In recent years Jamuary has become a thing among the Internet music communities. It’s a commitment to start the new year with 31 days of shipping a jam – no matter how bad. Just get something recorded and uploaded for others to hear. This turns out to be an important exercise in letting go, shipping before it is finished and fight back any urge of perfectionism or embarrassment.

In my resolution of making an album in 2023 I see a chance to use Jamuary as partly brainstorming session, partly a lab for trying out ideas and instrument combinations.

The album I envision making will hopefully rhyme sonically with the folk-soul of Terry Callier, Bill Withers and Michael Kiwanuka. Overall, I’m particularly interested in the early 70s psychedelic soul sounds with Charles Stepney-produced bands like Rotary Connection. If you listen it isn’t difficult to hear the connection between Shuggie Otis and Brazilian artist Marcos Valle.

I did put together a playlist to show my direction.

Jamuary – week 1

Anyway, the first week of Jamuary is almost done. The jams of the first seven days have been messy, but also good learning experiences. Some experiments turn out better than others. I spent no more than one or two hours work total for any track, almost all instruments are first takes. And all vocal melodies are more or less improvisations “on first breath.” (Drums are played by the plugin Addictive drums.) The playlist will grow as we go along, here it is so far: