This week is all about re-collecting knowledge and memories.
We begin with Cleo Reed, a pioneering artist whose work sits a plane between past and present, rooted in essence of the Harlem Renaissance. “This is not a tender album, but this portrait is gentle; a vision I had that pulls from the roots of my childhood in NYC and the American South,” she says. The music is art and it requires something of you to experience it. Give in.
Next we have Jiro Inagaki, a Japanese saxophonist and producer, whose music is deeply influenced by and rooted in funk music made by Black people in America. His work brought something new to Japan, but the style itself was not new. It was an homage, but representation is always something fundamentally new.
Just like the album by Touré Kunda, which was released in 1979 and re-issued in 2019. The album remained the same, yet the cultural context couldn’t have been more different. The re-issue “exhumed an important chapter of the musical history of Senegal and France, to rediscover without restraint."
In a similar vein, Enzo Carella released Sfinge in 1981, yet the album could have been released last week. The sounds and the essence feels so modern, yet still with that everlasting nostalgia.
Finally, we have Sunni Colón and his deeply personal first record that represented his first three years in LA. “All of my emotions were emptied onto each track from the writing to production.”
From the playlist, we get some words to live by, “Everything I do gonna be funky.”
Enjoy.
The playlist is here.
Monday
Root Cause - Cleo Reed (2023)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Tuesday
ヘッド・ロック(Head Rock) - Jiro Inagaki and His Soul Media (1970)
Wednesday
Mandinka Dong - Touré Kunda (1979)
Spotify / YouTube / Other streaming services
Thursday
Sfinge - Enzo Carella (1981)
Spotify / Apple Music / Other streaming services
Friday
Thierry Disko - Sunni Colón (2016)
Spotify / Apple Music / Other streaming services
Pair with:
Gnocchi With Chorizo & Artichokes. I keep panfrying gnocchi and I cannot stop. The easy-to-good ratio for that level of crispiness and the fluffiness is unparalleled.
Lemon Pasta. Re-visiting my favorite pasta recipe now that it’s getting warmer out. Also a good choice for the easy-to-good ratio.
Creem Magazine’s interview with Natalie Mering (Weyes Blood). I mean, I’m from everywhere, she says. She’s perhaps the greatest enigma of our time, both vulnerable and distant.
Ben Lerner reading his story “The Ferry.” You can read it, too, but really you should listen to Lerner read it, because the way he says things just makes it all feel so real and so dark and so beautifully chaotic and ultimately sad in that way that feels good and is good.
This Sea New York Denim Skirt. Tell me I don’t need it.
Style icons:
Thank you, thank you. Have a great week.
Any New Yorkers here? I’m going to be in the city in June! What are you recs for restaurants?