Work To Do - Mayer Hawthorne

I thought no one could replicate the greatness of the Isley Brothers original R&B hit from 1972 until listening to Mayer Hawthorne’s soulful cover. Take it easy and jive with the rhythms, folks.

“I’ve got work to do baby.” 

Dear Africa - Blitz The Ambassador

Native Sun is burning a hole in my soul. It’s a divine fusion of hip-hop, afrobeat, and jazz. Three genres I love on their own and that I absolutely go crazy for when combined into one explosive punch of audible amazingness. Blitz The Ambassador, like Fela Kuti before him and many other contemporary African artists, use music as a weapon. They wholeheartedly express their hopes for a united Africa in the lyrics. The music is a rallying call for all to join in the movement for peace and unity. I can’t wait to relish in the awesomeness of Blitz The Ambassador tomorrow at Webster Hall.

“You should know I never stopped reppin’ you.”

I See a Different You - Koop

On Hedonism:

Hedonism is the belief that pleasure is the only intrinsic good in this world, that if you are enjoying your life to the very maximum you are ultimately doing the world a favor. However there lies a huge misconception with hedonism, people believe it’s living in excess. In other words, they think hedonism is taking tons of drugs, drinking way too much alcohol, and being self-destructive. That’s not hedonism, that is stupidity. Hedonism is more akin to the Taoist philosophy of going with the flow, of savoring every single second of life, and of constantly living in moment and nowhere else. For example if you are drinking tea, you should savor every flavor in that tea, let the world fade away and the tea itself become the only thing you think about. Or when having sex; forget about the world outside, leave the past and the future alone, and for the moments of heated passion together time no longer exist. The only thing that matters is you and whoever you are making love to, nothing else. Hedonism is about letting go of your inhibitions and being free to explore the things that give you maximum pleasure, because there nothing wrong with enjoying things in life. You can do good and enjoy it at the same time. You can drink, eat, laugh, and love as much as you desire. Most of us are in a desert walking past an oasis and not stopping for a drink. We deny ourselves the pleasures of the world because we fear being judged or worse we fear that we might like so much we’ll never stop. Do whatever makes you happy, because if you are happy the world is happy. Good vibes spread around when you are constantly in a state of pleasure. That is real hedonism my friends.

“Why not seize the pleasure at once, how often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparations.” -Jane Austen

Moonlight Serenade - Glenn Miller

Throughout most on my life I have depended on others to make me feel complete. However, in the past year I started taking long strolls throughout the city by myself. The moonlight glistening on the concrete pavement. The Atlantic breeze swishing by the maple trees. Rain gently drizzling down and the midnight fog blanketing the city skyline. At first I thought taking a midnight walk would make me feel lonely, as though I had nothing better to do with my time and I had no one to spend it with. But one thing struck me as I kept walking on, it was that I felt relieved. For the first time in my life, I could do anything I wanted. I had no one holding me back, the night was mine for the taking. I didn’t have to keep any promises or abide by anyone’s plans, I could go anywhere and do anything. For once I was enjoying my own company and ironically I wasn’t in my head. I just let the urban landscape take me. I noticed that I used to have a constant need to be with someone. I was afraid to be with just myself. I feared loneliness because I never experienced true solitude. However, life is about balance. There are times you need to revel in the company of others and there are times you just need to just be by yourself.

“Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.” -Marcus Aurelius

The Mooche - Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington

Jazz is for nights like these where skyscrapers that soar hundreds of feet high are covered by the thick fog and the concrete jungle at the midnight hour is teeming with an energy that is both nonchalant and sexual. The pitch of the saxophone penetrating your very soul. The moan of the trumpet intensifying with every heartbeat. The atmosphere brimming with sensuous desire as the progressive melodies possess you with the naked truth of the universe. That is jazz.

“What is soul? It’s like electricity - we don’t really know what it is, but it’s a force that can light a room.” -Ray Charles

Five Step (Overdub Bootleg) - Radiohead vs. Dave Brubeck

When I thought of Radiohead being fused with old-school jazz it sounded like a perfect idea in my head. It would sound like if Thom Yorke started his own trip-hop band in the London underground. This dream mash-up has always been solely in the domain of my imagination, and then today as I’m searching for covers and mash-ups on YouTube I come across this very song. I had to do a double take when I first saw it, was that Radiohead versus the most amazing jazz song ever made Take Five by Dave Brubeck!? Despite my concerns that I maybe on the same drugs Thom Yorke is on in the Lotus Flower music video, I knew my dream mash-up has finally become a reality. Especially with a song like 15 Step which is one of Radiohead’s weirdest song, it blew my mind hearing this, it just mixes so perfectly. I need more Radiohead jazz mash-ups stat!

“How come I end up where I started? How can I end up where I went wrong?”

Just In Time - Nina Simone

Moonlight shinning through my window, tobacco smoke lingering in the air, the soulful jazz stirring a plethora of feelings inside of me. Nina Simone’s divine voice echoing through my soul. I spend the night wondering what love is. Am I chasing an elusive dream that I idealize to such an extent that it would never become a reality? Or is my romanticism a sign of a true heavenly connection to come? I reflect on past loves, shuffling through a collection of fragmented memories, some perfectly clear as if they happened yesterday and others a complete blur. These nights become a foray into the past and the future. Time becomes a blur, everything seems to happen all at once.

“For love came just in time. You’ve found me just in time and changed my lonely nights that lucky day.”

Your Fake Name Is Good Enough for Me - Iron & Wine

A perfect ending to a perfect album. This last track of Iron & Wine’s Kiss Each Other Clean is simply sublime. Heavy on the sultry rhythms of the saxophone and reminiscent of the jazzy vibe of classical rock bands from the late 70’s. This is the evolution of a band transforming their standard folk tunes from previous albums into a fully-fledged musical extravaganza filled with influences that are both obvious and subtle. Here’s a band that dares to change their style to end up with a purely hypnotic musical journey.

“Become so cruel and kind… Become the weary and the wild.”

Chinatown - Destroyer

A Lament for the Woes of Man:

Down through the doldrums of diseased pathways of the dead carcass of night. Jazz playing at a distance, the saxophone pitch pierces my soul. Walking away from the depravity of humanity, pacing towards empty streets absent of hollow-eyed pedestrians. Darkness lies upon the sin of man and no one is present for judgment, except me. Highways of death across the moonlight streak waiting to be revealed by the impeding red dawn of chaos. Towers of scandal, rising thousands of feet high into the abyss of twilight. Swallowed by the ironic woes of the common man, spited out by the arrogant snare of the high-brow elite who hide behind the velvet curtain pleading hundred percent deniability in the shadows of press infested junkets. Pushed by goliaths of green colored printed paper that value nothing but yet value everything. Dragged through deserted roads by rebels of the past, who fight for the days of yonder yet manage to maintain the status quo. Imprisoned by the festering lights of a million cameras pointing in every direction looking for that useless scoop of degradation. Poisoned by blind worshipers of capital, starters of the war on drugs, procurers of the war on terror, about to ignite a war on Mother Nature herself. Consumed, everyday and every waking moment, by the hatred of man, self-afflicting, and suicidal. I walk and see this everyday, I walk with a dreary frown and disappointed eyes as I see the gutter overflow.

“The wind and the rain to your detriment you try to explain a government swallowed up in the squall.”