monday, january 2nd
I'm back baby - Happy New Year! A new mixtape!
Happy 2023, everyone! In one day it’s already been quite a year - truly the full range of emotions. Which is to say, if you need me, DM me on Instagram because my phone is being held hostage in Rockaway.
It’s been a while since one of these has entered your inboxes, and even longer since the Monday Morning Mixtape has been coming through consistently. To put it simply, the past couple years have featured several failed attempts to relaunch the newsletter and mixtape, which is a bummer. I love doing this, and I know there are some of you who enjoy receiving it and I want to honor that (i.e. a handful of people have offered encouragement to keeping releasing and another a handful have asked me if I’ve removed them from the mailing list). I do feel like I have a lot to share!
So my hope for 2023 is to release these with any consistency at all. A very low bar indeed, but releasing the mixtape more periodically makes it more feasible for me to actually do it. If I could get something off once a month, I’d be psyched.
What it will look like will likely vary between each release. I would imagine many will be akin to what I have for y’all today - an hour-long mixtape that’s a deep dive on a particular genre or niche or influence strain that I’ve been curious about recently. It’s the kind of thing I would generally make just for my own personal listening, but that kind of musical exposition feels right for the cadence I’m aiming for. Perhaps there will be short essays on music that I’ve felt a deep connection to and feel the need to share or reviews of new music. The old format of a very random amalgam of music and sounds is probably a little less likely, but not totally off the table. I’ll aim for Monday mornings, but no promises.
So without further ado, this year’s first mixtape…
Inspired by:
the death of Ramsey Lewis and a piece by Andy Cush on Sun Goddess
Second Hand Records in Bushwick
a year of listening to exclusively jazz
Drake’s sample choices
a conversation with DJ Marcus Logan on the flexibility of jazz-funk and Johnny Hammond’s Gears
Charles Stepney (who was cut for time, a mistake)
the very weird choice by some music supervisor to re-version a Dior x Charlize Theron ad to replace the original song (the controversial Kanye West’s “Flashing Lights,” understandable) with the goofy sex fiend Barry White (????)
As a final note, I usually send out a poll to learn about your year in music. Evidently, I didn’t do that for 2022, but if you made it this far and have things you discovered last year that you’d like to share, I would love to hear it!
Alright, that’s all for now, folks! I’ll hopefully be back with more soon.
With love,
TG