It’s hard to do, see or hear anything these recent days without framing it within the context of Covid-19 and the unknown horizon ahead. And while this playlist was made before we were shut down here in Los Angeles, I guess it has a bit of a warm, ambient and optimistic feel that could be especially welcome right now. Sam Gendel’s music was the impetus for this month's Global Ear, which branches out to cover Gendel’s collaborators, friends, label mates and some of the other jazz, ambient or beat driven music being made and played on the northeast side of Los Angeles lately. Virus or not – the sound of this music is firmly rooted in our present moment.

Sam Gendel
“Afro Blue”
From Satin Doll
(Nonesuch)

A jazz standard popularised by John Coltrane. This version was recorded live, with Gendel playing out a melody that feels just barely reminiscent enough of Coltrane’s to signal back to the past, while Philippe Melanson’s percussion was based on the rapping cadence of someone the trio had seen in a video on the Instagram account @catatonicyouths.

Sam Wilkes
“Sivaya”
From Live On The Green
(Leaving)

From Wilkes’s experimental live album On The Green, recorded in north east Los Angeles at the Highland Park Ebell Club on 15 November 2018. Sam Gendel on alto saxophone, Jacob Mann on Roland Juno 106 and Korg Kronos, Christian Euman on drums, and Adam Ratner and Brian Green on electric guitar.

Ana Roxanne
“Slowness”
From ~~~
(Leaving)

SFV Acid
“Always (LA Hardcrew Mix)”
From ResedaVill
(BAKK)

Sam Wilkes
“Welcome”
From WILKES
(Leaving)

Featuring Gendel on Saxophone, from Wilkes’s solo record released in 2018.

Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad featuring Doug Carn
“Down Deep”
From Jazz Is Dead 001
(Jazz Is Dead)

Younge and Shaheed Muhammad (A Tribe Called Quest) have just released a compilation of collaborations with some of the legendary musicians who have participated in their JAZZ IS DEAD residency at Highland Park’s Lodge Room.

Zeroh
“4D”
From BLQLYTE
(Leaving)

From the Los Angeles based artist’s forthcoming release BLQLYTE.

Mongo Santamaria
“Afro Blue”
From Mongo
(Fantasy)

First recorded by the Cuban percussionist at the Sunset Auditorium in Carmel California on 20 April 1959.

Sam Gendel & Sam Wilkes
“Greetings To Idris”
From Music For Saxofone And Bass Guitar
(Leaving)

Gendel’s and Wilkes’s take on the Pharoah Sanders song.

Sam Gendel
“Stardust”
From Satin Doll
(Nonesuch)

Via Hoagy Carmichael, Gerry Mulligan, Lester Young et al, “the music of the years gone by” for 2020.

Ry Cooder
“I Think It’s Going To Work Out Fine”
From Bop Till You Drop
(Warner Bros)

I didn’t get to say it in the Global Ear piece, but Gendel is part of Cooder’s current band, along with Cooder's son Joachim on drums. This song is from Cooder’s 1979 album Bop Till You Drop. The title may be too generous a platitude for our present condition, but the music can’t hurt.

Read Michael Schmelling's full Global Ear Los Angeles report in The Wire 434. Wire subscribers can access it via the digital archive.