Here’s a sampler from the most recent album!
Also available from your favorite shop – iTunes | Amazon | CD Baby
The best thing about creating music is that even when remuneration is slim, you can still give in abundance to help causes you support. This weekend there are two areas where I’m offering my support and encourage you to do so.
Last Wednesday I met a writer, Marc Goldsmith, who’s doing a 365 day music blog at the Hammer Museum after a program on LA, and Passing Strange with Stew and Heidi of The Negro Problem. Sunday morning he reviewed my album. LA is really made up of people who do things and don’t just talk about it! Check out the full review here: http://bit.ly/tSbfNf.
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We’ve gone worldwide! Everything about this album has been possible through community support, so please go by these major retailers to leave a review. I really appreciate your continued support in making this album a success.
You can buy the album there or [cref 2696 straight from me] (of course I make more [cref 2696 here]). But the digital booklet is only available [cref 2696 here] and is included with your download from [cref 2696 jasonluckett.com].
-->I wrote this a few months ago and bashed it out an hour ago in my studio. Just a quick guitar voice demo to hopefully inspire you to remember to vote and continue to act.
“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”
I heard that said out on campaign
We believed it
Tried to be it
Now I just hear us complain
Every little thing your heart desires
Every little thing that your heart desires
Starts with one step followed by the next
Door to door we called them out
We gave one man most of the clout
He is one man
We are many
The peoples power’s not in doubt
Every little thing your heart desires
Every little thing that your heart desires
Starts with one step followed by the next
Every little thing your heart desires
Every little thing that your heart desires
Starts with one step, don’t neglect the rest
It’s easy to think one season brings the change
(That) one nation or one man can get it done
(But) c’mon life ain’t easy
You’ve got more brains than that
It’s time we remember how to act
We are the ones we are waiting on
We did it before, let’s do it again
The tea ain’t gospel
The dream is possible
(For) health and dignity
Every woman
Every man
I laugh at egotism
Every man has many guides
The more the better
We’re better together
I hope you succeed
Don’t you wish the same for me?
Hold up, hold up, there are places where
I really hope you won’t succeed
I want no success with war
I want no successful exclusion
My energy’s in peace
My energy’s in love and fusion
(c) 2010 Jason Luckett / Lucky Masala Head
[wpaudio url=”http://groovyacousticsoul.com/mp3s/mMix_mp3s/10_A_Big_Picture_(Come_By_Here).mp3″ text=”Jason Luckett – Come By Here”]
come by here we are holding hands
some say it’s outrageous but we do what we can
people are laughing and so am I
this is my kind of day light
leaves are falling
songs are rising
pacific ocean on the horizon
next year by Christmas
can we end all wars?
Mideast midnight twilights?
every man sing what you can
young boys in knee pants
women in pantsuits
shy catholic school girls
Pakistan’s Hindus
join this band stepping to yes we can can
Ahmad and Krishna
Siddhartha and Jesus
the list could go on
this is the big picture
you could be locked in two feet of snow
somewhere it’s summer
here hot winds blow
trial by fire,
or we could just try
this is my kind of good fight
glory on high
assalamu alaikum
shalom chaverim
we’ve chances, let’s take ’em
wish peace on earth
joy to the world
this is our time
join with the band
and sing what you can
every woman
every man…
Last night I had the privilege to play a song on “Beautiful Struggle” on KPFK here in Los Angeles. The theme of the evening was education and the cutbacks we’re facing in California. For more info on the March 4th Strike, go to: http://defendcapubliceducation.wordpress.com/
Co-host, Michael Datcher, had prompted me that the show would be on education issues. And just a few days earlier I’d performed with Anne Feeney at an activist retirement community on the campus of UCBerkeley. One of the women after the show told me how my song, “Jackson, MS,” captured issues that aren’t being taught in schools much these days. So I pulled that one out for the show.
I heard this today.
“One thing is to fall in love with a woman. Another thing is to fall in love with life. A woman might leave you. Life would never leave you. Because you can drop the body, but you can come back again, and you’re still… Life is eternal, forever. So, you know, to me, Sketches of Spain is that kind of eternal romance.”
The song “Trumpet Guitars” (from [cref mmix-2009-the-new-album mMix]) was originally called, “Post Sketches of Spain.” I’d had a beautiful first evening with a singer/actress. We played standards read from my first “Real Book” and laughed ourselves silly. (Yes, I know, not so rock ‘n’ rock.) Then we put on that album, Sketches of Spain, with Miles’ trumpet playing the guitar lines from Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez.” The rest is in the song. The woman is no longer in my life, but the album is eternal.
You can hear “Trumpet Guitars” using the MMIX Player in the right column.
-->The “Sing Out for Single Payer Road Show” is about to begin! Starting July 2nd, I’m going on the road from San Diego, CA to Bellingham, WA. I’ll travel with folk singer Anne Feeney on a mission to encourage senators, representatives, and “we, the people” to work for universal healthcare across our nation. We’ve got twenty-five shows in twenty-six days! It will be tireless. But we’ve got a cast of about 40 other musicians and more concerned citizens joining us along the way.
You can support us with your presence and donations.
You can support me by buying a CD, download, or other swag in my shop. (I’m already on the second printing of mMix. It’s been sweet to get such positive feedback on it!)
And tonight, June 23, you can hear me live on KPFK (and online) during the 7-8 slot. I close the “Beautiful Struggle” program (around 7:45). The topic for this evening is the work of Public Allies, the organization formerly headed by First Lady Michelle Obama.
Now that it’s past, here’s the Podcast (my song is at 53:10, so scroll ahead):
[wpaudio url=”http://archive.kpfk.org/parchive/mp3/kpfk_090623_190030beautifulstruggle.MP3″ text=”Jason on the Beautiful Struggle KPFK”]
Thursday, you can support us on our tour’s kick off, 8pm at the Musician’s Union on Vine. 817 Vine St., Los Angeles, CA 90038, 213-252-1351
If you’re not on the local list this is your first notice that on October 1st, an essay of mine called, “Playing the Verses Straight” will be released in an original anthology called “The Black Body.” It’s edited by Meri Nana-Ama Danquah and includes Obama’s inaugural poet Elizabeth Alexander among others.
I hope to see you on the road show. Please email me or check my site for more info.
Peace & Love,
Jason
Sing Out For Single Payer Road Show Cities:
California
July 2 – Los Angeles
July 3 – San Diego
July 4 – Santa Cruz
July 5 – El Cerrito
Oregon
July 7 – Ashland
July 8 – Bend
July 9 – Florence
July 10 – 12 Oregon Country Fair
July 13 – Corvallis
July 14 – Coos Bay
July 15 – Newport
July 16 – Yachats
July 17 – Eugene
July 18 – Portland
July 19 – Salem
July 20 – Astoria
Washington
July 21 – Vancouver
July 22 – Everett
July 23 – Olympia
July 24 – Port Angeles
July 25 – Seattle
July 26 – Tacoma
July 27 – Bellingham
Jason Solo Birthday Show
California
August 8 – Aliso Viejo
“I lie as much as I report…” (Stronger)
Memories fade and emotional truths remain. Relationships breakdown, while the elasticity of the heart becomes greater. Picture perfect worlds contained in fists need open hands to flourish.
MMIX is not an album of categorically contained music, but it draws you in to an intimate world safe for ambiguity and big hopes. And that’s the fun of it. It’s an “album” with a beginning, middle and end. It starts with a look back an attempt to remember and concludes with the realization that memories are less important than an embrace of the ambiguous. Saying much more would require “spoiler alerts.”
Suffice to say, the music is a tuneful miscegenation of organic folk, rock, soul and jazz. Jason’s love of Brazilian music is probably more evident on this album than any of his others (“Perfect Little Mess,” “Moment a Lifetime,” “Stack of 45s”). But there are homages to 80s indie rock (“Bob Duluth”) and 70s soul pop (“Our Moment in the Sun” with it’s Doobie Brothers meet Burt Bacharach middle section). There’s a lullaby, “Trumpet Guitars,” recounting a night listening to Miles Davis’s “Sketches of Spain” album. And there’s even a Kumbaya moment with Jason’s “Come By Here” imagining a New Orleans second line parade to the tune of Allen Toussaint’s “Yes We Can, Can” marching along with Ahmad, Krishna, Siddhartha and Jesus.
Jason’s voice and acoustic guitar centers this blend of surrealistic imaginings and stark reality.
As for the title, it’s just Roman numerals. But how fun to have to have the word ‘mix’ in the year Barack Obama became President of the US! Jason keeps a blog about “mulatto moments in post-racial America” so he couldn’t resist the image and opportunity to play with the acronym. Mulatto Moments in eXcess? My Mother Isn’t Xenophobic? Or is it as one fan posted on jasonluckett.com, “My Music Is eXcellent!”
A Mulatto Moment… It’s when reality confronts the surreality of ambiguous identity. The giggle is that while others may try to define one by his or her parts, the individual knows he or she is whole. That’s what mMix is: a whole, a sum of parts much richer taken in its entirety than if radically parsed. (That said there probably are some “singles” on here. Try “Moment in the Sun,” “Mystery and Wonder,” “Stack of 45s,” or “Bob Duluth.”)
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