MEKALA
SESSION
South Central, CA
Photos by Sam Lee
On this installment of Modern Composition L.A., we spend some quality time with Mekala Session, a young drummer and musical polymath raised in the fold of the multi-generational Los Angeles jazz band Pan Afrikan People’s Arkesta. He now guides the outfit into the future while keeping the light of its founder Horace Tapscott shining bright. The episode caps off with the premiere of a brand new composition by Mekala for the band Yoni. On the way, we’ll hear the music that’s helped inform his community-rooted music mission.
TRACKLIST
John Coltrane - Leo
Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Serenade to Cuckoo
Phil Ranelin - A Close Encounter of the Very Best Kind
Pharoah Sanders - Doktor Pitt
Lee Morgan - The Gigolo
Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers - Free For All
Taumbu International Ensemble - Tiv Tiv Dco
Pan Afrikan People’s Arkesta - Clarrise
Horace Tapscott & Michael Session - Retribution, Reparation
Ras G & Koreatown Oddity - Do "U" Pop (feat. Kahill Sadiq)
HOLY SMOKE (Jeremiah Jae & zeroh) - Soy Cheese
Busdriver - Gun Control
Max Baer, Moe Phat & Lord Hanes - Princess Cake
Mickey - Laundry (prod. by Tyler Brimley)
Jimetta Rose - Emerald City
Jamael Dean - Eledumare
Yoni - Five