House Session

8.22.21

A freestyle mix inspired by a photograph of Eartha Kitt in a yoga position. The mix was recorded for my bi-monthly on @1BTN radio in Brighton, UK. Tune in every 2nd and 4th Sunday for Sonic Sunday School, Soulful Music of the Black Atlantic. Photo of Eartha by Jeff Good for the Toronto Star.

A Black Yogi Funk and Jazz Mix (November 2021)

a cool flip I did with live play. this was like 18 takes on the MPC one and it was really fun to add on to an already timeless record. this shit is so fun man
hope you enjoy the rough draft

Roster Jazmine Sullivan flip

Roberta Cleopatra Flack is an Aquarius from the Black South. North Carolina to be exact. Last month she announced her retirement from a 50 plus year career in music making, having been diagnosed with a rare (ALS) disease.

I refuse to let that announcement slip away into internet ether. That said, today I’m sharing the first of a two part series and tribute to her incomparable body of work. This is a thank you for the love, labor and legendary musicianship Roberta Flack offers..

For this episode I selected songs that speak to her range and that move me most, along with excerpts from interviews where she talks about her process in the 1970s. Link to the show in my bio.

Next month I’ll be joined by three Black women music scholars (@zfelice, @fredara @ebmoorhead ) who will further contextualize her legacy and talk about the songs that move them. That show will air on the Black Atlantic/Black Fantastic Sunday, January 8 @1btnradio fm! 11am (nyc) and 4pm (UK)…tune in.

Also! Please keep an eye out for the documentary on Roberta’s life and the children’s book she’s co-written!

Happy New Year Roberta Flack! Your hands and voice help us trace our lives through song.

Roberta Flack Tribute Vol. One

I recently graduated from the  SEMA Music Production course by Santuri East Africa. Sketching Sounds is a complication of 2 sketches I produced, wrote, mixed, and mastered for the course's final project.

The process behind the tracks:

1) To The Sun -
For the course final project, 1 of 2 assignments entailed producing a sketch in a genre we are not too fond of, familiar with nor inclined to produce/perform. The genre I selected for this sketch was a deep house.

2)Take The Moment -

The other final project assignment required a sketch that incorporated culture and experimentation. From this sketch, I drew from sampling culture as a basis for creating the sketch's foundation and shaping a unique narrative which I did so by repurposing my own vocals from past unreleased projects, ambient soundscapes, and punchy drum and skit samples from some of my favorite artists (sampled in this sketch are Feel by Jacob Colier and Lianne La Havas, and Rafael's prayer by Sault).

For experimentation, my process of composition was guided by the approach of "a piacere" which is an Italian musical phrase meaning “to your pleasure/at will.” - a philosophy on musical expression where some aspects of a song – such as tempo or dynamics do not need the performer to follow the rhythm strictly. With this approach, in class, we were challenged to create a sketch without a metronome. To work around this limitation I began the track with a sample of a simple yet strong drum loop which I used to hold count and establish a starting pulse for the sketch.

To The Sun

To The Sun - Kalemela

EVERY OTHER WEEK CHULITA VINYL CLUB FEATURES A MIX FROM OUR VERY OWN CHULITA DJS - the mix comes directly from their vinyl collections to you!

From YELLOW BLACK BIRD of #CVCSantaAna: 
“Inner Child Invocation 

Protection and love 
Your skin wraps and holds you
Forever swaddled 
In the love from which you come from 

Protection and love 
Warmth of the womb
Warmth of the world 
I call upon protection and love 

Birth threshold 
At the beginning to forever 
From your heart through your veins 
Blood, cells, skin
Protection and love 
Inside and out 
Forever”

Recorded in Santa Ana, Ca Comadre Desmadre Studios

About YELLOW BLACK BIRD: Michelle Reyes (she/her/ella) aka Yellow Black Bird is a Community DJ based out of Acjachemen and Tongva Land, Santa Ana, Ca. Her sets are stories and love letters to and from Santa Ana. OC Weekly’s Best DJ 2011. Member Chulita Vinyl Club Santa Ana. Special Education Preschool Teacher. 

www.instagram.com/yellowblackbird
www.instagram.com/comadredesmadre

For more info about Chulita Vinyl Club: www.chulitavinylclub.com/cvc-blog

Chulita Yellow Black Bird - Inner Child Invocation

EVERY OTHER WEEK CHULITA VINYL CLUB FEATURES A MIX FROM OUR VERY OWN CHULITA DJS - the mix comes directly from their vinyl collections to you!

From LINDA NUVES of #CVCLosAngeles: “My intentions with this mix is to spread love, joy, and light during these dark and upsetting times. Music is a universal language, regardless of your nationality, background, ethnicity. May this compilation of songs illuminate the human spirit and be felt and expressed loudly.”

About LINDA NUVES: Linda Nuves (she/her/they) is from Pasadena, California with Central American Roots. Along with being in the Los Ángeles chapter of CVC, NUVES is the DJ & cohost for a podcast called, Radio Pulgarcito. Which like CVC, believes that “El Disco es Cultura” is worth preserving and exploring.
 
www.lindanuves.com
www.instagram.com/lindanuves

For more info about Chulita Vinyl Club: www.chulitavinylclub.com/cvc-blog

Chulita Linda Nuves - Pa’ Los Pueblos

This mix is for Black women who love Björk Guðmundsdóttir. For some of us Björk is one of the guiding forces in the most secret parts of our emotional lives. And there is something to be said about the fact that my deepest, most intimate romantic relationships have been with Black women who speak Björk. She is one of the most brilliant artists of our time, with relevance far beyond the boringly sensational Academy Award swan dress debacle, which on the low, I believe was a challenge to American popular cultural values. Like on some fashion resistance shit. “I thought I could organize freedom, how Scandinavian of me?”

During my New York years, I had the opportunity to witness Björk live at the Apollo with three other Black women. Björk at The Apollo? What a combination and what an honorable way to honor the Black folks that get down with her like that. Aside from the sheer weight of the decision to perform in Harlem, we, like thousands of her students, made sure to have loot in hand ready to buy tickets the moment they went on sale. We managed to get tickets, but please understand, in less than five minutes the show was sold out. And to be honest, it wasn’t Harlem or Brooklyn who showed up to see her, which I understand; Björk is ‘strange fiction.’ It was the usual crew at the Apollo concert; former club kids, angsty white women and entitled hipsters. And of course some of us were in the house. My crew and I represented for all the Black women inspired by her audaciousness, by her work ethic, and by her willingness to make whatever screw face necessary to offer ‘love scholarship’ through song. We cheered from the balcony squinting to experience what looked like an Icelandic ball of glitter performing unapologetically to self-composed electro folk music. I will never forget her relationship with the microphone, dancing around it, stepping away from it, looking into it and making it sing her songs. She’s a beast of a live performer. 

Visit my website to download this mix and to read the full liner notes for a small donation! www.djlynneedenise.com

Bjork Mix Final

Badia Sahar Ahad, PhD of the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD)interviews Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal about an effective public intellectual. 

Mark Anthony Neal is Professor of African & African American Studies and the founding director of the Center for Arts, Digital Culture and Entrepreneurship (CADCE) at Duke University where he offers courses on Black Masculinity, Popular Culture, and Digital Humanities, including signature courses on Michael Jackson & the Black Performance Tradition, and The History of Hip-Hop, which he co-teaches with Grammy Award Winning producer 9th Wonder (Patrick Douthit).

How to Be an Effective Public Intellectual: An Interview with Mark Anthony Neal

Proclamation! is our monthly series to help you leave your woes on any dance floor each and every day. Presented by our resident DJ, Kyle Woods, jam out to this smooth mix of the new and old.

Tracklist:

Roy Ayers Ubiquity - Everybody Loves The Sunshine
D’Angelo - Sh*t, Damn, Motherf*cker
The Internet - Girl
Thundercat - Them Changes
Erykah Badu - Gone Baby, Don’t Be Long
J DIlla - Stop!
Alicia Keys - You Don’t Know My Name
Tweet - Turn Da Lights Off 
Monica - Knock Knock
Raphael Saadiq feat. D’Angelo - Be Here
Faith Evans - I Love You
Outkast - She Lives In My Lap

Proclamation!: October(Mixed by Kyle Woods)

A collection of unreleased tracks, alternate takes and demos from Domu before his retirement in 2009. This collection was arranged by http://soundcloud.com/twohungryghosts and has been authorised and approved by Dominic .

How to Be an Effective Public Intellectual: An Interview with Mark Anthony Neal

Soul Expressions 2.0

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