Song of the Day: Georgia Anne Muldrow “Ciao”

Following Georgia Anne Muldrow on Instagram is my daily source of spiritual upliftment. Some folks have to start their day with yoga or prayer or even coffee, I have to make sure I play one of her videos to shift my mind into a happy place. The prolific singer and producer broadcasts short, wondrous snippets of the funky soundscapes she crafts in her studio. It’s documentation of an artist with a solid regimen who shows up for the job day in and day out, and it’s also a ton of fun. Muldrow’s joy is infectious when she makes the room dark, turns on the disco lights (note to self: install disco lights in my studio to increase productivity) and starts rocking out to a new creation. It’s even better when she improvises birthday songs.

This constant diet of Georgia Anne Muldrow’s IG merriment had me digging back into her varied catalog. Even if you’re a fan, there are always joints you may have missed or forgotten about because she’s always working. Lately I revisited and have been vigorously head nodding to 2014’s oLIGARCHY sUCKS!, a collection of instrumentals that was bundled for free with a limited run of t-shirts featuring Muldrow’s no-nonsense countenance conveying the sentiment. On this collection of beats she bounces between slapping, drunk drums, ’80s pop-locking electro, and mid-tempo trunk rattlers, many of them titled in the form of (adjective)+FONK, as “fonk” is Muldrow’s primary cooking ingredient. You’ll note the running theme of fonk on her IG as well.

Then at the end of the project you find “Ciao”, an adorably sweet 97 second entreaty to a loved one to “pack our bags and hit the road” for a spontaneous adventure. In marked contrast to the relentless fonk of the rest of the tunes that mostly eschew vocals, Muldrow coos tenderly over shuffling drums with a vibraphone doubling the melody. Somewhere on my bucketlist is a live performance of “Ciao” accompanied by Roy Ayers where the scatting on the song’s fade stretches out indefinitely.