Unless this is your first couple hours on the internet, there’s a good chance you’ve seen one of director Jake Davis’s Test Shots. These beautiful, one minute video portraits that feature some of New Yorks coolest movers and shakers have been floating around for about two years now, with a total of just under seventy flicks. His subjects are incredible, and span from renowned tailor Martin Greenfield, to the owner of my favourite (read: best) clothing store here in Toronto, Zeb Munir, to lots of gorgeous girls on rooftops, and even a couple friends of mine.  One of the best things, for me at least, is the music that Jake selects for these brief but poignant videos, and its been something I’ve been keeping track of for a while. I started putting a playlist together of my favourites about 3 months ago, and last night I sent Jake a quite note making sure its cool to post it, he said its all good as long as I did my homework, and it was a go. So, here it is, Jake Davis Test Songs.

1. One More - Cymande (Martin Greenfield)
2. L’Assassinat De Carala - Miles Davis (Travis Gumbs for Tassel Moccasin / Josh Kissi #1)
3. Street Hassle - Lou Reed (Gay Talese)
4. So What - Jeremy Taylor (Koji Kusakabe)
5. Afraid Of Everyone - The National (Katherine Elkington)
6. Pauls Tune - The Clash (Glenn O’Brien)
7. Yesterdays - Clifford Brown (Mobolaji Dawodu)
8. Dove - Cymande (Mariana Dantec)
9. Summertime - Santo And Johnny (Shonagh Marshall)
10. Variazione Di Un Tango - Dustin O’Halloran (Jeremy Kirkland)
11. Stitches - The Morning Benders (Hayley Phelan)
12. Backyards Of Our Neighbors - Au Revoir Simone (Quinta Witzel)
13. Ene Alantchi Alnorem - Mulatu Astatke (Chris Gibbs)
14. No Cars Go - Maxence Cyrin (Laurel Pantin)
15. Makambo - Geoffery Oryema (J. Wes Yoder)
16. We Have A Map Of The Piano - Mum (Angelo Urrutia)
17. Stay Off The Fuckin’ Flowers - Blackroc feat. Raekwon (Sibylla Deen)
18. Jessica - Herbie Hancock (Yimmy Yayo)
19. Shift - Grizzly Bear (Sean Sullivan / The Impossible Cool)
20. Albatross - Fleetwood Mac (Eri Shoji)

You can download the tape HERE. 

Make sure to check out Jake Davis’s work here and here.