Rhythm Lab Radio · August 21, 2026
Her Hour
Curated by Rae Johnson, on her birthday.
"Welcome to the first hour of Rhythm Lab Radio! This one is a little extra special, because it was programmed by someone very special to me. Today is my girlfriend's birthday, and to celebrate she wanted to put together some of her favorite tracks that relate to what we do here at RLR. So, for the next hour, you're going to hear a collection of tracks that mean something to her and hopefully bring a little joy to you, too. Happy birthday love — and thank you for letting me share your soundtrack with everyone."
Twelve tracks. Sixty-eight years. One woman's personal timeline of Black American music — from Kind of Blue to right now.
Curated by Rae Johnson · Broadcast August 21, 2026 · Rhythm Lab Radio
1 · 1959
So What
Miles Davis — Kind of Blue · Columbia
This is where modern jazz exhales. Two chords, all the room in the world — and nearly everyone you're about to hear traces a straight line back to this session.
2 · 1958
Autumn Leaves
Cannonball Adderley Quintet — Somethin' Else · Blue Note
You just left Miles leading his own session — here he is again, months earlier, sitting in on Cannonball Adderley's record instead. Same trumpeter, same year, an entirely different mood: proof of how versatile that era's musicians had to be just to work.
3 · 1986
'Round Midnight
Herbie Hancock — 'Round Midnight OST · Columbia
Herbie Hancock spent five years in Miles Davis's second great quintet before this soundtrack session — which means three of the first four artists in this hour all passed through one of Miles's bands. This hour is quietly a Miles Davis family tree.
4 · 1976
Everybody Loves the Sunshine
Roy Ayers Ubiquity — Everybody Loves the Sunshine · Polydor
Here's where the hour turns warm — acoustic jazz giving way to jazz-funk. Roy Ayers, the man Erykah Badu crowned the Godfather of Neo Soul, passed away in March 2025, so this spin doubles as a tribute. His sound is the direct bridge to nearly everything sampled later in this set.
5 · 1977
The Closer I Get to You
Donny Hathaway & Roberta Flack — Blue Lights in the Basement · Atlantic
Hathaway and Flack met as students at Howard University and became one of soul music's defining duet partnerships. Flack passed away in February 2025 — which means two artists in this hour, her and Roy Ayers, left us within months of each other. Another spin that doubles as a tribute.
1985
Rae arrives
RLR-0821-1985 · The greatest release of the era
6 · 2005
A Song for You
Herbie Hancock feat. Christina Aguilera — Possibilities · Hancock Music
The full circle: Herbie Hancock, back again, playing piano behind pop superstar Christina Aguilera on a song most associated with Donny Hathaway — who you just heard two tracks ago. This hour rewards close listening.
7 · 2004
Golden
Jill Scott — Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2 · Hidden Beach
This is the centerpiece of the hour, and it's no accident it lands here. Jill Scott's "Golden" is pure joy and self-affirmation — a song about feeling free and golden, chosen for a birthday-themed hour on the birthday itself. Happy birthday, Rae.
8 · 2008
I Know You Know
Esperanza Spalding & Leo Genovese — Esperanza · Heads Up
Esperanza Spalding met pianist Leo Genovese at Berklee College of Music, and their partnership runs through her catalog to this day — this is where it started. A few years later she'd become the first jazz musician ever to win the Grammy for Best New Artist.
9 · 2018
Thang (Hips)
Esperanza Spalding — 12 Little Spells · Concord
A decade after "I Know You Know," this is Spalding the composer, not just the bassist and vocalist — one of twelve songs on an album where each track is dedicated to a different part of the human body. Same artist, same hour, an entirely different ambition.
10 · 2020
Better Than I Imagined
Robert Glasper feat. H.E.R. & Meshell Ndegeocello — Black Radio III · Loma Vista
This is the hour's thesis made explicit. Three traditions — Robert Glasper's Houston jazz piano, H.E.R.'s Bay Area R&B, Meshell Ndegeocello's D.C. go-go and funk — fused into one song, on a series built to prove jazz, soul, and hip-hop are the same family tree. It's basically what Rhythm Lab Radio has always been about.
11 · 2021
Intimidated
KAYTRANADA feat. H.E.R. — INTIMIDATED · RCA
The neo-soul lineage from earlier in the hour — Ayers, Hathaway and Flack, Jill Scott — lands here in modern club production. KAYTRANADA's grooves carry the same jazz-funk DNA, just filtered through a Montreal dance-floor sensibility.
12 · 2026
Tomorrow, Again
FATHERS — FATHERS · Blue Note
The hour closes on the newest release in the set — brand new for 2026, released on Blue Note, the same label behind Herbie Hancock's 'Round Midnight forty years earlier. A hip-hop producer and a beat-scene pianist teamed with two jazz players here: proof the line from Miles Davis to tonight is still being written.
1959 to 2026. Sixty-seven years of this music, and she carried us through all of it in a single hour. Her hour.
And when it ends, the radio does what radio does: one more song. Teaspoon and The Waves, "Oh Yeh Soweto," 54:12, playing us out.
Rae — you gave me an hour and I built you this. Fair trade? Not even close. Happy birthday. I love you.
— T