Twenty-nine tracks from a Los Angeles saxophonist and producer who is one of the most important connectors between jazz and hip-hop working today. Terrace Martin Terrace Martin is from South Central Los Angeles, the son of a jazz drummer and a singer, and trained seriously on saxophone at Locke High School — the same institution that produced Patrice Rushen and a long line of Los Angeles musicians. His most consequential work is with Kendrick Lamar . Martin was central to To Pimp a Butterfly , playing, producing and helping assemble the cast of jazz musicians — Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, Robert Glasper — that made that album what it is. It is difficult to overstate how much that record changed what mainstream rap could sound like. He also works constantly as a producer for West Coast rap, and his own records move fluidly between straight jazz, G-funk and soul. What to listen for The Dinner Party tracks — "Sleepless Nights" and...

Twenty tracks from a Chicago singer who is one of the most in-demand voices in rap and has never quite been given his own due. Jeremih Jeremy Felton is from Chicago and studied at the University of Illinois before "Birthday Sex" made him a star in 2009 — a record so immediately effective that it somewhat defined him for a decade. What that reputation obscures is how good a musician he is. Jeremih plays multiple instruments, writes and produces his own material, and has an unusually light, agile falsetto that he uses with real rhythmic sophistication — he sings around a beat rather than on it, which is why rappers want him. His 2015 album Late Nights and the earlier mixtape of the same name are held in genuinely high regard by people who follow R&B closely, and the MihTy project with Ty Dolla $ign is one of the most enjoyable records either has made. What to listen for "oui" is the best thing here and one of the loveliest R...

Twelve tracks from an album named after a hypergiant star. Olamide has been the most important figure in Nigerian rap for fifteen years, and he is still finding new things to do. UY Scuti, 2021 Olamide Adedeji is from Bariga, Lagos, and has had two careers running simultaneously. As an artist he is one of the most successful rappers in Nigerian history, and the leading figure in rapping in Yoruba rather than English — a choice that reshaped what the Nigerian mainstream sounded like. As a label head, his YBNL Nation has developed an extraordinary run of talent: Fireboy DML , Asake , Adekunle Gold , Lil Kesh and others. Very few artists anywhere can point to a comparable record as a talent developer while still releasing their own albums. UY Scuti takes its name from one of the largest known stars, and it is a deliberately relaxed, unhurried record — less concerned with hits than with mood. What to listen for "Rock" is the biggest and the most i...

Fourteen tracks from a New Zealand-born, Australian-raised, London-based multi-instrumentalist who makes some of the most quietly sophisticated soul music anywhere. Jordan Rakei Jordan Rakei was born in Tauranga, New Zealand, of Māori, Australian and European descent, grew up in Brisbane, and moved to London in 2015 — which turned out to be the right city for what he does. He is a genuine multi-instrumentalist who writes, plays, produces and mixes his own records, and his music sits at the meeting point of neo-soul, jazz and electronic production. The harmonic language is the distinguishing feature: Rakei's chord movement is closer to jazz than to anything on soul radio, and he sings in a light, slightly grainy tenor that sits comfortably inside it. He also records instrumental house music under the name Dan Kye , which appears on this playlist. What to listen for "Wildfire" and "Mind's Eye" are the two best entry points — both bui...

Forty-four tracks of soul from well below the radar. Volume twenty-six of a long series, and still mostly artists you will not have heard. Underground SoulFlow The subtitle is the brief. This is a set built almost entirely from the independent and internationally-sourced end of contemporary soul — artists with modest streaming numbers, small labels or no label, and production values that would not disgrace anything on a major. What it documents is a structural fact about music now: the gap between the quality of what is being made and the visibility it receives has never been wider. A mix like this is one of the few mechanisms that closes it. What to listen for Aaliyah's "Poison" with The Weeknd is the historical curiosity — a posthumous release built from unreleased material, and a genuinely contested one given the long dispute over her catalogue. Little Simz's "I See You" is the most significant name here — the north London ra...

Thirty tracks built around a voice most people have heard hundreds of times without knowing whose it is. Big Rube is the sound of the Dungeon Family thinking out loud. Big Rube Ruben Bailey is a founding member of Atlanta's Dungeon Family — the collective around Organized Noize that produced OutKast , Goodie Mob , Society of Soul and, through them, an enormous share of what Southern hip-hop became. His role is unusual and essential: he is the collective's poet. Across three decades, Big Rube has opened, closed and punctuated other people's albums with spoken-word pieces delivered in an enormous, deliberate bass voice — dense, allusive, frequently apocalyptic. If you have heard an OutKast or Goodie Mob album, you have heard him, whether or not you noticed. He is also a member of Society of Soul , the Dungeon Family's own group, whose Brainchild is a genuinely strange and excellent record. What to listen for OutKast's "SpottieOttieDopalisciou...

Eight twelve-inch mixes from a group that was assembled by a record label as a studio project and turned into one of the great dance-soul acts of its era. Shalamar Shalamar began as a fabrication. Dick Griffey and Soul Train's Don Cornelius created the name for a 1977 disco medley, and only afterwards assembled an actual group: Jody Watley and Jeffrey Daniel , both dancers from Soul Train , alongside singer Howard Hewett . What made it work was that all three were genuinely good. Hewett had a superb light tenor, Watley became a major solo artist, and Daniel was an extraordinary dancer — he is widely credited with teaching Michael Jackson the backslide that became the moonwalk. Signed to SOLAR Records and produced largely by Leon Sylvers III , they made records that sat exactly between disco, boogie and early electro, and they were enormously influential in Britain, where the jazz-funk and soul weekender scene held them in far higher regard than American radio ...

Eight remixes from a French DJ who has spent thirty years proving that the most radical thing you can do to a disco record is treat it with total respect. Dimitri From Paris Dimitri Yerasimos was born in Istanbul to Greek parents and raised in Paris, where he became a radio DJ before establishing himself as one of the most respected editors in dance music. His approach is specific and unusual. Where most remixers impose a new rhythm, Dimitri works like a restorer: he goes back to the original multitrack tapes where he can get them, extends the arrangement, brings up parts that were buried, and lets the record be more itself. His edits are frequently longer, warmer and more detailed than the originals, without ever sounding like a different song. That method has made him the go-to figure for reissue campaigns of the great disco catalogues, particularly the Chic Organization and Philadelphia International. What to listen for The CHIC material is the heart of it. "...

Eighty-five tracks from a producer who had, for roughly five years, the most recognisable sound in American pop. If it had that drum pattern, it was Darkchild. Rodney Jerkins Rodney Jerkins is from Pleasantville, New Jersey, the son of a pastor, and was producing professionally as a teenager — Teddy Riley signed him at fourteen. By his early twenties he was the most in-demand producer in the world. The Darkchild sound was instantly identifiable: stuttering, syncopated drum programming, hard synth stabs, and an arrangement that leaves sudden gaps where you expect continuity. It was tighter and more aggressive than what came before, and it defined the sound of R&B radio between roughly 1998 and 2003. He also produced across genres in a way most of his peers did not — the Spice Girls, Michael Jackson, Sam Smith and the Black Eyed Peas all appear here. What to listen for Destiny's Child's "Say My Name" is the landmark. Jerkins rebuilt a track the...

Seventy records by artists who had exactly one moment. The one-hit wonder is the most unfairly named category in music. In defence of the single moment The phrase carries a sneer it does not deserve. Most musicians never have a hit at all; having one is an achievement, and the records themselves are frequently more interesting than those by artists with longer runs — precisely because they were made without a formula to protect. What this selection makes clear is how varied the category is. It contains dance records that shaped whole genres, soul singles beloved by collectors, and pop songs that were inescapable for a summer. Several of these artists had substantial careers elsewhere and are only "one-hit" by the narrow measure of a particular chart. What to listen for Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love" is the most consequential record here by a long way. Made by Talking Heads' rhythm section on a break from the band, it has been sampled endless...

Thirty-three tracks from an artist who turned down major-label money, built his own label, and became one of the most influential voices in R&B anyway. Brent Faiyaz Christopher Brent Wood is from Columbia, Maryland, and came to attention through GoldLink's "Crew" in 2017 — a Grammy-nominated record on which his hook does most of the work. What he did next is the interesting part. Rather than signing the major deal available, he built Lost Kids as his own label and has released independently ever since, retaining ownership and control. He has been explicit that this was the point. His music is atmospheric, slow, and morally unresolved — songs about infidelity, avoidance and self-interest, sung without apology or framing. That refusal to be likeable is unusual in R&B and is a large part of why younger artists cite him constantly. What to listen for "Trust" and "Dead Man Walking" are the two that best demonstrate th...

Seventeen songs for a songwriter most listeners have never heard of, who wrote several records they can sing from memory. Andrea Martin died on 27 September 2021, aged forty-nine. Andrea Marin was a songwriter’s songwriter. Throughout the ’90s and 2000s she wrote songs for Monica, Toni Braxton, SWV, En Vogue, and more. Here are my favorite classic songs Martin wrote &/or produced. Andrea Martin (1972–2021) Andrea Martin belongs to a category the industry does not celebrate properly: the writer whose songs became other people's signatures. She was a fine singer with her own releases, and she was also one of the more reliable hitmakers of the late nineties and 2000s, working with Ivan Matias among others. Her catalogue includes material for En Vogue , Toni Braxton , SWV , Monica and Melanie Fiona . That is not a session career; that is a decade of American radio. She was a Grammy winner, and when she died at forty-nine the tributes came overwhelmingly...

Fifty tracks of soul from the part of the world map that rarely makes it onto American playlists. Volume twenty-five leans heavily, and correctly, British. The London axis What stands out in this volume is how much of it is British, and how little of that music gets heard internationally. The UK currently has a soul scene with more genuinely distinctive singers than it has infrastructure to promote, and a curated mix is one of the few ways it travels. The aesthetic is consistent: slow, jazz-inflected, harmonically ambitious, and produced with a lot of space. It descends from the British soul tradition that runs through Soul II Soul and Omar as much as from American R&B. What to listen for ENNY's "Peng Black Girls" with Amia Brave is the most significant record here — a south London rapper's meditation on colourism, beauty standards and self-image that became a genuine moment when Jorja Smith later appeared on a remix. Greentea Peng's "...

Fifty covers, and the through-line is nerve. Every artist here has taken on something they had no business touching and found a way through. What a cover is for A good cover is not a tribute; it is an argument. The interpreter has to find something in the song the original did not use, and the risk is total — if it fails, you have simply reminded everyone of a better record. What makes this collection work is that almost every selection takes on something canonical. These are not obscure songs being rescued; they are records people already love, being reopened. What to listen for D'Angelo's "Can't Hide Love" live at the Jazz Cafe in 1995 is the standout. The Earth, Wind & Fire song is already a masterclass in vocal arrangement, and hearing a twenty-one-year-old D'Angelo take it apart in front of a London audience is extraordinary. Alex Isley's "At Your Best (You Are Love)" carries real weight — the song is an Isley Brothers ...

Sixty-two slow jams selected by somebody who clearly knows exactly what he is doing. A guest playlist, and a superb one.   The art of the slow jam The slow jam is a discipline with rules. The tempo sits somewhere between 60 and 80 beats per minute. The arrangement leaves space. The vocal is close-miked and intimate rather than large. And the sequencing matters enormously — a well-built set holds one temperature for hours without ever becoming monotonous. What is assembled here is a working knowledge of that form across four decades, drawn heavily from the 1970s and 80s vocal-group tradition and the quiet storm radio format that grew out of it. What to listen for Con Funk Shun's "Love's Train" opens, which is the right call — it is one of the most beloved slow jams ever recorded and has had a second life through Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak's version. The Manhattans' "It Feels so Good to Be Loved so Bad" and The Intruders' "...

Thirty-six tracks chosen by somebody's father, and there is no better recommendation engine than that. Papa's mix A playlist inherited from a parent is a particular kind of document. It tells you what was on the radio in a house at a particular moment, and it preserves a set of tastes that no algorithm would ever assemble — because the criterion is memory rather than similarity. What is here is the American popular songbook as it sounded to an adult audience between roughly 1957 and 1975: orchestrated, melodic, sung by men with impeccable diction, and entirely unembarrassed about sentiment. What to listen for Johnny Mathis dominates, and rightly — "Chances Are," "Misty," "When Sunny Gets Blue" and "It's Not for Me to Say" are the core of a catalogue that defined romantic singing for a generation. "When Sunny Gets Blue" is the one that shows he was a genuine jazz singer. Andy Williams is the other pillar. ...

Thirty-eight tracks assembling the contemporary jazz canon as it is actually listened to rather than as critics file it. [spotify The essentials, honestly chosen Smooth jazz gets dismissed as a genre, and a selection like this is the best argument against the dismissal — not because it defends the format, but because it shows the range of musicianship inside it. There are serious jazz players here, gospel-trained saxophonists, and a couple of records that would sit comfortably on any contemporary jazz list. The lineage runs clearly from Grover Washington Jr. and George Benson in the 1970s through the radio format's peak in the 1990s to the present. What to listen for George Benson's "Breezin'" opens, which is correct — the 1976 album was the first jazz record to go platinum and effectively created the commercial category. Robert Glasper's "Cold" is the modern intrusion and the best track here by some distance. Glasper is a jazz p...

Forty tracks from the two men who built Philadelphia into a city that could compete with Motown, and who put a political conscience inside a dance record. Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff met in a Philadelphia elevator in the early 1960s. By 1971 they had founded Philadelphia International Records , and over the following decade they wrote and produced a body of work that rivals anything in American popular music. The sound — lush strings, a full horn section, immaculate arrangements by Thom Bell and Bobby Martin , and the house band MFSB — became known as the Philly sound, and it is the direct bridge between 1960s soul and disco. What distinguished them from their competitors was content. Gamble in particular insisted on records about work, family, racism and collective responsibility, delivered inside music designed for the radio and the dancefloor. "Wake Up Everybody" and "Love Train" are protest songs you can d...

Fifty-two tracks catching the exact moment when African pop stopped needing to be introduced to anybody. Volume six. The crossover years What this volume documents is a transition. Earlier editions of a series like this were doing discovery work; by this point the artists involved were charting internationally, appearing on American records, and being sought out rather than sought. The mix holds the chill-out brief while taking in Nigerian pop, South African house, amapiano, and the British Afro-fusion scene, which by this stage were effectively one industry with several postcodes. What to listen for Lojay and Sarz appear twice — "LV N ATTN" with Wizkid and "Monalisa" — and the LV N ATTN EP is one of the best Nigerian projects of its year. Sarz's production is the sparsest thing on this list and the most distinctive. Jorja Smith and GuiltyBeatz's "All of This" is the clearest illustration of the London–Accra connectio...