I began the Pullin from the Stacks podcast just over 10 years ago, publishing my first episode on October 19, 2014. The name is from the classic Digable Planets cut "Pacifics," a song which has a lot of meaning to me. I think I actually messed up and called it "Pullin from the Crates" for that first episode. The first record I played was a cover of Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage" by the Jazz Piano Quartet. The first record I play on this episode is a different "Maiden Voyage" cover, this time by the Dalton Jazz Ensemble, a school band record I found at Recollect Records in Denver years ago. One of my favorite songs, I still search out any version I can. The next record is the first record I ever put on my Discogs "want list," Michael Sardaby's "Gail," after hearing a soundclip on Youtube one day. Even back then it was going for more money than I'd ever spent on a piece of wax. A few years later, I sold my old copy of Eminem's first 12" for a couple hundred, and immediately went to see if there were any copies of "Gail" available at the same price - and there were! I feel so lucky to have snagged one. The next record is from one of my favorite jazz compilations, this one out of Hungary in the early 70s. I highly recommend it, the whole record is gorgeous, it's called "Modern Jazz Anthology X" and folks are sleeping on it! Staying in the same part of the world, I was introduced to Romanian jazz legend Johnny Cretu Raducanu after hearing a few Electrecord releases he had played on. The cover of this 10" and his own cover of Charles Mingus's "Haitian Fight Song" drove me to track down a copy online. The whole record is stunning. Speaking of stunning it is hard to find words to describe the beauty of this masterpiece by Winston Mankunku Ngozi, often referred to as South Africa's John Coltrane. It is a desert island record. The following tune, from the Roy Haynes Trio, is one I heard on Karriem Riggins masterful mix, "Music Kaleidoscope," and had to track down. I found it one weekend in a super random record store deep in Long Island. The Chucho Valdes represents my love of Cuban jazz; while I didn't find this record during my time in Havana, I did get hip to Mr. Valdes and months afterword dug this out of a crate on the floor under a table at the WMFU record fair. The Milton Banana cut I play here is from the first record of his I bought, I think at Human Head back in the day. He's killing it on the drums!! I don't remember when I first heard this RF 45 - maybe Junior played it? - but it's a gem, had to track one down. And Green Caterpillar man...I first heard this when Rev Shines played it YEARS ago on KBOO during Jumbo's "Beat Jeopardy" show. I remember being like "wtf is this?!?!?" - took many years to find a copy. I bought this off a dude in Colorado on Amazon.com in like 2015 for about $80. Clean. No regrets on that. The Soul Surfers cut here is just crazy to me, I think someone posted it on IG and I took notice. And finally, this beautiful cover of Kendrick Lamar by my guy Sly 5th Ave released by my people DJ Center and Footlong Development is a stone cold classic. I can't count all the DJ gigs I end with this 45 or all the people coming up to the turntables to see what it is. This is not the end of the podcast. There will be more episodes, though probably less often, as has been the case for much of 2024. Hoping to get back on a schedule of 1-2 episodes a month, possibly with some special guests. Speaking of guests, I want to thank everyone who's contributed a guest set these past ten years! Alex Stange, DO77, Duiji Mshinda, John Morrison, DJ Center, J. Rawls, Bruce Phillips, Evolve-One, LateBloomer and dflush, Daniel Littlewood, the DadBodRapPod, and Waffles Hidalgo. Much respect! And the biggest thank you goes out to everyone who's tuned in once or a hundred times, downloaded, subscribed, told their friends, or talked shit. It's all appreciated.

It's a heavy week - bombing and violence continues and expands in Palestine and Lebanon, funded by the United States and seemingly unstoppable as we all just watch in horror. Here's a set in remembrance of so many who have been murdered by bombs and other weapons in the name of white supremacy and power. Tracklist: Najah Salam, Mustafa al Kurd, La Troupe Palestinienne de Deir Yassin, Jazayer, Dia Prometido, Max Roach, Moses Yoofee Trio, Yusef Kamaal

Omega and I go way, way back, co-hosting a college radio show in the late 90s, talking shit about wack emcees and going on wild digging missions in the 2000s when these tracks were recorded. He remains one of my best friends and partner in crime today. He also happens to be an incredible emcee, with a style that certain emcee(s) making a name for themselves in 2024 took a big bite from (including one who literally was in rooms in 1999 where Omega spitting...go figure). So here's some tracks - some previously released, several unreleased - that we did in the 2000s, starting with "Eye Problems" which we recorded in Philadelphia back in 2001. These are "basement classics" since most were recorded in my Brooklyn basement apartment on Cool Edit. Everything except for one produced by me. Make sure to check out Omega's amazing and prolific output as a producer and emcee at https://omegajackson.bandcamp.com/ and https://soundcloud.com/omegajackson and cop all his projects! Not to mention our recent Neosapien EP available here: https://everydaybeats.bandcamp.com/album/all-we-need-is-a-title

Been a lot going on, but finally I've returned with some treats! The records have been stacking up and need to get filed - so let's get into it! RIP to the legend Sergio Mendes, I played a short set of a few of my favorites of his. (Also RIP to the legend Frankie Beverly, tribute on a forthcoming episode.) The rest of this episode is an adventure through other recent arrivals and digs. Enjoy! Hope everyone is holding up ok in this awful world. Tracklist: Sergio Mendes (4 songs), Bobby Guajardo and the Latin Breed, Howard University Jazz Ensemble, Milcho Leviev, Release Music Orchestra, Agora, University of Puerto Rico, Elis Regina, Johnny Costa Trio

Following up on last summer's salsa mix, here's some more of my favorite selections and digs to play loud in your car, living room, porch, or wherever! Tracklist: Ricardo Marrero, Bobby Valentin, Brooklyn Sounds, Latin Tempo, Ray Barretto, Joe Torres, Tata Vasquez, Pucho and His Latin Soul Brothers

Sorry for my absence - but I'm back with some mellow sounds, starting and ending with two great versions of the classic "People Make the World Go Round." The first is by Monty Alexander, which I only recently found out about, and the last is a more well-known take by Johnny Lytle. In-between are a variety of mellow-ish tunes for coolin out in the August heat.

I don't own much reggae or dub music, and am absolutely no expert in the music or culture. But I deeply respect the politics and music, which is absolutely incredible and creative. Especially dub music, with its intricate sounds and rhythms. So here's a few selections from my tiny collection. Enjoy! Tracklist: Ernest Ranglin, Al Brown, Heptones, Burning Spear, Rico, King Tubby, Love Joys, Inner Circle, Glen Brown, Mighty Diamonds, Burning Spear

So I spent a few weeks trying to do something 'special' for episode 250 of Pullin from the Stacks, but all my attempts just didn't feel right. Which meant I just kept putting off uploading a new episode this past month. But this week it was time for the latest Walking in Space livestream (second Thursday every month on Twitch!) and I felt like it came together pretty well, a blend of everything from folky-jazz to house to live hip-hop to gospel. A couple slip-ups in-between but that's just how things go! Hope you enjoy. Thanks to all the longtime listeners for sticking around and all the new listeners for checking this out! No track list for this one, but the final track is from my dude Jumbo's excellent gospel compilation "Love Hides All Faults," which everyone should check for!

So I'm a big fan of Sean Kantrowitz's podcast, especially "Making Illmatic" which he hosts with Midaz the Beast. The latest episode had them - and guest Supastition - breaking down the best tracks on the JayLib album, and at some point there was mention of how great De La Soul would have sounded on these beats. So I decided to test some of that out, and since I only have a few De La accapellas, I mixed in several other artists as well over about 10 minutes of my favorite beats from the Jaylib album. All vinyl, put together super quick, so it's a little rough on the edges but hope you enjoy!

Back this week with some digs from the private press crate, one of my favorite places to find unique sounds and creative flavors. Hope you dig! Tracklist: Morning Sky, Faces of Jazz, Dale Jacobs Group, Lamont Johnson, Guzzia Bros. Band, Danny Ward and Reality, Les James Trio

I've been starting to index my records on Discogs recently, and it's been a good exercise to go back through a lot of albums I haven't listened to in a minute and decide whether I still want to keep them. When I first started digging in the mid-90s, Jimmy Smith albums (except for the elusive Root Down) seemed to be in dollar bins everywhere. I eagerly scooped them up since it was still Blue Note (many first presses) and you never knew what cool sounds you'd find on there. But admittedly as the years have passed, I've realized I can only handle so much b3 organ playing, especially in the more straight-ahead style of many of Smith's albums. So it's not often I've gone back to these records. But this week as I categorized them all and put a few on, I figured it was a good time to do a short tribute to the legend, and play a few non-Beastie Boy-sampled cuts I enjoy. A little crunchy at times but still some funky stuff! Dig it.