Setlist, 29 November 2008

This week’s show had a couple of standout new releases: Stephane Pompougnac’s Hotel Costes 11 was one of them, but the absolute winner was Alice Russell’s “Pot of Gold,” which blew me away. Her cover of Gnarls Barkley’s ‘Crazy’ was absolutely stunning.

Here’s this week’s setlist, for those keeping score at home.

Setlist, 18 October 2008

This week’s show had a whole lot of new material, including the excellent “Rituals” by Nicola Conte, “Ninja Tuna” by Mr. Scruff, “Fried Samba” by Malena, “Radio Free DC” by the Fort Knox Five and “Radio Retaliation” by Thievery Corporation. Whew. Plus there’s that outstanding new Jazzanova single, “Let Me Show Ya.” I really can’t wait for the new Jazzanova CD to drop on Thursday.

Here is the setlist from this week’s show. Click the link to open it in Google Spreadsheets format.

Setlist, 20 September 2008

This week’s show was devoted almost exclusively to music from today’s South African scene, with an emphasis on house, Afropop, hip-hop, kwaito and jazzier sounds. It was definitely pleasant to spend time in such a vibrant music scene, and to get to drop in on the Moshito music conference was icing on the cake.

There were so many standouts this week, but my personal favorites would have to be Khethi’s “Xemplify”, Zubz’ “Headphone Music from Parallel Worlds” and Tumi’s “Music From My Good Eye.”

Anyway, here’s the setlist from this week. Many thanks go to Diane Regisford, Gerrard Foster and DJ Casper for their guidance and generosity with the various music provided.

Setlist, 30 August 2008

This week’s set focused a lot on the groove, with my personal favorites being Eddie Harris’ “Listen Here” and Nina Simone’s scorching version of “Mood Indigo.” It’s good to be back in the habit of doing my show after the summer break. I’m also looking forward to getting my hands on the new Yvonne Sanchez and Sabrina Malheiros records, if I can.

I’ll also be heading to South Africa, where I’ll be leading workshops on radio broadcasting for African journalists as part of the annual Highway Africa conference at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, but will be back in time for my show on the 13th.

Here’s this week’s setlist as a Google spreadsheet.

Setlist, 7 June 2008

This week the standout new tracks were from Jair Oliveira’s ‘Simples’. But this was the week Orchestra Baobab played the Lucerna Music Bar, so I had to play a couple of tracks from their classic album ‘Pirate’s Choice.’ But truth be told, I’m still loving the ‘Nicola Conte Presents Viagem’ compilation.

Click here for this week’s setlist.

This week’s show is the last until August; I’m traveling on business a week from now, and then right after that I’m headed on vacation to California, so there’ll be a long pause. But I do hope to bring back lots of new music then.

Setlist, 24 May 2008

This week’s show was all about grooooove, with standout tracks from the most excellent new Fania remix album, “I Like It Like That.” I think we may have a strong candidate for track of the summer in the Louie Vega remix of Hector Lavoe’s “Mi Gente” - it’s a smart remix that really shows how much Vega understands the original, and salsa in general. He ought to, considering he’s Hector Lavoe’s nephew, a fact I didn’t know until this week.

The other excellent new album this week was “Guaranteed Niceness” from the Sonar Kollektiv Orchester. It’s a jazz orchestra’s take on some of the Berlin label Sonar Kollektiv’s singles, most of which were originally constructed from samples. But it still swings, and the band is _tight_.

The entire setlist is in a Google spreadsheet here. This time I added a column for links to YouTube videos, so check ‘em out.

Setlist, 10 May 2008

I love the approach of the summer, as it seems a lot of great new albums come out. This week’s show had a lot of new music, but by far the clear winner is the astounding compilation of classic bossa nova by Nicola Conte, “Nicola Conte Presents Viagem.” I think we’re going to be hearing a lot of music from this album in coming weeks

Anyway, here’s the link to this week’s setlist.

And here’s the video for Little Dragon’s single “Test.”