The Birth of “Feel What I’m Feelin’”

My “Feel What I’m Feelin’” mix was born out of a labor of love. The records were selected and recorded in late 2005. The mix was officially released in 2006, but the inspiration behind the recording and the sounds you hear, date much further back…

In the mid 1990’s new hip-hop records weren’t hitting me like they used to, I immersed myself deep in the jazz crates that were fueling hip-hop producers of the early ‘90s era. At first, it was about finding the samples and original breaks in records that had previously been sampled- much of the CTI/KUDU Records catalog, alongside ‘70’s recordings from artists like Donald Byrd, Roy Ayers, Grant Green, Bobby Hutcherson, Lonnie Liston Smith, Bobbi Humphrey, and countless other artists.

From that starting point, I found refuge in the sounds of John Coltrane. There was so much being said in his music, yet without any words present in the majority of his work. Coltrane sang the blues.
Around the same time as I started to build my Coltrane crates, I met my mentor, friend, and legendary jazz musician (saxophone, trumpet and flute), Mr. Daniel Carter.

Having moved to New York City in the early 1970’s, Daniel was on a quest to find freedom in the music. He did so by playing with as many outfits as possible (bands as diverse as The Bad Brains to the Sun Ra Arkestra). To this day, he has never stopped chasing that spirit. A spirit similar to the one ‘Trane seemed to be chasing.

Daniel and I would build in sessions for hours at a time, discussing ‘Trane’s approach, quest for freedom and the discipline he had in his practice regimen. I learned of how many hours a day he would practice and write music. That was inspiration. You could hear the pain in his music, yet it was pure upliftment. I paid tribute to his legacy by including the tracks, “Coltrane” and “John Coltrane” by The Descendents of Mike and Phoebe and the Clifford Jordan Quartet, respectively on “Feel What I’m Feelin’”.

Music has always been the greatest therapy for me, so I felt the need to pass the gifts on with this first “official” release. “Feel What I’m Feelin’” highlights and presents the genius and beauty of the tunes you hear, yet weaves and blends them altogether, as I would any of my DJ sets. I did not want to simply play four bars of a song, isolate the sample and then move on. The music breathes and takes the listeners to different places and paints different colors and moods as the records unfold. I feel blessed for a mix like this to have been received by a worldwide audience.

The success of “Feel What I’m Feelin’” has lead the disc to become long out of print. It has traveled from my studio in Brooklyn, New York to places and spaces as far and wide as Tokyo, Japan and London, England. For weeks it ran in its entirety on ScannerFM, 100.5 in Barcelona.

I’ve received acknowledgements from living artists that I featured on the CD — Gary Bartz and Junior Mance both showed me love on the mix after it was presented to them by Clifford Jordan’s daughter, Ms. Jennifer Strong.

Now, it reaches you via podcast from the good folks @ Friend or Foe clothing. I hope the music leaves you feeling as good as it left me when I put it together.

On and On,
Dj Center

More on DJ Center at pushthefader.com.

Tracklisting 

1.  Thelonious Monk - Straight No Chaser - Thelonious Monk In Italy
2. Miles Davis - Blues By Five  - Cookin' With The Miles Davis Quintet
3. Thelonious Monk - Just You Just Me - The Unique
4. Thelonious Monk - Honeysuckle Rose- The Unique
5. John Coltrane - Straight Street - Coltrane
6. Miles Davis - I'll remember April - Blue Haze
7. Thelonious Monk - Liza (All The Clouds'll Roll Away) - The Unique

 
About the Friend or Foe Jam Session #1

When Your Friend or Foe thought it’d a good idea for me to do a jazz playlist for their site I thought that there were two ways to approach the mix.  I could choose 7 songs and sequence them and there you have it, or, I could attempt to merge jazz records to create the feeling of a experiencing a continuous live set.

Ears and daydreams bigger than my brain and reality, I choose to try to blend these jazz titles together.  I did, eventually, and that’s what you’ll enjoy when you press play, but on the way to this mix that features the music of Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, and Miles Davis, I re-read books about each of the artists while listening closely to more than 100 songs trying to find ways to segue between songs while respecting the integrity of musical structure prevalent within jazz compositions. While trying to imagine the mix I started to soak in the jazz vibe by constant listening, going to see live jazz at St. Nick’s Pub in my uptown Manhattan neighborhood, and watching documentaries and footage on the artists in my first Your Friend or Foe virtual jam session.  Attempting to merge the already perfect took a lot of thought with the foremost being, ‘if someone who is a Jazz aficionado hears this, would they be offended, or would they appreciate the effort?’

I hope this jazz mix is regarded as an offering of something that could possibly be an introduction to a different approach to musical creativity where instrument virtuosity, versatility, imagination, dexterity, improvisation and communication are the essential components.  For some, this Jazz fantasy of mine may be an introduction to the music of Monk, Coltrane, & Davis.

My Jazz fantasy?  Of the three featured artists, I’ve only seen Miles Davis live. While thinking about this mix, I wondered what it would’ve been like if Thelonious Monk was having his first show after his being banned from performing in New York by the cabaret police – he couldn’t perform in New York City from August 1951 to June 1957 because he wouldn’t testify against his friend and fellow musician Bud Powell who had been charged with possession of (planted, according to legend) narcotics. John Coltrane, a member of Thelonious’s come back on the scene (at The Five Spot!) band, has recently shaken off his rubber band around the bicep addiction, cold turkey, and tonight, for him, is also a return, a giant step back up to the stage.

No stranger to the heavy blue of the late nights of Jazz, Miles smiles.  He’s effervescent because two friends, two musicians with whom he enjoys mutually beneficial conversations, trumpet to saxophone to piano, are back to play New York, and the world, the music that’s been bubbling within them.  It is 1957 so Miles has been doing well and he wants to lay back, take it all in, and get a welcome dose of Monk & Trane.

He started feeling it! He had that big smile you get right before you bust out laughing, but still trying to be cool while he brewed thoughts of reuniting with Coltrane, wishing he hadn’t had to fire the ‘sweet tooth muthaf*cka’ a while back, and imagining the musical vision that would be “Milestones” (a record that he recorded with Coltrane in 1958).

The show begins and it’s all Thelonious Monk for a while as he waits for Coltrane to come out of the bathroom, where he is working through his harmonic phrasing one more time.  When Coltrane emerges and steps up onto the stage, commanding like Chuck D’s “BASS”, the first notes of his song “Straight Street” feel like a triumph. (“Straight Street” is a song that actually is on the first album that Coltrane recorded for Prestige Records after his conquering his addictions).

Miles joins his jazz brothers after Coltrane’s confirmation of walking tall again.  His selection is sentimental and very cool.  Miles wouldn’t be up there if Thelonious hadn’t been enticing and teasing him with his subtle inviting vamps, and because he enjoys it so much so naturally, he couldn’t resist the pull of the magic of Jazz’s collaborative spontaneity. Still, Miles’s mile long smile tells you that he’s happy to see Thelonious and Coltrane on the threshold of everlasting influence.

I was there.  On the left hand side, real close to the front, and right behind Sidney Poitier, Cicely Tyson, Harry Belafonte, and Lena Horne.

Just my imagination running away with me.  Enjoy the 37 minute Friend or Foe Jam Session #1.

Yours truly,
Qool DJ Marv