Balearic Breakfast | Episode 205 | Balearic Breakfast is all I want for Christmas...
- by The Lioncub
- Dec 24, 2024
- 14 min read
Updated: Jan 31
Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 205th episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud on December 24th 2024.
About this episode. – No request line for this episode and no "Best of 2024" either, but a show which is the closest one to Christmas we ever had since this beautiful adventure started in 2019. 2024 has been a beautiful year for Balearic Breakfast as Colleen streamed 46 shows all in all (2021 broke all the records back then with 51 streamed shows)! So Congratulations dear Captain for taking the helm so firmly! You know how much we all love you.
I also wanted to thank personally every artist who answered my humble questions and who took part to the blog, not forgetting every member who did the written interviews with me here! You can't imagine how much hapiness this brings me, this place is our safe harbor, I do mu utmost to make everyone happy! And I am ready for 2025... 😍
As far as this episode is concerned, it is a Soulful, Funky and uplifting musical moment! "Wishing you a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanza, a peaceful Winter Solstice and overall seasons greetings. Thank you for your continued support of my weekly Balearic Breakfast ‘radio’ show hosted on my Mixcloud Live on Tuesday mornings and today’s show is now archived on my Mixcloud at https://tinyurl.com/mutkat2y
The BB family has grown heaps since the show started over four years ago and together we become stronger and stronger. Thank you for supporting Balearric Breakfast, my Cosmodelica remixes and for joining me on discerning dance floors across the planet. I wouldn’t be able to lead a life in music without your support and am truly thankful for each and every one of you.
I will not broadast on New Year’s Eve although I will be DJing that night over at @fever105 Midnight Funk New Year’s Eve shindig at Lafayette in Kings Cross in London alongside DJs Dimitri from Paris, Bill Brewster and more. And I’m also squeezing in a trip to Oslo to play at the club @jaegeroslo on the 28th December (they just did a lovely interview with me at https://jaegeroslo.no/obsessions-an-interview-with.../ ). But I will be back on the airwaves on Tuesday, the 7th January 2025. Wishing you peace, health, happiness and great music in 2025 and please enjoy music from… Wah Wah 45s Scott Ferguson DJ Terry Hunter Kerri Chandler Danny Krivit Flamingo Pier Soundway Records Salsoul Records Rush Hour and more..."
To everyone... Merry Christmas...
Listen back to the 205th episode of Balearic Breakfast:
PLAYLIST
(2025) Robot 84 – Beats From the Far East
(1975) Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes
(ft Sharon Paige) – You Know How to Love Me So Good
(2017) Jeff Silna – Its Always Something With You
(1980) Common Sense – Voices (Instrumental)
(2024) Terry Hunter (ft Raheem DeVaughn) – Favorite Thing to Do (Mr K Edit)
(2024) Maya Blandy – It’s in You (Puerto Montt City Orchestra)
(NOL) Erwin Bouterse – Voglia Disco Party (Belabouche Reshape)
(1999) The Charlie Rouse Band – Waiting on the Corner
(2024) Orchestre Poly-Rythmo – Zo Tche Kpo Do Te (Jose Marquez Remix)
(TBR 2025) Phenomenal Handclap Band – Like A Constellation
(2021) Flamingo Pier – Cosmic Sunset
(1998) Kerri Chandler / The System – You're In My System
(1981) Salsoul Orchestra ft Jocelyn Brown – You're All I Want for Christmas
(2008) Alfredo de la Fé & The Latin Jazz Ensemble – My Favorite Things’ (Live)
COLLEEN'S NEWS
Colleen will be featured in these forthcoming events:
28th December: Romjulsfestivalen
31st December: Fever105's Midnight Funk
15th February 2025: Horse Meet Disco
8th March 2025: La Discothèque - Albert Hall Mnachester
3rd May 2025: Queen's Park Spring Weekender '25
Also, a few days ago, Colleen shared on her socials she participated to the "Dust and Grooves" book, Vol. 2, stating : "I’ve often thought about why I began collecting records as a young teenager, especially as it wasn’t the norm for adolescent girls in suburban America in the 70’s and 80’s. I suppose the main reason is quite pragmatic in that the only way I could hear the music that I loved was either waiting for it to come onto the radio or owning a physical copy. It is strange to think about, as music is now so ubiquitous and nearly any song be accessed nearly anywhere at anytime. But back then, you had to make it a mission to track down your favourite tunes and to discover new ones.
Nuggets and Planet Records in Boston’s Kenmore Square were two of my favourite places to potter around, flicking through the bins, discovering old records by my favourite artists or a checking out a band I just heard Oedipus play on his Sunday night radio show ‘Nocturnal Emissions’ on WBCN (that’s where I first heard Brian Eno - the song was ‘Baby’s On Fire). I had very open ears and surprised the clerk at Nuggets when I bought the record he was playing in the shop - Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s 1965 masterpiece ‘Rip, Rig and Panic’ (such a great name for an album and apparently Neneh Cherry and co agreed :). When you found a record that you loved or would grow to love, it felt like Christmas morning.
The other big change is that even more women have become serious record collectors and gone are the days i which a record shop would have a placard on a bench that said ‘girlfriends sit here’ (yes, I spotted that at an old record shop in New York City’s East Village now gone). And the new Dust & Grooves Volume 2 features many of us along with a host of diggers into a spectrum of sounds. This afternoon, I’ll be putting on an album and reading the many stories and salivating at the record shelves. Some habits never die."
COLLEEN'S PRESENTATION
I
Alison Crockett with Like Rain from her 2003 LP, Becoming a Woman, and that was also released as a single on Wah wah 45s which is Dom Servini's label which celebrated its 25th anniversary this past year. And I was delighted when Matt Raystrick requested this song as I love Alison. I first met her when she was singing for my friend King Britt's Silk 130 album, and I fell in love with her voice. So when Tommy Musto asked me to produce a song for his Suburban Records label back in like the late 90s, I roped in Alison to sing on the first song I ever wrote and produced, so she really holds a really special place in my heart.
Good morning, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa and all around season's greetings. I'm Colleen Cosmo Murphy hosting your Balearic Breakfast until high noon, and hello to the BB family joining me in the chat group for the live stream, and it's wonderful to be together, and thank you for your continued support in 2024.
Now I won't be broadcasting on New Year's Eve, although I will be DJing that night for Fever 105's Midnight Funk New Year's Eve Shindig at Lafayette in King's Cross in London, and it's alongside DJs Dimitri from Paris, Bill Brewster, Pauly Ritmo and more, and I'm also squeezing in a trip to Oslo to play at the club Jaeger on the 28th of December, but I'm taking New Year's Eve off from Balearic Breakfast, so this is officially the last show of the year.
And you may wonder why I'm not doing a countdown of my favorite tunes of 2024, and the reason is over the years I've decided I'm generally not really into charts and top tens and listing my favorite tunes or albums, as I just can't include everything that I really want to, and I inevitably forget things, and of course my own tastes are really ever-shifting and ever-evolving plus there's still so much more music to get to in 2024, so I don't really want to do a review of the past.
So there you go no best ofs for me anymore, instead I'm catching up on some requests, some new tunes, and some older songs that deserve some attention like this next one by Tabla Beat Science which is the late tabla player Zakir Hussain and producer and bassist Bill Laswell's group, and they founded it together in 1999. Sway of the Verses, or Pritpal Ajimal, made this request in light of the amazing Zakir Hussain who recently passed to the next realm, he called Hussain "a musician that's known as one of the greatest Indian classical musicians of his generation, and someone that traversed different genres with ease collaborating with some amazing musicians outside the classical world". Now, Hussain was recognized as one of the greatest ever tabla players, and he was also a percussionist composer producer and actor and he brought classical Indian music to the world through various collaborations with artists like John McLaughlin, The Grateful Dead's Mickey Hart, Jan Garbarek, and Pharoah Sanders. Here he is with his collaboration with Bill Laswell as Tabla Beat Science with Magnetic.
II
Jeff Silna with It's Always Something With You, and it was originally only released on a promotional radio compilation recently reissued by French reissue label Favorite Recordings. Actually, they reissued it first in 2017 and have again, and it can be found on their Bandcamp, and it looks like that's the only release by Jeff Silna; he recorded it at TK Studios in Miami, and that label at the time were pumping out disco hits and forging the Miami sound, but that one obviously has a more AOR kind of yacht rock feel to it. Really love that.
Ahead of that the Gamble and Huff penned and produced You Know How to Love Me So Good by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, featuring the gorgeous soulful vocals of Philadelphia natives Teddy Pendergrass and Sharon Paige, and it's featured on the 1975 album Wake Up Everybody, such a great album, and that was requested by Dominic Mesmer. And if like me you're catching up on movies and docs and box sets over the holidays, I urge you to check out the Teddy Pendergrass documentary If you don't know me, what a voice and what a life.
Ahead of that we heard Beats from the Far East by Robot 84. I've been playing his re-edits and reworks quite a lot over the last few years, and he's very creative with them, assembling many different parts into a really unique groove. The one we just heard Beats from the Far East is now out on a vinyl EP with a more up-tempo track called Let's Do It on the flip.
Okay, our friend Simon Ellis recently requested Voices Inside My Head by the Police, but Simon, I hope you don't mind, I've taken a bit of creative license, a bit of creative liberty, and rather than play the police version, I'm playing the cover by Common Sense, and I'm actually gonna do the instrumental as well. Begon Cekic was born in Serbia Montenegro and he moved to Brooklyn when he was 17 years old, and he worked in construction during the disco boom. He decided to capitalize upon it by setting up a record store and then a label on which he produced what were perhaps some of the early examples of dance tracks made up of loops and reworked riffs and and hooks from earlier well known hits, along with the help of mixer DJ T Scott and keyboardist Fred Tsar from 1980. This is Common Sense with the instrumental version of Voices.
III
Erwin Bouterse Voglia Disco Party, and that's from the Kindred Spirits compilation. Kindred Spirits they released Suriname compilation, and with an estimate of half a million inhabitants in Suriname it has a lively music scene, although relatively unknown, but it has a very strong influence on the Netherlands, where many of these Suriname people live, and the music from Suriname is mainly known for its Kaseiko which evolved out of traditional koina music and soul music. But the Surinamese have also been active in other genres, such as pop, funk, and jazz, and just love that oneVoglia Disco Party by Erwin Bouterse, and that was a reshape by Italian producer Belabouche. Loving that one.
Ahead of that we had the Portuguese and British singer, her name is Maya Blandy with in It's in you (sorry about that), she released her debut album Stardust earlier this year, and it was co-written and produced by Jake Wehrry of the Herbalizer, but the song we heard is more recent. I'm trying to find out a bit more about it in terms of a release, but it's a mix by Puerto Montt City Orchestra and has a real soulful disco vibe on that one, kind of stepping out of their usual ballearic sound.
Ahead of that Lawne, which are self-confessed music nerds like them already Joe Nicklin and Joe Martin. They got together in 2019 to forge a sound that melds dub, electronics, hip-hop, psych, jazz, post-punk, Afrobeat, all things that I love, and it's no wonder that I love their debut album Attic which came out on Wawa 45s last year, and the whole LP is great. Matt Raistrick over on the chat group agrees it's really varied; and I've been playing it a lot while I was doing my end of year accounts. How lovely, it really kept me going. We heard Bait Up Pan again from Lawne's debut Attic, and ahead of that we heard the Chicago DJ and producer and label owner, Terry Hunter and the Grammy-nominated Washington DC soul singer Raheem DeVaughn with Favorite Thing to Do. It came out last year on Mirabal Recordings but I played the Danny Krivitt edit.
Okay this next one I don't really know too much about, but it really sounded great when I played it in New York City at the Subculture NYC party in which Francois K and I played back-to-back, so I wanted to share this one with you on the show. It's called Phazed Groove with Sao Paolo on Tropical Disco on Balearic Breakfast.
IV
Zo Tche Kpo Do Te by Orchestre Poli Ritmo the Jose Marquez remix. And that's from the first of a two-part series on Canopy Records documenting the work of the Beninois supergroup T.P. Orchestre Poli Ritmo. They were responsible for an astonishing multitude of records numbering well over 250 releases, and while the group underwent numerous personnel changes over the course of their 40-plus years. The founder, composer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Clément Melomé remained the constant, and he's the singer on the song we just heard. It's sung in phone by the band leader, and it translates as "my fire will not go out", and we heard the remix by Los Angeles DJ and producer Jose Marquez.
Ahead of that we had the late American saxophonist and flautist and Thelonious Monk collaborator Charlie Rouse with his Charlie Rouse Band with Waiting on the Corner, and it's from the Charlie Rouse Band's only LP Cinnamon Flower released in 1977. Although he released many many albums from the late 1950s through to the late 1980s as band leader, and before his passing, I believe it was 1988. And I have to thank another saxophonist for that one Scott Towers from Fat Freddy's Drop. They were just touring loads of sellout shows in Europe and he came over and had to offload some of the records that he bought because he couldn't fit them in his luggage going back to New Zealand. So thanks for offloading some of your records here Scott, you might get it back one day, but yeah thank you for that. Another great record he left was by Ahmad Jamal 7 really jonesing and listening to a lot of that recently as well.
Okay, Daniel Kala of Phenomenal Handclap Band has sent me a very tasty exclusive, it's not even out as a digital promo yet, so muchas gracias to Daniel, but I'm just loving it. It has a very cosmic vibe and a very cosmic title to match. Here is Phenomenal Handclap Band with Like a Constellation.
V
Oh... It has to be done, thank you so much to David Sautter for that request. Salsoul Orchestra featuring Jocelyn Brown You're all I want for Christmas, and it's a Patrick Adams production and that's found on the Christmas Jollies volume 2 from Salsoul Orchestra. Had to play a Christmas carol for you.
Ahead of that we had Kerri Chandler as The system You're in my system, and when it came out on Ibadan Recordings Jerome Sydenham's label in 1998 and Greca Mac requested it. She said it was "a highlight from the Hacienda night at WHP in Manchester earlier this month", she said "the night was very unexpectedly epic" and she also sends love to the Balearic Breakfast family.
Ahead of that a lovely request from Askush for Cosmic Sunset by Flamingo Pier from New Zealand and one of my best memories of 2024 was, you know, hanging out in New Zealand going to New Zealand for the first time, and to Australia, and we played for Flamingo Pier is really cool cool festival called the Waiheke Festival in February, so thinking about that where I was going. We left I think on the 27th of December, we're gone for six weeksn so it is on my mind. Gotta make our way back down there at some point in the near future.
Well it's about time to wrap up another year's worth of Balearic Breakfast. We've been going for over four years now. I can't believe it and I just want to say thank you for listening and for all of your support, thank you for being part of the Balearic Breakfast family. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Winter Solstice and Happy New Year's and overall season's greetings, and I'm wishing you all health, happiness and a lot great lot of great music in 2025.
I'm going to leave you with one last song which does fit the season's mood. It's not a... It's not a Christmas carol, it's non-secular, but it's often lumped in with Christmas songs. It's a cover of My Favorite Things, a beautiful beautiful song as you know from the Sound of Music and you know, covered by so many different jazz musicians including Alfredo de la Fe who is a really, is a very interesting violinist.
He was born in Cuba lived in New York but he also lived in Colombia for a decade and a half, and he adapted the violin to Colombian traditional music, and he was the first solo violinist to play with a salsa orchestra, and he's played with loads of different great artists Latin artists like Eddie Palmieri, Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, The Fania all-stars, it goes on and on and on and on. And in 2008 my friend, David Mancuso, started a record label called The Loft Audiophile Library of Music which I helped him out, wich only had one release but this was the release, and it's Alfredo de la Fe and the Latin Jazz Ensemble with a live version of My Favorite Things so here it is, sending you off with this. Thank you again for joining me, and remember, if the holidays get a little bit too much, just be Balearic...
Sadly, a few hours after today's episode, we learned about DJ Alfredo's passing. Here is Colleen's tribute to him, she published on December 26th, on her socials. May you rest in peace Alfredo 😢
Rest in paradise DJ Alfredo. I didn’t know Alfredo well but I was lucky enough to DJ back to back with him three years ago in Ibiza for Beat Hotel. Of course, as I host a show named ‘Balearic Breakfast’ I knew a lot about Alfredo, his huge influence on the Balearic and acid house scenes and the musical eclecticism he transmitted at his Amnesia residency. So yes, I was a tad nervous to play alongside him as he is a true legend.
Before our set, we had dinner together and what struck me was how humble and gracious he was - soft-spoken but strong. I wondered if he truly understood the extent to which his DJ style and his musical selections had influenced so many people including some who went on to become global superstars. His sweet and gracious manner was the antithesis of the fist-pumping, glory-seeking attitudes that we sometimes see in the upper echelons of commercial dance music. But yet, whether they know it or not, DJ Alfredo influenced them because of his impact on global dance music culture.
Alfredo and I had a lovely time DJ-ing together and turning each other onto tunes. I am so thankful for that experience and you can listen back to an hour of our set on an archived Balearic Breakfast at https://tinyurl.com/36ph4afy
Sending my condolences to his son, his family and to those who knew him well. Thank you for the music Alfredo.
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