May 4 2024 - Live On Stage

Today we went bell-to-bell with music the way it was intended to be heard – live on stage, with its loose imperfections and adlibbed beauty. 

So often, I hear people say they prefer the way music sounds on an album but listen  … in 2017, I heard Lauryn Hill perform Everything is Everything around 30 BPM faster than it was meant to be played. It was so dope that we forgave her for being 20 minutes late to the stage. Nothing beats a live performance.

​Check out the playlist at the bottom of this post; here are a few highlights.

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Sade

I opened up with Sade’s Soldier of Love from her Bring Me Home album, recorded in Ontario, California in 2011. Bring Me Home was Sade’s second live album, after Lovers Live from 2002.

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Erykah Badu

Erykah Badu drops a great verse in her live version of On & On, which came from her 1997 live album (which also features that version of Tyrone you forgot about). 

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Lianne La Havas

Lianne La Havas is a composer and vocalist with a purple connection – a friendship and mentorship with Prince, who once held a concert in La Havas’s London apartment.

I played her song Forget, recorded live in Paris, from La Havas’s 2012 debut album, Is Your Love Big Enough.

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Digital Underground f/ Tupac

Digital Underground’s ability to apply humour to socially relevant topics was almost unmatched. The group was creative and forward-thinking and served as the stomping ground for one of the most recognized names in music, Tupac Shakur.

I played a live version of their track Same Song, which appeared in the 1991 movie Nothing but Trouble. The song is from their 2010 Greenlight EP and features a great live moment when they turned a cold crowd in their favour and boosted the rising stars of their collective (ie: ‘Pac)

The Purple Room
Curated by @ShantuDiggs
Saturdays @ 2 pm MT
FM 88.5 (yeg) | @cjsr_fm | CJSR.com (stream)

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This Week's Playlist

Sade
Soldier of Love (Live)

Georgia Anne Muldrow
Brokenfolks (Instrumental)

Lianne La Havas
Forget (Live)

Erykah Badu
On & On (Live)

Khruangbin & Toro y Moi
First Class (Live from the Filmore Miami)

Osibisa
Beautiful 7 / Y Sharp (Live)

Dwight Trible & The Life Force Trio
Otherworldly (Instrumental)

Big Daddy Kane
Wrath of Kane (Live from The Apollo)

Oddisee & Good Company
Built by Pictures (Live)

Run D.M.C.
Sucker MC’s (Live)

DJ Harrison
Carnival 74 (Instrumental)

Digital Underground
Same Song (Live)