Mixtapes – EL MAHBOOB

Way Back When

I began compiling the songs for this mixtape at the beginning of 2020, letting the playlist shift and grow over three tumultuous years. This is my “ultimate” mixtape; one that covers the formative decade of my childhood that began a half century ago (concentrating on the early 80s), and focuses on Black legends in the genres of R&B, jazz-funk, disco and boogie during the final period of analog recording.

Twenty Tens

Otherwhere

British responses to Black diasporic music, and other sounds from formative walks in SSM and Toronto, via a recollection of refrains, harmonic worlds visited and the journeys between Omar | You’ve Got to Move Working Week | Inner City Blues The Brand New Heavies | Dream On Dreamer Colourbox | Philip Glass Young Disciples |… Continue reading Otherwhere

Boogie Dedication

All These Things

Taiguara ft. Hermeto Pascoal & Wagner Tiso “Samba das Cinco” F major, final chord: D-flat major Bebel Gilberto “Samba da Benção” (backing track: Amon Tobin “Nova”) D-flat major Esperanza Spalding “Ponte de Areia” D-flat major Aline Morales “Como Pólen” F-sharp minor Airto Moreira “The Happy People” F major, transition on G minor Banda Black Rio… Continue reading All These Things

Spring Affair

Golden Beats

Steve Reich Keys, a Mixtape, Vol. 2

Steve Reich has often described the role of keys and chord cycles in his compositions. This retrospective treats Reich’s oeuvre as a meta-cycle of chords, using harmonic mixing to match tracks whose endpoints share a common key or subset of pitches. Vol. 2 focuses on Reich’s earlier, longer pieces, and includes most of his major… Continue reading Steve Reich Keys, a Mixtape, Vol. 2

Si La Sol

Give the summer some. MaseQua Myers & Jami Ayinde | Black Land of the Nile Brenda Russell | It’s Something Aretha Franklin | It Only Happens (When I Look at You) The Voices of East Harlem | Can You Feel It Billy Paul | Am I Black Enough for You? Minnie Riperton | Wouldn’t Matter… Continue reading Si La Sol

Re‧mi Do