I keep saying I'm going to get into the swing of things, but I'm mostly just relaxing these days. I'm behind on my reading, and need more sleep, but I've got time for the music. Here we go.....

Old School Wednesday: Autumnal Equinox, Volume 2.

01 - Confunkshun - Straight From The Heart
02 - Anita Baker - Will You Be Mine?
03 - The Isley Brothers - Groove With You
04 - Chante Moore - Wey U
05 - Angel Grant - Kisses Luv Lips
06 - Bill Withers - Lovely Day
07 - Marvin Gaye - Heavy Love Affair
08 - Donald Byrd - Wind Parade
09 - The Main Ingredient - Happiness Is Just Around the Bend
10 - Boz Scaggs - Lowdown
11 - Slave - Wait For Me
12 - Aurra - Who Are You?
13 - Leo's Sunshipp - Give Me The Sunshine
14 - Stevie Wonder - Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You)

While I personally think the whole selection is great, I've definitely been into Leo's Sunshipp's track, Give Me The Sunshine, which you can get from Midnight Soul, Volume 2, as well as We Need Each Other, which is what I picked up last weekend. Wind Parade is from Mizell, which is a Mizell Brothers compilation which I've constantly been rotating. If you're a fan of Donand Byrd and Bobbi Humphrey, I'd advise you to pick the CD up. Qamar got me into Slave, so I've been rotating Show Time/Visions Of The Lite this week. Then there's Aurra's Who Are You, which Fresh! got me into, and...well, as you can tell, I could go on and on about this music.

Hope you enjoy it.

I'll be playing this around my relatives all weekend, while I go by each of their houses and eat their food.

Old School Wednesday: Thanksgiving Mix, 2005.


01 - The Brothers Johnson - Light up the Night. Produced by Quincy Jones.
02 - Five Special - Why Leave Us Alone.
03 - The Jacksons - Everybody. Special thanks to KB for dropping this to me when I couldn't find it.
04 - Stephanie Mills - Put Your Body In It.
05 - Val Young - Seduction (Extended). Written and produced by Rick James.
06 - Patrice Rushen - Haven't You Heard. The all-time classic.
07 - Chaka Khan - Move Me No Mountain.
08 - Marvin Gaye - Turn On Some Music. All instruments and vocals by the man himself, Marvin.
09 - Alexander O'Neal - Love Makes No Sense.
10 - Ramsey Lewis - Sun Goddess.
11 - The Main Ingredient - Everybody Plays the Fool.
12 - Love Unlimited - Gotta Be Where You Are.
13 - The Isley Brothers - For the Love of You.
14 - Anita Baker - Angel.
15 - Deniece Williams - It's Gonna Take a Miracle.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

After a two-week hiatus, it's time to get back to it. I've been rotating a little bit of everything.

In Rotation: 11/20/05

Old School Wednesdays has a habit of doing a lot of "where are they now" research, and as such, I tracked down Jaki Graham, who was the featured vocalist on Kiss The Sky. While her album Don't Keep Me Waiting is slightly different from the Kiss The Sky CD, there are some very good tracks. Heaven and Seek and You Will Find is in the mix here. Along the same vein, Brigette released a new album called Starlight Lounge (including the single Star) which I had to pick up because I was a fan of her CD Take Advantage Of Me, which includes the hit single Cherish This Love.

Midnight Soul 1 was a great double CD compilation, so whenI saw Midnight Soul 2, I immediately pulled it. My three favorite tracks: Losing You by Kooba, Give Me The Sunshine by Leo's Sunshipp, and Dreams by Solu Martin f/Kai Martin are from that CD. Remember Platinum Pied Pipers, who has a female vocalist on their CD on three tracks, including the cut Stay With Me? Then you remember Tiombe Lockhart. She has a very eclectic CD out called The Tiombe Lockhart Bootleg #1. The tracks featured here are Drifter (which I'm waiting for an extended version of) and G.P. I also managed to pick up Julie and Khari's EP, which is where Venusian (Aquariana Remix) is from, and rotated Carleen Anderson's Soul Providence, which is where the track All In My Mind is from. I'm even waiting on Slum Village's next release, so I picked up their first CD, Slum Village, which is where the track Call Me is from.

The best thing about last weekend was that I was able to make it to a concert with Ffena, a spoken word artist, Brodie, and Heston which was wonderful. Ffena's Beautiful featuring Robin S., and Heston's new single Sumthin In The Water are also included here. Definitely check these great tracks out. Also, both Heston and Trader Mike mentioned their passion for Beres Hammond, who is highly regarded as the "Marvin Gaye of reggae," which is why the great track No Disturb Sign is also in this mix.

Enjoy.

Collaboration has it's advantages. I couldn't think of a name for this mix. KB, the collaborator, helped me out- with a little wry humour of course......

EJ: Alright, come up with a name for it.
EJ: I don't think you want it to be KB's Adolesence, Volume 1, right? :P
KB: Special place in hell for you, my friend.
EJ: Purgatory has many levels. I've already moved in.
KB: Hold up, let me take a look at the lineup again.
KB: "Growing Pains"
KB: It fits every song except the Dynasty one.

And that's how Old School Wednesday: Growing Pains came to be.

01 - Imagination - Just an Illusion.
02 - Princess - Say I'm Your #1.
03 - Cameo - Back and Forth.
04 - The System - Don't Disturb This Groove.
05 - Tyka Nelson - Paris.
06 - Herb Alpert - Rise.
07 - Dynasty - Adventures In The Land Of Music.
08 - EFUA - Strawberry Boy.
09 - Juicy - Sugar Free.
10 - The Main Ingredient - Spinning Around (I Must Be Falling In Love).
11 - L.T.D. - Love Ballad.
12 - Force M.D's - Tears.
13 - Chuckii Booker - You Don't Know.
14 - Loose Ends - You Can't Stop the Rain.

In this lineup:
1. Four of these artists are British acts.
2. One of these songs was sampled by the rap act Camp Lo.
3. One of these acts had Cuba Gooding as a member.
4. One of them is a close relative of Prince.
5. One of these acts was also produced by the same production team that produced Rick Astley.

Give it your best shot.

It's that time again.

Old School Wednesday: Autumnal Equinox, Volume 1.

01 - Odyssey - Inside Out [Long Version]. Will requested that it be pulled out of the vault again. I was happy to oblige. The bassline and the string arrangements of this track are incredible, even more so that they were masterminded by Mark Adams from Slave.
02 - Marvin Gaye - Funk Me. J. had the cut and I went wild when I heard it and I had to have it. The arrangement is superb.
03 - Kashif - Stone Love. I haven't played Kashif in a while and he fit right in.
04 - Ray Parker Junior - For Those Who Like to Groove. An instrumental I hadn't heard in a while. Once I got the blessing from Fresh!, I had to drop it.
05 - Pieces of a Dream - Fo-Fi-Fo. Bernie had me pull it out, and I was glad to do so. This cut just missed the Philly Soul mix.
06 - Will Downing - Do You? From Will Downing's first LP, Will Downing. This was one of my favorite cuts that never got any airplay.
07 - Michael McDonald - What A Fool Believes (ft.The Doobie Brothers). Todd made me pull him out, and I had to put this track in.
08 - Pride 'n Politix - Nights. I saw this melanin-free duo on Video Soul in the 80's interviewing with Donnie Simpson and bought their CD a couple of years ago from the cut-out bin. My favorite cut from their CD, Changes. I'm 99% sure no one has heard this cut.
09 - Ray Parker Jr and Raydio - You Can't Change That. Since I pulled the instrumental out, I had to hear this too, and couldn't get away with it.
10 - Rufus & Chaka Khan - Please Pardon Me (You Remind Me of a Friend). This track was in my head, which provided the segue to...
11 - Womack & Womack - Baby I'm Scared Of You, which Charlie from Flowink had brought up in conversation, and dropped to me.
12 - Deniece Williams - Free. Provided to me by no other than James from J-Notes. Allowed me to slow things down a little.
13 - Jasmine Guy - Just Want To Hold You. Male vocals by James Ingram. Quite possibly my favorite track from her CD, Jasmine Guy.
14 - Troop - You Take My Heart With You. From Deepa.
15 - Daryl Hall & John Oates - She's Gone. This cut wasn't on the Rock and Soul mix. I'm sure none of you forgot this one. I know I didn't.
16 - Alexander O'Neal - When The Party's Over. Obi, GrantLove, and Chica all know I had to finish off with this cut.

Enjoy.

Volume one was done, and volume two was assembled. It's getting a little more challenging now. The third installment.....

100 Things About EJ, Volume 3

51. The phrase "Jack be nimble, jack be quick" does not apply to me. I am heavy-handed and I will not try out for a marathon. I am very good with hammers though. That, and slamming car doors. It's not that I'm mad at you, it's the power of the swing.

52. I constantly have 15 things on my mind. If you think I'm ignoring you, please believe that I am not. I'm also not ignoring the music in the background. Or the computer screen. Or something I need to do for work.

53. Even though I was definitely into computers at the time, my best score in the 8th grade was Mythology. My grade score? 110.

54. I am not a romantic person. Ask anyone. My idea of a date is a good dinner and a movie and that's it. In fact, if both the dinner and the movie are at your house (or mines), that's even better. I know about those things called flowers and candy, and I can do that, but I need a put in a reminder into my scheduler, and allow extra time for me to set up and prepare. For instance, I have to get ready for Valentines Day at least a month in advance. Just thinking about it makes me cringe.

55. Yeah, I'm a Star Trek fan. All of 'em. My favorite series is The Next Generation, but I would be lying if I said I've missed a single episode of any of them.