Dougie Stu’s Familiar Future is a uniquely jazz-attuned album that is soulful and ethereal. It draws inspiration from artists and producers like Lonnie Liston Smith, Charles Stepney, David Axelrod, and Alice Coltrane. Stuart has arrived at a sound that harkens back to the golden era of soul jazz and R&B, while still sounding contemporary.

The band features the immediately recognizable guitar stylings of Jeff Parker (Tortoise) who was one of Stuart’s biggest influences growing up in Chicago, Maya Kronfeld (Georgia Anne Muldrow, NYEUSI) on Fender Rhodes, Steve Blum (Bells Atlas) on synthesizer, percussionists Brijean Murphy (Toro Y Moi, Poolside), John Santos (Tito Puente, Dizzy Gillespie), and drummer Hamir Atwal (tune-yards). Special guests include Marcus Stephans on Flute, Shaina Evoniuk on Violin, and Crystal Pascucci on Cello.

Dougie Stu walks us through the album this summer with a series of remixes from some of his heroes. First up was Resavoir’s remix of the track Henny, to which Doug adds:

I felt like this song could be stretched in a lot of different directions, and have been so eager to hear how their versatility and talents would shape it. I love how beautiful and compositional their reimagining of the song is, and I’m still floored every time I hear the way they recontexualized Jeff Parker’s guitar solo.

Second on the schedule is today’s release of Joy Ride Remixed by the great Jeff Parker. In Doug’s words:

Jeff Parker has been a deep musical influence for me since I was in high school. I used to go hear him play in Chicago at clubs and festivals in the city. It always struck me that no matter what context he was playing in, be it free improvisation, straight-ahead jazz, post-rock, or whatever else, he always sounded so distinctly “himself”. It really inspired me to hear someone who had such a command of jazz and bebop vocabulary also play so expressively in musical situations that weren’t as idiomatic.

Drop in here and follow as we discover new sounds with Dougie Stu.