I hope that I can tip more people to the HE3 project in the future, and that maybe Ebertizch's work will gain some much deserved acclaim. 

Sault - 5:

Another album that came out of nowhere and one of the few that actually made it on to some “Best of 2019” lists. Not much is known about Sault, other than the fact that their debut album 5 is, to quote one of their songs, a “masterpiece.” A band who can’t really be put into a neat box, Sault swerves & sashays around indie rock, funk, hip-hop, soul, electronica, post-punk & disco without ever quite settling into one genre, making it an exciting listen from start to finish. Not only that but the band somehow succeeds at sounding both “vintage” and “modern” at the same time, which on-top of the effortless genre-melding, makes this album quite the achievement. Check the Electro-afro-post-punk fusion of “Up All Night,” or the Cambodian fuzz-rock-breakbeat funk of “Don’t Waste My Time” and you will know just how futile it is to try and put this band into a box. The sweet laidback soul of the aforementioned “Masterpiece,” the downtempo disco that is “Why Why Why Why Why,” & the feel-good anthem “Let Me Go” are all stand-outs, but when half of the album is stand-outs, the term doesn’t really serve its function anymore: so just go listen to the whole thing and thank me later. 

In The Red - Chuwanga Records:
I was getting very much into a sub-genre of disco/funk called “brit-funk” in the fall, much due to the compilation entitled In The Red released by Chuwanga Records. Born out of cultural exchange & youthful expression, Brit-Funk captured a mixing of people from different backgrounds as well as musical styles, drawing on genres like jazz-funk & disco. In The Red by Chuwanga Records was a pariticularly helpful find in this journey, as it provided some much needed historical context, as well as a tightly curated collection of 6 tracks from hard to find 12-inch releases. My favorite was the title track “In The Red,” by Equa, which I have played quite a few times and included on my last mix of the year alongside my other brit-funk fave of the year: “Time” by Light of The World. 

Tim Maia: 

My biggest obsession of the year was probably Tim Maia. I mean, the man is a legend. Brought soul music to Brazil, started a musical & political movement, collaborated with the best musicians, joined a UFO cult, wrote the best music of his career with the most bizarre lyrics about a Universe in Disenchantment, Rational Energy, & a super world, converted fans, sold his albums door to door, quit the cult in a fury, and never stopped making great music. Maia had the foresight to bring funk & soul music to Brazil when not many others were paying attention to these genres. As a result, he kick started the Black Rio Movement, which caused a seismic shift in the musical & racial landscapes of Brazil. Maia always went big, and his effects can still be felt today. 

His most compelling recordings remain the ones he made while he was in the Rational Culture cult, which was an offshoot of an Afro-Brazilian indigenous religion by the name of Umbanda. There are a multitude of factors that might be the reason people find these recordings so fascinating. Perhaps it is the mystique or the sheer bizarreness of the whole affair; perhaps it was the fact that Tim was living a healthier life that led to better vocal & instrumental performances; or perhaps his religious fervor translated into passionate delivery. 

Whatever the case may be, these records are about as cult (ehem ehem) as a record can get. A strong underground following leading to soaring vinyl prices and collector’s status, to eventual reappraisal and widespread acclaim, Tim Maia’s Racional Albums are truly one of a kind. Thankfully, David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label had compiled much of Maia’s work from this period onto a delightful compilation, allowing us mere mortals to enjoy his cosmic sounds without breaking the bank. I have become quite the Tim Maia fan as a result, and if you ask me about it, you might be lucky (okay, unlucky) enough to hear me belt out “You Don’t Know What I Know” at our next gathering. 

William Onyeabor:

I quite honestly don’t understand why it takes me so long to give some artists a proper listen. Everyone was going nuts over Tim Maia, my wife (then girlfriend) sends me "Rational Culture" and it doesn’t really click, until only 2 years later I finally get it and Maia is all I can talk about. The Luaka Bop connection seemed to be fairly strong this year, 2 of my favorite listens were artists featured in their “World Psychedelic Classics” series. Onyeabor was another one of those artists, where upon hearing “Better Change Your Mind” I wrote him off as an amusing oddity. Well, that assessment turned out to be completely and utterly wrong. 

There’s a reason people like David Byrne, the Lidaju sisters, members of Hot Chip, LCD Soundsystem, and the Beastie Boys came together to form a tribute band to Mr. Smooth & Good himself, William Onyeabor. The man was an enigma, a complete mystery. Won’t answer interview requests and finally after the people at Luaka Bop make contact and asked about his music, he answers "why would I want to talk about that?" and hangs up the phone (thankfully he agreed to the reissue, though). Virtually nothing is known about Onyeabor, so the legend builds. Tales of importing synths from the USSR as a result of a film-study sponsorship, flopped film-making ventures, religious conversions, all swirl into a man whose story is more myth than fact.

But all of this just adds to his appeal. I mean, the man was a genius. Long before electronic dance music took hold of the world, Onyeabor was creating his own unique blend of Afro-funk & electronica. Given the trend of “Lo-Fi” music, Onyeabor’s music sounds even more ahead of its time, now, some 34 years after his last album was released. His sound, while drawing on many sources for inspiration, was entirely unique, and his mysterious persona only amplifies his legacy. I couldn’t stop listening to tracks like “When The Going Is Smooth & Good,” “Good Name,” “Fantastic Man,” “Love Is Blind,” “Everyday,” and “This Kind of World.” I think some people probably wrote this guy off initially, but like any visionary, with every year that passes, his music will remain timeless & only become more relevant. Luaka Bop’s compilation “Who Is William Onyeabor?” compiled essential tracks, but for completists like myself, the label has, thankfully, reissued his entire discography, too. We’ll never have the answer to the question posed as the title the compilation, but we will have his music, and ultimately I think that paints a better picture of an artist than any interview ever could. 

Altin Gun - Gece:

I think my growing musical tastes, as well as the people around me have caused me to listen to more rock lately. Given my excursions into Brazilian music of the 60s & 70s, I guess it was only a matter of time. Once I started paying more attention to these psychedelic sounds I found myself drawn to psych-rock from other countries as well. I don’t think there are many people in the US who know almost nothing about American & British psych-rock, but know a good deal about its Indian, Turkish, Brazilian, & Nigerian counterparts, but yet here I find myself. Perhaps I’ll get to the basics sometime in the future, perhaps not. Nevertheless I am happy where my globetrotting ears have taken me.

All this rock listening primed me for what was one of my favorite new releases of 2019: Gece by Altin Gun. From the heavy guitars of the opening track “Yolcu,” the effortless melding of folk & psych on “Vay Dunya” & “Kolbasti,” to the closing disco re-work of “Supurgesi Yoncadan,” the album never lets up, but like any album I like, what makes this one special is the funky groove that anchors each track, keeping the album rocking & funky throughout. The band does let the funk bubble to the surface with “Leyla” where the opening fuzz rock morphs into a middle section with a bass line familiar to those who follow the work of the brothers Isley. While grounded firmly in the territory of Anatolian rock, by incorporating a variety of influences including funk, folk & disco, this band is carving a new path forward, creating a sound that is both familiar & uniquely their own. Undoubtedly, one of the best releases of 2019. 

As I soldier on into 2020, I hope to keep listening & playing music from around the globe, sharing it with you through mixes & DJ sets. I have compiled a playlist of my top listens from the year into a handy YouTube playlist. My hope is that it will serve as a jumping off point, maybe you will find something you like and delve deeper into a sound or artist. As always, if you do find something you like, please leave me note! I’d love to hear about it & talk music with you. Also, if you can, go support the musicians that you listen to: buy some merch, the album in physical format, go see their show or pay for their album on sites like bandcamp. It’s hard being an artist, and music doesn’t pay for itself (especially when you’re independent), so consider contributing financially. If you can’t support artists financially, there are a lot of other ways you can support great art: tell a friend, leave a comment, send a fan-letter, share their music, stream their music, every little bit helps & hearing about music making a difference in a person’s life is (at least in my opinion) very rewarding in itself. Okay, I will get off my soapbox now. Thank you so much for reading and following my work. I hope you will continue to do so in the coming year, there's lots more music to be heard! Wishing you a groovy new year. May the funk be with us all.