Our second edition of Moods In Free Time was quite a fated affair. Since discovering her work in the previous Summer, Harmony Holiday was a poet that I knew I wanted to interview. My only problem was no longer having a medium to do so. As soon as I got the word that Artform Radio was going to start at the beginning of 2020, I contacted her and thankfully she was able to swing through for this show. As soon she was locked in, I knew the mood for this month’s addition would be “excitement.” Little did I know how perfect that choice would be…Before leaving home, I was listening to the show preceding mine, where Ben Merlis and Cut Chemist were talking about classic NY records, so I was already excited about seeing one of my all-time favorite DJs in the spot. But when I walked into the Artform Studio to do the show, I was shocked to see that The RZA himself had unexpectedly strolled in to join Merlis & Cut, and was telling old school NY Hip-Hop stories. I’d barely been able to put my head back together (I even mention this in the opening break) by the time it was time to start my show. When Harmony showed up, she was similarly surprised and while I was working through the first set, she went to Linear Labs, Adrian Younge’s adjoining recording label and studio, to meet The RZA and give him some of her poetry. In terms of the music I played in the one set, all of the tracks were ones that I was excited to share with people, a couple of which I’ve featured here. While I was excited to play all of these tunes, a special moment happened when I played “Safe & Sound,” that was only possible because of the fact that we were broadcasting live from the front of a still open record store. While I was playing that song, a guy literally came in from the street to ask what the song it was, a totally unique experience in my radio career, since I’ve always broadcast from “proper” radio stations, and something that I was excited to have potentially happen while doing the show at the Artform Studio.
However, most of the excitement for me of the show was being able to spend time talking with Harmony Holiday (who I highly suggest checking out on twitter here) about her poetics and the influence of music and radical Black politics on her craft. In addition to reading some poetry from her latest book, A Jazz Funeral For Uncle Tom, we also played a couple of excerpts of audio from Sun Ra and Malcolm X (the next day, or the day of for those listening worldwide, marked the 55th anniversary of Malcolm’s assassination) and closed the show on a track from Abbey Lincoln, since one of the many upcoming projects Holiday is working on is a biography of the singer and activist. The excitement of the day was almost too much for me, as you can hear in the final break when I can’t even say Harmony Holiday’s name properly from how scrambled my brain had become trying to deal with what an amazing day it had been. Now that this show is several months old, I can also report, that the excitement continued after the show, as I got to check out what was then unreleased music from Adrian Younge and collaborations he had done with many of the artists who had come into town for their “Jazz Is Dead” series! This pandemic has meant that this was the last time I was down at the Artform Studio, but it definitely was a memorable night. Enjoy the show!
Moods In Free Time 002: Excitement – 02-20-2020
Playlist – Moods In Free Time 002: Excitement
{opening theme} The Visitors – The Juggler – In My Youth (Muse)
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The Jazz Minstrels – Dit Le Burgeoryn – Party! (JAMS)
The Heliocentrics – Burning Wooden Ship – Infinity Of Now (Madlib Invazion)
Flow – Here We Are Again – Flow (CTI)
David Astri – Safe & Sound – Doing It Right (Award Records)
Billy Harper – Priestess – In Europe (Soul Note)
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Harmony Holiday – Interview & Performance – Recorded Live At The Artform Studio
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Abbey Lincoln – Retribution – Straight Ahead (Candid)
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{Closing Theme} Tony Williams – Wild Life – Believe It (Columbia)