Music

I’ve always been a bit into good new sounds. After I picked up the trumpet and worked away at it during my high school days, I started to accumulate a lot of diverse jazz records. My CD collection kept growing during my undergrad and gap year in Australia. Thereafter, Napster and MiniDiscs helped me to keep the music alive while planting trees in Northern Ontario and on Vancouver Island. After my PhD field research in Tanzania and Senegal – when Lauren and I came together in 2007 – we learned that we were both iTunes addicts. We stockpiled a lot of world music during our year together in New Zealand and over the tenure-track/PhD student/Cameroon phase that followed. In our busyness we totally failed to consolidate our collection. I finally got around to organizing our favourites into genre and activity playlists in 2019. Below I offer a few insights on some of the music that envelops our lives….

A Note on Local Sources of Recent Inspiration

Toronto’s listener-supported Jazz.FM91, Jazzcast.ca, the KW Jazz Room, Jazz Bistro, Hugh’s Room Live, the Rex Hotel and The Pilot are some of the most inspiring sources of new sounds in our area.

Dinner Time

You can’t go wrong with the listener-supported Jazz Groove or Dinner Jazz on Jazz.FM91. Duško Gojković (Samba do Mar; Samba Tzigane); Mark Isham’s Blue Sun; Roy Hargrove with strings; Lee Ritenour‘s Stolen Moments; Wes Montgomery’s Bumpin’; Mike Herriott & Sean Harkness H2 Flights; Dorothy Ashby; Paul Desmond; Don Thompson and basically anything beautifully arranged by Claus Ogerman or Don Sebesky

Jazz

Brad Barker, Walter Venafro, John Devenish and Heather Bambrick put some great music out there on Jazz.fm. Artists often in our mix at home include: Roy Hargrove; Manu Katché; Guido Basso; Warren Wolf; Freddie Hubbard; Gregory Porter; Erik Truffaz; Quincy Jones; Count Basie; Takuya Kuroda; Jukka Eskola; Lester Bowie; Herbie Hancock; Alexis Baro; Larnell Lewis; Till Brönner; Emilie-Claire Barlow; Gary Burton; Eric St-Laurent; Stefon Harris; Christian McBride; David Sanborn; Jimmy Smith; Richard Bona; John Scofield; Pat Metheny ; GoGoPenguin; Art Farmer; Jan Garbarek; Metropole Orkest; NDR Big Band; Robert Glasper; Avishai Cohen Big Vicious; Steve Gadd Band; Theo Croker; Snarky Puppy; Michael Brecker; Russell Malone; Donald Byrd; Ibrahim Maalouf; Keyon Harrold; Jim Hall; Hubert Laws; Chet Baker; Neil Swainson; George Benson

Café Sounds

José Padilla; Soulstance; Tycho; Cantoma; Tom Middleton; Lux; Thievery Corporation; Nightmares on Wax; Monte la Rue; St Germain; James Bright; Steely M; Herb Alpert (Second Wind & Colors); the Café del Mar Jazz compilations & Groove Salad from listener-supported soma.fm

Funkier World

The RH Factor; Hugh Masekela; the Souljazz Orchestra; Groove Collective; Fela’s Egypt 80 & Seun Kuti; Femi Kuti; Mafikizolo; Ebo Taylor; Antibalas; Menahan Street Band; Cheikh Lô

Gym

Joey Negro; Awadi; Café del Mar Terrace Mixes; Wizkid; Yemi Alade

Yoga

David & Steve Gordon; Shaman’s Dream

Meditation/Sleep

Jim Butler, Marconi Union, Tom Middleton; Toumani Diabate; Moby’s Long Ambients; Al Gromer Khan