Herb Sundays 79: Herb Sundays Presents... Jazz (Michael Cina)
Artist and designer Michael Cina takes us on a "101 journey into a quintessential era of jazz spanning from the ‘50s to the late ‘60s."
Herb Sundays 79: Herb Sundays Presents… Jazz.
Apple / Spotify / Tidal / Amazon
Curation and Art by Michael Cina
A new entry today in the “The Herb Sundays Presents…” series of playlists, focusing on deeper genre studies. Our last one was from Herb Sundays artist/designer-in-residence Michael Cina (on Easy Listening) and today is the same with a focused dive into the ‘50s and ‘60s era of his favorite genre, Jazz.
Cina (pronounced chee-na) is an artist and designer (with a solid Substack too) that I’ve had the pleasure to work with for over a decade now on various projects and has the best Jazz record collection (see below for a tiny snapshot) of anyone I know. Cina has always been a fount of knowledge for me on the genre so I was amused to find that Cina’s entry into Jazz was similar to mine, from sampling, which is a good reminder that technology is an important part of musical innovation, both looking forwards and backward.
As we near 100 Herbs, I really look forward to working on the covers each week with Michael and he always connects. There’s never a weak attempt, which is wild, so it’s great to hear some of his audio fuel for the journey.
Here’s Michael on his mix. Enjoy….
“For me, the greatest art form is music and Jazz is my favorite style of music, so hopefully this one connects. This is a 101 journey into a quintessential era of jazz spanning from the ‘50s to the late ‘60s. Anything I write will fall short of what is true about this art form full of emotional depth, creativity, and mastery of a skill few artists will ever touch.
I got into jazz through an unlikely avenue when I was in college in ‘94. I was throwing a small party and was DJing a House record that sampled Herbie Hancock’s “Chameleon” and a guy goes running out to his car and comes back with a cassette of the original and says “You have to play this next.” This moment changed my life. This jazz/funk/fusion/cosmic sound vibrated to my inner core.
From then on, I was forever digging in the jazz bins, leading me to drive around the Midwest and eventually travel the world for unique albums. There is always something new to discover and I am a completist on artists that I like (Herbie was my first ‘full house’ collection and then Coltrane…) eventually I would move on to buying labels, like Nimbus West, Black Jazz, ECM, etc.
I would classify this playlist as ‘traditional jazz with a piano focus’ starting in the ‘50s and moving into the ‘60s. I had avoided the ‘50s for a long time even though I had records from Mary Lou Williams, Monk, etc. in my collection. It wasn’t until I pondered “What did all these people that I love listen to?” That question got me into a new realm of music and opened up even more worlds from there.
I tried to keep this list as short as possible (whittled from 10 hours originally), primarily focusing on ‘my traditional jazz hits’ though there are other lanes to explore like Latin, Avant, Spiritual, etc. I am heavy into what I call “folk-inspired,” Cool, and Modal jazz, so you will hear a decent amount of that. I have stories around each one of these tracks, just like good friends, and could ramble on for ages… enjoy.” - MC
From The Field:
If wanting to stay in Jazz mode, Marcus J. Moore, who contributed Herb Sundays 38, has been helming some of the better NY Times’ “5 Minutes That Will Make You Love…“ series including a new one on Herbie Hancock. Definitely check the Sun Ra and Jazz Piano entries too.
Writer Hua Hsu (Herb 13) takes over the rock solid Drake’s Radio series this week in his whimsical style. While there, also look for Secretly Group VP of A&R Jon Coombs on his Dave Attel-style nite moves too.
On the NTS Radio front, Upsammy is celebrating a great new album, and the most recent episode of her marine layer ambient/experimental show, Pacing The Platform is a good one. Also, legendary avant-ambient/proto-folktronica duo Woo get a retrospective mix by Palto Flat’s Jacob Gorchov, who is reissuing their classic Into The Heart Of Love.