Herb Sundays 38: Marcus J. Moore

The acclaimed music journalist shares a playlist celebrating women in experimental music.

Herb Sundays 38: Marcus J. Moore

Apple Music / Spotify / Tidal. Art by Michael Cina.

“This playlist is meant to celebrate women in experimental music. Though some of the tracks are traditional, the artists in question — from Roberta Flack and Alice Coltrane to KeiyaA and Demae — add subtle creative wrinkles to the mix, giving it a unique flourish.”

Marcus J. Moore is a music journalist, editor, curator, pundit, A&R, music supervisor, and author of The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America. He’s working on his next book, High and Rising, a cultural biography of Herb Gods De La Soul, to be published by HarperCollins.

Moore has been a contributing writer with The Nation and a contributing editor with Bandcamp Daily. His coverage of soul, jazz, rap, and rock can be found in The New York Times, Pitchfork, TIME, Entertainment Weekly, GQ, The Washington Post, NPR, Rolling Stone, and The Atlantic, among other outlets. He’s also written extensive liner notes for albums by Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis, among others, and bios for Chance The Rapper, Erykah Badu, and Jhené Aiko, to name a few.

Ever the cratedigger, he compiles playlists for local restaurants, bars, coworking spaces, and cafés, and has been known to deejay in Brooklyn, East Africa, and the Washington, D.C. area. In 2020, he released his own album, a compilation of obscure jazz and Black Liberation soul, for indie label Paxico Records.

I really first consciously connected with his work with his piece about cratedigging in the NYT and now make a point to seek out anything he writes. I had always hoped to connect with Mr. Moore and was able to in earnest thanks to my colleague Alexandra Berenson.

His newsletter, The Liner Notes is a great launchpad which time travels through the history of Mr. Moore’s influences much like this playlist you have hopefully started by now. Inside we are spoiled in good taste, finding cuts from Kadhja Bonet, Ghostly fam member Ouri, modern royalty L’Rain (Herb Sundays 18), and legends like Minnie Riperton and Nikki Giovanni. All of it, essential.