This Herb Sundays playlist is about artist collaboration

My mother has dementia. While that presents a wide variety of difficulties for her and for me, it has also opened up new pathways of thinking. She doesn’t always recall every detail of my life in its current state, but in each conversation, there is a steady refrain: People are better when they work together.

I’m not really sure when this started to be a constant, vocalized idea for my mother. I seemed to notice it right around the time when my friends at Ghostly International asked me to moderate a panel discussion. One of the topics offered was collaboration. I knew immediately that this would be my focus.

The idea of collaboration feeds my natural curiosity about the creative process. It gives in to my longing to dig deep into the details, whether those details be album credits or sound bridges. I’ve come to realize that most great moments in sound don’t just appear out of nowhere. And often, people help one another along the way.

Fast forward to today, the end of 2021. Ghostly founder Sam Valenti extended the invitation to take part in his Herb Sundays playlist series. Of course, I couldn’t resist recalling the panel discussion about collaboration. I’d also just wrapped up a project involving an interview I did with Alice Coltrane, Charlie Haden and Roy Haynes that perfectly punctuated the beauty that working together can bring. (I’ll have more details about that soon.)

Before realizing it, I had put together a five-hour playlist. It seemed both ridiculous and perfect, reminding me of my nightly five-hour stints on late-night radio in Detroit, endlessly exploring sounds and textures without limits.

This playlist, simply called Herb Sundays 28, has that same feeling. As much as a playlist can be static, this one has life. Each selection has a story in itself that deserves an entire discussion.

Find Herb Sundays 28 on Apple Music and on Spotify. Sam also took the time to write his thoughts about the playlist on Substack. It’s also on this Substack post that I dig a bit deeper into just a few of the selections, such as when David Sylvian worked with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Jon Hassell for his first solo record, Brilliant Trees. There were so many moments of discovery on the meeting of those particular minds. The same can be said for each song on the playlist.

One of the greatest things about putting this playlist together is that I can envision sitting at that radio console once again, my community right there with me. It highlights the reason we collaborate, even if it’s just to embrace that feeling of being together in the same room once again, even if for a fleeting five hours.

Top Image: Artwork for Herb Sundays by Michael Cina