Goodbye & Hello (Something Else! on www.WtnrRadio.com 7/2/09)

Stream or Download Unless you\’ve been successfully living under a rock until today, you know that Michael Jackson died last week. While I didn\’t want to do a full tribute show (many others would do a much better job than I and I have other music I wanted to share as well) I had to at least give a \”tip of the hat\” to the King of Pop. I start out with a remix I was recently turn onto of a recent Erykah Badu song, \”Honey (Souled Remix.)\” I\’m not sure which I prefer, but this one and Dj Day\’s are both excellent. I\’d heard of Dj Junior from Philly years ago, he has a label called Record Breakin\’ and thanks to Giant Step I have a sampler from the label! \”The Joy (Daru\’s Drop It Mix)\” by Joy Jones is the first of two that I feature from the collection. I really like the interplay between the lead and background vocals — sort of a conversation. Speaking of conversations, the next track features a songwriter I\’ve dug for many years speaking over one of his group\’s tracks (it\’s a bit of surgery on my part.) Just like Quincy Jones, I think Rod Temperton is an amazing songwriter and in my \”mini-tribute\” to Michael Jackson I have a music bed of \”Goin\’ Crazy\” by Heatwave underneath Rod Temperton\’s Commentary on first working with Michael Jackson. You can find the commentary as a bonus cut on newer versions of Michael\’s Off the Wall. So naturally I had to follow that with \”Off The Wall\” by Michael Jackson. He was a great talent and will be remembered for that long after all the other controversies die down. \”Feel The Pressure\” by Incognito is a soulful latin-flavored track with a breezy summer feel. What would summer be without a little reggae? \”Conquering Heart Dub (Blue King Brown\’s Be At Peace Remix)\” by John Brown\’s Body provides that bass to make you feel like you\’re in Jamaica (even if you\’re really in Massachusetts or Australia–where the band and remixers are from, respectively.) Substance M (Dubbwune Remix) by Dj Over-X is a dubstep track I was turned onto thru Soundcloud.com. I\’ve had an account there for a while and just started to make some contacts there. One of my contacts is Dubbwune, who led me to this remix he did for Dj Over-X–which I fell in love with. I\’m glad to be able to feature music like this! I led out of it with a dub-house classic \”Prophecy Reveal\” by the Ballistic Brothers. \”Cafe Cubana\” by Lil\’ Dave is another track from the Record Breakin\’ Sampler but this one is aimed for the dancefloor with the latin drum grooves front & center. Keeping it funky, I get to drop Grant Green track from his album \”Alive\” that you should all know, \”Sookie Sookie\”–famously sampled by US3 for \”Tukka Yoot\’s Riddim.\” Just like last week, I close the show with another Blue Note classic, albeit remixed, \”Move Your Hand (Club Mix)\” by Lonnie Smith & Michael Franti (Spearhead/Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy.) It is never a happy occasion to bid an artist farewell, but I am glad that here we can focus on the music and that soon that\’s what most people will be talking about when the name Michael Jackson is mentioned. For those of you in the States have a fun, but safe July 4th holiday weekend — the rest of us will just enjoy another beautiful summer Saturday.