One Nation Under A Groove or Songs In the Keys Of Your Life

One Nation Under Your Groove.
I have had the great fortune of seeing/hearing a lot of live music being played by some of my favorite artists or groups over the past few months including Ahmad Jamal, Stanley Clarke , Marcus Miller, Victor Wooten, Living Colour, The Family Stand, Esperanza, The Black Rock Coalition's Tribute To Prince, Sergio Mendes, Al Green, The Roots, Dianne Reeves, Raphael Sadiq, Dionne Farris, Me'shell Ndegeocello,and Danielia Cotton,Zapp Mama (and many more). The music for me has been manna from heaven. Music Sweet Music has touched all of our lives in so many ways. I can't imagine a day without a song in my heart. Can you? I mention Summer 08 because It was the first time in years that I had both the time to go and the acts that I wanted to see all in alignment. Now that the fall is here( and my birthday near) I have been reflecting a lot about the huge role that music plays in my life. My schedule ( or budget) is not as flexible anymore. This means that I'm back to the Cd's on home system rotation-or through my headphones during long commutes on the subway to different Teaching Artist gigs Although I have 30 gigabytes on my Zune, I still play a lot of the same CD's over and over again. Clearly these cd's are comfort food for my soul.
I'm curious about other folks favorite albums/cds. Here are my top 10 in no particular order:
What about you? What are your top 10 of all time?

1 Innervisions - Stevie Wonder "Don't You Worry Bout A Thing, Living For The City, Higher Ground, Golden Lady, Visions, Mista Know It All, All Is Fair In Love, Too High, Jesus Children Of America.- Every single song is a classic. The album was hope and despair all rolled into a higher force

2 Plantation Lullabies - Me'Shelle Ndegeocello Funky , deep, melodic , lyrical, hard, and soft

3 Mothership Connection - Parliament P Funk Uncut Funk The Bomb- Chocolate covered freaking habit forming Milky Way. We Want The Funk!

4 Moon In Scorpio - The Family Stand - In my universe this would have been #1 " Was I too funky? Should I go pop? Excuse me for trying. Mind If I rock? All across the nation, I hear plantation radio." Sandra St Victor is the Mack Diva for real.

5 Purple Rain - Prince " Let's Go Crazy"." Darling Nikki,"" The Beautiful Ones" "When Doves Cry" e.t.c The title song still moves me

6 What's Going On? - Marvin Gaye This music is still relevant and sounds great all of these years later.

7 Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On ? Hardcore Jollies/ One Nation Under A Groove-Funkadelic O.K I'm cheating a bit here ; these are actually 3 different albums,but they collectively embody all that I loved about these brothas with guitars, synths, and George Clinton's James Bown, Sly, and Jimi's propensity.

8 Talking Book - Stevie Wonder . Is he really blind? His heart sure isn't.

9 Pride - Living Colour - It's a collection of many of my favorite Living Colour Songs from their first few albums.

10 Band OF Gypsies - Jimi Hendrix- Jimi got back with the brotha's on this one. You can hear it!

Ok , I did say 10 , but that is almost impossible.

11 Songs In The Key Of Life / 12 Aquemeni ( Outkast) 13 Fufilingness First Finale 14 3+3 ( The Isley Brothers) 15 Black Music ( Chocolate Genius) 16 Heijera ( Joni Mitchell) 17 Introducing The Hardline ( Terence Trent D'arby) 18 Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite ( Maxwell) 19 The Score ( The Fugees) 20 New Moon Daughter ( Cassandra Wilson)

Let's face it ; Miles and the Roots would take another 5 places .

I'll stop here.
Please share yours