things and time will tell.

Sade – Flower Of The Universe (From Disney's "A Wrinkle In Time") RCA Records – none 2 x File, FLAC, Single, Mar 9, 2018 info A return to a long delayed series tracking Sade soundtrack contributions for no particular reason... Parts 1 and 2 here and here . In 2018, Sade released a new song recorded for the soundtrack of Ava DuVernay's adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle's  A Wrinkle In Time . This was the first new song the band issued in 8 years, since their 2010 studio album,  Soldier Of Love (and a few unreleased tracks included on the 2011 Ultimate Collection  greatest hits set). And if a big-budget children's movie isn't where you expected Sade to pop up (especially after the somewhat darker, adult sound of the previous album), that would make sense, but this works well: Sade Adu's vocals as rich as ever, singing a love letter to a child and set over her own wordless backing vocals and a simple guitar. The music continues with the drumless, spars...

Ghetto Priest with Skip McDonald & Adrian Sherwood – Auld Lang Syne c/w The Slave's Lament Not On Label (Graham Fagen Self-released) CD Single, UK, Feb 11, 2005 This New Year's Eve share might be too somber for a party night... but I'm hoping I'm still on good paper after the Louie Vega Xmas disco records and that you'll forgive me if this is less aimed for the holiday dancefloor. I'm no expert, but it seems that Scottish artist Graham Fagen has produced a number of works over the years exploring the history of connections between Scotland and Jamaica (especially via the slave trade). He has collaborated with musicians to produce music and sounds to accompany his installations and visuals, several times working with members of the On-U Sound family. For a 2005 exhibit called Clean Hands Pure Heart , Fagen asked that team to produce a recording that combined the New Year's standard  Auld Lang Syne with another song, The Slave's Lament , also written...

Louie Vega & Elements Of Life Christmas Package 2008 - 2023 A not-so-secret secret about me: I like Christmas music. Okay, not all of it, but there are always more quality (not to mention weird and interesting) Xmas records around than you think.  I've never shared any here, so let's fix that.  I kicked off the year with a Masters At Work post , so I'll close it out that way too with some upbeat holiday house from Little Louie Vega. The legendary NYC dance producer is one half of MAW and has been sliding out the occasional Christmas record for years now. Mostly just digital releases, sometimes under his own name and some with Elements Of Life, his band brings more of his love for Latin and jazz to the party.  Jazz bass, Latin percussion, and some great vocalists feature on soul house productions that will guarantee a sunny Christmas day when  you play them. (How come I've never gotten to DJ a Christmas party?) Vega and his EOL team hit some Christmas classics th...

Hemsley Morris / Ernest Ranglin – You Think I'm A Fool / Heart Beat Clancy's Records / TRS Records – TRS-CE-1 Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Europe, 2023 (Original releases: 1968) info The mention of Jamaican guitarist Ernest Ranglin playing on the Monty Alexander album I just posted reminded me that I had this single in a pile of 45s waiting to be heard. Ranglin is most famous as a jazz artist, recording since the mid 1950s in JA and internationally, but his guitar work graces plenty of nice ska, rocksteady and reggae recordings from the 60s, 70s, 80s and beyond. Here he's credited with the B side instrumental, Heart Beat .  The regularly high quality French label Top Ranking Sound (or TRS Records) smartly paired Ranglin's track with the vocal cut by Hemsley Morris on the same rhythm. Both tracks were originally released in 1968, Morris's rocksteady vocal on Clancy's Records in Jamaica and Ranglin's instrumental take on a Pama single in the UK. A Clancy Eccles ...

Monty Alexander – Love And Sunshine MPS Records – G-22620 Vinyl, LP, Album, USA, 1975 info _____________________________ I recorded this album and started preparing the post almost six months ago. I intended it to be the follow up to a post talking about the Chicago elections . The punchline was that the people won, we elected a Black, progressive, union organizer as mayor and  Love And Sunshine  landed on my turntable and seemed like a good soundtrack to a hopeful moment. Before posting I realized that I had completely messed up the recording and just couldn't get around to rerecording and fixing it up again until now. My taste may typically run more to the spiritual or free jazz ends of things, but there is something I love about a straight forward set like this one by Jamaican pianist Monty Alexander. Not sure what it is- Standards, pop tunes arranged for a jazz combo, and the complete lack of pretention, maybe? Alexander cut this set for the German MPS label live in front...

Horace Andy + Sly & Robbie – Zion Gate Tropical Dubwise – TD12001 Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM, Maxi-Single, Stereo, France, 2021 info A modern Horace Andy follow up to my last post, on this re-cut of his 1973 song  Zion Gate . His voice is in great form as he delivers this reminder to live righteously before it's too late. I appreciate the spiritual clarity at a moment when the world seems pretty dedicated to handing me complication. Andy has released some quality records in the last few years, especially two brilliant LPs for On-U Sound. As much as I like his reinvention in the 90s and 2000s through his work with Massive Attack, it's been great hearing such successful new reggae recordings from this veteran, 50-odd years into his career. Horace Andy teamed up with Sly and Robbie on this single, released just a few months before Robbie Shakespeare sadly passed away in December, 2021. Sly & Robbie lead their classic Taxi Gang band on the backing track and don't disappoin...

Horace Andy / Augustus Pablo – Problems / Lovers Mood Pressure Sounds – PSS 001 Vinyl, 7", UK, 1995 info The last time I posted something here was almost six months ago, when we were days away from an important election... and when I had I had convinced myself once again that there was some chance I could pull off posting music on a more regular basis. At least my hopefulness for the election was well founded! Chicago has a new mayor and some new optimism, but life remains complicated. Major changes at work and home given me plenty of excuses from ever diving back into music (or this blog) like I intend to. instead of sad stories though, I'll share some good advice from the great Horace Andy. "Don't let problems get you down, they will put you in a hole." Not sure if anyone is still lurking around this site, but I'll try to keep that guidance in mind and start putting some music up here every now and then if anyone is searching. I hope you find this and enjoy...

Pharoah Sanders – You've Got To Have Freedom / Moon Child Dopeness Galore – DG 2 005S, Timeless Records Vinyl, 10", 33 ⅓ RPM, Sampler, Netherlands, 2007 (original tracks from 1987/1989) info It's true: You've got to have freedom. And Chicago will be getting more -or a whole lot less- in this week's election. We're electing a new mayor and it will either be a Black, progressive labor leader who has fought for our schools, safety and city ... or we'll get  the latest face of white supremacist backlash against the progress our movements have made. Want to guess which team I'm on? Go vote for Brandon Johnson if you're in Chicago. If you can, please volunteer or donate . And join the party ! ________________________________________________ ...And since a party needs music: Today, some inspiration from the recently departed Pharoah Sanders.  This is a 2007 10" released in Europe to promote a Best of Pharoah Sanders compilation that drew from his 19...

Gina Birch – Feminist Song Third Man Records – TMR719 Vinyl, 7", 33 ⅓ RPM, Limited Edition, USA, 2021 info This 2021 single was Gina Birch's first "solo" record, 40+ years after founding the Raincoats in London. That band, started when she was just over 20 years old after seeing a Slits gig, has popped up on these pages before. (And if you don't already know them, that is the track to hear .) I've always enjoyed their messy embrace of feminism, art, anger and fun. In her late 60s now, Birch still has it. Feminist Song isn't built around the funkiness that worked its way into my favorite Raincoats cuts, but those other threads are still there: her painted cover art, the sharp politics, the tongue in cheek honesty ("and yes, sometimes I'm a pushover"), the catchy hook of a chorus buried under all the noise. Fellow Raincoat Ana da Silva supplies some analog synth and Youth produces the track (also contributing a B side "ambient mix")...

Various – Xterminator Records (The Legacy - Chapter 1) Global Beats – GB002, XTerminator, XTM.Nation Vinyl, LP, Compilation, UK, 2021 info Again with the long breaks... I've been meaning to put this one up for a while. Here is a recent compilation of tracks from Xterminator Records, that will hopefully help brighten your day (even during a dark northern January). [Oops. February by the time I got around to finishing this- sigh.]  Philip "Fatis" Burrell's Xterminator label released some of the most important Jamaican music of the 1990s and early 2000s. Fatis and the young artists around him (including Luciano, Sizzla, and Capleton) were at the heart of a resurgence of cultural music and Rasta themes in the 90s, a major shift from the previous decade of dancehall hits.  This era is probably best remembered for the surge of militant, Bobo dread singers, but Xterminator wasn't just ushering in a new era of cultural lyrics- these were great songs and the scene was more...

Masters At Work – Our Time Is Coming Cutting Edge – CTCR-14186/B 2xCD, Album, Japan, 2002 info I took too long to post as always, once again missing my chance to post some favorite Christmas records... Next year, I guess. I hope any of you seeing this got some peace over the holidays. It's almost the new year, so if you have an urgent need for some party music or a way to help ring it in on a positive note, this album might do it for you. Our Time Is Coming  was the second full length album by Kenny Dope and Louie Vega as Masters At Work, released in 2001. Once again, I won't pretend to be any kind of expert on house music, but I'll go out on a limb here and say that anyone who writes this record off as too "mainstream" or "predictable" is either: A. a snob; or B. not paying attention. MAW produced an album that I can put on to convince myself the sun is coming out, even at a late night party or in the Chicago winter.  On the predictable charge: Look, th...

Barry White – I'm Gonna Love You Just A Little More Baby 20th Century Records – TC-2018 Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Styrene, Terre Haute Pressing US, 1973 info For no reason other than I felt like listening to it, here's Barry White with one of his very greatest singles. If you know someone who doesn't understand why people love this guy beyond silly impersonations of the sexy voice, I'm Gonna Love You Just A Little More Baby  is the place to start. The opening is amazing (and the break has been put to good use more than once on some classic hip hop productions), but listen to the arrangement here- so much going on. The build up that begins right around the 50 second mark is really something special. The B side, Just A Little More Baby , really lets the music (and Barry White's production skills) shine. More than just a straight instrumental of the A side hit, it's almost a dub mix with Barry's vocal scats echoing in and out and the different instruments getti...

Lee Scratch Perry & The Upsetters – Bird In Hand Goldenlane Records – 0889466251245 Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, USA, 2021 info Random reggae. Last year, for some reason, a new 7" single was released collecting two songs from a 1978 Lee Perry production,  Return Of The Super Ape  by the Upsetters . I'm not sure who they thought would be the market for this in 2021, but it has a great cover photo of Scratch at his Black Ark studio and an excellent choice for the A side.  If the lyrics to  Bird In Hand  seem hard to follow, that's probably due to it being a 44-year-old, low-fi recording of a Jamaican singer (the obscure Sam Carty , I believe, who went uncredited on both the original release and on this single) attempting to sing the Hindi lyrics to a 78-year-old Bollywood musical. Perry's house band, the Upsetters, were essentially covering Milte Hi Aankhen , a love song from the 1950 film Babul . I wish I knew how Perry and company had encountered this soundtrack (writ...

The Roots – Things Fall A Preview MCA Records – MCA4P-90170 Cassette, Promo, US, 1999 info Why this tape? It made me nod my head (and maybe even crack a smile) at the end of a rough week. There are a hundred pointless promo records, tapes and CDs for every one that has a buried gem on it, but every now and then you find a treasure. Things Fall A Preview  is one of those free cassette tapes you used to find given away in record stores to promote a new release. In this case, it was to boost the Roots' fourth album, 1999's  Things Fall Apart . Instead of the usual 20 second snippets of songs on a tape that you'd throw away after one listen, we're treated to something special here. The tape is a full "best of The Roots" style DJ mix spread by legendary DJ and fellow Philadelphian, Jazzy Jeff. Yes, that one. If you only know him from sitcom cameos or Parents Just Don't Understand , take my word that DJ Jazzy Jeff is the real deal. (Also: don't front on Pare...