Miguel Atwood-Ferguson’s Les Jardins Mystiques
“Each of the tracks is supposed to be a different mystical garden.”
I almost didn’t read this Q&A with jazz musician Miguel Atwood-Ferguson in the latest issue of Tricycle Magazine, but I’m glad I did. His debut album, Les Jardins Mystiques, came out last year — after 14 years in the making — and is streaming in full on Bandcamp. I like the music, but this was my favorite bit from the interview:
Since I’m not trying to be popular, I’m not trying to win awards, I’m not trying to do anything other than be sincere and share what is most authentically me, the worst thing I could do is be fake or do anything disingenuous. That’s why I didn’t make a short, easy-to-digest album. I wanted to attract my tribe and scare away the people that don’t have the ability to focus or that would be annoyed.
Discussion 8 comments
You can include me in his tribe. I'm listening as I write this, and it's terrific!
Thank you for sharing, Edith!
I have an EP that I adore that Miguel Atwood-Ferguson did with Carlos Niño. It came out after J. Dilla passed — and I listen to it all the time while working. This is on of the tracks, called Fall in Love.
I've looked at the album cover a hundred-thousand times, but usually small on my computer. In seeing it on YouTube a bit larger, I realized the image is of people at a funeral. I'd only noticed the heart cloud in the sky. Studying it more, I thought it sort of looked like LA in the background — and so I search and discover that Dilla is buried at Forest Lawn, not too far from where I live. I think I'll have to stop by soon.
I love this, thank you for sharing. Listening now.
Wild follow-up here.
In searching to confirm where Dilla's gravesite is, I ended up on this website from Reilly Brennan.
It looked nicely put together, so I read a few other posts — then clicked the About page to read about the person, and lo-and-behold Edith Zimmerman did the illustration. (!!!) I'm astounded. In just a few clicks, the world feels bigger and smaller at the same time.
Lol!!! Or maybe I'm just in all the right places...
*genuflects*
In the name of the Father, Son, and holy Edith…
😂 🙏
What in the what?! That's crazy.
Hello! In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.
Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.
Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions that you have installed on your browser...sometimes they can interfere with the Memberful links. Still having trouble? Email me!
In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. Check out your options for renewal.
This is the name that'll be displayed next to comments you make on kottke.org; your email will not be displayed publicly. I'd encourage you to use your real name (or at least your first name and last initial) but you can also pick something that you go by when you participate in communities online. Choose something durable and reasonably unique (not "Me" or "anon"). Please don't change this often. No impersonation..
Note: I'm letting folks change their display names because the membership service that kottke.org uses collects full names and I thought some people might not want their names displayed publicly here. If it gets abused, I might disable this feature.
If you feel like this comment goes against the grain of the community guidelines or is otherwise inappropriate, please let me know and I will take a look at it.
Hello! In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.
Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.
Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions that you have installed on your browser...sometimes they can interfere with the Memberful links. Still having trouble? Email me!