Episode 03

Photo from Los Angeles, CA. September 2023.

Moving from Ana Roxanne’s reflective melodies into spiritual jazz and soul, with selections from Alice Coltrane, Asha Puthli, Liv.e, Masayoshi Takanaka, and more.

Tracklist:

Camille - Ana Roxanne
Continuum 8 - Nala Sinephro
The Ankh of Amen-Ra - Alice Coltrane
Rio Sihl - Okvsho
Mainu Apne Pyar Wich (Mystic Jungle Remix) - Mohinder Kaur Bhamra
Sugar Cane (feat. Nubiya Brandon) - Nubiyan Twist
Cherry Pie - Sade
Never Be The Same - Ronnie Laws
蜃気楼の島 - Masayoshi Takanaka
Music Is The Key - Weldon Irvine
Unspoken Magic - Michael Gregory Jackson
Snowing! - Liv.e
1001 Nights of Love (Reprise) - Asha Puthli

Five years ago, my best friend and I lay on the floor of their bedroom in Sunset Park, listening to Ana Roxanne’s album Because of a Flower. I was experiencing the record for the first time, Swept into its current. The world was in the midst of a pandemic. I was drifting between apartments, staying at Moe’s more often than not. But in that room, it all receded.

In that stillness, music became a mirror. A reflection nearer to the truth than I had ever encountered. Sound waves a vessel for healing. Because of a Flower was Ana’s second album, shaped by “interwoven notions of gender, beauty, and cruelty.” The songs move slowly, as if assembled from breath and vapor—each tone emerging with quiet insistence.

Years later, I write to you from a different but familiar place. My two sweet cats circle quietly around me. But when I close my eyes, I’m back on that floor—encountering something for the first time. The memory remains intact, tender and accessible—a small interior room I can still return to.

When I began shaping this month’s listening session, I flipped through my record collection, trying to understand what I wanted to share. What might carry us back to that bedroom floor, to that steadied feeling, simply by listening?

— Luke A. Wright, March 2026.