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I wanted to present this as a new iMix on iTunes but the problem is they don’t have all my favourite records in store yet…

But hey, here’s this years “Indian Summer” mix for the fans; if you like original sixties-jet-set-bossa-kind-a-lounge then try to get a grib on these records, this is my mix selection for this year:

- Is This All? - Bobbi Humphrey
- Voce - Roberto Menescal
- Tema di Linda - Orchestra Franco Micalizzi
- Susan Theme - Daniele Patucchi
- Sunday Samba - A. Santisteban
- Mitzi - A. Alessandroni
- Leslie Phillips In Santiago - Tomorrow’s World
- La Femme Fin de Siecle - Louise Vertigo
- Jet Society - The Cordara Orchestra
- I Am A Kitten - Fantasic Everlasting Gobstopper
- Expo Tenerife - South American Getaway
- De jour en jour - Sophia Loren
- Capricco - Piero Piccioni
- Alla Serenita - Ennio Morricone

My 43 Places… still have to find the 43 Things I would like to do there…

Can you imagine having Count Basie, Art Blakey, Roy Eldridge, Art Farmer, Bud Freeman, Dizzy Gillespie, Johnny Griffin, Coleman Hawkins, Gene Krupa, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Sonny Rollins, Jimmy Rushing, Pee Wee Russell, Horace Silver, Mary Lou Williams, Lester Young, and many others on 1 picture?

Well the picture of that great day in Harlem in 1958 was taken by the legendary Art Kane.

In August 1958 he was hired by Esquire magazine to come up with a photo to open an article about jazz. He figured he would contact every major jazz musician in New York to show up on 126th street in Harlem at 10am to take a group portrait. Getting jazz musicians anywhere together at 10am seemed impossible, but to everyone’s surprise 57 musicians showed up. It was Art Kane’s first professional photograph.

Andy Warhol said about Kane: “I think of Art Kane as being strong, say, like a pumpkin sun in a blue sky. Like the sun, Art beams his eye straight at his subject, and what he sees, he pictures—and it’s usually a dramatic interpretation of personality.”

“A Great Day in Harlem” is also one of the best documentaries about jazz music directed by Jean Bach in 1994. It is filled with anecdotes, history and clips of classic performances. The documentary compiles interviews of many of the musicians in the photograph to talk about the day of the photograph, and it shows film footage taken that day by Milt Hinton and his wife.

Well still not curious to see the picture? It can be seen in an interactive form at www.harlem.org, a web initiative since 1995 with the simple premise to explore jazz history through a single photograph…

I created a new iMix with some of the finest original Italian lounge tunes you can find from the inventor of the genre himself, Nino Rota. He is best known for his now legendary soundtracks he made for most of the Fellini films.

I just love Rota’s music since I was a teenager so to select some fine tunes was easy. Creating the iMix itself was peanuts too. But apparently not anybody can acces the direct link to the mix, this would depend on your geopgraphical location.

Since I’m living in Spain you get direct acces to my mix if you’re living here; if not you probably will be redirected to your country product page and will have to look up my mix under iMix “The Birth Of Italian Lounge” by Nino Rota.

So this means the real world music distribution system = copied to the internet - music licenses are still signed on a country per country basis and apply to the digital online distribution too.

Well… I’m a Belgian living in Spain and have friends all over the planet. Maybe iTunes can start to make it possible for me to make mixes that anybody, anywhere can listen to and buy if he like’s them (even redirected to his local iTunes shop if needed?)

But how are the record companies deal with that?

So people outside Spain, give it a try and let me know if you get straight to my iMix, the music is worth it!

One of the fun reasons having moved to Barcelona is that it’s a cosmopolitan city with some beaches on the Mediterranean side… there aren’t that many cities with such qualities in Europe if you think about it.

During July and August the beaches are crowded and more dirty since a lot of people doesn’t seem to understand that it’s so much easier if everybody cleans up his own mess wherever he goes…

Now Barcelona city has launched a campaign to sensitise the public to keep the beaches clean. They put on every beach some of these “comix text bubbles” with prevention slogans, like the one above. It says (in Catalan): “I am a beach, not a enormous ashtray!”

I hope people understand the humour and think twice about their bad habits…

It has been a while since I used the Plazes plugin, to me one of the real promising projects which is developed by Stefan Kellner and Felix Petersen at their own pace.

A couple of months ago they integrated Flickr nicely into their technology (link tagged pictures to your places!) and now lately you can see the Plazes you created on a Google Map.

If you wanna check where I hang out… You can visualise it here: Where is Rudy?

I have to think next time to leave my traze!
Luckily I don’t have my computer with me all the time

What’s in a name…

A couple of years ago, she came with a tape to me and asked if she could play at the CyberTheatre - where I worked then (now offline). I listened and heard some of the most exciting music I had heard in years (it was Drum n’ Bass she introduced at that time in Belgium!)

Since then we shared many memorable moments together… A pity I cannot join this one: D’Stephanie organises her birthday party this Saturday with some fine people, including Jazzanova.

The really nice flyer (here below) is done by my Random One partner Juha.

D’Stephanie’s latest work with Philipo is released on Sonarkollektiv, the label behind the brilliant Jazzanova team.

And who’s looking for superlatives, read the review on Futureboogie.com

“…A hefty skank of Afro beat and bruk, with touches of reggae and soul courtesy of Philippo’s vocal, Daz-I-Kue is called in for the remix, and does a fine job, adding techy touches, acid squelches, and a more digital dancehall feel.”

Future Warrior
(more info, preview the tracks and order)

Collaborative music filtering started with Audioscrobbler which is nicely integrated into the last.fm online radio service.

Now iTunes also has its playlist filtering through Mobster. The result can be seen on MusicMobs.

Here’s what I listen to; still an general overview of most played songs but adding more features and possibilities will make it all more exciting soon I expect.

I have been curious about the iTunes affiliates program and decided to try it out last week. Becoming an affiliates is rather easy to set up, the program is run through Linkshare. You get a set of tools to link up to records available in the iTunes Music Store. Just a pity that most of my favourite records are not available yet to build some exquisite playlists here with direct links

Anyway, I’ll keep you informed on new stuff i like and how’s it going.

Here’s a first tryout of some of my favourites for the summer and some new releases from my friends at Crammed Discs in Brussels.

Try! (clicking the icon brings you directly to a deep link within the iTunes Music Store, if you don’t have iTunes you need to download the software first).

Roisin Murphy - Ruby Blue


Jazzanova - Inbetween


Cibelle - Cibelle


Platnum - Rock Me


DJ Dolores - Aparelhagem


Miles Davis - Ascenseur pour l’échafaud


Zuco 103 - Whaa !


Konono Nº1 - Congotronics

Summer’s here… Enjoy!

corduroy - something in my eye
mel torme - games people play
five up high - five up high
dieter reith - open drive
jhelisa - see line woman
herb alpert - summertime
suba - amor d’agua
dimlite - as we arrive
gabriel ananda - suessholz
inverse cinematics - seven by seven
irfane ft. outlines - just a lil’ lovin
roisin murphy - sow into you
the rebirth - mark of his ways
jamie lidell - multiply
plantlife - your love ft. dena deadly
common - real people
quasimoto - seasons change
meshell ndegeocello - the chosen
micatone - where i am
slick and rose - love is…
laurnea - ain’t nothing wrong
tiombe lockhart - mr johnnie walker
verna francis - never too late
faith evan - mesmerised
todd terje - kul i pul
rhythm masters - soul on your side
fatback band - street dance
booker t and the mgs - melting pot
james brown - world of soul (previously unreleased)
kenny smith and the loveliters - go for yourself
liz maccall - double determination
marvin holmes - find yourself
linda williams - elevate your mind
direct flight - earwitness
angela bofill - the only thing i would wish for
sunaga t experience - versiliana samba
maynard ferguson sextet - my sister
horace silver - song for my father