JHELISA / “Jhelisa Jump Off Mixtape”
Jhelisa,
How you been, how you be? It’s been a minute since we last conversated… I don’t mean exchanging emails and Facebook messages, I mean actually vibrations in the ear, the sound of the words, thoughts, emotions.
So anyway I put together this little Mixtape to kind of focus on the cutting edge aspect of your music. Unlike the vast majority of singers on the scene today, you be not only writing your own music, you are willing to go off in a bunch of directions. So I’ve got all this electronic stuff but also the acoustic stuff.
You know I consider your Galactica Moods album, the acoustic remixes of Galactica Rush music that you put together your best commercially released material when you consider the work from the first track to the last.
But even as I say that I am mesmerized by a bunch of the other stuff, some of which I have no idea how you put together or with whom you worked. I know that 2006 Live At North Sea set ought to be released commercially. The jazz-based lineup of keyboards, lead guitar, baritone sax, bass and drums turns out to be even more fierce than a lot of the electronic work. You were in excellent voice, especially in how you plummeted the bottom of your instrument, i.e. to call your voice simply “vocals” does not do justice to what you are to do with the sounds you produce when you sing.
I was searching through the internet and some kind of way came across a rather cruddy recording of you in duet with a bass player doing “You Are So Beautiful” and it was so beautiful I said to myself I’ve got to drop this in despite the poor audio quality.
You remember when we talked about the Wood Allen critique you did titled “That’s Bullshit Woody”? I think it’s absolutely brilliant to sing part of it in the first person as though you were Woody rationalizing his hooking up with his then wife's adopted daughter. You sincerely take us into his deep feelings and then quietly retort “that’s bullshit.”
And of course, I reasoned it would be super-appropriate to put two versions of “Sell Me Away” right behind the Woody bullshit. "Sell Me Away" is a paragon of political songwriting that retains a lyricism and musicality, which increases both the depth and reach of the message of resistance to arranged marriages and trafficking of women.
A lot of these tracks are remixes or one-off projects, stuff I hope that BoL fans will appreciate. I even included that demo “I Wish I Knew How It Feels To Be Free” that we talked about using for the Four Women movie we were doing with our high school students. I have an idea for how I can complete the project through editing but first I’ve got to find both the tapes and the time… well, you know how stuff gets away from you. But anyway, as you know, I really dug what you did with that song.
And of course that uber-beautiful “Starfishing” is near the pinnacle of my favorite work of yours, which is one of the reasons I open the Mixtape with this invocation to step off, or as you would say “Jump Off.” It has that spiritual vibe I associate with Alice Coltrane. And I end with the reprise of “Find An Oasis.”
The stuff you sing about is deeper than whale doo-doo but oh so necessary, oxygen necessary, freedom necessary.
Hope you are well. Holla if you need anything—if I got it, you got it.
This is the third BoL feature and I’m certain there will be at least one or two more in the next three or four years. (Go here and here to read the other two features.)
We all have our lives to live. But in living we should never forget each other, never forget our comrades in the struggle to make this world better and more beautiful than when we arrived here. After all, wasn’t that our instructions when we were sent to planet earth: them humans down there are fucking up. Get your ass on the case and help cool it out; make it a better and more beautiful space.
Thanks, sister, for forwarding the mission. Your soundprint makes our contemporary earth space a much more livable environment. Indeed, it is not inappropriate to change the title of “Find An Oasis” to “Create An Oasis” because that is what you have been doing for so many of us, creating an aural oasis.
Asante sana (thank you very much),
—Kalamu
Jhelisa Jump Off Mixtape Playlist
01 “STARFISHING” 
02 “Everybody Jump Off (Headrillaz Remix)” – Everybody Jump Off single 
03 “Far I Have Come” – Ballerina – Arsenal featuring Jhelisa Anderson
04 “Hold My Peace/Delta Peace Treaty Special” – Galactica Moods
05 “There's Nothing Dub” – Galactica Dub
06 “There's Nothing Wrong” – Galactica Rush
07 “Death Of A Soul Diva” – Galactica Moods
08 “Whirl Keeps Turning/Outside Mix” - Whirl Keeps Turning single
Language Electric
09 “That's Bullshit Woody”
10 “Sell Me Away (Who Will Protect Me From My Own People)” 
11 “Sell Me Away (Filter Dub)” – Sell Me Away single
12 “New Oxygen” 
13 “I wish I Knew How It Feels To Be Free” 
Live At North Sea 2006
14 “Galactical Rush”
15 “Nothing's Wrong”
16 “Sweet Dreams”
17 “Secret Place/Dusty Road Mix” – Galactica Moods
18 “Find An Oasis” – Morning Sun – Block 16
Galactica Moods
19 “Sweet Dreams”
20 “Friendly Pressure”
21 “Friendly Pressure/Quiet Storm Mix” 
22 “You Are So Beautiful” - Evidence Of The Supernatural
23 “Find An Oasis (String Reprise)” – Morning Sun – Block 16
This entry was posted on Monday, February 28th, 2011 at 7:00 am and is filed under Contemporary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
One Response to “JHELISA / “Jhelisa Jump Off Mixtape””
March 4th, 2011 at 9:35 am
“let’s go starfishin’ in the cool cosmic stream” r u kiddin’ me!!!!! how does jhelisa create such other worldliness that touches deep, deep down within. our bol wordsmith say “mesmerize.” yeah, that and more. can never thank you enough kalamu for bringin’ all that you do thru bol.
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