With the First Annual Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival just wrapped up, it’s the perfect moment to think about jazz–past, present, and future. The latest issue of the always hot Wax Poetics does just that. Here at 106th Street, music is always on. At least 40% of the time, it’s jazz. That said, we have friends who never listen to jazz. It’s hard for the 106thstreeters to be objective in this matter. Luckily, the writers/thinkers/musicians/music obsessed/brilliant people at Wax Poetics have done it for us. Out of their love of jazz, they look at the past, present, and future of jazz–in the hope that it will live up to its reputation.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the great borough of Queens was its own jazz/funk capital. The Queens neighborhoods of Jamaica, St. Albans, and Hollis were hotbeds of great musical talent. Born out of, and schooled in, the jazz traditions of their musical genius/jazz greats neighbors who moved to the borough several decades earlier, these young musicians tweaked their roots to make something new. For the story, just start at issue 46 of waxpoetics. Your Beats For Your Week comes from this article…and as the article suggests…it’s just a wildly popular song that rose the charts, in spite of the fact that it was far from the best work any of the Kats or non Kats produced. Regardless, it’ll funk you up.

Funkin’ for Jamaica/Jamaica Funk