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My heart is a kingdom
Here is a whole lot of pleasant songs. Too pleasant? You may have a point. Hey, view the video for Black Swan, it's the best video except Road to Nowhere ever. I don't know, man, youtube it. Hey, check out that big three part song that occupies almost a quarter of this mix's running time, "Black Saint and Sinner Lady", performed by the Mingus Big Band. I know, it's awesome and a half. Also look into "Invisible Woman," from the same album (Tonight at Noon), but in this case with music by the less athletic and free-spirited, more tonal and cerebral Charles Mingus Orchestra, with lyrics and singing by Elvis Costello. That was going to be on this mix in stead or as well as, but got cut.

Class, What is the most important thing. The most important thing is that every mix has character, and that every mix is different in character. If there is no personality, if there is no color, then the mix fails, the songs fall apart, they lack that crucial sense of belonging to a framework, of having that import. Usually, mixes I consider successful in this regard are achieved at the cost of discarding the very songs that I most want to share, that drive the initial creation of the mix. (The failures are achieved by refusing to let go of those songs.) In this way, the soul of the successful mix is free of its creator's ego. It has clawed out of his clutches, into a place he is not entirely comfortable with: but maybe, it has brought him along. And in this way, with making mixes I do not document my tastes, I evolve them, and so we see new forms and themes gestate and take hold from one mix to another: jazz, particularly, has swayed July and September. And then the challenge is again: make two jazz-heavy mixes, different in character.

"interlude" contains audio from: "Hang on to Me", by Fred and Adele Astaire; and "Tito", by Nudge, pitch-adjusted. "epilogue" contains audio from "Late Marriage," a really great movie by Dover Koshashvili; and "Veruschka", by Ennio Morricone, both played backwards.

Front/Back Cover images from Pakistani members of the Sind Muslim Women's National Guard, photos by Margaret Bourke-White, 1947.


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