Entering
This week’s list is 156 songs. Following the history of each song, I ran into the name Roberta Flack three times. Meshell Ndegeocello sang again, on her new album, “The Closer I Get To You,” which Flack sang with Donny Hathaway. Donny Hathaway’s daughter, Lalah Hathaway, released a new album around her father’s eighty-first birthday. And “I Can See The Sun In Late December,” the unreleased Stevie Wonder song that opened last week’s map, is a song Flack had already sung, at more than twelve minutes long, on her 1975 album [Feel Like Makin’ Love]. Roberta Flack died on February 24, 2025, at eighty-eight.
So this map starts from that place. It begins in the United States, passes through Canada and the Caribbean, the UK and Europe, and the Nordics, and ends in Addis Ababa, Lisbon and Bahia. Twenty-three songs.
North America
Washington, DC — Meshell Ndegeocello, 「The Closer I Get To You」 (with Destin Conrad, Moses Sumney)
Meshell Ndegeocello, the bassist and singer who grew up in Washington, DC, released [Synonym] on Blue Note on October 2. It is an album of fifteen classics sung again as duets, mostly paired with people who identify as the same gender. Ndegeocello described the work as an expression of queer liberation, and that liberation as synonymous with every kind of liberation. The producers are Ndegeocello, David Gamson and Abe Rounds. “The Closer I Get To You” is track 9, a song written by James Mtume and Reggie Lucas and released as a 1978 single sung by Roberta Flack with Donny Hathaway. Destin Conrad and Moses Sumney sing with her. Three more songs from the album are on the list: track 3, “Don’t Stop The Music,” with Nick Hakim and Robert Glasper; track 10, “Golden Ring,” George Jones and Tammy Wynette’s 1976 song, with Brandi Carlile; and track 11, “I Got You Babe,” Sonny & Cher’s 1965 song, with ANOHNI. According to the label, the album also includes another Flack and Hathaway song, “Be Real Black For Me.”
Chicago — Lalah Hathaway, 「Rainbo」
Lalah Hathaway is Donny Hathaway’s daughter, born in Chicago in 1968. She graduated from Berklee, has won five Grammys, and has run her own label, Hathaway Entertainment, since 2015. Her ninth album, [Made In Chicago], came out in early October — around eighty-one years after her father was born on October 1, 1945. She co-wrote every song but one with producer Phil Beaudreau and co-produced the whole album with him, and “Rainbo” is track 6 of nine. Soul outlet SoulBounce wrote that the song suits two-stepping, line dancing or roller skating, and in its review named Elena Pinderhughes on flute. She also played the flute on Ndegeocello’s album. The daughter took as her album title the name of the city where her father, who sang with Flack, was born.
Berkeley — Elena Pinderhughes, 「ring ring」
She is a flutist born in Berkeley, California in 1995. She studied at the Manhattan School of Music and has played with Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, Herbie Hancock, Common and Esperanza Spalding. Her older brother is pianist Samora Pinderhughes. “ring ring” is a new single from her debut album. According to music outlet FEMMUSIC, the album is titled [i hope you feel it too] and comes out October 23. Pinderhughes said she wanted the flute to lead a groove that is soulful, effortless and impossible not to move to. This is a song under her own name by someone who played flute on two other people’s albums in the same week.
Chicago — Jeremy Cunningham, 「Somewhere to Be」
Chicago drummer and composer Jeremy Cunningham released [Passing Fires] on Northern Spy on October 2. “Somewhere to Be” is the last track, number 12. Working on the album with him were Paul Bryan, Josh Johnson, Jeff Parker, Makaya McCraven, and Sen Morimoto, who was born in Kyoto, grew up in Massachusetts and works in Chicago. Northern Spy has introduced Mike Reed as his close mentor and colleague, and Ben LaMar Gay, Jaimie Branch and Tomeka Reid as longtime collaborators. Bandcamp does not yet list per-track credits. The song that closes the album is titled “somewhere to be.”
LA × London — ALA.NI & Adrian Younge, 「Dusty Road」
[Proud of Me], a joint album by London-born singer ALA.NI, whose parents are from Grenada, and LA composer and producer Adrian Younge, is coming out on Younge’s label Linear Labs. It is the pairing introduced on the September 14 map with “Face in the Evening.” After a first session in LA in 2018 and a second in 2020, Younge finished it at Linear Labs by adding strings. “Dusty Road” is track 5. ALA.NI said she wrote music to bear and hold up whatever she was going through at the time, or else to shield herself from it. Sessions begun eight years ago are only now, this fall, gathered onto one record.
Canada
Montreal — Dominique Fils-Aimé, 「Ensorcelée」
Singer Dominique Fils-Aimé, born in Montreal to Haitian parents, has twice won the Juno Award for Vocal Jazz Album, and this year’s album [My World Is the Sun] made the Polaris Prize longlist. “Ensorcelée,” released October 1 on Ensoul Records, is a new version of a song Quebec singer-songwriter Daniel Bélanger put on his 1992 debut album [Les insomniaques s’amusent]. FEMMUSIC wrote that it is a song that shaped modern Quebec pop-rock and holds an iconic place in Quebec culture. Fils-Aimé said that love is broad and many-layered in its expression, and that this is a song searching for a kind of freedom she has rarely sung about.
Toronto — Kazdoura, 「Ala Mahlak」
A duo formed in Toronto in 2020 by Syrian vocalist Leen Hamo and Lebanese multi-instrumentalist John Abou Chacra. This March they won the Juno Award for Global Music Album with [Ghoyoum]. “Ala Mahlak” is a new single and track 3 of their new album [Markab], coming out on Habibi Funk. The label says the album includes new versions of traditional songs and songs by Elias Rahbani and Georgette Sayegh. Two people from Syria and Lebanon sing those names again in Toronto.
Caribbean
Kingston → Paris — Monty Alexander, 「Marcus Garvey」
Pianist Monty Alexander, born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1944, released [A JAMARICAN IN PARIS] on October 2. The title reads as a blend of Jamaica and America. The first song, “Marcus Garvey,” is the title track Burning Spear sang on his 1975 album of the same name. Luke Sellick on bass, Jason Brown on drums, and Bobby Thomas Jr. and Stéphane Edouard on percussion join him. He plays New Morning in Paris on October 6. An eighty-two-year-old jazz pianist opens his album in Paris with a reggae classic from home.
United Kingdom
London — Us3, 「Catch The Vibe」
Us3 is a group started in London in 1992 by Geoff Wilkinson and Mel Simpson together with Blue Note. The name comes from Horace Parlan’s album [Us Three], released on Blue Note. In October of that year they released “Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia),” which samples Herbie Hancock’s “Cantaloupe Island.” That group released a new album, [Snap, Crackle & Bop!], on October 2. The raps on this album are by New York MC Akil Dasan, who has been with Us3 since the 2006 album [Schizophonic]. Wilkinson said his mother always told him life is a journey, not a destination, and that this is another long trip. The group that cut and pasted Blue Note records more than thirty years ago is still releasing albums under the same name.
Leeds → London — Nubiyan Twist, 「Homecoming」 (with eniola)
A band formed at Leeds College of Music around guitarist and producer Tom Excell. Signed to Strut, they released their fifth album, [Chasing Shadows], in March. That album featured Joe Armon-Jones, Patrice Rushen, and Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara, who appeared on a Jembaa Groove song on the September 21 map. Introducing that album, Strut announced eniola, freshly graduated from Trinity Laban, as the new lead vocalist. The single “Homecoming,” released October 2, is also sung by eniola. A band that began at a school in Leeds has released a song titled “Homecoming” with a new voice.
London — Michael Kiwanuka, 「Summer Clothes」
Michael Kiwanuka releases his fifth album, [FUDGE], on Polydor on October 23. “Summer Clothes” is the first song and a single released October 2. This time he produced it himself, with Dom Monks handling final production and Rosie Danvers the strings. It was recorded at the Dreamers studio near Southampton and in Frome. The music video is based on an interview with Chick Corea. Kiwanuka explained the title: the word “fudge” feels playful and childlike, which is good for creating, and at the same time it is a polite way of saying he’ll just go for it.
London — Nao, 「Eugene」
Nao releases her new album [Autumn] independently on October 16. It is her first record since leaving RCA, and it grew out of improvised sessions in her living room, made with London producer Dave Okumu. It is the first part of [A Soulful Suite], a series that will run to four records, one for each season. “Eugene,” released September 30 along with “Save The World,” is dedicated to the late D’Angelo, born Michael Eugene Archer. Nao said she is no longer trying to get a seat at the table, but building her own table. She gave the song his middle name as its title.
London × Maceió — Azekel, 「I’ve Tried to Change It」 (with Bruno Berle)
This is the second time the name of London soul singer Azekel appears on this map. On September 21 he was noted as a guest on albums by Berlin’s Jembaa Groove and Zurich’s Okvsho. “I’ve Tried to Change It,” released September 30, features Bruno Berle, a singer-songwriter from Maceió in Brazil’s Alagoas state who works in São Paulo. Berle co-founded the label Batata Records, and recorded his album [Sem Fronteiras], released in July on London’s Far Out Recordings, in London, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Germany and Maceió. The album’s title means “without borders.”
Continental Europe
Almería × Rio — Niño Josele, 「Nem Um Passo Atrás」 (with Marisa Monte)
Flamenco guitarist Niño Josele, born in Almería, Andalusia in 1974, became known for [Paz], his 2006 tribute album to Bill Evans. [Bajañí], a music film by director Fernando Trueba in which he stars, screened at the San Sebastián Film Festival on September 22, and a three-disc record of the same title comes with it. It was recorded in New York, Spain and Brazil, with Caetano Veloso, Rubén Blades, Ron Carter and Kenny Barron taking part. “Nem Um Passo Atrás,” made with Brazil’s Marisa Monte, came out as a single in late September. Trueba recalled that Caetano told him, with a gentle look, that he was making films to save the world.
Cologne × Berlin — Frank Kojo, 「Moko Lee」 (Jazzanova Remix)
German label Sound Essence calls Frank Kojo a Cologne “Afrolectric” legend. According to the label, “Moko Lee” is a song Kojo made in 1988 with Carlos Eduardo “Chico” de los Reyes, a studio keyboardist for Boney M. [Remixed], released October 2, is a record in which various people rework two 1980s Afro-electronic originals, and its first track is a remix by Jazzanova, formed in Berlin in 1995, who founded the label Sonar Kollektiv in 1997. Tom Sky, who runs Sound Essence, wrote in the first line of the notes that Jazzanova is back. The original is also included as a digital bonus. A tape from Cologne spins again in Berlin nearly forty years later.
Belgium — Echoes of Zoo, 「Multicellularity」
A Belgian quartet formed in 2018 by Nathan Daems on saxophone, Bart Vervaeck on guitar, Lieven Van Pée on bass and Falk Schrauwen on drums. The members also play in Black Flower, Compro Oro and De Beren Gieren. Their third album, [Collective Intelligence], released October 2, takes collective animal behavior as its theme. “Multicellularity” is track 5 of seven. The first single, “Flock Logic,” came out of a tour of Brazil in early 2024; the band said that, watching flocks of birds swirl in the sky, they wondered how they steer together as if of one mind. Four people gathered from three other bands put the title “collective intelligence” on it.
Paris — Grain de Caf’, 「Paname State of Mind」 (with Oxmo Puccino, Vin’s Da Cuero)
Rapper Oxmo Puccino was born in Ségou, Mali in 1974, came to Paris at the age of one and grew up in the 19th arrondissement. After Time Bomb, he released [Lipopette Bar] on Blue Note in 2006. Grain de Caf’ named Oxmo as an influence in a 2007 interview with hip-hop outlet Abcdr du Son, and the two had already worked together on “Trente Nerfs.” “Paname State of Mind,” released October 1, is a Grain de Caf’ single made by producer Vin’s Da Cuero. The elder who was an influence and the younger artist who said he was influenced meet again in one song.
The Nordics
Hønefoss × Oslo — LINDSJØRN, 「This Is Where I´m Breathing」 (with Bernhoft)
In an interview around the time of her 2020 debut album [Flying High], Ingvild Lindsjørn, a singer from Hønefoss, Norway, named Bernhoft and Ole Børud as influences from Norwegian soul. Six years later, on September 25, a single she sang with that same Bernhoft came out. Jarle Bernhoft won Spellemann of the Year and Male Artist at Norway’s 2011 Spellemann Awards, and was nominated for a Grammy for R&B album with his 2014 album [Islander]. Lindsjørn said of her debut that every song grooves and is danceable but very laid-back — just the way she likes it. The other name she mentioned is in the very next song.
Sweden — Aspen Creek, 「Champagne On Ice」 (feat. Ole Børud, Tollak Ollestad)
Aspen Creek is a Swedish AOR and West Coast project. Its second album, [We Chase The Rising Sun], came out first on CD in September from Japan’s P-Vine, and was released to streaming on September 25. “Champagne On Ice” is track 9 of fourteen. Norwegian singer Ole Børud returns after “Tomorrow’s Girl” on the 2024 debut [Tomorrow Take You Home], joined by Tollak Ollestad. The album’s last song features Swedish guitarist Jojje Wadenius and saxophonist Magnus Lindgren. Ole Børud, whom LINDSJØRN named six years ago, sang around the same time on an album by a Swedish project.
Roskilde → London — Marie Dahlstrom, 「1 Journey Away」
Track 4 of [MARIE], the third album by Marie Dahlstrom, introduced on the September 21 map with “Joined,” a song about her second son. It came out first as a single in June. It was co-produced by Corey Fonville, drummer of the Richmond, Virginia band Butcher Brown, Cuban percussionist Eliel Lazo and LA musician Elijah Fox. She wrote it moving between London, Copenhagen and LA. Dahlstrom said it is a song about her family scattered across several countries, and about wanting to be closer to them. Someone born in Denmark and living in London titled it “one journey away.”
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa — Teodros Makonnen, 「Eyewat Sitinafekegn」
Teodros “Teddy Mak” Makonnen, a keyboardist and producer from Addis Ababa, is introduced as the man who created the “digital era” of Ethiopian music in the 1980s. [Teodros Makonnen With His Organ], released only on cassette in the early 1980s, was reissued on October 2 by Muzikawi, a label founded in Addis Ababa in 2020. It was recorded in one take on a two-manual Yamaha organ belonging to a Saudi diplomat he met at the Wabe Shebelle Hotel. “Eyewat Sitinafekegn” is track 7 of nine. Muzikawi co-founder Samuel Mulugeta said that musicians deserve to have their voices and histories preserved. A cassette recorded on a diplomat’s organ has come out again, more than forty years later, on a label in its home city.
Songs in Portuguese
Lisbon × São Paulo — Salvador Sobral, 「Bam Bam」 (com Ney Matogrosso)
Salvador Sobral, born in Lisbon in 1989, won Eurovision in 2017 with “Amar pelos Dois,” written by his sister Luísa Sobral. His fifth album, [A Flor do Recomeço], due October 16, was recorded in São Paulo with Brazilian musicians, using songs by Brazilian composers. Marcus Preto and Tó Brandileone produced it, and names such as Adriana Calcanhotto, Marcelo Camelo, Marcos Valle, Tim Bernardes, Arnaldo Antunes and Chico César contributed songs. “Bam Bam” is the second single, sung together with Ney Matogrosso, who sang in Secos & Molhados from 1973 into the following year and went solo in 1975. Sobral explained to Portuguese public broadcaster RTP, in essence, that he did not set out to make a Brazilian record, but a record of Brazilian composers’ songs sung by a Portuguese singer.
Bahia × São Paulo — Ivan Sacerdote, 「A Luz de Tieta」 (with Vanessa Moreno)
Ivan Sacerdote, a clarinetist born in Rio and working in Bahia, was introduced on the September 14 map as the man who played clarinet on Fatel’s album. In 2020 he released a duo album with Caetano Veloso, and at the time Caetano said everyone was enchanted by the tenderness of his breath. “A Luz de Tieta,” released September 25, features São Paulo singer Vanessa Moreno. The original is a song Caetano wrote for director Cacá Diegues’s 1996 film [Tieta do Agreste], and Caetano recorded it with Gal Costa. A song Caetano wrote for a film has been brought back out thirty years later by the clarinetist who made an album with him. Caetano’s name also appears on the Niño Josele record on this week’s list.
Closing
Laying out the twenty-three songs city by city, the first name was what remained. The song Roberta Flack sang with Donny Hathaway was sung again on Meshell Ndegeocello’s album, Hathaway’s daughter released an album named after the city where her father was born, and Elena Pinderhughes played flute on both albums. The two people LINDSJØRN named as influences six years ago sang around the same time — one with her, the other in a Swedish project. Nao used the middle name of a departed elder as a song title.
This order is only one I chose to draw the map. Shuffle the list and Addis Ababa follows Chicago, and Hønefoss follows Lisbon. The order is for the listener to decide.
I don’t know whose name will turn up in the credits next week.