Good morning / afternoon / evening everyone,
I hope you’re having a wonderful festive break! This week’s letter is short and sweet, and the music in the tape is made up of my favourite tracks from every letter so far (one per letter). I’d like to say a massive thank you to every single one of you, none of this makes any sense without you. I’d also like to say a big thank you to our guest editors this year, James, Chris, and Tom – thank you!
Have a brilliant New Years Eve, and I’ll see you next year ❤️ .
– 🎼 –
There isn’t a ‘TL:DR section…’ this week, as the rambling notes are substantially less rambling, and the music is the handpicked best of from this years letters – in other words, every song is a belter 😃 .
Enjoy!
– ✏️ –
Rather than ramble on about the songs I’ve included, I thought I’d list out a few things that I’ve enjoyed this week (in no particular order). So, here are five things that I’ve loved this year across albums, artists, video, and books.
Albums
- Colin Stetson – All This I Do For Glory
- Anchorsong – Ceremonial
- Kamasi Washington – Harmony of Difference
- Lord Echo – Harmonies
- Ruby Rushton – Trudi’s Songbook, Vol. 1
Artists
- Moses Boyd (and anything he does)
- BadBadNotGood
- Yussef Kamaal
- Melanie De Bassio
- Makaya McCraven
Video
- Maestro (documentary)
- Whiplash (feature film)
- Mister Saturday Night’s interview on Boiler Room (interview)
- Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton (documentary)
- Too Old to be New, to New to be Classic (documentary)
Books
- Life and Death on a New York Dance Floor (absolute must read!)
- Herbie Hancock: Possibilities
- Meet Me In The Bathroom
- The Men Behind Def Jam
- The Last Sultan
As always, if you’ve read to here, thanks for indulging me ♥️.
– 📄 –
- The Persuasions – Good Times
- Fatback Band – Wicky Wacky
- Herbie Hancock – I Thought It Was You
- The Crusaders – My Lady
- Idris Muhammad – Could Heaven Ever Be Like This
- Bill Withers – You Got The Stuff
- Thundercat – Them Changes
- Sun Ra & His Arkestra – Where Pathways Meet
- Tenderlonious – Ghana
- BadBadNotGood – In Your Eyes
- Josef Leimberg – The Awakening
- Henry Wu – Boards and Skins
- The Stan Tracey Quartet – Starless and Bible Black
- Ill Considered – Unwritten Rules
- Johnny “Hammond” Smith – Los Conquistadores Chocolates
- George Duke – Brazilian Love Affair
- Emanative – Makondi
- Alicia Myers – I Want To Thank You
- Central Line – Walking Into Sunshine (Larry Levan 12” mix)
- Bileo – You Can Win
- Universal Togetherness Band – Ain’t Gonna Cry
- Usio – Hadithi Fupi
- Borrowed Identity – Queens Bridge
- Laurent Garnier – The Man With the Red Face
- Kaytranada – Leave Me Alone
- Colin Stetson – Between Water and Wind
- Anchorsong – Ceremony
- Melanie de Biasio – Afro Blue
- Andrew Ashong – Special
- Clutchy Hopkins – 3:06
See you next year!
Love Will Save the Day