Center of the world

It began in Africa. We were putting together some African tracks for a project so it seems like the perfect time to get put together a mix for your listening pleasure. Fela's "Water no get enemy" was the track that got us started on afro beat back in the day and although it's been hard to find a track to top it there is certainly an amazing amount of great African music out there. Enjoy the mix, find it here or here or listen below.

1. Jonathan Richman And The Egyptian Lovers "Egyptian Reggae"
2. Fela Kuti "Witchcraft"
3. The Souljazz Orchestra "Mista President"
4. George Akaeze & His Augmented Hits "Business Before Pleasure"
5. Wunmi "Talk Talk Talk" (Danny Krivit Re-Edit)
6. Cesaria Evora "Angola (Bateau Ivre Rework by Pepe Bradock)"
7. Tony Allen "Kilode" (Carl Craig silode straight mix)
8. Mulatu Astatke "Enmete"
9. Salah Ragab & the Cairo Jazz Band "Egypt Strut"
10. Tony Allen "Ole" (Cairo Version by Salah Ragab)
11. Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 "Many Things"
12. The Quantic Soul Orchestra "Marrakech"
13. Hugh Masekela "Night in Tunisia"
14. Fela Ransome Kuti And Nigeria 70 "My Lady Frustration"
15. Steve Reid "Center of the Earth"

runtime: 1 hr 19 mins

Enjoy.

Pete Dunaway

We're not making a habit out of this but every now and then we have to share some music with you all!
Ever since we dug this up from fellow blogger Som Barato a few months back Pete Dunaway has been popping up in conversations so here it is for your listening pleasure. We don't know much about this Brazilian artist except that it was common during this period for artists to adopt a western sounding name. Check out the sample track, which is the last track on the album, and boy did they end on a high! Check in the comments section for link to the full album. Enjoy.

Playjazzloud goes House

We're stretching the word "jazz" a little in this month's mix. Playjazz HQ is going "house," playing homage to a style of music that like jazz makes you wanna shake your thing. We're heavy with the Detroit flavors and we get into some broken beats towards the end as well. Download it here. Enjoy.

1. Midway "Set it out" (Omar S Edit)
2. Axis Choir "I see the sun"
3. Theo Parrish "Friendly Children"
4. Henrik Schwarz "Chicago"
5. The Detroit Experiment "Think Twice"
6. Unknown "Unknown" (Someone put me out of my misery and tell me what this is!)
7. Flow Riders "Different Spaces" (BITA Mix)
8. Freedom Soundz "Do it Right"
9. DKD "Future Rage"
10. Matthew Herbert Big Band "Singing in the rain"
11. Asha Puthli "Right down here"
12. Beyoncé "Summertime" (Blackbeard Remix)

run time 1:10:05

Wax lyrical in the comments section and extra brownie points if you can name the movie artwork "borrowed" for this podcast's graphic.

Chess + Hip Hop + RZA

We like to play chess at the playjazzloud HQ. We also like hip hop. Previously the only time chess & hip hop came together as far as we knew was Marc Mac's (of 4 Hero fame) great ode to Cadet records "How about a game of chess." Now we hear RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan is bringing chess & hip hop to a new level. RZA has been a life long chess fan and brings to you wuchess.com as he takes his hobby from the home and into the world of .com startups.

Here's an excerpt from a recent New York Times article with RZA...

"Chess has long had an important role in the aesthetic of the Wu-Tang Clan, which has songs about the game. In “The Wu-Tang Manual,” a 2005 book about the group and its members, RZA (pronounced RIZ-a) wrote that chess is part of the Wu-Tang essence “because it’s a game of war — it’s about battle. And Wu-Tang was formed in battles, from challenging each other.”

You can read the full article here. Check out the hiphopchess federation in action. Yes you read that correct, we said "the hip hop chess federation!"

Something for the weekend | Jazz Sessions Vol. 5

The weekend is here and we bring you some jazz to accompany you. We get deep and spiritual but come back up for some fresh latin sounds as well. We wrap up the mix with a quite mad 1973 Italian disco classic re-edited for 2008 by the legendary Greg Wilson (check the nutty youtube video at the bottom of the post as well). Big thanks goes out to alanmck from the brownswood board who posted an absolute monster post of rare jazz and we slotted in a few tracks into today's mix. You can find his full post with pics and mp3s here, it's worth checking. Knowledge is dropped. Enjoy the mix. Aside from downloading via iTunes link on the right side of the blog you can download the mp3 directly here.

1. Kenny Dorham "El Matador"
2. Yvan Landry & His Trio "Ton Visage"
3. Mal Waldron "Macedonian Fertility Dance"
4. Horace Tapscott & The Pan-Afrikan People's Arkestra "Desert Fairy Princess (Live)"
5. Juryman Vs Spacer "Submersible"
6. Clara Hill's Folkwaves "Interlude"
7. Milton Nascimento & Jobim Trio "Medo de Amar"
8. Luiz Eça & Orquesta Da Cordas "Consolaçao"
9. Clifford Jordan Quartet "John Coltrane"
10. Bugge Wesseltoft "Hit"
11. Quasimode "The Man From Nagpur (Live)"
12. Adriano Celentano "Prisencolinensinainciusol" (Greg Wilson Edit)

runtime: 58:15 minutes.

enjoy the video for the original version of "Prisencolinensinainciusol"