The Slo Get Up by Wyatt Closs: Recent Episodes
wyatt closs
Start the Day Right. And take it slow...
The Slo Get Up podcasts are an eclectic selection of slow tracks-- jazz, acoustic folk, neo-soul, trip-hop, retro-soul, bossa nova, gospel acapella, fuzzy lo-fi rock, jazzy hip-hop, relaxectronica, and more -- designed to lift you into the day.
Full playlists available at my Amalgamated Recordings blog www.amalrec.org.
The Slo Get Up is exactly that. While good anytime, its designed for that moment in day when you're getting motivated but not revving your engine. When you want some music to nudge you forward as you sip coffee, stare out the window, or read the news. Its not "quiet storm" music nor "ring-a-ding-ding" lounge with a martini. it cuts genres quickly but stays at nice slow pace.
see more mixes and podcasts by others at www.AmalgamatedRecordings.blogspot.com
From Slum Village to k.d. lang, and good stops in between. There are many 2019 electro-soul favorites here sprinkled with vintage pop classics and jazz-based film soundtrack music before closing out with a bit of twang.
Eden (LES) from If Beale Street Could Talk soundtrack – Nicholas Britell || As We Come (To Be) – Young Disciples || Lovestained – Hope Tala || Jealousy (Instrumental) – Slum Village || Living in Denial – Michael Kiwanuka || Abre Las Manos – Devendra Banhart || Stay High – Brittany Howard || Mary Don’t You Weep (Piano & a Microphone 1983 Version) – Prince || Poetry Man – Phoebe Snow|| Brooklyn Bridge – Bill Lee || MF GROOVE – Smino & Ravyn Lenae || Guilty – Barbra Streisand (with Barry Gibb) || Now That You Need Me – Taylor McFerrin || All These Flags – Mr. Carmack || Texas Sun – Khruangbin & Leon Bridges || Let’s Burn Down the Cornfield – Lou Rawls || Miss Chatelaine – k.d. lang
In this episode, we skip across multiple genres, still designed to allow you to ease into your day. The saxaphone solo from 'Do The Right Thing' soundtrack beckons you before Alice Smith (who I saw give an amazing performance recently at the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood) draws you in with 'The One.' She's followed by this dope recrafting of Paul Simon's 'Can't Run, But' with a chamber orchestra. There's plenty of new school artists from 2018 in the mix -- Nick Hakim, Phony Ppl, Carrie Cleveland, Kelly Finnigan -- alongside some known soulful gems, like Cal Tjader's 'Morning' or 'What is Wrong With Groovin'?' by Letta Mbulu. Near the end, to rouse you, there's Jeremih with 'Oui,' arguably the first trap song on a Slo Get Up music podcast(!), with Curtis Mayfield closing things out. Enjoy.
In this session, we have a some cuts that I might call ‘Slo Get Up Hall of Fame’ songs (like John Coltrane’s “Naima” or “La Vie En Rose” by Grace Jones) that were slo get ups for me before I started using that phrase. And alongside those classics are some very fresh gems from 2017-18 including the just released “Forever Always” by Peter Cottontale, “Me&My” by Andre 3000 and “Beginning of the End” by Black Opera with LA’s Georgia Anne Muldrow. Also proud of unearthing a digital file of the commonly heard, underground hip-hop jazz instrumental “Smilin’ Billy Suite” by The Heath Brothers.
Full Playlist (in order): Naima - John Coltrane; Learn Your Lesson - Madison McFerrin; Smilin' Billy Suite - The Heath Brothers; Forever Always (feat. Rex Orange County, Chance the Rapper) - Peter Cottontale; Drink I'm Sippin On - Yaeji; Gettin' Down Again - Tek 9; Kaes on Aeg - Velly Joonas; La Vie En Rose - Grace Jones; Timeless - Sergio Mendes feat. India.Arie; Master in Disguise - Jimetta Rose; Boy - Duckwirth; Me&My (To Bury Your Parents) - Andre 3000; I Want You (Marvin's Mood) Remix - Stro Elliot; Beginning of the End (starring Georgia Anne Muldrow) - The Black Opera
If there’s ever been a year that we wish for a new day, 2017 is probably at the top. We're not chopping cotton, but yet, we are. Ya know? So, here’s a little something to make everyday a fresh one to wake up to, slowly. More new great emerging artists – like SZA – are here alongside classics by the legendary Neil Young and the truly obscure but precious work of Italian Lucio Aracri. Kilo Kash and Sean Leon are serving up some nice electro-soul plates that I just can’t get enough of these days and another gem from PJ Harvey quietly calls out. I have to give shout-outs to the TV productions “Insecure” and “Pretty Little Lies” and “Master of None,” whose music scapes provided inspiration for a couple of the selections here. Surprises are coming from wonderful places.
SLO GET UP 16
Tree of Level - The Fairfield Four
Fall in Love - Badbadnotgood
Shine On - Ladi6
I Wish - Tom Misch
The Wind - PJ Harvey
Biking - Frank Ocean
(feat Jay Z and Tyler the Creator)
Frustrations + Solutions - Kilo Kish
Georgia - Emily King
Supermodel - SZA
Harvest Moon - Neil Young
Matthew in the Middle - Sean Leon
(feat. Daniel Caeser)
Amarsi un po - Lucio Aracri
Jupiter - Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
Stand Tall - Childish Gambino
Way Back When - Brenda Russell
Posted nearly two years after the last Slo Get Up, this is a double-length version at nearly two hours. To say the least, I was a little busy but always gathering this track or that along the way, putting choice items in my digital rucksack. And here they are.
There’s a mix of soulful salves and simmering sizzles in this podcast. We start with Cuba’s Dayme Arocena and her beautifully layered acapella building towards the timeless and now politically timely ‘Compared to What?’ by Roberta Flack.
No look back over the last two years for me is complete without a little Dice Raw (thanks Leigh Ann!) and a track from his ‘The Last Jimmy’ hip hop musical about mass incarceration. The totally rare, digital ‘white label’ track like StaRro’s bossa nova treatment of a loop from “Prototype’ by Oukast is a fave and more bossa is threaded from Camila Meza and Kendrick Lamar (yes, that dude).
There’s a nice little suite of LA underground soul-jazz homies embedded back-to-back who I always dig: Shafiq Husayn, Dexter Story, Anderson Paak, and Kamasi Washington, like blap, blap, blap, blap. In between all of this there’s Solange, Frank Ocean, Chance the Rapper, The Black Keys, Lianne La Havas, NoName, King, and more.
And there’s a snippet or two from President Obama’s Farewell Speech. And if that don’t get you up and at ‘em and stay positively woke, I don’t know what will.
In this series, I ground the playlist with a variety of gems from 2014. Starting with Moses Sumney, who seemed to punctuate my listening adventures all year long from his time at Red Bull Music Academy to a residency at the Bootleg Theater to a collab with Miguel Atwood Ferguson at the Blue Whale by end of year. He had to start this. He's then followed by a stream of great artists like Zara MacFarlane, D'Angelo, Fatima, SBTRKT, Kele and more. Unlike most Slo Get Ups, things get smashed off on the end quite uptempo with Mark de Clive Lowe and Azealia Banks (and a Maya Angelou quick poem in between). The sorrow of 2014's injustices is also present but you have to listen for it. Not because those woes are undervalued but because music -- of all kinds even with frivolous messages -- may be the only thing that can soothe that pain. See Amalgamated Recordings for more Slo Get Ups and other good stuff.
This was originally done in haste as a party mix for a friend but I started to dig it for my work out purposes. Yes, I am the type of dude that tries to match up my treadmill pace with BPMs. Anyway, we've got old and new here from Justin Timberlake to Mandrake to M.I.A to Big Boi to Ludacris, Jet, Black Keys, Beck, A Tribe Called Quest and one of my fave underground hip hop tracks of all time "Come Get With It" by Basic Vocab. Astute DJs will pick up some "sneaker in the dryer" moments and other slight technicalities but hopefully all will bob along just the same.
Starting off with an acoustic spiritualized medley (track from the film 'Babel' + gospel-oriented jaimeo brown and contact field orchestra), we move into Bill Withers' 'Grandma's Hands.' from there its a journey that includes Quadron with Kendrick Lamar, jazz vocalist Gregory Porter, and some bossa by Lalo Schifrin from way back. Later a Vampire Weekend track actually sets off an electro-soul arc of Kelela, The Internet, Jamiroquai and Toro Y Moi as Oddisee closes with one of my fave tracks from the last two years "You Know Who You Are."
This podcast is inspired by an event I produced one time called Sookie Sookie Sunday under the guise of Madame Zenobia Presents in DC. It was Labor Day Weekend. We were searching for a vibe that had a southern soul sensibility but was a little gritty/greasy and still felt fresh. The event went well but we always wanted more for the music. We couldn’t find that sweet spot comingling old school R&B, certain types of authentic blues, organ grooves, and then new stuff that paid homage to those sounds.
Here we have a range of funky grinding tracks from new schoolers like Alabama Shakes, Platinum Pied Pipers, Raphael Saadiq, and Cody Chestnutt to classic sanctified soul from cats like Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson, Lester Abrams’ LA Carnival experiment and an even more obscure track by a 70s funk band from North Carolina that called themselves The Communicators and Black Experience Band. At the end, we cap it off with the song “Sookie Sookie” itself, but not before a baby mash-up of Eddie Murphy’s “The Barbeque” comedy routine rides over top of it for a minute.
For some this will be road music or some music to barbeque by perhaps. For me, its what might be playing at a juke joint near my childhood home if it were around today. It was a cinderblock building serving liquor and pig’s feet. I was never allowed to go there. Or its what I envision is on the jukebox at The Hideaway, a spot I went to in Harlem when I lived there where hardworking men, part-time pimps, and flashy cats hung out before really going into the street. Colt 45 Malt Liquor posters with Billie Dee Williams were still hanging there a few years ago.
That’s what made things Sookie Sookie to me. Like grape Kool-Aid and gin.
Could say I've carefully collected this one for a while as the majority of tracks are all connected with Butterflies specifically. Many genres -- jazz, neo soul, dance -- but were all part of my library, gently landing in it over the years. Bookended by two classics -- Jimi Hendrix with "Little Wings" and Herbie Hancock's jazz opus "Butterfly", what's in between is Michael Jackson, Corinne Bailey Rae, Swing Out Sister, Jamiroquai, Digable Planets, Towa Tei, Big Brooklyn Red, Abbey Lincoln and more. And the beautiful positive house track "Butterfly(You Send Me) by the always soulful and percussive Masters at Work. The art is by friend and 'artivist' Favianna Rodriguez and it works well not only because of the Butterfly motif but also due to her dope use of it as a metaphor on the struggle for immigration reform. Something that will also be rising this season. Which I'll tweet about from time to time @wyclo. Up jumps spring.
On this Slo Get Up, the basic format remains but it is all about the new. Or the relatively new, in comparison to other Slo Get Up podcasts. Most tracks here are from 2012 and even a handful from 2013. That’s keeping it extra fresh! And so many artists that I am so excited about right now. Who bring me delight every morning. There’s a cozy one from Nia Andrews called “The Lovers”. A gruff, yet melodic, almost Burt Bacharach-ish gem from Cody Chestnutt called “Chips Down”. The infectious “Treat Me Like Fire” by Lion Babe, whose debut album I can’t wait to hear.
And England’s Laura Mvula, Toro y Moi, the retro-soul of Charles Bradley, Childish Gambino, Australia’s Hiatus Kaiyote, Def Sound, Alabama Shakes, Lianne La Havas, Rhye and more great artists you may not have heard much about. Then at the end we arise, fully awake to Quantic and Alice Russell doing “Look Around the Corner,” nudging you with the refrain “Another day is born, rise up, with the new light of dawn…”. Indeed it is. Special shout-out to Jahsonic, Aaron Byrd, and Gilles Peterson who influenced some of these selections. As always, the playlist can be found here. All available on itunes or Amazon or Bandcamp.
Two of my favorite tracks from 2012 are included on this installment,both from up-and-comers. One is from a soulfully eclectic northern Australian band called Hiatus Kaiyote (yes, thats how they spell it) called "Nakamarra". The other is the slow extended hip-hop opus "Sing About Me" by Compton's Kendrick Lamar, a young cat who single-handedly restored my faith in hip-hop this year as a place where creative, contemplative lyrics almost in a blues fashion can coexist alongside club bumping and grinding. Also here are Japan's United Future Orgnaization, Massive Attack, Aretha Franklin, Leela James, Mark de Clive Lowe + Nia Andrews, Chaka Khan. Plus special treats like Denzel Washington and Branford Marsalis together with a cut from Spike Lee's Mo Better Blues and Russell Brand singing "Pure Imagination", main song from the original Willie Wonka for a minute. Full playlist and other podcasts from me and others are at www.amalrec.com.
On this one, two very different versions of “God Bless the Child” are put on each end and multi-genre points are plotted in between, but things are still kept slow and easy. There’s an underplayed, inspirational track by The Gap Band, the almost operatic, ethereal to boom-bip electronica of DJ Shadow and I have to admit having fun moving from the country-blues “I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But Time” to the infectious pop-soul of TLC’s “Diggin’ on You”. And the remix of Shirley Bassey’s “Easy Thing to Do” has been a song I woke up to on many a day with a sly smile. Full playlist can be found at http://www.amalrec.com/p/playlists.html
Here, we take the Slo Get Up format but put it primarily through a strict Hip-Hop lens. That was the challenge, so to speak. There's low-bpm progressive hip-hop to instrumental covers of noted hip-hop songs (like the 2nd track by Miguel Atwood Ferguson + Carlos Nino, a beautiful orchestral interpretation of A Tribe Called Quest's "Find a Way"). Lineup includes known quantities like Common, Beastie Boys, Mos Def, and Robert Glasper as well as the slightly more obscure and sometimes forgotten lazy gems by Freestyle Fellowship, Basehead, Bahamadia, and Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. And new tracks from Kendrick Lamar and DJ Quik. And by the time all this slowly causes you to stir about your abode, the happy "Margarita" by Big Boi, Pharell, and (no pun intended)Sleepy Brown kicks in and the end to say its time to face the day with a smile. Regular listeners should know that there will be explicit lyrics now and again. Sorry. That's part of hip-hop.
In many ways, I've been working on this podcast for years. I've always been a big fan of not just doing a cover song, but taking it, twisting it, distilling it, deconstructing it sometimes, for a totally different experience and newfound appreciation. I hope this collection delivers in that regard. There are some interesting tributes here be it smoky jazz vocalist Cassandra Wilson's interpretation of a song by The Monkees, a hip-hop meets bossanova treatment of Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" by PPP or my favorite, Isaac Hayes' funk orchestral winding of the Burt Bacharach classic "Walk on By". There are so many more nuggets found in producing this one, that its hard to imagine there won't be a volume 2. See full lineup below or just close your eyes and not fuss too much about those kinds of details.
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Is this Love – Corinne Bailey Rae; performed earlier by Bob Marley
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Georgy Porgy – Brazillian Love Affair; performed earlier by Toto
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That’s All – Maiysha; performed earlier by Genesis
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Rock with You – Seu Jorge; performed earlier by Michael Jackson
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Last Train to Clarksville – Cassandra Wilson; performed earlier by The Monkees
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Walk on By – Isaac Hayes; performed earlier by Dionne Warwick
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Summertime – Bobby Womack; performed earlier by George Gershwin
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The Rain – Si-Se’; performed earlier by Oran “Juice” Jones
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The Way We Were – Willie Hutch; performed earlier by Barbra Streisand
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My Way (A Mi Manera) – Gipsy Kings; performed earlier by Frank Sinatra
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Heart of Glass – Nouvelle Vague; performed earlier by Blondie
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50 Ways to Leave Your Lover – Platinum Pied Pipers; performed earlier by Paul Simon
This is a follow-up to the successful PopWork USA/Rebuild the Dream collabo project featuring songs of struggle and beats that let you can get your march or rally on properly. This volume includes suggestions by online listeners and participants on the Rebuild the Dream website. From Steve Earle to the Temptations, Black Flag to Phil Ochs, M.IA. to N.E.R.D (see full playlist at www.popwork.org). For those of you with original songs or recent songs inspired by OWS, send in those MP3s. One special podcast will feature all of these genuine contributions that have streamed in over the last few weeks from songwriters and musicians.
PLAYLIST
Power to the People (excerpt) – John Lennon
Amerika V. 6.0 (The Best We Can Do) – Steve Earle
The Harder They Come – Jimmy Cliff
Pull Up the People – M.I.A.
Rise Above – Black Flag
Ball of Confusion – The Temptations
Soobax – K’naan
Lapdance – N.E.R.D.
Church fo the ATM (excerpt) – Chris Rock
Mr Greed – John Fogerty
Get Up Stand Up – Bob Marley
That’s What I Want to Hear - Phil Ochs
Open Letter – Living Colour
Our Song - Joe Henry
Bluestime in America – Michael Hill’s Bluesland
Who Will Survive in America – Kanye West/Gil Scott-Heron
Water No Get Enemy – Fela Kuti
Presented for our partners in crime at PopWork USA in conjunction with Rebuild the Dream as an offering to the 99% who need a beat when they march or lyric to speak to their struggle or hopes. Including a custom mash-up featuring noted economist Noam Chomsky and Pharrell, plus diverse acts from Aloe Blacc to Tom Morello to Chemical Brothers and even a rare track or two by pop stars about greed, this is a natural for PopWork's mission of talking about the importance of pop culture to amplify workers’ voices. Use this at your own Occupy moment or event, or blast it in your house or car to still be in that zone and spirit. To keep up with the latest Occupy news, go to Occupy Wall St, OccupyTogether, or on twitter, #ows
PLAYLIST
Mr. Chomsky, Meet Mr. Williams, aka "Noam in Tidewater" - Mash-Up by Wyatt
If I Were President - The Pharcyde
I Need A Dollar – Aloe Blacc
Once in a Lifetime – Talking Heads
Funky Boss – The Beastie Boys
Stand – Sly and the Family Stone
Wake Up Everybody - John Legend and The Roots with Common
Financial Leprosy – Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy
Money – Michael Jackson
Get Up, Get Involved, Get Into It – James Brown
I Shall Not Be Moved – Kenny Bobien
Revolution – Jack Beats
Galvanize – The Chemical Brothers
Power to the People – Public Enemy
This Land is Your Land – Tom Morello
What’s Going On? – Los Lobos
When Roshin and I got married September 17, a key element in the ceremony was a special mix to set the tone for the day lovingly laced together and handspun by DJ Jahsonic. He got to the essence of each track in quick fashion. Here, we let them linger on their own so attendees and other lovers can enjoy them to the fullest. Like all else on this website, we maintain an eclectic standard, jumping from Lenny Kravitz to Melody Gardot to Towa Tei, Platinum Pied Pipers, Cee-Lo, Little Dragon and classics by Al Green and Michael Jackson, among others. We also added cuts that were the sources for the great string duo that played at the wedding itself including a strings-only version of Kanye West's "The Good Life".
Starting with an acoustic remix of A Tribe Called Quest track, we follow with Glen Campbell, then a banjo-totin' Cee-Lo, before Spearhead slows down one of its own, a prior Disposable Heroes track, and British hip-hop soulstress of yore Neneh Cherry, plaintively calls out to the day. And like travelling through dimensions, rather than making hard turns, Japanese popster fashionistas Pizzicato Five lay out a groove as The Style Council, LTJ Bukem, Natalie Cole and more follow suit. Perhaps the most genre-skipping of all Slo Get Ups so far, but its as if they all belong together, wayward travellers, packed on a slow-moving train.
There's a little Bossa Nova in all of us as evidenced in this set. While this is not Brazilian explicitly, hence the name "Bossaesque", all of the artists clearly have been influenced by that magical place in the construction of these songs. And it also shows the dexterity of bossa nova rhythms, its common instruments, and references. Basia, Cassandra Wilson, Beck, Platinum Pied Pipers, India.Arie, Quincy Jones, Arto Lindsay, Vinx, Everything But the Girl, and more give a wink-wink and a hip sway to songs who must have cousins in Bahia, Rio, Sao Paulo and everywhere in between.
Refresh yourself with this eclectic ode to water for summer. From the opening lines declaring 'I am the ocean...' by Mia Doi Todd, Swedish post-jazz stars Koop beckon us to go "Beyond the Sun" before Electric Wire Hustle helps us plunge into "Waters." Gang Starr, Danger Mouse, John Frusciante, Nina Simone, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Otis Redding, J Boogie's Dubtronic Science and more go into the aquatic world as well, each in their own way with this podcast before Osulade closes it out.
This is a special one in that the guest DJ here -- my fantastic fiancee -- was one of the inspirations for The Slo Get Up in the first place. Now, she takes on the format and appropriate for July, its with a heavy nod to all things water. Oceans, rivers, submarines, wading, diving. Come on in, the water's fine.
This is the first in a series designed for easing into a weekend morning when you want a little music, a little bounce but not so overwhelming you can't enjoy a cup of coffee, read the Sunday paper, or still keep laying in bed. We start with a wonderful track by violinist Miguel Atwood Ferguson (he, of the "Suite for Ma Dukes" J Dilla tribute fame) and then move on with gospel by Aretha Franklin, Bebel Gilberto, Sweetback, Ben Harper and a Herbie Hancock/Tina Turner collabo on a Joni Mitchell song among other eclectic tidbits designed to bring a lift, but not a jarring jolt, to your morning.
In this installment, we give a slight nod to Paris by bookending the podcast with Charlie Parker's "April in Paris" and Grace Jones "La Vie En Rose". In between a multitude of gentle urgings for you to amble out of bed, gaze out the window, and contemplate the newness that is Spring. The inspirational soul bohemian vocals of Georgia Anne Muldrow, Sweden's Little Dragon, Louis Armstrong & Oliver Nelson with jazz classics, the wonderful Amel Larrieux, and Yoshinori Sunahara(with a bossa-electronica joint influenced by the global romantism of Pan Am in the 70s) all find comfort here among other tracks. Hope you will as well.
On this installment we start with the lovely Esperanza Spaulding doing her take on a centuries old poem by William Blake and then...Towa Tei puts a Bossanova twist on a Hall & Oates classic. Others in the lineup to wakeup include Bill Withers, Dionne Farris, afro-harpist Dorothy Ashby, Massive Attack, Matsi, Steely Dan, Jamie Cullum, a rare treat jazzy instrumental from The Beastie Boys, Al Jarreau and my man from many a gig off U Street in Washington, DC, W. Ellington Felton among others.
Hear earlier episodes at www.amalgamatedrecordings.blogspot.com.