Music: Current count 19952 [19915] rated (+37), 745 [754] unrated (-9). Typical week, which increasingly includes not getting much mail -- although a few of the unpacking items do look promising (Amado and Threadgill, if you must know). Sorry to have been so tardy in getting to the Byron album. I packed it in a gravel case some time ago, meaning to spend some time with it, and effectively it got lost. (Gilkes also came from that travel case.) Torn between trying to catch up and look ahead -- all the best prospects are toward the end of a long queue.

I spent about as much time replenishing the Streamnotes file as I did with Jazz Prospecting last week. Was unimpressed with Beach House first time I played it, then surprised when Christgau gave it an A- in Expert Witness, and finally replayed it, ultimately finding it as uninteresting as ever, although I did wind up retuning my reasoning. Looking at my 2012 in progress file it appears that half or more of the entries are for things I heard on Rhapsody -- comparing the green to the blue in the 2012 metacritic file is even starker, although the sort moves the green up and the blue down. Coloring in the latter seems like an especially hopeless task. In fact, just building the file is more than I can really manage.

This has lead up to another of my existential crises. I'm thinking I'll take a few weeks off and lay low -- go see some relatives (and some countryside), try to fix up some things around the house, maybe file (or dispose of) some of the mess, get some reading done. Wrists are getting real sore, and my right arm feels like dropping off. Not looking forward to another summer as brutal as last one. And I'm ever more fearful over the political domain, although I'm heading toward an age where that's not going to be my problem any more.

(Playing Lamb as I wrote the above. No point in making you wait for that.)

Don Byron New Gospel Quintet: Love, Peace, and Soul (2011 [2012], Savoy Jazz): After Mickey Katz and Raymond Scott, among other sources less specific and idiosyncratic, yet another niche for Byron's clarinet. (Would have included Jr. Walker, but Byron played alto sax that time.) Inspirations here include Thomas Dorsey and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Eddie Harris and George Russell, aunt Dorothy Simon, and Donald Byron Sr. Vocals predominate, with DK Dyson counted in the quintet, and Dean Bowman given a guest shot. Also on hand are Xavier Davis (piano), Brad Jones (bass), and Pheeroan Aklaff (drums), and guests include Brandon Ross, Vernon Reid, and Ralph Alessi. Hot enough to overcome my increasing resistance to gospel, especially when the clarinet races to the front. A-

Dan Cray: Meridies (2011 [2012], Origin): Pianist, b. 1977, studied at Northwestern in Chicago. Fifth album since 2001, a quartet with bass, drums, and Noah Preminger on tenor sax -- a significant plus. B+(*)

Dirty Dozen Brass Band: Twenty Dozen (2011 [2012], Savoy Jazz): The venerable New Orleans institution sticks to its guns, and for good reason: the early instrumental cuts here are lackluster, but the nth edition of "When the Saints Go Marching In" finally shakes all the cobwebs loose and turns this into a party. B+(*)

The Galactic Cowboy Orchestra: All Out of Peaches (2011, New Folk): Fusion band out of Minnesota -- self-description runs "Chick Corea meets The Dixie Dregs meets A Prairie Home Companion." Four albums, including two volumes of Songs We Didn't Write. Sound is dominated by Lisi Wright's "fiddle" over guitar-bass-drums, which can wear thin but is fun for a good while. B+(*)

Marshall Gilkes: Sound Stories (2011 [2012], Alternate Side): Trombonist, b. 1978, third album since 2005: a quintet, with Donny McCaslin on tenor sax, Adam Birnbaum on piano, bass, and drums. Gilkes wrote all the pieces, keeps it all nicely balanced, the trombone leads as muscular as the sax. B+(**)

Boris Hauf Sextet: Next Delusion (2010 [2012], Clean Feed): Saxophonist (tenor and soprano here), b. 1974 in England, based in Vienna, but seems like all his friends are in Chicago: sextet here includes Keefe Jackson (tenor sax, contrabass clarinet), Jason Stein (bass clarinet), Frank Rosaly (drums), Steven Hess (drums, electronics), and Michael Hartman (still more drums). In other words, this sextet reduces to a reeds/drums duo, with electronics reinforcing either side. Striking passages, some dead spots. Hauf claims "more than 40 CD, Vinyl and online releases." I don't have a handle on him, but AMG lists him under "avant-garde" (only crediting him with 2 albums), so they don't either. B+(*)

Jazz Punks: Smashups (2012, self-released): First album from group: Sal Polcino (guitar), Robby Elfman (sax), Danny Kastner (piano), Michael Polcino (bass), Hugh Elliot (drums). Basic idea is to take a rock theme, like the Who's "I Can See for Miles," and lay a jazz riff on top of it, like Miles Davis's "No Blues," the result retitled "I Can See Miles." Or the Beatles + Wayne Shorter ("She's So Heavy" + "Footprints" = "Heavyfoot"), Led Zeppelin + Dizzy Gillespie ("Mystic Mountain Hop" + "A Night in Tunisia" = "Led Gillespie"), or the Clash + Paul Desmond ("Should I Stay or Should I Go" + "Take Five" = "Clash Up"). The Polcinos tend to get the rock parts, Elfman the jazz. Entertaining, occasionally witty, but not much punk, not that I can't see why they didn't call themselves Jazz Classic Rockers. B+(*)

Andrew Lamb: Rhapsody in Black (2006 [2012], NoBusiness): Tenor saxophonist, b. 1958 in North Carolina, gravitated toward AACM, Brooklyn, and Europe. Has a spotty discography but he always makes a strong impression wherever he pops up. This is a quartet with two drummers (Michael Wimberly and Guillermo E. Brown), Tom Abbs working the lower registers (bass, tuba, didgeridoo), and Lamb on sax, flute, clarinet, and conch shell. He runs through the gyrations of an extended suite -- the soft flute segment (which I think leads into the shell) is right on the mark, but the rough stuff is even better. A-

Joe Locke/Geoffrey Keezer Group: Signing (2011 [2012], Motéma): Vibes and piano, group also means bass and drums. Locke has more than two dozen albums since 1990. His collaboration with pianist Keezer goes back at least to 2006's Live in Seattle, but this round works out much better, nicely balanced, flashy moments from both, and more depth -- bassist Terreon Gully deserves a mention. B+(***)

Sebastian Noelle: Koan (2010 [2012], Fresh Sound New Talent): Guitarist, born in Germany, based in New York. Fourth album; the first a set of solos and duos with Gene Bertoncini. Group here includes Loren Stillman (alto sax), Thomson Kneeland (bass), Tony Moreno (drums), and, on 4 (of 11) cuts, George Colligan (piano). The piano can lift or push this over the top, but Stillman is always an asset, and the guitar weaves everything together. B+(**)

Dudley Owens/Aaron Wright Band: People Calling (2011 [2012], Origin): Wright plays bass; wrote 7 of 11 songs. Owens plays tenor and soprano sax; wrote the other 4. With piano (Willerm Delisfort), drums (Clif Wallace), and trumpet (Justin Stanton) on the last four cuts. Postbop with a bluesy base. B+(*)

Twopool: Traffic Bins (2010 [2012], Origin): Swiss group: Andrea Oswald (alto sax), Andreas Tschopp (trombone), Christian Wolfarth (drums), Jonas Tauber (cello) -- I've seen Tauber, who plays bass elsewhere, identified as the leader, but all the pieces are free group improvs, the growl and stutter of the trombone spaced out, picked apart by the cello, the sax adding some melodic form. Origin started out as a local Seattle label, but has branched out, especially Chicago, but also to central Europe. Jonas directs their "Zürich Series" -- now up to seven records. B+(***)

Eyal Vilner: Introducing the Eyal Vilner Big Band (2010 [2012], Gut String): Saxophone player, b. 1985 in Israel, leads a conventional big band, mostly staffed with New York musicians (Ned Goold and Dan Block are in the sax section), through songs like "Woody 'N You" and "Un Poco Loco" that get off on the harmonics and swing. Includes three vocal features for Yaala Ballin, especially superb on "The Nearness of You." B+(*)

Spike Wilner: La Tendresse (2011 [2012], Posi-Tone): Pianist, has more than a handful of albums since 2000, a couple recorded live at Smalls, the New York club he owns. Before Smalls, he was house pianist at the Village Gate, and he brings that sensibility to this piano trio. Four originals, covers from Joplin to Monk with a lot of songbook fare in between. B+(**)

Larry Willis: This Time the Dream's on Me (2011 [2012], High Note): Pianist, b. 1940, has twenty-some albums under his own name since 1970, many more as a collaborator or sideman. This one is solo, a clear taste of what he's been doing all along. B+(**)

Nate Wooley/Christian Weber/Paul Lytton: Six Feet Under (2009 [2012], NoBusiness): Trumpet, bass, drums, respectively. Lytton is the best known, one of the major drummers of Europe's avant-garde, but Wooley has been prolific since 2002, even more so since he started releasing records under his own name in 2009 (AMG lists eight, missing this one -- an LP release limited to 300 copies, so I'm glad to have received my CDR). Scratchy, lots of low volume, high pressure maneuvers, making the few sections where the trumpet breaks loose all the more impressive. B+(**) [advance]

Brandon Wright: Journeyman (2011 [2012], Posi-Tone): Tenor saxophonist, second album, first was called Boiling Point, and this is another pot-boiler: mainstream sax quartet, David Kikoski on piano, Boris Kozlov on bass, Donald Edwards on drums. B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Rodrigo Amado Motion Trio & Jeb Bishop: Burning Live at Jazz Ao Centro (JACC)
• Hamilton de Holanda Quinteto: Brasilianos 3 (Adventure Music)
• Eddie Gomez: Per Sempre (BFM Jazz)
• Avi Granite's Verse: Snow Umbrellas (Pet Mantis)
• Maria Neckam: Unison (Sunnyside)
• Henry Threadgill Zooid: Tomorrow Sunny/The Revelry, Spp (Pi): June 26