Spotify Sundays: Travelling, Costumes and Tunes with Leah Sax
by Leah Sax
July 2023
An illustrated playlist compiled by a musician who is more comfortable on the stage than off it.
I am mildly synesthetic. I see sound as shape and colour. Athens, Greece—this sunset is how I see the songs of this artist. All lights and pinks and purples and blues ombre and blends and sublime. My outfit is just a sparkly moon at dusk. But this gig, with the sun disappearing, the sea lulling and a quiet cactus is the soundworld of Moonchild. Sounds to soothe the soul.
I played the saxophone whilst Richard Branson was using our green room loo in Tel Aviv. He said he’d never been serenaded whilst using the gents. This gig was in the run up to Christmas, with a gently sparkling outfit. This Elling tune is stunning, somewhat mournful, recalling the slight lostness of busyness and consistently being on the road in the run up to the festive season, as so many emotions run loose. My mother says you should have a little bit of Christmas all year round. So here you go.
We got off the plane, were sent to the wrong hotel, sat in endless Paris traffic and arrived only just in time for our first set at an intimate wedding at the Shang-ri-la. But, we were in Paris. Misch with groove, beautiful guitar lines and epic space lets this song glow, just like the Tower behind me, which apparently I dressed to match.
Roy Ayers Ubiquity: Everybody Loves the Sunshine
Sometimes you just have to stop and take a moment to realise where you are and what you have the privilege of doing. I’ve loved this tune since a friend put it on ‘mixtape’ (CD) for me at uni. It’s so laid back you can see the sunshine coming from that piano riff. And here I was in glorious colour (I am a colour fiend), living ‘my life in the sunshine’ as the lyric goes, in glorious Tuscany, and just taking a moment.
Tuscany one day. Telford the next. It’s not all sunshine, hills and fine cheeses. Sometimes it’s the M6 in the rain and a conference venue with no windows with natural light and golden mirror men. But the show must go on. So here we have the beautiful work of Jill Scott—living life like it’s golden, always showing up, always doing your best no matter where you are. The Telford moments too, are golden.
The opening synth line is visualised for me in the layered red lighting of this gig, high up in the centre of London, it’s expanding, growing, directing, pulsing. I love this funk-based tune as a hip vibe on following God’s will. Whether that’s London, Athens, Paris or Tel Aviv. That’s ultimately what I care about.
Add the Bassline: Jordan Rakei
Rakei’s lyric ‘sweet sounds of July’ mirror this photo from a sunny July gig. As my heart loves, this song is groove and pure space and the colours of this song match the colours of this jumpsuit, grooves of pink, blue. There is so little in this song—and yet it’s perfect.
The Shard, NYE, the ultimate end to a year. After a gig, I mostly need silence, or a solid podcast. Music is too much. But if I do choose music, my end of the night music is Bob Moses. Melodic, cool, space to process the day whilst quietly soldiering on, time to process the glamorous night, and the reality of McDonalds drive-thru on my journey home.
