mama!milk is a Kyoto based jazz group with two key members Yuko Ikoma (生駒祐子) on accordion and Kosuke Shimizu (清水恒輔) on contrabass. Their new album Fragrance of Notes, released in Japan in Aug 2008, was selected as one of the 5 “Jazz album of the year” at Gilles Peterson Worldwide Award ‘09 (BBC Radio 1).

Just bought the CD today. Amazing stuff.

Link: mama!milk on MySpace

==Playlist 2009.02.23: mama!milk==

01 Rosa Moschata
02 Avant Fermentation
03 Antique Gold
04 Pale Anise
05 Anise
06 Intermezzo OP 32
07 Kujaku
08 Hourglass
09 Mano Seca
10 Rosa Mundi
11 Smokey Dawn
12 The Moon
13 Two Ripples
14 Sometime Sweet
15 Waltz, Waltz

Remembering James Dewitt Yancey, aka J Dilla / Jay Dee (Feb. 7, 1974 – Feb. 10, 2006).

Image from Deviationmusic.net

==Playlist 2009.02.10: J Dilla==

01 JLJ Intro - Jay Loves Japan
02 Walkinonit - Donuts
03 Crushin’ (Yeeeeaah!) - Ruff Draft
04 Anti-American Graffiti - Donuts
05 Two Can Win - Donuts
06 Baby (feat Madlib & Guilty Simpson) - The Shining
07 So Far To Go (fet Common & D’Angello) - The Shining
08 The Official - JAYLIB
09 The Mission - JAYLIB
10 Let’t Take It Back - Ruff Draft
11 The Clapper - Welcome 2 Detroit
12 Featuring Phat Kat - Welcome 2 Detroit
13 Body Movin (feat J Rocc & Karriem Riggins) - The Shining
14 Won’t Do - The Shining
15 Don’t Cry - Ruff Draft
16 One - Welcome 2 Detroit

Since his international debut album New Awakening in 2003, Japanese beat maker DJ Mitsu the Beats has been collaborating with big name artists such as Little Brother, Kev Brown, Dwele, Lyrics Born, Rich Madina in the HipHop scene and received worldwide recognition and supports from producers like DJ Spinna, Pete Rock and BBC Radio1’s Gilles Peterson. Selected by URB Magazine in 2004 as the only Japanese in “NEXT100″ DJ list.

Here are some of his early remixes, still sound refreshing today.

Image from DJ Mitsu the Beats MySapce Page

==Playlist 2008.08.18: DJ Mitsu the Beats Remix Serie==

01 Intro/Get Money (DJ Day/Slum Village) - Summer Of Serato: Special Live Mix
02 Do Right (feat Rich Medina) - New Awakening Remixes Part 4
03 Ain’t Right (Iverse/RJD2 & Lyrics Born) - Explosive
04 So Ma Theme - Sound Manuevers
05 I Don’t Know (Steppah Huntah) - Things About Us EP
06 Marinheiro So (Frankie valentine) - Marinheiro So
07 After Midnight - After Midnight (7″)
08 Take Notice - Take Notice (7″)
09 Make It Better (Lone Catalysts) - Square Binizz
10 Negative Ion (Sa Ra remix) - New Awakening Remixes Part 4

Starting with the summer classic “Everybody Loves The Sunshine” from Roy Ayers and followed by tracks from the “First Lady of the Flute” Bobbi Humphrey, Mizells & Freddie Perren, this is just a small teaser of the incredibly rich genre of 60’s & 70’s Soul / Jazz / Funk music that I have been collecting in the past few years. Check it out.

Image from Amazon.com - Destination Motherland, Roy Ayers

==Playlist 2008.08.14: Roy Ayers, Bobbi Humphrey and the Mizells==

01 Everybody Loves The Sunshine - Roy Ayers
02 Is This All? - Bobbi Humphrey
03 Lil’s Paradise - Roy Ayers
04 Coffy Sauna - Roy Ayers
05 Funk In The Hole - Roy Ayers
06 Everybody - Roy Ayers
07 Where Are We Going? - Mizells & Freddie Perren
08 Harlem River Drive - Bobbi Humphrey
09 Keep On Walking - Roy Ayers
10 We Live In Brooklyn, Baby - Roy Ayers

Download XSPF Playlist

Rocksteady sound is melodic, romantic and psychedelic at its best. With Alton Ellis’s magical voice, the classy ska swing at a lower speed is simply irresistible.

-Image(I’m Still in Love with You) from Amazon.com

==Playlist 2008.07.16: Alton Ellis and Rocksteady ==

01 It Hurts Me So - Reggae Chronicles
02 Harder & Harder - The Legendary Alton Ellis
03 I’ll Be Waiting - ELLIS, Alton feat Hortense Ellis
04 You Are Mine - The Hudson Affair
05 Rock Steady - Alton Ellis & The Flames - Trojan Selecta Vol 6
06 This Feeling Of Love - The Best of Alton Ellis
07 La La Means I Love You - Reggae Chronicles
08 Black On Black - Hail Jimaica
09 I’m Still In Love With You - ELLIS, Alton feat Hortense Ellis
10 Sun Of Man - Sun of Man
11 Since I Fell For You - The Legendary Alton Ellis
12 Why Birds Follow Spring - The Birth Of Trojan
13 Blackman’s Pride - The Legendary Alton Ellis

Download XSPF Playlist

Link: Alton Ellis on Wikipedia

As a music lover, I’ve always wanted to see an online music service that provides users a functionality to create personal playlists that can be easily shared on the Internet. Like a mixtape concept for example. Users can send emails to friends with an RSS-like attachment that launches the music player with instant streaming samples, or post it to any social networking sites and then let the friends to make purchase decisions in a per song basis.

Here it is, my long-time favorite music store juno.co.uk just launched a new feature that allows anyone to create a playlist and distribute it online using the Juno Player via XSPF (XML Shareable Playlist Format). The interface isn’t perfect yet, but they have such a great music selection that I could start a weekly DJ podcast just by playing off samples with no need to host the actual mp3, and, well, not breaking the law, too.

==Playlist 2008.07.05: Nu Jazz, R&B, Funk and Broken Beat Session==

Download M3U Playlist | Download XSPF Playlist

DJ MITSU THE BEATS - One More Roses (Sho Chiku Bai Japan)
COBBLESTONE JAZZ - 23 Seconds (K7)
REPLIFE - The Unclosed Mind (Futuristica Music)
ROY AYERS - Stoned Soul Picnic (Warner Jazz)
MARCO DI MARCO TRIO feat JACKY SAMSON - Un Auntunno A Parigi (Arision)
STATELESS - Art Of No State (Freerange)
BLAZE - Lovelee Dae: The Final Chapter (Playhouse)
SKEG & ROB LIFE - Dirtybeatbreakinfunkandhiphop (Breakin’ Bread)
LITTLE DRAGON - Little Dragon (Peacefrog)