Landmarks

A landmark is an object or feature of a landscape or that is easily seen and recognized from a distance. Landmarks can enable you to establish your location. For me, landmarks can mean more than one thing. For instance, I have always associated music with place. When I first moved to Leeds in the UK, I went out looking for music and the landmarks for me were the clubs that played jazz, latin and soul. Club nights like the Cooker and Casa Latina where you could hear Curtis Mayfield segued into Pharaoh Sanders via Marcos Valle. Predominantly, those heavyweight nights were run by Leeds Dig collective. DJ Lubi Jovanovic, Gip Dammone, Chico Malo and DJ Ez. These nights were landmarks in Leeds musical heritage and made a huge impact on my musical consciousness. This mix is dedicated to them and hopefully gives a little flavour of those incredible times.

Leeds Cityscape by Lizzie Prestt

Scenes of Jazz Life

A bit like waiting for a bus, you are expecting a DJ2tee mix, then suddenly two come at once!  Volume One features music for millennials or perhaps made by millennials. All the tracks are bang up to date with post-modernist vibe. It starts with a winning groove from beat scientist Makaya McCraven, son of jazz drummer Stephen McCraven (Sam Rivers, Archie Shepp) and Hungarian folk singer Agnes Zsigmondi. Justin “Justefan” Thomas features on vibes. The vibes continue with Mexico’s Incognito Traveller followed by master drummer Herlin Riley. Delta Saxophone Quartet create beauty – GTQ create funk. Mosaico get hip with some beat vocals – Larry Stabbins of Working Week fame, channels Coltrane. Beautiful vocals from Dionne Bennett complement Jason Rebello’s pianoistics. Florian Pellissier covers Harold McNair’s The Hipster, then we end with an excellent track from Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodríguez. 

Volume Two features some old favourites and some new favourites. Generally, a more straight-ahead jazz feel to this mix, although we begin with a funky session from African Roots of Jazz featuring current hip cat Carlos Niño. Next up a couple of big bands, firstly trombonist Scott Reeves Orchestra, then the Swiss Jazz Orchestra featuring Mike Mainieri & Peter Erskine. Following that some modernism from Empirical’s new album “Connection”. Then we get into an elephantile vibe from sax player Derf Reklaw (The Pahrohs), possibly dedicated to the next artist Hannibal Lokumbe. Ian Shaw then vocalises sweetly on a cover of Traffic’s Low Spark of the High Heeled Boys followed by our finale an amazing track from Open Source Trio featuring Bulgarian pianist Momchil Atanasoff.

 

Roy Ayers – Fire Weaver | DJ2tee

My new mix is a tribute to Roy Ayers, one of my favourite musicians. Roy was born in 1940 and hails from South-Central Los Angeles. Roy started recording as a bebop sideman in 1962 and rose to prominence when he joined jazz flutist Herbie Mann in 1966. In the early Seventies Roy formed the band Ubiquity and became one of jazz-funk’s leading proponents. My musical choices on some of the many tracks Roy wrote or played on as a sideman. I have avoided the usual favourites, but I couldn’t resist Everybody Loves the Sunshine! At seventy-five Roy is still going strong and I can personally vouch that his live act is stunning. A true giant!

Brother Yusef | DJ2tee

I have always known Yusef Lateef’s music from back in the day. But, recently I have been rediscovering what a musical phenomenon he really was. For those not familiar with Lateef here’s a short biography.

Yusef Abdul Lateef, October 9, 1920 – December 23, 2013) was an American multi-instrumentalist, & composer. Although working predominantly in the idiom known as Jazz, Lateef wanted to be known as a musician rather than a “jazz” musician. Lateef’s main instruments were the tenor saxophone and flute, but he also played bamboo flute, shanai, shofar, xun, arghul and koto. He was a true innovator studying “Eastern music” and blending it with western influences to create a new genre. Yusef “played world music before world music had a name.”

Well if you want to hear why I love his music, I have posted a mix on Mixcloud which gives a little of his essence. I am only really disturbing the surface of a deep well of brilliance, so I advise you to search out his albums and discover for yourselves what a musical genius he was.

Dr. T’s Medicine Show | Mixcloud

 

Roll up! Roll up!! The holiday season is almost upon us, so it’s time to sample Dr. T’s patented jazz medicine. Guaranteed to cure all ill’s from melancholia to dysfunctions of a personal nature. You will be amazed by the effectuation of this wondrous product! Do not hesitate to try this stupendous jazz melange!

Featuring:-

• Tom Waits-Step Right Up
• Screamin’ Jay Hawkins-Alligator Wine
• Partikel -Clash of the Clans
• Wayne Escoffery-No Desert
• Sean Khan-What Has Jazz Become?
• Snarky Puppy-Binky
• Cory Henry-Someday We’ll All Be Free
• Nicole Mitchell / Tomeka Reid / Mike Reed-Light on the Path
• The Apples-Killing
• Bobby Hutcherson-People Make The World Go Round
• Bobby Matos-The Creator Has a Master Plan
• Carmell Jones-Carmell’sBlack Forest Waltz
• Bobby Cole-A Perfect Day
• Mike Taylor Remembered-Timewind
• James Booker-Junco Partner
• Stick McGhee & His Buddies-Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee
• McCoy Tyner-New Orleans Stomp
• Professor Longhair And His New Orleans Boys-Hey Little Girl
• Shelly Manne-Afrodesia
• Ron Westray-The Jiggy
• Sing Sing Penelope-James Bond
• The Five Corners Quintet-Shake It
• C.W. Stoneking-The Love Me Or Die

 

Cosmos | DJ2tee | Mixcloud

The “cosmos” is the universe regarded as an orderly system; the opposite of chaos. The philosopher Pythagoras was probably the first to use the term cosmos to describe the order of the universe, but the term was not fully embraced until the 19th century  Prussian geographer, naturalist, explorer and polymath, Alexander von Humboldt, resurrected  it for to his study, “Kosmos”, and influenced the modern (perhaps erroneous) perception of the universe as one interacting entity.

Sometimes it’s hard to accept that there is any unity to the world we live in. Chaos, emptiness, void, chasm, abyss seems to be the defining feature of our current age. The Germans have a word Chaoskampf which roughly translated means the struggle against chaos. In myth and legend, often a hero figure is depicted as battling against the the chaos monster, a creature that takes many forms, often that of a dragon.

All this preamble, is just a way for me to suggest that in some ways music represents a struggle against chaos. Music generally imposes an order on chaos. The violinist Yehudi Menuhin puts it this way:

“Music creates order out of chaos: for rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent, melody imposes continuity upon the disjointed, and harmony imposes compatibility upon the incongruous.”

Although, many of these concepts tend to be quasi-religious I embrace them in a metaphorical sense. Music is my fight against chaos! For this reason alone I called my latest compilation of music on Mixcloud: “Cosmos”. My tiny struggle to impose meaning on a world that of late seems to have become dark and chaotic.

MIXCLOUD UPDATE | DJ2tee

I have been a bit lax in the last couple of months in updating this blog. Other fish to fry and all that jazz! So for anyone who is interested in my (mainly) jazz output on MIxcloud, here is a selection that you might have missed.

DJ2tee’s Message

Marshall McLuhan famously said: “The medium is the message.” Well let me tell you the medium is jazz! This Mixcloud selection is deliberately populist, featuring some of my favourite sixties funky jazz classics. Starts quiet, then gets loud. So watch that volume knob! Oh! and any hip-hop aficionados get kudos for saying who used “Bring Down the Birds” as a sample? Not that hard really! Anyway, tap your feet, clap your hands and get down on that thing!

Black Star

Those of you familiar with my jazz mixes will be aware that I often use a theme which influences my track selection. Well, with this particular mix I’m coming on all ambiguous. The title Black Star could mean many things to many people. Does black refer to ethnicity? Could there be a covert reference to Marcus Garvey? Is it a theoretical star built using semiclassical gravity as an alternative to a black hole? Could it be a nod to the rap crew Black Star?

Maybe it’s all those things? I leave it entirely to you to make your own interpretation. As ever, I have mixed a selection of jazz music by artists I love and admire. Please check it out.

HAPPY?

Mixcloud listeners tend to be a little fickle. It’s difficult to gauge just how well a mix will go down with listeners. I have some mixes which I personally rate, that have had hardly any listens, whilst others take off like a rocket. This new mix HAPPY is a case in point. In a few days it has become the third most popular mix that I’ve ever posted.

One of my Twitter compatriots @nigelrampant has suggested it is because it has the same name as the UK’s best selling single Happy by Pharrell Williams. But to be honest this mix is jazz and some of it quite challenging music. So that doesn’t really explain it. I can’t imagine hard-core Pharrell fans flocking to listen to it and suddenly becoming jazz converts. Maybe I’m just being snobbish, perhaps Pharrell devotees are into an eclectic mix of music. In fact, thinking about it I quite like Pharrell myself. Not sure about the hat though!

The reason I called this mix HAPPY, comes from the cover design. If you are an admirer of the German record label COMPOST, you will probably realise the cover is a blatant rip-off (I mean tribute) of their Glücklich album. I have substituted the VW Beetle for a Morris Minor and changed the title to HAPPY.

Why HAPPY? Because Glücklich means happy. So Pharrell doesn’t really come into the equation. But if you Pharrell heads want to check out some “awesome” jazz, be my guest.