Monday Mix (03/05/21)
This is a post to recognise the 6-hour mix Theo Parrish recorded for NTS’s 10th anniversary celebrations, broadcast on 23 April 2021.
Theo Parrish – NTS Sound Signature Takeover
Nicole Misha: So what was the moment that something off the label [Black Jazz] truly hit you in a way you were able to receive at the time?
Theo Parrish: It was another moment that I heard Doug Carn’s Higher Ground. I was driving from Detroit to Cleveland at the time. And I was listening to a mix cd and I don’t remember who the mix cd was from. But it was time in my life where I was struggling with whether or not I was gonna continue doing music and continue djing. I was listening and all of a sudden the mix stopped, and then this like weird, what I thought was like a proto-techno kinda jam came on. Cuz the beginning of it goes “durr duh durr dah durr,” and all of a sudden the drop hit and “… duh…hiiiggheerr groounndd” and it was so unexpected considering the mix, and how fast I was driving, and the things I was going through personally and emotionally. That when it hit I just started bawling, just crying. Cause it was like, everything that I thought I was, I wasn’t. And everything I wanted to become, I felt like I couldn’t be. And this song was just giving me the bravery to do it, and the bravery move forward. Cause you got hope in there. And this was me totally disregarding the lyrics. This is me just hearing. Cause the first time I heard it I was really wasn’t able to follow everything that they’re saying informationally. But the chorus, “higher ground.” Keep coming back. Keep steppin. Keep moving forward. Keep on. Basically the age old thing, that so many Black artists and children of the diaspora, that we put in our music, which is an old trope if you look at it from the outside of the culture. But it’s a necessary element that all of our expression kind of requires. And that’s continuing. Because all of us are limited by being here. And that’s probably one of the most universal things about that song in particular. That I think it’s one of those thing that every single person, every single child of the diaspora needs to hear. Now not every person needs to hear that cuz they’re not going to understand it in the context of how it was created because they simply are not subject to those pressures, and will never be. Even if they can empathize or be knowledgable. What has to be appreciated and is often debated, and what in my opinion has made Europeans and other white people upset is the fact that a lot of music we create is because of the pain that’s at the hands of those very people and their ancestors. That’s the ongoing paradox of appreciating quote unquote conscious music. Because we don’t put the quotes; those quote aren’t ours. We don’t apply quotes. We can’t, we don’t have the distance or the comfort to make something kitschy. To quote something or to call something a something because it’s too critical a tale. I’m trying to make sure I teach my children how to survive in this wilderness. And it’s not just the American wilderness. They’re going to be subject to bullshit wherever they go. And so those kinds of pressures aren’t shared. And well-meaning people other than Black people who want to help music along have to understand this shit. That as much as you want to be included in what this is as a cultural definer, as a cultural strengthener, as a vitamin almost. You don’t have the deficiencies to even absorb all the nutrients inside of it. It’s as if the way history and the way the world has worked has created the conditions that made that vitamin necessary. And Doug and Jean Carn are that medicine.
– Nicole Misha interviews Theo Parrish in 2019 (link)
For all the love you give unselfishly
This is for you
For the way that you give sacrificially
This is for youI see you brother
I see you going to work every day
I see you out here trying to make a way
Trying to hold everything and everybody together
Trying to keep us from killing one another
Trying to get us to hold up each other
I see you brotherKeep on running
Keep on pushing
Keep on rising
Keep on living
Keep on loving
Keep on fightingThis is for you
Don’t ever stop
I know it might get hard sometimes
But remember God is on your side
I know it might get down and low
But catch a good thing and don’t let goKeep on keeping on
This one’s for you
Theo Parrish – This Is For You (with Maurissa Rose) (2019/NTS Sound Signature Takeover)
[Verse 1: Quasimoto & Madlib]
Yo I be getting lit, sitting back listening to Sun Ra
Early George Benson on down to Hampton Hawes
Steve Kuhn, George Cables on the Fender Rhodes
Cedar Walton and Herbie Hancock drop the heavy load
Gene Harris and the Three Sounds for soul/jazz listeners
Bobby Hutcherson, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers
Horace Silver (Bill Evans) to Terry Gibbs on the vibe
Gary Burton and album archives
Like Donald Byrd, George Duke and Lee Morgan
Shirley Scott, Groove Holmes and Jimmy Smith up on the organ
Gene Russell, the Art Ensemble of Chicago
Innovators like Michael White push out the Cal Tjader
Classic shit like Weather Report or Max Roach
Laid back like Freddie Hubbard trumpet notes
Cannonball Adderley, Eddie Harris, Milt Jackson
Like Ron Carter's basslines will beat you like a backspin
[Interlude]
Yeah like a backspin, we got the jazz my man
[Verse 2: Quasimoto & Madlib]
Yo, who's got skills like Rahsaan Roland Kirk or conduct like William Fisher
Go to work with the swisher
Bumpin' John Coltrane up in my headphones
Gary Bartz, Mister Rub produce Lovetones
Even Kool and the Gang got jazz for that ass
Modern Jazz Quartet always got the A class
Johnny Hammond met Carl Saunders
Paul Bley, Thelonious Monk and Norman Connors
Albert Ayler, John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner
Dizzy Gillespieis presented by Don Sebesky
I be cranking mad jazz, got mad stacks of cool-out
You know we pull the smoke tool out
I give props to Bluenote and Black Jazz
Impulse, CTI records and Plusga
Verve to Milestone, Atlantic and Muse
There's plenty more that I could name but y’all won't put them to use
[Outro]
Anyway, I love jazz my man
We got the jazz, we got the jazz my man
(David Sanborn)
Ha ha....
...universe...
Freedom throughout the universe!...
Quasimoto - Jazz Cats Pt. 1 (2000/NTS Sound Signature Takeover)
They say that heaven is 10 zillion light years away
And just the pure at heart will walk her righteous streets someday
They say that heaven is 10 zillion light years away
But if there is a God, we need Him now
Stevie Wonder – Heaven Is 10 Zillion Light Years Away (1974/NTS Sound Signature Takeover)
I’m hoping that at some point during this, after you’ve had a musical ride with me, that you take a moment. Consider the troubles that you have, and consider that you’re lucky to have them. Even if it doesn’t affect you demographically, you should seriously consider the fact that there’s an urgency that should be lived, in respect for those that have been taken from us early under the guise of ‘serve and protect’.
So, let’s survive together, but let’s remember them together as well. Let’s not forget how we treat each other when the music’s playing, and how things change when the lights come on and we all go back to the rest of our lives. Let’s go back with a little more urgency and care for the fellow man. Let’s give a damn a little bit. And if we can do a little bit of that, we got a better place.
– Theo Parrish speaking at the end of his NTS Sound Signature Takeover
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