motel de moka

Image: Artwork from Boustrophedon (ECM, 2008)

Here’s an eclectic jazz-oriented list to start off September with some sly foot-tapping grooves and mostly laid-back spirit. The theme of the list flows from several relaxed yet sumptuous tunes to a much more brooding atmosphere and finally turning into an urgent yet seemingly directionless endeavour. Lately I’ve increasingly been finding myself going back to jazz records and gigs again. So more than anything else I guess I made this list for myself just to play around a bit with a certain mood that I wanted to create. I guess contemplation is the key denominator here for this list. These tunes are going places but not necessarily with a distinctive sense of direction. It’s easy to think of yourself as a truly rational and calculated individual who has it all figured out - who thinks, plans and acts accordingly - but right now if you’d somehow be able to map my existence with an EEG-monitor-like device it would look a lot more like the image above than a well constructed blueprint. Flutter - to move about or behave in an agitated aimless manner. From a distance, just like the image, it might seem that way to some, but every twist and turn along this grand voyage feels natural and clearly meant to be. It doesn’t always have to make sense, does it?

1. Amancio D’Silva - A Street in Bombay
   Konkan Dance (Qbico, 2006)
2. Faruq Z. Bey with Northwoods Improvisers - Oncala
   Infa’a (Qbico, 2006)
3. John Zorn - Mow Mow
   The Dreamers (Tzadik, 2008)
4. Bohren & Der Club Of Gore - Destroying Angels
   Black Earth (Wonder, 2002)
5. Michael Moore - Miss Yosemite
   Fragile (Ramboy, 2008)
6. Sun Ra - Intergalactic Motion
   Outer Spaceways Incorporated (Saturn, 1974)
7. Evan Parker / Transatlantic Art Ensemble - Furrow 6
   Boustrophedon (ECM, 2008)
8. Dirty Three - Flutter
   Cinder (Touch and Go, 2005)
9. Yo La Tengo - Let’s Be Still
   Summer Sun (Matador, 2003)

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Yo La Tengo in a jazz list? I know! But it works damn well if you ask me and that’s also due to the guests contributing here on the underrated Summer Sun album. None other than jazz heavyweights William Parker, Daniel Carter, Roy Campbell Jr. and Sabir Mateen enrich the album with their playing. You also may well remember Sabir Mateen and Daniel Carter’s Not on Earth…In Your Soul! from my 2006 year-end list. In the same batch of jazz records that the Italian Qbico label released that month was Faruq Z. Bey’s spectacular Infa’a, an album that quite possibly provides my favourite tune to this playlist. And earlier that year the same label already treated us with Amancio D’Silva’s 1972 recording Konkan Dance, of which a song is also featured on this playlist. Hm, maybe in some way, if you connect all the dots, all things do make sense after all?