This might be a bit heavy for jazzycoffeeshopvibes. It's deeply funky proto-Go-Go. But, maybe I could slip it in during a particularly caffeinated moment. It's irrepressible.
This week
"commas matter" - Why Robert Caro now only has ten typewriters
"A lot of people think that they want to work in a cheese cave"
"Narrative medicine"
"Sea-level" / "From the time we're born we get feedback from people who are unskilled, starting with our parents. Are your parents all really skilled feedback-givers?" - Brené Brown's Empire of Emotion
52 singles: 2 Mad, Thinkin' About Your Body
Everything about this is low-effort and joyous. The Cadbury's rip-off, the MOST OBVIOUS samples, the phone-it-in name. It's a ricketty ricketty shed of a thing and that's what makes it so infectious. Why try harder when you can just throw all the best bits into a bowl and sell it as soup?
The only sadness is that this isn't the bootleg version, someone actually did some licensing. So that must have taken more than the half an hour they presumably took to do the record.
52 singles: Zapp, It Doesn't Really Matter
You might not have heard this song but it will be familiar to you because Roger Troutman and Zapp are all over West Coast Rap. Either as an an influence, or a sample or on it. I remember discovering them via an i-D magazine compilation, found in a remainder record shop in Derby.
They weren't exactly obscure but I'd never heard anything like it. It was odd and tight at the same time.
I also remember this appearance on Solid Soul. This is what making an effort looks like.
52 Singles: Nu Shooz I Can't Wait
I think of this as the second pillar of jazzycoffeeshopvibe. So relentlessly 80s. Everything old is new again. I remember hating this on TOTP. Horribly uncool. But loving it at the Coop Disco. That bass sound. Fantastic. (The lately bass?)
52 singles: Milt Jackson Modern Jazz Quartet
Several years ago I became slightly obsessed with the Modem Jazz Quartet. Mostly, to start with, it was the look, based on this cover. I've been documenting my collecting on instagram.
And then I fell in love with the sound. I've always loved the pulse and textures of jazz. The swing and the groove. The harmonic shifts and atmospheres. The vibe and the vibes. But I quickly get bored with solos. Self- indulgent, showing off, blaring. I would happily listen to rhythm sections on their own. And the MJQ is like that. Restrained. Four musicians blending into something bigger. They're the Kraftwerk of jazz.
I've decided this year to assemble a 'jazzycoffeeshopvibe' set on vinyl. As singles. And the MJQ have to be in there - so this is single number 1.
Everything about it is gorgeous. The cover. The sound. It's 70 years old and you can get it on discogs for 99p. What a world. I'll always start with All The Things You Are.
Partly because it's so composed. In all senses. Partly because I know the song so well from endless listenings to the Peter Sellers version. One of the few records my parents had that I could bear.