This mixtape is quite different from the mixtapes of the past, mainly because it literally IS a mixtape of the past! ... haha ... In my Montevallo days, I used to obsess over the vinyl jazz section of their library ... not that it was very extensive or anything ... in fact, I checked the same records out over and over and over to the point where I think for a couple of years I was the only person who ever checked them out ... haha! Anyway, this is when I discovered the indescribable beauty of the music of Duke Ellington ...
Oddly enough, for a long time I would only listen to his music whenever it rained and stormed ... I can never explain why ... it just seemed (and seems) to fit somehow ... the composition I played by him the most when it rained is a thing called "Black, Brown & Beige" ... That piece ALWAYS makes me think of storm clouds gathering, lightning flashing ... there's even a part (at the start of "Come Sunday") where you can "hear" the raindrops start to plip and plop onto the ground ... haha ... ("Black, Brown & Beige", as a composition consists of songs 1 through 4) ... so at some point, I taped these library records and made myself a "rain music" tape, which was played religiously during every shower or storm that cropped up, literally for years and years ...
So, in that respect, here I have recreated "side 1" of that cassette tape, adding a slight "backdrop" of thunder and rain and wind ... on this side, all of the songs are by Duke Ellington, except for 2 slightly creepy poems by Carl Sandburg (his voice has always been sort of haunting to me) ... side 2 will be next week, and that contains a variety of library jazz records, along with this crazy speaking-in-tongues bit of random A.M. radio I captured!
I decided to recreate the mixtape, not only for preservation's sake, but also because this month it has rained SOOOOO much and I guess I just wanted to, in some way or other, incapsulate these days since I am indeed a huge fan of rain and thunderstorms...
You can download side 1 RIGHT HERE.
And this is side 2 to that way old mixtape I made from Jazz records from the Montevallo library ... this side, to me, makes me think more of "after the rain" and the wet landscape and smells of post-thunderstormness ... so i didn't add rain and thunder sounds this time around ...
You may download side 2 HERE.
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