As I recall, just before May 1, when I looked to see how many records I had piled up in my draft file, I counted sixteen. Looks like 58 now, so the vast majority have come in the two week overhang from the month start. My practice is to wait until A Downloader's Diary runs: for one thing he feeds me valuable hints along the way, Rusko being a prime example.

What follows is mostly stuff that at least seemed to have some potential. I haven't much felt like listening to things just because they excite the rock crit mainstream -- Jack White is one example, Rufus Wainwright is another, and then there are things like Chairlift and Tindersticks and Father John Misty that can wait. Also waiting are some hip-hop downloads -- I'm still not much good at snagging them, and unpacking them is a nuissance, after which I have to use a different program to play them, whereas just streaming is so easy and clutter-free. The result is delay, implicit here by the lack of new ones, more explicitly by the fact that I finally got around to the Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj joints I grabbed more or less two years ago. (And I still have some even earlier Weezy CDRs.)

These are short notes/reviews based on streaming records from Rhapsody. They are snap judgments based on one or two plays, accumulated since my last post along these lines, back on April 10. Past reviews and more information are available here.

Alabama Shakes: Boys & Girls (2012, ATO): From Athens, AL, not in the same league as Athens, GA, but closer to Muscle Shoals. Assumed the band was white, but mistook the singer for male given how extreme the Otis Redding affectation was (switching occasionally to Mick Jagger when the latter could be made to sound more black), but the name is Brittany Howard, and judging from pics if she isn't female she's good at impersonating that too (could pass for black, too). Maybe half the songs hold all the concepts together, including the one about not expecting to live to 22. Athens, AL must really suck. B+(**)

Amadou & Mariam: Folila (2012, Nonesuch): Since Mali's "blind couple" have become such international celebrities, their music has thickened up with guests and production help, and seamlessly flows French and English into their native Bambara. I haven't begun to sort this out -- the booklet looks informative if only one could read it, a task well beyond my eyes -- so I just go with the flow, which is well nigh inexorable. A- [cd]

Ballister: Bastard String (2010 [2011], self-released): Free sax trio, with two-fifths of the Vandermark 5 -- saxophonist Dave Rempis squalling and squawking, Fred Lonberg-Holm filling the cracks with cello and electronics and taking the album's most impressive solo slot -- plus fellow traveller Paal Nilssen-Love on drums. Live improv, three long cuts, last one rocks out. B+(***) [dl]

Gary Bartz: Coltrane Rules: Tao of a Musical Warrior (2012, Oyo): Don't have the song credits but whatever Coltane didn't write didn't fall far from the tree. Quartet -- aside from Rene McLean's guest shot -- with Barney McAll in the Tyner hot seat, the leader's alto sax picks up Coltrane's nuances and as often as not pushes them even harder and faster. The other guest is Andy Bey, singing "Dear Lord" -- remarkably, of course. B+(***)

Rick Berlin: Paper Airplane (2010, Hi-N-Dry): Boston-based singer-songwriter, b. 1945 as Richard Gustave Kinscherf III in Sioux City, IA, went to Yale, had a band in the 1970s called Orchestra Luna, others since then (like Berlin Airlift and The Shelley Winters Project), trying out Rick Berlin: The Movie in 1985, finally normalizing it c. 2000. "If I Wasn't Such a Bum" hits home for me; maybe "I Wish I could Talk with My Dad" too, or maybe that's too close. Waxes profane, but runs out of juice in the end. Guess we all do. B+(**)

Eric Bibb: Deeper in the Well (2011 [2012], Stony Plain): Bluesman, started out on New York's folk scene and wound up in Helsinki, quietly compiling a catalogue of thirty-some albums. Similar approach to Taj Mahal but without the gravel in his voice, do he often seems slight, but nearly all of the songs here connect, and he takes to heart the one that insists that if you're not movin' up you're sinking down. A-

Jim Black Trio: Somatic (2011 [2012], Winter & Winter): One of my favorite drummers, with a small stack of records under his name (often as AlasNoAxis), plus he's worked regularly with Tim Berne, Uri Caine, Dave Douglas (Tiny Bell Trio), Ellery Eskelin, Satoko Fujii, Assif Tsahar, and many others. This one is a trio with Thomas Morgan on bass and a young (b. 1990) Austrian named Elias Stemeseder making his debut on piano. He makes a strong impression, especially with a lot of left-hand rumble which makes this more percussive than most piano trios, but also on some tricky free sparring. B+(***)

Paul Burch: Words of Love: Songs of Buddy Holly (2011, Perfect Sounds): Country-ish singer, eight albums since 1998, was trying to find his new album with the Waco Brothers and noticed this wasn't too old. Figured at first he should have no trouble doing Buddy Holly better than last year's two big tribute albums, but this turns out to be as superfluous and redundant. Not sure if I've heard anyone add an interesting spin to Holly since Bryan Ferry (These Foolish Things, 1973). Never heard anyone sing Holly better than he did himself, although I suppose the Beatles came close, and I heard the Rolling Stones do "Not Fade Away" before I knew any better. B

Clark: Iradelphic (2012, Warp): Chris Clark, since 2006 just Clark, sixth album since 2012. He's got an interesting arsenal of sounds, but makes a sort of pastiche music that is about equally likely to annoy and delight -- not a good ratio. B

Elise Davis: Cheap Date (2011, self-released): Country singer-songwriter, from Little Rock, moved to Nashville in 2011 after a couple self-released albums, and came out with another. Nice girl trying to find her way, not really able to invoke the anger of "Make the Kill," nor get down and out enough for "I Get Awful Lonesome," but does offer good advice on "Let Those Bad Thoughts Die" -- twice, the "on the porch" version preferred for its stripped down directness. B+(*)

De La Soul's Plug 1 & Plug 2 Present . . . First Serve (2012, Duck Down): Concept album, stitched together by skits, something about making it in the rap life. My first impression is that the music runs so far ahead of the story the latter doesn't matter, with the beat so pervasive not even the skits can break the flow (well, except for the drug-taking cough bit). A-

Death Grips: The Money Store (2012, Epic): Hardcore rap group, got some notice for last year's mixtape and cashed in with this major label joint; "hard and heartless" I said last time, let's add humorless here too, which keeps this from being confused with a Beastie Boys move. (Inadvertent humor is another matter; cf. "I've Seen Footage.") Key lyric: "fuck that"; alternatively, "we got all the coconuts, bitch!" B+(*)

Amadou Diagne: Introducing Amadou Diagne (2012, World Music Network): From Senegal, born into "a large Griot family of Sabar drummers," plays kora-like guitar and percussion and sings, for a fairly minimal sound, stretched out over 60 minutes so you get your money's worth. B+(*)

Disappears: Pre Language (2012, Kranky): Chicago group, punk formalists on their first two short albums (29:03 and 30:57), added Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley this time and stretched out to 35:38 on 9 songs. The guitar crunch reminds me of a 1980s band called the Perfect Disaster, the singer a little more basso like Joy Division. Don't know about lyrics, but 80%, maybe more, of this sounds awesome. A-

Justin Townes Earle: Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now (2012, Bloodshot): Steve Earle's son, fifth album, you expect something country-ish and rockier, but he's more of a traveling minstrel, wandering to New York and wondering why he left. Short enough (30:22) a more substantial artist would have called this an EP, but for now economy is a virtue. B+(*)

Ruthie Foster: Let It Burn (2012, Blue Corn Music): Blues? Folk? Mostly gospel, with church organ and choirs, which makes an awful mess out of "Ring of Fire" but turns out the steeliest "If I Had a Hammer" in eons. Then there's "Titanic," which prooves the Lord moves in mysterious ways, but also suggests he's one mischievous Supreme Being -- or am I reading too much into the chill of the depths? B+(*)

François and the Atlas Mountains: E Volo Love (2012, Domino): French chansonnier, based since 2003 in Bristol, slips some English in with the French, using both effectively. Music has a light, airy feel, a bit of strings, some synth. The reference to the range that separates coastal Algeria and Morocco from the Sahara shows some effort to look beyond Europe, but has scant chance of them going native. B+(***)

Bill Frisell: The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved (2012, 429): Actually, the name on the cover is Hunter S. Thompson, who wrote the text for Scanlan's in 1970, but Frisell composed the music, and the other main contenders are producer Hal Willner and Tim Robbins, who reads Thompson's narration, with other voices for other characters, especially illustrator Ralph Steadman. Frisell's "Entr'acte" is a charming piece of music, but most of the rest is buried under the words, with a protective layer of too many horns and strings -- maybe we should credit the thing to Willner? Not as funny as it once was, let alone should be, for in the end the decadent and depraved turn out to have been the authors, although the "swinish Neo-Nazi hack" of a governor was no doubt real. B

Kenny Garrett: Seeds From the Underground (2012, Mack Avenue): First cut ("Boogety Boogety") is superfast, powered with bata drums; second ("J. Mac") even faster, threatening to blow a gasket, although Benito Gonzalez does a terrific job of keeping up on piano. As long as the band can keep up the pace, the leader blows some hellacious alto sax, but slow it down and this loses interest, especially when they're aiming for more torque (although the straightforward "Ballad Jarrett" is quite lovely). The voices (on a couple cuts) are annoying, and the soprano sax is superfluous. I got to this on a day I previously graded three other mainstream sax albums A-; without such lapses, this could have been a fourth. B+(**)

Gift of Gab: The Next Logical Progression (2012, Quannum Projects): The wordsmith from Blackalicious, beats have a rather simplistic wavelike form, plenty of up and down, which is all he really needs to appeal to "the dreamer in you." B+(**)

Gotye: Making Mirrors (2011 [2012], Universal Republic): Wally de Backer, b. 1980 in Belgium, raised in Australia, has a couple previous records. Lush electropop, didn't get much out of it. B

Ray Wylie Hubbard: The Grifter's Hymnal (2012, Bordello): Country singer from Oklahoma, never got close to Nashville, back in the 1970s styling his band as the Cowboy Twinkies, his discography showing a 16-year lapse between Off the Wall and Loco Gringos Lament, and has only gotten older and more grizzled since then. His 2010 album denied any middle ground between enlightenment and its opposite, which he called endarkenment. Here he reaches for his Bible, not because he believes in it so much as to scare the bejesus out of you, finding the Devil working for God, counting our sinful selves luckier than Lazarus. Counts his blessings, trims his expectations, sticks with blues licks, likes straightahead rock and roll. A-

Norah Jones: Little Broken Hearts (2012, Blue Note): A breakup album, possibly why she's never looked sexier on the cover, but without latching onto the lyrics -- and I do have trouble doing that -- the mood strikes me as more balmy desert isle, something she sings exquisitely. B

Kool A.D.: 51 (2012, Greedhead/Mishka): Victor Vazquez, also in Das Racist, his solo joint falls farther from the tree than Himanshu's Nehru Jackets did, and scatters more to the wind. Samples range from Bob Dylan to Huey Newton, the latter from a different era but a strangely familiar place. B+(**)

Lil Wayne: No Ceilings (2010, self-released): Of the dozens of Weezy mixtapes, the only reason I glommed onto this one was that Christgau singled it out, and even then it's been sitting unexamined on the computer for a couple years now. (I have a couple more on CDR that are even older, so some day I need to dig them out.) This is long, the word flow pretty amazing all the way through, the beats fine too, unidentified guests are assets, none indispensible. If this is a loss leader, why does it feel so much more satisfying than his product (Tha Carter III included)? A- [dl]

Lower Dens: Nootropics (2012, Ribbon Music): Baltimore group, second album, first one had a pronounced Velvets feel, this one less so -- as if they've tried to move on to New Order but couldn't make the leap and fell into the doldrums. B+(*)

Spoek Mathambo: Nombolo One (2011, Motel 11 Roadtrip Tapes): Gave Father Creeper a single spin before Christgau and others praised it in print, and I recall it as a stylistic jumble -- I had actually started writing about the indie guitars but then the album turned all keyboardy, and while I hadn't heard much of interest a late cut should at least have prodded a replay. Sooner or later I will have to revisit it, but the one later time I replayed it wasn't conclusive. Main problem seems to be that I can't relate what he does to anything I know about South African music, and that remains true even here: a mixtape described as "tribute to classic south african tunes by such great artists as Phuzekhemisi, Brenda Fassie, Letta Mbuli, Caiphus Semenya, BOP, Jack Knife, Chiskop, Sankomota, Mahlathini, Ladysmith Black Mambazo" -- don't know most of those names, and don't recognize the ones I do, but some sort of groove does creep in. B+(**)

Miguel: Art Dealer Chic Vol. 1 (2012, self-released, EP): Soul voice, soft and whiney, like Weeknd at his alleged worst. Only three cuts, the first of three like-titled EPs. In pre-download days they would probably have packed them together into one mediocre LP, but this way I can cut my losses. (Too bad the streaming site automatically looped, so I didn't even get the benefit of brevity.) B- [dl]

Nicki Minaj: Beam Me Up Scotty (2009, Trapaholics): Her third mix tape, arguably the one that put her on her star track, but much more narrowly a rap record than even the first of her two studio efforts. Hard beats, quick flow, lots of guests (none eclipse her), runs on for 75 minutes (but so tight editing it down to 45 minutes is unlikely to markedly improve it -- although it might make the prospect of future play less daunting). Two studio albums later, I'm not sure whether this is the road not taken, or just her bona fides before branching out. B+(***) [dl]

Nicki Minaj: Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (2012, Universal Republic): The hardest working girl in hip-hop business, made it to the Super Bowl this year as an extra but will be fronting the show before the Black Eyed Peas get invited back. Second studio joint, 19 cuts on the budget edition, 22 on the deluxe, but would have been more impressive dialed back to 14 -- good chance there's an A album in here somewhere, but it's too doped and delirious to sort itself out, and who knows what sort of entanglements the hot shot guests add? A-

Miniature Tigers: Mia Pharoah (2012, Modern Art): Cheesy pop band from Brooklyn, fun as long as they keep it upbeat. B+(*)

Marisa Monte: O Que Você Quer Saber de Verdade (2010-11 [2012], Blue Note): Brazilian pop star, has at least nine albums since 1989 (including the one-shot supergroup Tribalistas), selling a million copies per (although not lately). This takes a while to find its groove, in part by hacking through the jungle undergrowth of strings, but when it does little else matters. B+(**)

Kip Moore: Up All Night (2012, Mercury Nashville): Nashville singer-songwriter, first album, has a piece of eleven songs but got help with all of them. Tries to get by on beer and sex, which he figures are pretty interchangeable: "you got the kiss that tastes like honey/and I got a little beer money." At one point thinks about joining the Peace Corps, but is distracted by a girl in the airport. Theme for that song: "just don't give up on me yet/I'm still growin' up." B+(*)

Ted Nash: The Creep (2012, Plastic Sax): Can't find song credits here, so I'm confused why reviewers like to refer this back to Ornette Coleman -- I guess the two-horn (Nash on alto sax, Ron Horton on trumpet) pianoless lineup is something, but a postbop exemplar like Nash would necessarily subsume Coleman as well as Parker and McLean and everyone in between. Still, a tour de force, and Horton rises to the challenge. A-

Willie Nelson: Heroes (2012, Legacy): After several recent bounces, newly signed to a reissues label, his first album there a hodge-podge that looks like it started out intending to be a superstar duets album but wound up settling for Lukas Nelson on 8 of 14 cuts, and Jamey Johnson on two. Aside from Snoop Dogg on "Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die" the high points are deep in the tradition: two Bob Wills songs, Merle Haggard as Waylon Jennings, and most of all Ray Price on "Cold War With You." B+(**) [cd]

NZCA/Lines: NZCA/Lines (2012, Loaf): Don't know anything about this anonymous-sounding soft soul group, just an easy self-satisfied groove. B+(*)

OFF!: OFF! (2012, Vice, EP): Wikipedia sez: "OFF! is a well-known insect repellant brand from S.C. Johnson and Son and produced in Finland." They spell the "American hardcore punk supergroup" "Off!" -- guess that teaches me for following the non-canonical upper case. By the time I finished writing the above I was already half way (eight cuts) into their 16-cut debut album, but it only runs for 15:44 -- an EP by my books, but their real first album ran 18:08 (also 16 cuts) and was presented as The First Four EPs. Still, shouldn't complain about the brevity: the most super of the group, shouter Keith Morris, started out in the Circle Jerks, and they always went on too long. Adding some capable musicians makes the shtick work, and you really wouldn't want to listen to them for 60 minutes straight. B+(***)

One Direction: Up All Night (2012, Syco/Columbia): Brit boy band (OK, British-Irish), tied to Simon Cowell's contest show and label -- seems like a scam (err, conflict of interest) if anyone cares. Enjoyably upbeat album, no smashes but engagingly programable filler. B+(*)

William Parker/Gianni Lenoci/Vittorino Curci/Marcello Magliocchi: Serving Evolving Humanity (2010, Silta): Free jazz "suite" in three parts, a little over 50 minutes. Parker's bass is a factory of sound, and pianist Lenoci starts with a Tayloresque explosion of notes, although when the slow it down he's equally dazzling -- his is a name you should take note of. The sax and drums are less notable, nor does it help when Curci opts to make his noise by grunting through a megaphone. B+(**)

Pepe Deluxé: Queen of the Wave (2012, Catskills): Finnish group, dates back to 1999 with records every 4-5 years since. This is billed as an "esoteric pop opera in three parts" -- probably means they're full of shit, but they throw so many different looks at you that much of it is dazzling. One advantage of trying to judge on one play is that I haven't begun to sort it out, so everything still seems possible. B+(**)

Gregory Porter: Be Good (2011 [2012], Motema): Jazz singer, at least by positioning -- in front of Chip Crawford's flashy piano, flanked by horn players like Keyon Harrold and Tivon Pennicott. (If you don't recognize those name, especially the latter, you should.) He can scat, but rarely genuflects as has been the style from early vocalese through Kurt Elling. He also writes most of his material, and can come across as a slightly squarish soul singer. Thus far I'm more impressed than pleased. B

Quakers: Quakers (2012, Stones Throw): Synthetic hip-hop group, scads of mostly obscure guest rappers on 41 short rhythm tracks by producers Fuzzface (Portishead DJ Geoff Barrow), Katalyst (Ashley Anderson), and 7-Stu-7 (Stuart Matthews). Mostly has an old school vibe, strictly business. Sticklers on consistency could gripe, but the bits that are less than great are short too. B+(***)

Quantic & Alice Russell: Look Around the Corner With the Combo Bárbaro (2012, Tru Thoughts): Quantic is Will Holland, I guess you'd call him a producer, has at least eleven albums since 2001 (including four with a live group he calls the Quantic Soul Orchestra). Russell is a UK diva with four records (plus some remixes) since 2004. Together they go for a Latin vibe too subtle to grab me, but seductive enough to amuse. B+(*)

Bonnie Raitt: Slipstream (2012, Redwing): Six or seven years since her last record. She's pretty much given up on writing -- only one co-credit on twelve songs, none staples or classics, not even the two Dylan, others from Joe Henry, various Bramletts and Brambletts. Makes up ground on performance: sharp band, fine voice, nice little details like a couple Bill Frisell spots. B+(**)

Arrica Rose & the . . .'s: Let Alone Sea (2011, Poprock): Pronounce that "the dot dot dots." Singer-songwriter with a band to help out, soft-toned songs that don't sound like much of anything, nice enough it's hard to be harsh. B [cd]

Rusko: Songs (2012, Mad Decent/Downtown): British DJ, Christopher Mercer, second album, puts the dub back in dubstep -- at least in the early going, eventually branching out and finding other interesting twists and turns. A-

John K. Samson: Provincial (2012, Epitaph): Canadian singer-songwriter, has fronted a couple bands (Propagandhi, The Weakerthans) before this debut. Has a bit of the deadpan songcraft of Magnetic Fields and Mountain Goats, but really comes alive on "When I Write My Master Thesis" and sustains interest most of the way out, even when he's writing about hockey. B+(***)

Santigold: Master of Make-Believe (2012, Atlantic): Santi White, previously d/b/a Santogold, adjusting her name after her eponymous 2008 debut. I never connected with that album, and had the same instinct here, but there are at least a half dozen songs here that bounce harder than her cold voice would allow -- the sort of thing that could grow on you if given time. B+(***)

Darrell Scott: Long Ride Home (2012, Full Light): Country singer-songwriter, son of Wayne Scott (who had an album I recommend in 2005, This Weary Way), has had more success writing than singing but is up to seven albums now. Some songs do a nice job of detailing ordinary life, but some are overly slick or listless or just plain uninteresting. Could be cut down to a pretty decent album. B

Spiritualized: Sweet Heart, Sweet Light (2012, Fat Possum): Guitarist John Coxon occasionally shows up on Thirsty Ear records as J. Spaceman, a nod to the group's pre-history, and a hint of interest in jazz and/or electronica that doesn't get much play in the arena. Still, more feedback than usual on, except on the hymn they call "Freedom" -- the only time they get something out of the organ, but not the only hymn. Title didn't make it to the cover, which just says "Huh?" B-

S/S/S: Beak & Claw (2012, Anticon, EP): One-shot download only EP, 4 songs, 18 minutes. The S's stand for popmeister Sufjan Stevens, alt-rapper Serengeti, and drum 'n' bassmaker Son Lux. I initially took the lush opener as a clue to file this under Stevens, but Serengeti's dinosaur museum rap won out. Even more winning is the closer, "Octomom," which claims last night to have been "the time of my life." B+(***) [bc]

Standard Fare: Out of Sight, Out of Town (2011 [2012], Melodic): English group, rocks harder than their debut, which makes it all the harder to sort out the two voices, their stories, where they're coming from, where they're going. And that seems to matter; just not to me. B+(**)

Steep Canyon Rangers: Nobody Knows You (2012, Rounder): Bluegrass group, seventh album since 2001, an obscurity broken when Steve Martin tapped them for his backup band on last year's Rare Bird Alert. Their music could hardly be more conventional, and their love songs explore every flavor of trite from "I may never be this easy to love again" to "love is a natural disaster." On the other hand, the bitter childhood Graham Sharp details in "Ungrateful One" is little short of shocking. If autobiographical, it sounds like he failed to escape. B-

The Ting Tings: Sounds From Nowheresville (2012, Columbia): British duo, Katie White and Jules de Marco where singer White owns all the writing credits. Second album, one of the worst reviewed this year, which makes me wonder why mainstream rock crit has become so dour and mopey -- we're talking, after all, about a consensus that currently has Andrew Bird, Grimes, Spirtualized, and Sharon Van Etten in its top ten. Too punk for dance pop -- 30 years ago this would have been slotted as new wave, "Guggenheim" a punk throwback to the Shangri-Las, but just one possible vector for a group that doesn't have a fixed direction -- probably why they confuse critics so. [I actually listened to the Deluxe Edition, which extends the 10-cut, 33:59 album to 19-cuts and 72:28 with remixes and a dull outtake, "Ain't Got Shit"; too much of the same thing, although the dorky Shook Remix of "Hang It Up" is fun.] B+(***)

Caetano Veloso and David Byrne: Live at Carnegie Hall (2004 [2012], Nonesuch): A legend in Brazil and his most conspicuous fan in the US, on the latter's home turf, which tilts the playing field severely. Veloso opens solo, adding musicians one by one up through cut six, after which Byrne enters, taking over for a stretch of seven songs, half old warhorses ("And She Was," "Life During Wartime," "Road to Nowhere"). Last five cuts they trade songs and lines. Not oil and water, but they don't combine in ways that advance either case. B

Loudon Wainwright III: Older Than My Old Man Now (2012, 2nd Story Sound): Opening lines: "The strangest story ever told/ Was how I got to be this old." The song expands on that story, and the rest of the album keeps returning to it, haunted by the ghosts (er, memories) of his father, who died before reaching 65, the old age Loudon moans about. But age is one subject Loudon can sink his teeth into, not that he didn't have to get there to do that. After all: "But here's another song in C/ With my favorite protagonist - me." A

Joe Louis Walker: Hellfire (2012, Alligator): Blues veteran, 20+ albums since he emerged as a fiery guitar slinger back in 1986. Hasn't let the grind wear him down, but overcompensates by cranking up the volume and shouting over that, and overcompensating for his mortality with God songs -- "Soldier for Jesus" is the worst, but burns with the same intensity of everything else. The best is "Movin' On," but Hank Snow wrote that, and it can stand the heat. B+(*)

M. Ward: A Wasteland Companion (2012, Merge): A singer-songwriter with good song sense makes a nice, easily listenable album; gets a lot of help from his friends, not that he needs any of them. B+(*)

Music: Current count 19915 [19880] rated (+35), 754 [761] unrated (-7). The delays in pulling Michael Tatum's excellent "A Downloader's Diary" together this month have stretched out the usual top-of-the-month posts. My Rhapsody Streamnotes should run tomorrow, completing the set. Thanks to the delays, there is more than usual on tap -- as opposed to my fears two weeks ago when I only found 16 notes stashed away in my draft file. Jazz Prospecting is if anything up a bit this week, partly because I'm feeling sated on non-jazz -- or at least I'm running low on enthusiasm and/or curiosity for the low-hanging new releases that Rhapsody offers.

One thing I've noticed me doing more than usual: getting to the end of a record and going blank for a summation line at the end of the note. More than usual, I'm just letting the grade talk in these cases. If I'm unsure of the grade I'll usually replay the record, but if I'm satisfied with the grade it's usually not worth my while to replay a record just to pick up a probably trivial line. (In Jazz CG I would make the extra effort, but I figure this is mostly triage.) I do, by the way, have a bulging shelf of records waiting for Jazz CG. Don't know what else to say about that right now.

David Boswell: Windows (2012, My Quiet Moon): Guitarist. Born in San Francisco; played in a rock band called Metro Jets; does session work in LA. Fourth album since 2004. Plays synth guitar as well as more conventional ones, backed by piano-bass-drums, dense with no rough edges, brightened up by John Fumo's trumpet near the end. B-

Amit Friedman Sextet: Sunrise (2010 [2012], Origin): Israeli saxophonist, google him and you get lots of cheesecake pics of a buxom Israeli model with the same name. Debut album, recorded in Israel, mostly a bright and jaunty sextet with oud or guitar, piano, extra percussion, but the cuts with extra strings can dampen the mood. B+(*)

Tord Gustavsen Quartet: The Well (2011 [2012], ECM): Norwegian pianist, b. 1970, not clear how many albums -- e.g., I had his 1999 collaboration with singer Siri Gjaere under his name but it looks like hers came first; five, since 2002, all on ECM, is my best reckoning. This one has Tore Brunborg (tenor sax), Mats Eilertsen (bass), and Jarle Vespestad (drums). B+(***) [advance]

Pamela Hines Trio with April Hall: Lucky's Boy (2011, Spice Rack): Hines is a pianist, her trio adding John Lockwood on bass and Les Harris, Jr. on drums. She has seven records since 1998, and sole credit for the nine songs here. The songs have lyrics, sung by Hall, who has three albums of her own (scoring the previous Hall Sings Hines for Hall). Hard to put a finger on this, a bit dry, perhaps. B

Florian Hoefner Group: Songs Without Words (2011 [2012], OA2): Pianist, from Germany (I think), first album (as far as I can tell, although his label page says, "His performances are featured on seven CD releases"), a quartet with Mike Ruby (tenor and soprano sax), Sam Anning (bass), and Peter Kronreif (drums), recorded in New York. All originals, mainstream postbop, sax has some blues feel, all very nicely done. B+(***)

Philippe Baden Powell: Adventure Music Piano Masters Series: Vol 2 (2008 [2012], Adventure Music): Son of the legendary Brazilian guitarist Baden Powell, plays piano, solo on his second album here -- series began with Benjamin Taubkin in 2010. B

Anne Mette Iversen: Poetry of Earth (2011 [2012], Bju'ecords): Bassist, b. 1972 in Denmark, moved to New York to study at New School and settled in. Fourth album, 91:25 straddling two discs; wrote all the music for various poems (Svende Grøn, A.E. Housman, John Keats, Henrik Ibsen, Thomas Hardy, Lene Poulsen) sung by Maria Neckam and Christine Skou. The music has a chamber feel, with Dan Tepfer on piano and John Ellis on reeds. I haven't spent nearly enough time with this, and probably won't: not my thing, but remarkable nonetheless. B+(***)

Jonas Kullhammar/Torbjörn Zetterberg/Espen Aalberg: Basement Sessions Vol. 1 (2012, Clean Feed): Tenor/baritone sax, bass, drums, respectively; the leader b. 1978 in Sweden, runs the Moserobie label (which extends well beyond his own work), has at least eight albums since 2000 (Plays Loud for the People is one promising title), plus an 8-CD box called The Half Naked Truth: 1998-2008. First I've heard by him and I'm duly impressed, first by tone and natural feel which line him up as a worthy follower of saxophonists like Arne Domnerus and Bernt Rosengren -- a bit more avant, but that's what we used to call progress. B+(***)

Steve Lacy: Estilhaços: Live in Lisbon (1972 [2012], Clean Feed): Still waiting for the avalanche of previously unissued recordings promised after the soprano sax legend's death in 2004, and eager to look at every piece that does appear to see how it fits into the puzzle. This one has been released before, first on LP in 1972, then on CD in 1996, both on obscure Portuguese labels. Lacy's quintet has rarely raised such a ruckus, and while much of it is hard to take, it does give you a sense of the thrill of freedom. I doubt that this had any role in triggering the revolution that freed Portugal two years later, but if Salazar had heard it I don't doubt that it would have scared the bejesus out of him -- in which case I'd have to grade it much higher. B+(*)

Sinikka Langeland Group: The Land That Is Not (2010 [2011], ECM): Norwegian folk singer, plays kantele (bears a general likeness to a zither or autoharp), sings with great authority. Has at least seven albums since 1994, this being the second on ECM. The group itself is made up of accomplished jazz musicians. The hornwork of Arve Henriksen and Trygve Seim isn't central but is notable when it occurs; same for the rhythm section of Anders Jormin and Markku Ounaskari. B+(**) [advance]

Joel Miller: Swim (2011 [2012], Origin): Saxophonist (tenor and soprano), b. in Sackville, New Brunswick; studied at McGill in Montreal. Sixth album since 1998. Covers one piece by Miles Davis and Gil Evans, and wrote the other ten. Quartet includes Geoff Keezer on piano, Fraser Hollins on bass, Greg Ritchie on drums. Upbeat, rich sax tone, lush even. B+(**)

Aruán Ortiz Quartet: Orbiting (2011 [2012], Fresh Sound New Talent): Pianist, b. 1973 in Cuba, moved to US in 2003, has four albums since 2004. Four originals, four covers (Hermeto Pascoal, Charlie Parker, Ornette Coleman, "Alone Together"). Gives them all a delicate, thoughtful reading, supplemented by David Gilmore on guitar, Rashaan Carter on bass, Eric McPherson on drums. B+(**)

Kate Reid: The Love I'm In (2011, self-released): Singer, plays piano (but also employs Otmoro Ruiz on three cuts), based in Los Angeles, second album: standards, starting with "Just Squeeze Me," includes a long and touching "I Loves You Porgy," a slow and smoldering obligatory Jobim ("Portrait in Black and White"). Striking voice, holds your focus even when she goes real slow (but there's a bit too much of that). Doesn't make much use of the band beyond piano -- Ernie Watts is on the roster but scarcely noticeable. B+(**)

Alan Rosenthal: Just Sayin' (2011 [2012], self-released): Pianist, from New York. First album as far as I can tell, a trio with Cameron Brown (bass) and Steve Johns (drums). Wrote 8 of 9 songs, one dedicated to Mal Waldron; the cover is "Red, Red Robin." B+(*)

Amanda Ruzza: This Is What Happened (2009 [2012], Pimenta): Electric bassist, born in São Paulo, Brazil, Chilean mother, Italian father, speaks all those languages plus English. First album, recorded in Brooklyn. Starts with fuzzy funk and electric piano and Brazilian percussion, later adding some sax bits by Dave Binney. I wouldn't call it smooth jazz, but doesn't push very hard. B

Elliott Sharp Trio: Aggregat (2011 [2012], Clean Feed): Seventh album by Sharp (or, as he bills himself here, "E#") that I've heard, all since 2004, which must get me up into the 6-8% range -- let's see: Wikipedia lists 99 albums not counting ones he produced or played as a sideman on, with the earliest album a solo from 1979, but that 99 does include a couple of "collaborative groups" I have filed elsewhere (John Zorn: Downtown Lullaby, Satoko Fujii: In the Tank, Tomas Ulrich: TECK String Quartet); drop them and I'm back at 7 of 90, almost 7.8%. Point is he's someone I know of but have hardly met. For instance, I never knew he sax (tenor and soprano) before, but he does here on nearly half of the album, and he makes much of his efforts, like a slower and more rugged Evan Parker. The rest of the time he plays guitar, where he is faster and develops a harmonic overhang that gives his figures a rich shimmer. With Brad Jones on bass and Ches Smith on drums. A-

Andrew Swift: Swift Kick (2011 [2012], D Clef): Drummer, from Australia, based in New York. First album. Has 17 people on album, mostly recognized names -- Ryan Kisor, Wycliffe Gordon, Eric Alexander, Sharel Cassity, Yotam Silberstein are a few -- but aside from George Cables (piano) and Dwayne Burno (bass) most are only a couple cuts each. Moves along at a nice pace, lots of postbop texture, a bit too much kitchen sink but consistently enjoyable. B+(*)

Rafael Toral/Davu Seru: Live in Minneapolis (2011 [2012], Clean Feed): B. 1967 in Lisbon, Portugal, Toral works with a variety of amplifiers and oscillators, in other words electronics. Has at least 15 albums since 1994. This was done live with a drummer (Seru), has the feel of improv. Fooled me a couple times into wondering who was playing sax. B+(**)

Andrea Veneziani: Oltreoceano (2011 [2012], self-released): Bassist, from Italy, based in New York. First album, a piano trio with Kenny Werner expertly filling the hot seat, and Ross Pederson on drums. Veneziani wrote 4 pieces, filling the album out with three brief "Free Episode" group improvs and covers from Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, and Bill Evans. B+(**)

Tom Wetmore: The Desired Effect (2011 [2012], Crosstown): Pianist (electric here), based in New York, first album, with alto sax (Jaleel Shaw or Eric Neveloff), two guitars, bass, and drums -- a group he calls (not on the album cover) the Tom Wetmore Electric Experiment. Describes his style as combining "the advanced harmony and rhythm of jazz and classical with the visceral groove of funk and other popular music." That's evident but has yet to develop into something particularly interesting. B

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• J.D. Allen Trio: The Matador and the Bull (Savant)
• Bruce Barth: Three Things of Beauty (Savant)
• Cactus Truck: Brand New for China! (Public Eyesore)
• Isaac Darche: Boom-Bap!tism (Bju'ecords)
• Christian Escoudé Plays Brassens: Au Bois de Mon Coeur (Sunnyside): June 19
• Matt Garrison: Blood Songs (D Clef)
• Diego Schissi Quinteto: Tongos (Sunnyside): June 19
• Jeremy Siskind: Finger-Songwriter (Bju'ecords)
• Wadada Leo Smith: Ten Freedom Summers (Cuneiform, 4CD)
• Miguel Zenón & Laurent Coq: Rayuela (Sunnyside)

by Michael Tatum

Although this month's jewel comes from a folkie singer-songwriter in his fifth decade of record making, most of the excitement this month is provided by hip hop -- much of it download only, some of it absolutely free, and more waiting in the wings. Which inevitably puts into question the justness and practicality of legislation currently putting a damper on big bad downloaders like myself. To which I would reply, I never bought a record I didn't like -- in advance. For those who feel the same way, but are squeamish about trolling the net for goodies themselves without a little guidance, I'll continue to provide this little public service, almost nearing its second anniversary.

Action Bronson: Blue Chips (Fools Gold/Reebok Classics) "Don't ever say my music sounds like Ghost's shit," Queens' favorite Jewish-Albanian ex-chef rapper warns, and though he refuses to alter that peculiarly similar vocal timbre, new producer-collaborator Justin Nealis (cheekily dubbed "Party Supplies") commands a far more expansive musical vocabulary than Tommy Mas, who provided the beats on Bronson's 2011 download-only debut Dr. Lecter. As such, Bronson sounds less here like a Wu-Tang wannabe than his own man. Launching with an audacious string quartet sans beats, Nealis appropriates old standbys like the Ohio Players and "I Only Have Eyes for You," ventures into left field with Iron Butterfly and "Jackie Blue," and gets downright perverse with a cunningly looped snippet of Dean Martin's "Return to Me" -- all catchy, all propulsive, and musically, this record never lets up. So much so, you might be dismayed how lazily El Bronsonlino falls back on the standard hookers-and-drugs palaver -- you almost want to hit the guy up on Facebook and tell him to pursue some healthier relationships. But having long since bonded with the man behind the character ever since I caught his amusingly low budget cooking show Action in the Kitchen (marveling over a slab of sushi-grade Ahi tuna: "We don't play games -- I pulled it off the carcass myself!" Or, poking his nostrils into a handful of chopped basil: "Smells like my favorite marijuana!"), I'm instead impressed by a vulnerability to which very few rappers will admit. Naturally, he buries it in the usual tough talk and jokey culinary metaphors, but it's there, most notably in this mixtape's painful centerpiece, in which he undergoes a penis extension to win back a first love turned to (sigh) hooking and drugs -- even if Bronson repudiates it as fiction, rapping about your tiny johnson rises to a level of shameful self-deprecation even Eminem wouldn't dare. Not that excuses Bronson for callously demanding that "bitch" to get him drinks. But the reveal, whether imagined or otherwise, provides a rationale worthy of, well, Dennis Coles himself. A–

Allo Darlin': Europe (Slumberland) Although I'm sure she'd covet the opportunity, Elizabeth Morris doesn't need to audition for the next Stuart Murdoch or Stephin Merritt side project -- she can write catchy, winsome songs on her own. But her popping Tallulah into the tape deck on her road trip from "St. Lucia to Surfer's" (about an hour away from each other, if you're curious) only tempts me into pointing out the obvious truth that one talented woman does not equal the Go-Betweens. This has less to do with the bright tunes and well-turned lyrics that she has in spades than the lack of anything to play against them -- maybe she is Grant McLennan in the making, but where's the arch Robert Forster type to play the foil? Where is Amanda Brown providing side commentary on oboe and violin? Where's her "Right Here" or "Apology Accepted?" These may seem like unfeasibly tall orders, but even their 2010 debut's arrangements had a little more kick: brittler guitar lines, hopscotching flute, and a charming duet with the Pipettes' Robert Barry. The musical approach here is comparatively more streamlined, not unlike the Go-B's airy, 1988 16 Lovers Lane, or better yet, McLennan's own 1995 Horsebreaker Star. Even Sheffield's Standard Fare accomplishes more with less -- their Emma Kupa isn't nearly in Morris' league as a songwriter, but lively drummer Danny Beswick and low-rent Johnny Marr impersonator Danny How interact with Kupa to the extent they feel like a band, rather than your basic "singer-songwriter with backup" approach. I guess that leaves me asking myself just how much I love Morris' singing and songs despite her current limitations. Well, how much did I enjoy Horsebreaker Star? A–

Macy Gray: Covered (429) Everyone approves of this messy hodgepodge of alt-pop covers in theory if not in practice, but I draw the line in describing it as "brave" -- in the '60s, the Beatles could cover Smokey, Aretha could cover the Beatles, and the Burritos could cover Aretha and no one would blink. But some people really do think this R&B diva tackling the Eurythmics and Radiohead is akin to an act of career suicide -- in one of this record's three uproarious skits, J.B. Smoove muses that if she really wants to scare her fans, she should go onstage with a sword instead of a microphone and prowl menacingly. Personally, I don't object to her "adventurousness" per se as much as I question her taste in what constitutes as a worthwhile song, but what's surprising is that the songs that work aren't always the ones you'd think -- she turns Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" into a Saturday morning cartoon theme and pointlessly dashes through the Yeah Yeah Yeah's "Maps" precipitando, but corralling her daughter and her daughter's friends for a cheeky cover of My Chemical Romance's "Teenagers," a gem that previously flew over my radar, is funny indeed. Others give up minor revelations -- it never before occurred to me that Colbie Calliat's "Bubbly" concerned cunnilingus, howsabout that -- yet leave you wondering why she bothered in the first place. Gray is such a strong-willed artist that I'm tempted to blame her solely for the fifty-fifty hit-or-miss ratio, but I'm dismayed as well in producer Hal Willner, who couldn't have taken this much of an aesthetic back seat when sorting out songs with Marianne Faithfull. Maybe next time he can slip her some old Dolly Parton records. B+

Madonna: MDNA (Interscope/Live Nation) Twenty years after the Sex book, almost thirty since writhing onstage in a wedding gown on MTV, she's become so fully absorbed into the mainstream it's easy to take for granted how much she loved to provoke, titillate, and scandalize back when she was building herself up into a cultural icon. The transition occurred in the early '90s, following the backlash against Sex and the vastly underrated Erotica -- both, it should be noted, the first projects from her now-liquidated Warners imprint Maverick, thus the first projects over which she had complete creative control: even for the most famous person in the world, a considerable blow to the ego. After that, her record making became a great deal more cautious -- a newborn daughter does rearrange one's priorities, after all -- leaving "transgression" as such to the comparatively more banal Disney dollies who took her place. Happily, this seizes 2005's Confessions on a Dance Floor and 2008's Hard Candy welcome if imperfect regressions to her younger self and slathers them with context -- namely, her nasty split from British film director Guy Ritchie. So thank goodness this "disco-fied divorce record" (to quote Joe Levy) cultivates a lot less emotional maturity than, say, Kathleen Edwards' boringly civil Voyageur -- in the first track, she flashes her tits in front of God; in the second, shoots Ritchie in the head and threatens to force him to be her chauffeur when they meet again in Hell ("I've got a lot of friends there," she reasons). Throughout, she gleefully references her glory days, quoting her old hits, appropriating some Cyndi Lauper, and stages a few cheerleader cheers a la Toni Basil, faltering only when she gets mushy toward the end (though I do appreciate her acutely-observed pointillism metaphor, "If you were the Mona Lisa/You'd be hanging in the Louvre" makes as much sense as "If you were a Big Mac/You'd be served at McDonald's"). The message? There's nothing sexier than autonomy. Nicki Minaj, please take note. A–

Spoek Mathambo: Father Creeper (Sub Pop) Maxinquaye never came across as powerfully onstage as it did on album partly because Tricky didn't always play well with others, but also because dissociative music rarely translates effectively in live settings. Theoretically, the disjointed electrorap crafted by South Africa's Nthato James Monde Mokgata (along with key collaborator Richard Rumney on synthesizers) is designed specifically for darkened nightclubs, juxtaposing jittery, anxious grooves against dark, expansive music. Tune in to the lyrics however, and you'll realize his anomie is a product of his impoverished environment rather than faulty brain chemistry or junk food dependency, and as such his depressive tendencies feel more earned, providing more than enough rationale for a bleak concept album that follows the imagined arc of his life from horny adolescence fumbling for finger pie to a compromised marriage promising nothing but adjoining graves. In between, he chooses waiting tables to turning tricks, spits in the tourists' curried goat and then begs for the scraps, and pays sorrow, tears, and blood for an engagement ring on a wicked track that banishes do-gooding Kanye West and Jay-Z to the realm of feeble, upper-class irony. He doesn't even take respite in music -- the one that begins "No, you don't need to be scared/Of bullets raining on your head" is sarcastically framed by a lithe Mbaqanga sample whose subverted desecration could make tears run down Paul Simon's face. The girl who leaves an imprint of cherry lipgloss on the back of her wrist in the opener becomes an old woman with saggy lips and crusty eyes he can't bear waking up next to by the record's end. And in this couplet, he says more about his world than others could in weighty, book-length commentaries: "I feel like I can't go home/But I feel like I want to go home." A

Rusko: Songs (Downtown) "You see, 'roots music' is creative music," idealistically muses the unidentified Jamaican musician sampled at the beginning of this record. "You understand? Dat means it original, it come from de heart. So whatever's in your heart, and you feel, say, you want to create a different sound, you create dat different sound. So who's to say dere's any boundaries?" In the background, his companions passively grunt their collective approval (one can almost imagine them cloaked in a leaden cumulonimbus of ganja smoke). Unquestionably, this preamble is Leeds musician Christopher Mercer's way of second-guessing his notoriously insular target audience's reaction to this record, who have already invented an admittedly hilarious designation to dismiss his vivacious dancehall/dubstep hybrid: "Bro-step." Pigeonholing the high energy of his music as testosterone-fueled seems slightly disingenuous considering how many female voices still do the heavy lifting, and I wouldn't even consider a crime even if there were any truth to it. I imagine what really rankles U.K. scenesters are the promised "songs" of the album title, which aren't signified in verse-chorus-verse structures so much as in pithy catchprases and demonstrative musical motifs, sharpened by the random noises that supposedly justify this as a separate subgenre (dig that tiger growl in "Opium"). And though I hate to once again bring in Moby as a reference -- as electronica's evolution branches out ever further, every dance musician who colors outside the lines inevitably evokes his influence -- I'm reminded of Everything Is Wrong's "Feeling So Real" and "Everytime You Touch Me," two similarly-minded touchstones to which Moby himself never returned to for inspiration, for a song let alone an entire album. Having said that, I should probably warn you that my favorite track is the one everyone else seems to hate: the slavishly pornographic "Dirty Sexy," much maligned by uptight types on both sides of the pond. Sure, all that "I'm a pimp" stuff is pretty calculated, even cynical perhaps, completely fashioned with American radio in mind (even if American radio is never going to play it). That a sassy woman delivers its catty lyric should provide all the respite from "masculine energy" any anxiety-prone politically correct type should need. A–

S/S/S: Beak & Claw (Anticon) Lamentably (and predictably), Pitchfork's Jayson Greene put indie pop wunderkind Sufjan Stevens at the center of his wrongheaded review, waiting until the second paragraph to mention avant-classical composer/second banana Son Lux, as well as this four-song, download-only EP's true draw, Chicago alt-rapper Serengeti -- the latter, in Greene's estimation, the trio's "wild card," even though of the three, Stevens is the only one not actually signed to Anticon. Granted, the interlaced synthesizers and drum patterns, as perfectly woven as the osier on a wicker chair, resemble Stevens' 2010 The Age of Adz more than anything on Serengeti's résumé, but this still strikes me akin to beginning a film review by praising the set designer rather than the screenwriter. And while no lyric on the frustratingly diffuse Adz pinned down a note of the intermittently beautiful music, here all of Serengeti's stories, beginning with an opener in which two ex-dopers wander aimlessly through the dinosaur exhibit at the Museum of Natural History, provide crucial context. Though all four vignettes share a verbal density that occasionally approaches obtuseness, each thoughtfully explores the often vast gulf separating perception from reality, including the wry, unfairly maligned closer that attempts to humanize Nadya Suleman. "If I could figure out what it was all about . . ." Stevens warbles in a key moment (through effects, to be sure), and Serengeti finishes his thought: "I had the world figured out beyond any doubt." Not that any of Serengeti's spiritually adrift characters have it figured out, either -- that's why Stevens and Serengeti need each other. Well, why the former needs the latter more so than vice versa, but we'll get to that next time. A–

Loudon Wainwright III: Older Than My Old Man Now (2nd Story Sound) Although there's great poetry in Loudon III's observation he's older now than Loudon II when he passed, it's almost certain that Wife I sparked this awe-inspiring song cycle about "death and decay" -- she's the unnamed subject of the poignant "In C," co-author of a revisited old age song they wrote together as kids, and proud mother of Children I and II. More importantly, she fuels the survivor guilt at the heart of the title track, pushing this self-confessed asshole into pondering what he dubs "the heavy shit": namely, relationships between parents, children, ex-wives, and close friends, some whose number has been called, others still twiddling their thumbs in the waiting room, and all appearing on this record in one capacity or another. This in itself is an unprecedented accomplishment in pop music -- the few families that boast talent this profoundly rich wouldn't dare rebuilding their burnt bridges in public, let alone on album. But in fact, familiarity with the Wainwright clan's ongoing soap opera puts that lump in the throat on the touching filial duets "The Days That We Die" and "All in a Family," and cajoling all IV Children and Wives II and III to serve as the Greek Chorus in the flippant up-to-now life story that opens is one of many strokes of ironic genius. Burying the emasculating pain of impotence in two tortuously funny vaudevillian turns is another. The underlying theme -- that a combination of humor and forgiveness gets one through the pains of life -- is no secret. But the extraordinary capper is that underneath it all, the asshole still lurks: comforted only by the hard truth that hellhound on his trail is out to get you and me, too. A+

Honorable Mentions

Amadou & Mariam: Folila (Nonesuch) The title translates into Bamako as "music," which in this highly cross-promoted case doesn't necessarily make the bourgeoisie and the rebel come together ("Dougia Badia," "Metemya") ***

Carole King: The Legendary Demos (Hear Music) I've been waiting for this to happen for years, but I'd still trade most of the six repeats from Tapestry for, oh, her demos for "Locomotion," "Something Good," etc. ("Pleasant Valley Sunday" "Take Good Care of My Baby," "Natural Woman") ***

M. Ward: A Wasteland Companion (Merge) That companion is Ms. Zooey Deschanel, who comforts M. about his inability to sing like Roy Orbison (or write like T.S. Eliot) ("Me and My Shadow," "I Get Ideas") ***

Bonnie Raitt: Slipstream (Redwing) The beneficiary of a slipstream, not the generator of one, and consider the Gerry Rafferty cover and the titles of the two best songs if you doubt me ("Used to Rule the World," "Down to You") **

Rufus Wainwright: Out of the Game (Decca/Polydor) Dreamed of a gay Lily Allen, woke up to a Rufus Wainwright album produced by Greg Kurstin ("Jericho," "Montauk") **

Dr. John: Locked Down (Nonesuch) In which producer Dan Auerbach confuses acid jazz for a New Orleans subgenre ("Locked Down," "Ice Age") **

Trash

Norah Jones: . . . Little Broken Hearts (Blue Note) The cover art was reportedly inspired by the poster for Russ Meyer's Mudhoney (and who knew I would one day type the words "Norah Jones" and "Mudhoney" in the same sentence?), but for some perverse reason, I'm reminded instead of the cover of Linda Ronstadt's Mad Love -- you know, murkily photocopied image, tousled hair, lip gloss typography? The one where she covered Elvis Costello and, er, Little Anthony and the Imperials in an attempt to covet the lucrative "new wave" market? Ah, but the differences between the two musically! For one thing, although Norah is the same age now as Linda was in 1980, the latter's skinny-tie moves were a deliberate ploy to "youthen" her up, whereas Norah is, at long last, merely "acting her age." For another, Linda always styled herself as an "interpretive" singer, splitting her time between rehashing familiar (if not totally obvious) hits of yesteryear and giving greater exposure to up and coming songwriters, while Blue Note signed Norah on the wobbly premise that they would allow her to "develop" her unproven songwriting while supplying her with commercial material in the interim. Now, I wouldn't necessarily argue that Jones has failed on that front -- though how many of today's chanteuses (uh, Diana Krall? the contestants on American Idol?) feel motivated to croon any of her copyrights, I wonder -- but I will say that nothing on this dubiously-touted breakup record is as lively as Linda's embarrassingly forced "How Do I Make You," let alone Adele's "Rolling in the Deep." Brian Burton's wishy-washily atmospheric production style would be a bad match for Jones' meandering melodies in any case, but I'm fascinated by the impersonal detachment in what some call a "confessional" singer-songwriter breakthrough -- "I'm holding on/To a thing that's wrong/'Cause we don't belong/But you like my songs," sounds as dispassionate sung as it reads on the page, and if the songs themselves are this staid, what does that say about the broken relationship they supposedly memorialize? And can you really blame that unnamed fiction writer for running off for that unnamed twenty-two year old? Best in show: "Out on the Road," the only time she leaves the safety of her living room couch. B–

Georgia Anne Muldrow: Seeds (Entertainment One Music) Boosters claim that Madlib emancipates this underground R&B thrush from the incompetence of her own self-production, but even if the results weren't frustratingly ragtag, the artiste would still have much to answer for. A helpmate of the ever-declining Erykah Badu who takes her wardrobe cues from Alice Coltrane circa 1971 and shuns melodies in favor of complexly layered harmonies for which she doesn't have the chops, she's also the kind of noodle head who regards the syllogistically dubious "Why do we kill each other/When we're all the same" as Deep Philosophy. Then, after devoting 3:33 (someone alert the numerologists!) to the subject of "Kali Yuga," she suggests you go and Google it to educate yourself further. Now, I personally think that if you're going to expound for that length of time on any subject (you know, the Mayan calendar, the Age of Aquarius, like that) your listener should be somewhat of an expert by the time you're through. Nevertheless, as reindeer games are my raison d'être, I decided to humor her and hightail it over to that very search engine, and if I had done so before listening to the record, it might have spared me the review: "Kali Yuga . . . is the last of the four stages the world goes through as part of the cycle of Yugas described in the Indian scriptures . . . considered by many Hindus to be the day that Krishna left Earth to return to his abode. Hindus believe that human civilization degenerates spiritually during the Kali Yuga, which is referred to as the Dark Age because in it people are as far away as possible from God . . . A discourse by Markandeya in the Mahabharata identifies some of [its] attributes: Rulers will become unreasonable: they will levy taxes unfairly . . . Rulers will no longer see it as their duty to promote spirituality, or to protect their subjects: they will become a danger to the world . . . People will start migrating, seeking countries where wheat and barley form the staple food source . . ." C+

The Chromatics: Kill For Love (Italians Do It Better) For five impressive songs led by vocalist Ruth Radelet, they make like the xx, after which multi-instrumentalist Johnny Jewel's xy takes over and then they zzzz. B

Zammuto: Zammuto (Temporary Residence) Ex-Books multi-instrumentalist's blank page of a debut proves who got the Times New Roman in the divorce settlement. B–

Estelle: All of Me (Atlantic/Homeschool) Her taste in American boys last time ran to Kanye West and John Legend, this time to Chris Brown and Rick Ross, and the miseducation in her Lauryn Hill-esque skits is even worse. B–

Great Lake Swimmers: New Wild Everywhere (Nettwerk) I'm spreading the rumor they were discovered at a tailgate party for a Fleet Foxes show. C+

Alabama Shakes: Boys and Girls (ATO) I'm not sure if Janis Joplin would second Brittany Howard's declaration that it's more important for rock bands to be "sincere" than "original," but even if those virtues really were mutually exclusive, being painfully sincere is something else entirely. C+

Perfume Genius: Put Your Back N 2 It (Matador) "I will carry on with grace/See no tears, see no tears on my face," this James Blake acolyte emotes weepily, and even if he believed in drums and guitars I still wouldn't believe him. C

This is the 20th installment, (almost) monthly since August 2010, totalling 521 albums. All columns are indexed and archived here. You can follow A Downloader's Diary on Facebook, and on Twitter.

I did a piece for the Village Voice some years back on record labels, and one of the questions I asked all of my contacts was what was their best-selling record. Clean Feed's Pedro Costa's answer was pianist Bernardo Sassetti. The label tended to go for visiting avant-gardists, whereas he was more in the mainstream, with a touch and sensitivty comparable to Brad Mehldau, and a semipopular sense akin to Esbjörn Svensson. I had read about him in the Penguin Guide before I got on Clean Feed's mailing list, and he was evidently a big deal in Portugal, but few over here had any idea who he was. When I got to his Ascent in 2005, I wrote a tentative Jazz Prospecting note projecting it as a high B+, but by the time I wrote it up it had become a grade A pick hit. His subsequent records were less thrilling, partly because he gravitated more and more toward soundtrack work, which he was remarkably adept at.

I use the past tense because Costa sent out some email a day or two ago informing us that Sassetti had died. He was 41, born in 1970. I gather that he had an accident, falling off a cliff while attempting to take a photo. (You may recall that Svensson also died accidentally at 44, during a scuba diving session.) Sassetti (even more so than Svensson) was one of the most remarkable jazz pianists of his generation. I thought I'd note the occasion by pulling out some of the reviews I wrote, and supplementing them with other records that I had missed (using Rhapsody, noted [R] below). That's what follows:

Bernardo Sassetti: Nocturno (2002, Clean Feed): A trio set, shows the pianist's remarkable touch that elevates even the softest and slowest ballads, nicely framed by Carlos Barretto (bass) and Alexandre Frazão (drums), sometimes teasing him into something more adventurous -- "Monkais" finds Sassetti comping behind the drum solo. A- [R]

Bernardo Sassetti: Indigo (2002-03 [2004], Clean Feed): Solo piano outing, several covers, including two from Monk. He patiently works his way through the paces, his touch luminous as always. B+(***) [R]

Bernardo Sassetti Trio²: :Ascent (2005, Clean Feed): The superscript implies a piano trio raised to a higher power, but here Sassetti uses cello and vibes to lower the energy -- the vibes add mere ghost harmonics to his piano, the cello a sweeter, more wistful bass. Some of this was written for soundtracks, which explains its pensive moods, and why the pieces that pick up volume and speed never threaten to fly loose. This music fits into no known jazz tradition. More like Eno's Another Green World -- unplugged. A

Bernardo Sassetti: Unreal: Sidewalk Cartoon (2005-06 [2007], Clean Feed): Soundtrack work, with Quarteto Saxolinia (sax quartet), Cromelque Quinteto (clarinet, flute, oboe, bassoon, French horn), a battery of percussionists (directed by Miguel Bernat), and various "guests" (flute, alto/soprano sax, tuba, double bass, drums) -- at least he stays clear of strings. Intriguing music, tasteful, but often submerges into the background. B+(**)

Bernardo Sassetti: Dúvida (1964) (2007, Trem Azul): A soundtrack to a Portuguese presentation based on John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, mostly rippling little piano figures with a background of string fuzz. Very minimal, but grows and grows on you. B+(**) [R]

Will Holshouser Trio + Bernardo Sassetti: Palace Ghosts and Drunken Hymns (2008 [2009], Clean Feed): Accordion player, his trio includes bassist David Phillips and trumpeter Ron Horton, sparkling througout. The pianist blends in, making a less distinct impression. B+(**)

Bernardo Sassetti: Un Amor de Perdição (2009, Trem Azul): Very little info here: presumably another soundtrack, many short pieces for string orchestra that flow together elegantly. B+(*) [R]

Bernardo Sassetti Trio: Motion (2009 [2010], Clean Feed): Another piano trio, calm and focused, spare but ornately pretty, a combination that works out to serene. B+(***)

Not even sure what all I'm missing: his first album (some debate even as to what it's called), a recent record with Fado legend Carlos do Carmo, various side credits, most likely more soundtracks.

Music: Current count 19880 [19845] rated (+35), 761 [765] unrated (-4). Published Recycled Goods mid-week, after frantically struggling to finish the big section on Norwegian avant-bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten. Got no feedback on that, but I was happy that I could do it, and it certainly helped me to appreciate the range of Flaten's artistry. A Downloader's Diary is trickling in. Still no idea when it will run, but odds are this week sometime. Rhapsody Streamnotes will follow: I managed to puff it up from a lowly 16 records a week ago to 41 as of today, and will add more while I have more time. Managed to do an update to Robert Christgau's website. Renewed the domain name for Terminal Zone, so that's still in the works, even if I only have such a trivial accomplishment to point to.

Jazz Prospecting continues to limp along. Had an interesting day Saturday when an extended series of sax quartet records clicked -- some are below, and some in the Streamnotes file since that's where I'm putting the new jazz I don't get but managed to sneak a listen to. Very little to unpack this week, but I don't have Monday's mail yet -- some weeks I grab that before I post, some weeks not.

Gene Ess: A Thousand Summers (2011 [2012], SIMP): Guitarist, born in Tokyo, grew up in Okinawa, studied at George Mason University. Fourth album since 2003, all standards, features Nicki Parrott singing (but not playing bass; that's Thomson Kneeland), plus piano and drums. I've always found Parrott's vocals charming, no less so here, and the guitar breaks are eminently tasteful. B+(**)

Joel Harrison 7: Search (2010 [2012], Sunnyside): Guitarist, has a dozen albums since 1996. Has long had an interest in picking over rock pieces, exemplified by Gregg Allman's "Whipping Post" here. Has lately explored extending his guitar sound with a few more string instruments -- violin (Christian Howes), cello (Dana Leong), and bass (Stephan Crump) here, all superb jazz musicians -- and that's rarely if ever worked so well as on the first two-thirds here. Also helping: Donny McCaslin (tenor sax), Gary Versace (piano, organ), and Clarence Penn (drums). The dull spot comes from Olivier Messaien. B+(**) [advance]

Masabumi Kikuchi Trio: Sunrise (2009 [2012], ECM): Pianist, b. 1939 in Japan. AMG comments on his "vast discography," but only lists 14 albums under his name, starting in 1980. A fan called Poomaniac has more details, going back to 1963, with his first album as a sole leader in 1970, preceded by a Hino-Kikuchi Quintet joint in 1968. His early work manages to rope in nearly all of the names you're likely to have heard of from the 1960s jazz scene in Japan: Toshiko Akiyoshi, Sadao Watanabe, Terumasa Hino. In the 1970s he started working with Gary Peacock, and in the 1990s he led a trio called Tethered Moon with Peacock and (who else?) Paul Motian -- the only fragment of his discography I'm familiar with. This is his first on ECM, again a trio, with Thomas Morgan on bass and, again, Motian on drums -- you can construct a pretty impressive hall of fame just from pianists who Motian has played with. As usual, his presence here looks like zen-like disengagement, allowing the piano to emerge with remarkable clarity. B+(***)

Steve Kuhn Trio: Wisteria (2011 [2012], ECM): Pianist, dates back to the early 1960s -- did an album in 1963 with the intriguing title, Country and Western Sound of Jazz Pianos -- has consistently done fine work although I've never heard anything (even from his Sheila Jordan co-led group) that really blew me away. Trio, with longtime collaborator Steve Swallow and the always superb Joey Baron. Near the top of his game. B+(***)

Daunik Lazro/Jean-François Pauvros/Roger Turner: Curare (2010 [2012], NoBusiness): Three guys I had never heard of (well, Pauvros somewhat), but should look into. Lazro is a French saxophonist (baritone and alto here); AMG lists ten albums 1980-2000, nothing since, but Discogs has at least five more. Pauvros plays guitar, Turner drums. Both have been around since the late 1970, far enough off the beaten path that AMG files both under Avant-Garde. Most impressive when they get rowdy, but I'm hearing much more sax than guitar, but the quiet spots don't quite cohere. Probably should turn it up. B+(**)

Mockuno NuClear: Drop It (2011 [2012], NoBusiness): Sax-piano-drums trio, more or less Lithuanian: Liudas Mockunas, Dmitrij Golovanov, and Marjius Aleksa. Mockunas, b. 1976, has at least three previous albums. Mostly avant stretch, but sometimes they get a groove going and that's where they raise it up a level. B+(***)

Miles Okazaki: Figurations (2011 [2012], Sunnyside): Guitarist, third album, does his own graphic design (which is almost worth the price of admission), wrote all eight pieces here. The guitar lines are tense and spring open to drive this quartet, but your ears will chase after alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, at the top of his game. With Thomas Morgan on bass and Dan Weiss on drums. A-

Nate Radley: The Big Eyes (2011 [2012], Fresh Sound New Talent): Guitarist, based in Brooklyn, first album after a dozen or more side credits since 2004. With Loren Stillman on alto sax, plus Fender Rhodes, bass, and drums. Wrote all the pieces. Strong flow with lean postbop lines; some further developed by Stillman, engaging as usual. B+(**)

The Ben Riley Quartet: Grown Folks Music (2010 [2012], Sunnyside): Cover adds "featuring Wayne Escoffery," and shows the tenor saxophonist standing next to the veteran drummer, the others (Ray Drummond on bass, Avi Rothbard or Freddie Bryant on guitar) off-camera. Riley, with only two other albums under hisown name, started out c. 1960 with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Johnny Griffin, but is best known from Thelonious Monk's 1960s quartet, which continued post-Monk as Sphere. Two Monk tunes here, plus five other standards. Mature stuff, confident, relaxed, the guitar just flows, the sax rides along, occasionally dropping in some wit but mostly sounding supreme. A-

Jerome Sabbagh: Plugged In (2011 [2012], Bee Jazz): Tenor saxophonist, b. 1973 in France, based in New York, four previous albums starting with North in 2004. Cover here says "featuring Jozef Doumoulin" -- Belgian electric keyboardist who half of the pieces here (7 of 14; the rest by Sabbagh). With Patrice Blanchard on electric bass and Rudy Royston on drums. Not sure that the electricity makes a difference, but the sax is eloquent, towering even. B+(**) [advance]

Tom Tallitsch: Heads or Tails (2011 [2012], Posi-Tone): Saxophonist, doesn't specify but he's pictured with a tenor, b. 1974, based in New York. Fourth album, a quartet with organ (Jared Gold), guitar (Dave Allen), and drums (Mark Ferber). All originals, except for the Neil Young cover at the end ("Don't Let It Bring You Down"). Grooveful, tasty guitar runs, sax doesn't push any boundaries but there's plenty of meat to it. B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Raoul Björkenheim/Anders Nilsson/Gerald Cleaver: Kalabalik (DMG/ARC)
• Rich Halley 4: Back From Beyond (Pine Eagle)
• Human Spirit: Dialogue: Live at the Earshot Jazz Festival (Origin)
• Michael Sahl & Eric Salzman: Civilization and Its Discontents (1978, Labor)
• Christian Scott: Christian aTunde Adjuah (Concord, 2CD): advance, July 31
• Jesse Stacken: Bagatelles for Trio (Fresh Sound New Talent): advance, June 12
• Rich Thompson Trio: Generations (Origin)

If not for In Series this month I would have had a record low 9 albums. With it, I have 55, the most since October 2009, when I did an In Series of Verve reissues and wound up with 72 records. This month's special is more esoteric, but I felt like exploring it for two reasons: one is that Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten relates to a number of interesting connections in recent jazz -- as it turns out, more than I expected; the other is that the example of making so much music easily available for streaming. Even though I hear a lot more jazz than almost anyone, this filled in a lot of holes and gave me a much more measured understanding of Flaten. And for you this gives you a fair chance to poke around, see what appeals, avoid what doesn't. I'd like to see more resources open up like this. In fact, I'd like to see a whole different economic model for jazz, but that's another essay.

Aretha Franklin: Knew You Were Waiting: The Best of Aretha Franklin 1980-1998 (1980-98 [2012], Arista/Legacy): It's tempting to say don't bother with anything outside the first half of her Atlantic period, say 1967-72, when her Muscle Shoals band finally got her legendary church-school voice to moving with a newfound sex appeal. Her earlier records never seemed to inspire her. She hung on at Atlantic through La Diva in 1979, but she did have something of a second wind after moving to Arista in 1980, largely because her producers worked to find her a groove. The high point there was 1985's Who's Zoomin' Who?, and its songs stand out here: especially "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves," one of six songs here pairing her with other stars. It's the sort of strategy that sometimes works for an aging legend, and Franklin has always been able to dazzle you with her voice, except when the arrangement didn't deserve her. These can be marginal, and on average don't top the rest of Who's Zoomin' Who?, but the broader focus shows you should never count her out. A-

Janis Joplin: The Pearl Sessions (1970 [2012], Columbia/Legacy, 2CD): Her second, and last, solo album, Pearl was never very satisfactory, torn between her big crossover single (Kris Kristofferson's pop-perfect "Me and Bobbie McGee" b/w her singularly brilliant a cappella "Mercedes Benz") and her typical blues wail, both backed by the well-named but merely professional Full-Tilt Boogie. But mostly she was dead and unsettled: her hit never got her a TV show or a career in Vegas, but her legend has become so secure that her two Big Brother albums are now fully hers -- much like Billie Holiday's name now appears on all those old Teddy Wilson records. All you really need is Columbia's 3-CD Janis box (released in 1993, and now out-of-print), which expanded the two Big Brothers and the two solo albums with demos and outtakes and lots of live scraps to make a coherent whole. The individual albums are always iffier -- which is why Box of Pearls (from 1999, and still in-print) always struck me as a dubious proposition -- but this is Legacy's second attempt to put new lipstick on Pearl. In 2005 they released a 2-CD Legacy Edition which tacked on live shots. This time they've delved into the outtakes -- five takes of "Move Over," four each "Me and Bobby McGee" and "Get It While You Can," still just the one and only "Mercedes Benz" -- plus some studio chatter. It's massively redundant, but one standout on the second disc is "A Woman Left Lonely" (alternate vocal 9.9.70), and the instrumental take of "Pearl" makes for a nice coda. A- [R]

John Prine: The Singing Mailman Delivers (1970 [2011], Oh Boy, 2CD): Prehistory and trivia, the sort of thing that might get tacked onto a 2-CD "deluxe" reissue of his 1971 debut John Prine, except that Prine owns the tapes and decided to release them himself. In 1970, Prine was working as a mailman during the week and playing weekend nights at the Fifth Peg in Chicago. In August, he recorded solo demos of 11 songs -- the first disc here. The second is the tape of a live performance, backed by bass guitar, with 12 of his songs (mostly repeats) plus a Hank Williams medley. Some songs were works in progress -- "Sam Stone" was still titled "Great Society Conflict Veteran's Blues." His studio album has more twang and polish -- and is certainly the one to start with -- but there is something to be said for the urgency of these demos. B+(***)

In Series:

Early last month I was surfing through the "jazz" label at Bandcamp and ran across an obscure Ken Vandermark album from 2000, Double or Nothing, attributed to AALY Trio/DKV Trio. It's something I've heard before and don't regard all that highly: AALY Trio was Mats Gustafsson's pre-Thing powerhouse, and DKV stood for Hamid Drake, Kent Kessler, and Vandermark -- a very good combo at the time, but the mash up exploded and left shrapnel everywhere. Still, I went looking to see what else could be found in the neighborhood, and found a treasure trove.

Bassists are among the most unherald heroes of jazz. I started paying close attention one night watching Reggie Workman play with Mal Waldron, and I've kept an ear cocked ever since. My major find, of course, was William Parker, but I've noticed a lot of superb bassists over the last few years. One I've run into quite a bit without paying much heed to was Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, b. 1971 in Norway, now based in Austin, with 113 recordings (as best I can figure) since 1994. In a remarkable piece of self-promotion, and for that matter public service, Flaten has managed to put 62 complete albums up on Bandcamp where you can stream and/or purchase. They not only give you a detailed picture of his art, they provide a remarkable cross-section of what's happened in the Norwegian jazz scene over the last two decades -- folk jazz, jazztronica, punk jazz, and avant projects ranging from a Jimmy Giuffre tribute project to sheer noise. Early on he played with young musicians like Trygve Seim, Christian Wallumrød, Pettre Wettre, Bugge Wesseltoft, and South African Zim Ngqawana. Around 2000 he anchored three new groups that have proven to be among the most durable in Norway: Atomic, Scorch Trio, and The Thing, in both cases paired with drummer Paal Nilssen-Love. Those in turn led by two Ken Vandermark projects: School Days and Free Fall, both named for pivotal early-1960s records (by Steve Lacy/Roswell Rudd and Jimmy Giuffre). That led to occasional meetings with Joe McPhee, Evan Parker, and others. All along Flaten continued to be the first call bassist for other less famous Norwegian horn players -- Frode Gjerstad, Håkon Kornstad, Atle Nymo, Jon Klette, Gisle Johansen, Axel Dørner. As you will see, the records add up.

I've gone through and listened to and jotted down notes on everything Flaten put up on Bandcamp that is complete and that I hadn't heard before. This was all done one-pass, and it does tend to run together a bit -- especially the many Atomic and Thing albums. Good chance a couple of the high B+ records would grow on me if given time. The stuff I had heard before is listed afterwards, with my previous grades. And I've also fleshed out the discography that isn't at Bandcamp, some with grades, some still unheard. I also checked Rhapsody to see if they had anything that wasn't on Bandcamp, and came up with two Bugge Wesseltoft albums.

I listed the albums in the order they were recorded in (or where lacking a recording date I used release date, which throws the order off a bit; for more details see the listing cited above). This is followed by several lists that complete the discography. (Of course, it will be incomplete as soon as the next record drops -- probably The Cherry Thing, where The Thing meets Neeneh Cherry.)

The Source: Olemanns Kornett (1994, Curling Legs): Norwegian saxophonist Trygve Seim's group, both its/his first outing and Flaten's. Øyvind Broekke's trombone provides contrast, and the two in sync are a fun combo, both joyous and comic, while their dicing fractures the free jazz space. B+(**) [bc]

SAN Featuring Zim Ngqawana: San Song (1995 [1997], Nor CD): South African saxophonist, won a scholarship to the US, studied under Archie Shepp and Yusef Lateef, somehow got routed back through Norway on his return, where he died in 2011. Paired here with saxophonist Bjørn Ole Solberg, backed by Andile Yenana on piano, Flaten on bass, and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums, they bury any hint of sax jive in a mainstream turn that grows to smoldering intensity. B+(***) [bc]

Motorpsycho, the Source & Deathprod: Roadwork Vol. 2: The Motor Source Massacre: Live at Konigsberg Jazz Festival 1995 (1995 [2000], Stickman): Motorpsycho is a Norwegian metal band (named for the Russ Meyer movie), prolific since 1990 including four Roadwork volumes; The Source was saxophonist Trygve Seim's group, including Flaten at the time; Deathprod is Helge Sten, credited with theremin and "audio virus" here, later a regular with the band. Playing for a jazz crowd, the rock group plays long vamps the jazzers can improv on; the 22:06 "The Wheel" sounds something like Ornette Coleman over Neil Young if neither star shorted out (or maybe the young John Surman over Flipper with a side of Krautrock). B+(***) [bc]

Close Erase: Close Erase (1995 [1996], Nor CD): Piano trio, with Per Oddvar Johansen on drums and future ECM regular Christian Wallumrød on piano. Flaten jumps right in and keeps the bass in the center of the flow, the piano responding as sharper and more oblique. B+(***) [bc]

Element: Element (1996, Turn Left Production): Sax-piano-bass-drums quartet, with Gisle Johansen on soprano and tenor, backed by the Wiik/Flaten/Nilssen-Love rhythm section; Wiik makes a strong impression here, with solid comping and some flash in his solos, and Johansen is always pushing and prodding -- wonder why he hasn't had more of a career? B+(***) [bc]

Close Erase: No. 2 (1998 [1999], Nor CD): Flaten wrote two songs, and drummer Per Oddvar Johansen three, but this piano trio set is more characteristic of Christian Wallumrød than the group's debut. Piano out front, featuring tight melodic lines, with the bass and drums falling neatly into the new order. B+(**) [bc]

Element: Shaman (1998 [1999], BP): Sextet, adds two more front-line horns -- Petter Wettere (saxes) and Vidar Johansen (bass clarinet) -- to Gisle Johansen's sax quartet, adding harmonics and depth without thrashing or dimming the free jazz feistiness; pianist Wiik helps steady the group, but his solos are more conventionally melodic. B+(***) [bc]

Zim Ngqawana: Ingoma (1999 [2000], Sheer Sound): Band here includes two Norwegians -- Flaten and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love -- plus poet Lefifi Tladi and South Africans on trumpet and piano; some jazz, some jive, some chant, some verse, a pretty good drum solo. B+(*) [bc]

The Electrics: Chain of Accidents (2000 [2001], Ayler): Free jazz quartet, two horns -- Sture Ericson (tenor sax, clarinet, bass clarinet) and Axel Dørner (trumpet, slide trumpet) -- in front of Flaten on bass and Raymond Strid on drums. The horns rarely fly apart or play in synch; more often they grate against each other, a rat-a-tat the rhythm plays off of. B+(*) [bc]

Close Erase: Dance This (2001, BP): On this piano trio's second album, Christian Wallumrød seemed to be heading toward where he would wind up on ECM, but this is a radical detour unlike anything else in his discography: electric keyboards, Fender bass, drum machines. The two-part title cut is a dare, far wilder than any jazztronica I can recall. The four-part "Zoo Zolitude" eases up on the pace but doesn't go easy. A- [bc]

Bugge Wesseltoft: New Conception of Jazz: Moving (2001, Jazzland): Pianist, mostly Fender Rhodes and synths, introduced his "new conception" in 1997 and recycled the title four more times through 2004, this the middle entry; don't know if the earlier albums are this grooveful, and the last piece does tail off into simple figures, but the early ones were reminding me of Bohannon minus the fake strings, cleaner and a bit more abstract -- with jazz the dancefloor is in your mind. B+(***) [R]

No Spaghetti Edition: Listen . . . and Tell Me What It Was (2001, Sofa): A large group, or maybe two given that bass-drums-guitar-reeds are doubled up, identified by channel; the others, aside from Frode Haltli on accordion, are credited with electronics in addition to voice (Maja Ratkje), piano (Pat Thomas), and trumpet (Axel Dørner); group improvs, some have trouble getting going, but "If Mountains Could Sing" could make you a believer. B+(*) [bc]

Atomic: Feet Music (2001, Jazzland): First album by the long-running Norwegian group: Magnus Broo (trumpet), Fredrik Ljungkvist (tenor/soprano sax), Håvard Wiik (piano), Flaten, and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums); ranges from a piano-led ballad ("Longing for Martin") to funk with horn breaks ("Do It") to free-flying chaos ("Den Flyktiga Magneten"), and back again, as if everything were possible. B+(***) [bc]

Raoul Björkenheim/Ingebrigt Håker Flaten/Paal Nilssen-Love: Scorch Trio (2002, Rune Grammofon): Guitar-bass-drums trio, aptly named as the guitar builds up feedback, but sometimes the bass generates as much noise, and the drummer can always make himself heard. A- [bc]

Atomic: Boom Boom (2002 [2003], Jazzland): Second album, an especially strong outing for trumpeter Magnus Broo, with more of Håvard Wiik's eloquent piano; nothing very far out, just a group with a lot of ideas and talent. B+(***) [bc]

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten: Double Bass (2002-03 [2003], Sofa): Solo bass record, a rite of passage for all avant-garde bassists, even though the instrument limits the prospects. Some arco, but doesn't dwell on it, and doesn't knock the box about for a bit of percussion. Rather, he sticks with the fat notes that give the bull fiddle its inate musicality. B+(**) [bc]

Bugge Wesseltoft: New Conception of Jazz: Live (2003, Jazzland): Hard to sort out the scant available data on this, probably picked out from multiple live dates, the occasional hints of guitar most likely the work of John Scofield, but Wesseltoft's jazztronica is too spartan to overly indulge him, built from programmed percussion, keybs, and two bassists -- Marius Reksjø on electric, Flaten on both. B+(**) [R]

Cato Salsa Experience and The Thing with Joe McPhee: Sounds Like a Sandwich (2004 [2005], Smalltown Superjazz, EP): Norwegian rock group led by vocalist-guitarist Cato Thomassen (aka Cato Salsa); adding The Thing doubles up on bass and drums, plus Mats Gustafsson and fellow traveler Joe McPhee on sax; five cuts, Led Zeppelin ("Whole Lotta Love") and Yeah Yeah Yeahs ("Art Star") played for noisy raunch, Donald Ayler ("Our Prayer") an oblique hymn, also noisy, and two originals that remind me of the Angry Samoans as much as anyone else; 5 cuts, 19:47. B+(**) [bc]

Atomic: The Bikini Tapes (2004 [2005], Jazzland, 3CD): Live shots from a tour around Norway, deep enough into their book they can log 153:37 with only three dupes ("Boom Boom," "Kerosene," and "Alla Dansar Samba Till Tyst Musik"); the horns can twist, turn, and cut, while pianist Håvard Wiik comps free or waxes melodic -- a marvelous band even if they never quite put it all together; too much to sort out in one pass, so just let it flow. B+(***) [bc]

Trinity: Sparkling (2004, Jazzaway): Sax trio, with Kjetil Møster leading, Thomas Strønen on drums; Møster is another free jazz saxophonist who can hold center stage and push the envelope, although he's equally touching in a slow (and relatively quiet) duo with the bassist. B+(**) [bc]

Atomic: Happy New Ears! (2005 [2006], Jazzland): The Magnus Broo-Fredrik Ljungkvist quintet, going through a phase where mostly they slowly paint tones and admire the colors, which does draw the bass up in the mix; not all they do, of course -- Wiik gets out ahead and runs with it, but the barnburners fizzle. B+(*) [bc]

Michiyo Yagi/Ingebrigt Håker Flaten/Paal Nilssen-Love: Live! At Super Deluxe (2005 [2006], Bomba): Yagi plays electroacoustic 21- and 17-string koto, a string instrument with a banjo-like twang but much more refined -- a natural pairing for Flaten's bass. B+(**) [bc]

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten Quintet: Quintet (2005 [2006], Jazzland): On Flaten's first shot at a group record, he adds compatible string instruments -- Ola Kvernberg's violin and mandolin, Anders Hana's guitar -- which shoots the trajectory of his bass riffs right into the stratosphere, a very effective approach. Klaus Ellerhausen Holm plays clarinet, alto and bari sax, sometimes for compatible color, sometimes for the shriek, while drummer Fredrik Rundqvist pushes the beat. B+(***) [bc]

Atle Nymo/Ingebrigt Håker Flaten/Håkon Mjåset Johansen: Play Complete Communion (2006 [2008], Bolage): Nymo (tenor sax) and Johansen (drums) play in a band called Motif, but otherwise don't have a lot of records. Complete Communion is a 1965 album by Don Cherry, who's much revered in Scandinavia, a script that keeps this neatly on track while letting everyone play, which is the point. B+(***) [bc]

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten Quintet: The Year of the Boar (2007 [2008], Jazzland): Ever since Mingus, most bassists lead off their own albums, but the first sound you hear here is Ola Kvernberg's violin, the continuity from Flaten's previous Quintet; the rest of the band this time are subs from Chicago -- Frank Rosaly on drums, Jeff Parker on guitar, and Dave Rempis on various saxes; Kvernberg, Parker, and especially Rempis have strong solo spots, but the high point is the rising tide in "Prayer," dedicated to Flaten's father, and a free metal power ballad for George Russell. A- [bc]

Atomic: Retrograde (2007-08 [2008], Jazzland, 2CD): Originally released in a 3-CD box along with Live in Seattle, but broken apart for digital purposes, leaving 2 studio discs, 96:49 of backard-looking new music, the sort of thing they've been doing all along, but so much it starts to cancel itself out. B+(**) [bc]

The Thing with Otomo Yoshihide: Shinjuku Crawl (2007 [2009], Smalltown Superjazz): Yoshihide is a guitarist from Japan, has a huge discography since 1981 -- AMG lists 62 albums -- of which I know next to nothing, but when guitarists join Mats Gustafsson's monster trio they usually want to gnash and bash, and there's a lot of that here, most impressively when the bari comes out; in between there's some interesting intricate guitar that merits further research. B+(**) [bc]

The Thing with Jim O'Rourke: Shinjuku Growl (2008 [2010], Smalltown Superjazz): Recorded live one day after the set with Otomo Yoshihide, the Sonic Youth guitarist adds to the noise but offers not much else; in a couple spots Gustafsson manages to break out of the rut, but mostly he roots in it. B [bc]

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten: Birds: Solo Electric (2007-08 [2012], Tektite): Solo electric bass guitar, two sessions, six cuts, totals 30:57 barely topping EP range. Second cut introduces some strum, but mostly Flaten is interested in the knobs, experimenting with feedback more successfully than Metal Machine Music. B+(*) [bc]

Joe McPhee/Ingebrigt Håker Flaten: Blue Chicago Blues (2007 [2010], Not Two): Tenor sax-bass duets, dedicated to the late Fred Anderson on its release but cut a few years earlier, in Chicago, but in some other bar; still, two (of six) titles check the blues; McPhee's tenor sax is reminiscent of Anderson's fierce early phase (but a bit more practiced), and Flaten can rise to his volume -- although it's just as interesting when they chill down. A- [bc]

Atomic: Live in Seattle (2008, Jazzland): Live set, originally released as part of the Retrograde box, now broken out. Four (of six) cuts repeat from Retrograde, a bit rougher, of course. B+(*) [bc]

IPA: Lorena (2008 [2009], Bolage): Quartet, with Atle Nymo (tenor sax, bass clarinet) and Magnus Broo (trumpet) up front, backed by bass (Flaten) and drums (Håkon Mjåset Johansen); nice spots from all concerned, especially the bassist, but maybe too nice -- it's almost like the horns are serenading each other. B+(*) [bc]

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten/Håkon Kornstad: Elise (2008, Compunctio): Bass-tenor sax duo, everything taken at a ballad pace, quiet enough that Kornstad's fingering comes through as percussion; an equally slight vocal starts off, attributed to Elise Flaten. B+(**) [bc]

Circulasione Totale Orchestra: Open Port (2008 [2009], Circulsasione Totale): Large improv group dating back to 1984, the main constant and presumed leader Frode Gjerstad (sax, clarinets), 13 strong here -- some name players here: Bobby Bradford, Sabir Mateen, Kevin Norton, Louis Moholo-Moholo -- including guitar, tuba, vibes. An improv in four parts, a lot of percussive thrash, Lasse Marhaug's electronics, always something new happening. B+(**) [bc]

Bobby Bradford/Frode Gjerstad/Ingebrigt Håker Flaten/Paal Nilssen-Love: Reknes (2008 [2009], Circulasione Totale): A set from the Molde Jazz Festival where cornet player Bradford finds a very compatible Norwegian pick-up band, paired off against Gjerstad's sax and clarinet; free improv, the four sections simply numbered, Bradford impressive from the start, Gjerstad closes in. B+(***) [bc]

Joe McPhee/Jeb Bishop/Ingebrigt Håker Flaten/Michael Zerang: Ibsen's Ghosts (2009 [2011], Not Two): Title will likely be the group name next time they get together; McPhee only plays tenor sax here, and the trombone tends to slow him down and flatten everything out, not that the slower tempos are unwelcome; cf. the superior McPhee/Zerang duo from the same year, Creole Gardens (A New Orleans Suite) (NoBusiness). B+(*) [bc]

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten/Håkon Kornstad/Jon Christensen: Mitt Hjerte Altid Vanker - I: Live at Oslo Jazzfestival (2009 [2011], Compunctio): The sax-bass duo augmented by the veteran drummer, who has a light touch which doesn't undercut the solemnity of the set, keyed as it is to a traditional hymn; the sax could easily overrun the bass but doesn't, preferring an even dialogue. B+(**) [bc]

Atomic: Theater Tilters Vol. 1 (2009 [2010], Jazzland): Starts rousing, but settles into a norm which nicely showcases the individual talents without toppling things over; "Bop Apart" is a gas, but they shut it down at 3:26, whereas everything else drags out to 9-11 minutes. B+(**) [bc]

Atomic: Theater Tilters Vol. 2 (2009 [2010], Jazzland): Having encounted this group initially on their mash-ups with Ken Vandermark's School Days -- joined at bass and drums by Flaten and Nilssen-Love -- I figured them to be noisier than their remarkably balanced albums proved to be, but here at least they bring the volume (and the pace) up a level, and that works for them, especially in front of a crowd. B+(***) [bc]

Remi Álvarez/Ingebrigt Håker Flaten: First Duet Live (2010 [2012], JaZt Tapes): Avant saxophonist from Mexico, not sure how much he has produced but I am fond of his duo with bassist Mark Dresser. Recorded in Austin, where Flaten has established a base, three improv duos tend to ride rough but are most satisfying at their most moderate. B+(*) [bc]

IPA: It's a Delicate Thing (2010 [2011], Bolage): Starts with an indelicate thrash, then they make nice, then the two horns -- Atle Nymo's tenor sax and Magnus Broo's trumpet -- finally start to build on each other, at least when driven by the drummer. B+(**) [bc]

Dennis González/Ingebrigt Håker Flaten: The Hymn Project (2010 [2011], Daagnim): Not a duo but pitched like one -- the González sons on second bass and drums, Henna Chou on cello -- running through five trad hymns, three American and two Norwegian, plus an original; the trumpet plaintive, the bass deep and soulful, the closing vocal a psalm. B+(**) [bc]

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten: Steel: Live in Bucharest (2010 [2012], Tektite, EP): Solo bass, one piece in four parts, runs 22:50 so I'm calling it an EP, but longer rarely does more than test your patience with solo bass. This goes as deep as you'd like into the piece, remarkable in its musicality as well as the usual catalogue of effects. B+(***) [bc]

The Thing: Mono (2011, Smalltown Superjazz): Short (34:17), slightly understated with more growl than bite, neither of which are necessarily demerits for a band committed to overkill; still, I wonder if the final piece title is self-criticism: "There Is Shitloads of Red Meat Missing." B+(*) [bc]

Atomic: Here Comes Everybody (2011, Jazzland): After a decade, every player can hold his own in other bands, which makes their occasional reunions less essential, more haphazard, kicking the noise up a notch while losing detail -- just everybody coming at you, which they have the talent to do. B+(**) [bc]

Ola Kvernberg: Liarbird (2011, Jazzland): Violinist, from Flaten's Quintet, and before that Hot Club de Norvege; group includes viola, two saxes (Eirik Hegdal and Håkon Kornstad), trumpet (Mathias Eick), and doubled up bass and drums; richly textured, can get symphonic in spots, and sweep you away. B+(**) [bc]

On Bandcamp, but previously graded:

• AALY Trio/DKV Trio: Double or Nothing (1999 [2000], Okka Disk): B+(*)
• Mats Gustafsson/Ingebrigt Håker Flaten/Paal Nilssen-Love: The Thing (2000 [2001], Crazy Wisdom): A-
• The Thing/Joe McPhee: She Knows . . . (2001, Crazy Wisdom): B+(***)
• School Days: In Our Times (2001 [2002], Okka Disk): A-
• Free Fall: Furnace (2002 [2003], Wobbly Rail): B+
• Atomic/School Days: Nuclear Assembly Hall (2003 [2004], Okka Disk, 2CD): B+
• The Thing: Garage (2004, Smalltown Superjazz): B+
• Free Fall: Amsterdam Funk (2004 [2005], Smalltown Superjazz): B+(*)
• Atomic/School Days: Distil (2006 [2008], Okka Disk, 2CD): B+(**)
• Trinity: Breaking the Mold (2006 [2009], Clean Feed): B+(*)
• The Thing with Ken Vandermark: Immediate Sound (2007, Smalltown Superjazz): B+(*)
• Evan Parker/Ingebrigt Håker Flaten: The Brewery Tap (2007 [2008], Smalltown Superjazz): B+(***)
• Daniel Levin Trio: Fuhuffah (2007 [2008], Clean Feed): B+(**)
• The Thing: Bag It! (2008 [2009], Smalltown Superjazz): B+(**)
• Free Fall: Gray Scale (2008 [2010], Smalltown Superjazz): A-
• The Rempis Percussion Quartet: Montreal Parade (2011, 482 Music): B+(***)
• Joe McPhee/Ingebrigt Håker Flaten: Brooklyn DNA (2011 [2012], Clean Feed): B+(***)

On Bandcamp but incomplete:

• Scorch Trio: Brolt! (2007 [2008], Rune Grammofon): 3/6 cuts (CD) or 3/10 (2LP)
• Scorch Trio/Mars Williams: Made in Norway (2011, Rune Grammofon): 2/7 cuts (2LP)

Not on Bandcamp, but previously graded:

• School Days: Crossing Division (2000 [2001], Okka Disk): A-
• Jazzmob: Pathfinder (2003, Jazzaway): B
• The Thing: Live at Blå (2003 [2005], Smalltown Superjazz): B+(**)
• Crimetime Orchestra: Life Is a Beautiful Monster (2004 [2005], Jazzland): B+(**)
• Nils Petter Molvaer: Er (2005 [2006], Thirsty Ear): on 2/8 cuts. A
• Powerhouse Sound: Oslo/Chicago Breaks (2005 [2007], Atavistic, 2CD): A
• Free Fall: The Point in a Line (2006 [2007], Smalltown Superjazz): B+(**)
• Stephen Gauci's Basso Continuo: Nididhyasana (2007, Clean Feed): B+(***)
• Townhouse Orcheatra: Belleville (2007 [2008], Clean Feed, 2CD): B+(***)
• Stephen Gauci's Stockholm Conference: Live at Glenn Miller Café (2007 [2008], Ayler, 2CD): B+(**)
• Ken Vandermark/Kent Kessler/Ingebrigt Håker Flaten/Nate McBride/Wilbert De Joode: Collected Fiction (2008 [2009], Okka Disk, 2CD): on 5/22 cuts. A-
• The Thing with Barry Guy: Metal! (2011 [2012], NoBusiness, 2LP): B+(**)

Not on Bandcamp:

• The Source: Of Christmas (1996, Curling Legs)
• Sigurd Køhn Quartet: More Pepper, Please (1996, Norway Music)
• Eivind Aarset: Électronique Noire (1997 [1998], Jazzland): on 2/9 cuts
• Bugge Wesseltoft: New Conception of Jazz (1997, Jazzland)
• Jazzmob: The Truth (1999 [2005], BeBopOrBeDead [2CD])
• Bugge Wesseltoft: New Conception of Jazz: Sharing (1998, Jazzland)
• The Trio: Meet the Locals (1998, Resonant Music)
• Lars Saabye Christensen/Ole Henrik Giørtz: Skrapjern Og Silke (1998 [1999], Grappa 4159)
• Zim Ngqawana: Zimology (1999, Sheer Sound)
• Petter Wettre: In Color (1999, Resonant Music)
• Petter Wettre/David Liebman: Tour de Force (2000 [2004], Household)
• Petter Wettre: The Mystery Unfolds (2001, BP)
• School Days/The Thing: The Music of Norman Howard (2001, Anagram 1)
• Bugge Wesseltoft: New Conception of Jazz: Film Ing (2003 [2004], Jazzland)
• Scorch Trio: Luggumt (2004, Rune Grammofon)
• Close Erase: Sport Rocks (2005 [2006], Jazzaway)
• The Samuel Jackson Five: Easily Misunderstood (2005, Honest Abe)
• Townhouse Orchestra: Town Orchestra House (2005, Clean Feed)
• Fredrik Nordström Quintet: No Sooner Said Than Done (2005, Moserobie)
• Two Bands and a Legend: Two Bands and a Legend (2005 [2007], Smalltown Superjazz)
• Two Bands and a Legend: I See You Baby Shakin' That Ass (2005 [2007], Smalltown Superjazz, EP)
• The Electrics: Live at Glenn Miller Café (2005 [2006], Ayler)
• Mungolian Jet Set: Beauty Came to Us in Stone (2006, Jazzland)
• Punkt: Crime Scenes (2006, Punkt)
• The Thing: Action Jazz (2006, Smalltown Superjazz)
• Friko: The Journey to Mandoola (2006, C+C): on 3/14 tracks
• Susanna: Sonata Mix Dwarf Cosmos (2007, Rune Grammofon): on 1/12 tracks
• Scorch Trio: Live in Finland (2007, Not on Label)
• Håkon Kornstad: Single Engine (2007, Jazzland)
• Crimetime Orchestra/Sonny Simmons: Atomic Symphony (2008 [2009], Jazzaway, 2CD)
• Element: Transformation to Paradise (2009, Jazzaway)
• Circulasione Totale Orchestra: PhilaOslo (2010 [2011], Circulasione Totale)
• Scorch Trio: Melaza (2010, Rune Grammofon)
• Ingebrigt Håker Flaten/Håkon Kornstad/Jon Christensen: Mitt Hjerte Altid Vanker - II: Live at Uppsala Sacred Music Festival (2009 [2011], Compunctio)
• Circulasione Totale Orchestra: Bandwidth (2009, Rune Grammofon, 3CD)

Briefly Noted

Albert Ammons & Meade Lux Lewis: The First Day (1939 [1992], Blue Note): The label became synonymous with hard bop in the mid-1950s, but started here, on Jan. 6, 1939, with Alfred Lion recording two boogie woogie piano giants; mostly solos -- nine by Ammons, eight by Lewis -- and some are tentative, but they give a good accounting of the pianists' power and twinkle, and they team up for two blitzkrieg duets. B+(***) [R]

Albert Ammons: Boogie Woogie Stomp (1938-39 [1998], Delmark): Ammons gets the big print on the cover -- presumably the Chicago man on the Chicago label -- but the fine print credits Meade Lux Lewis (6 cuts) and Pete Johnson (2); mostly live, with the attendant patter a distraction, but the piano sparkles. B+(***) [R]

Black Truth Rhythm Band: Ifetayo (1976 [2011], Soundway): One-shot album from Trinidad, not fluid enough for callypso -- perhaps one could say it compares to soca as nyahbinghi to reggae, but it's possible that I'm confusing primitivism with lack of skills; still, singer Oluko Imo moved on to the employ of Fela Kuti, and as a piece of pan-Africanism this finds its truths. B+(**) [R]

Jimmy Earl (1995 [2012], Severn): Electric bassist, has done a lot of fusion session work since 1990, dropped two albums under his own name in the late 1990s; this one is a set of sketches for a rather bare bones jazztronica -- syn-sounding drums, more synths, occasional guitar, rarer horns. B+(*)

Jimmy Earl: Stratosphere (1998 [2012], Severn): Presumably named for the thin oxygen and general chill, more hospitalable to the computers that seem to have taken over -- at some point subtlety risks turning into noodling. B

Conrad Herwig/Richie Beirach/Jack DeJohnette: The Tip of the Sword (1994 [2012], RadJazz): Trombone-piano-drums trio, a combo that leans avant even though none of the principals are known for that; keeps the trombone front and center, a good taste of the leader before he got caught up in clave. B+(**)

Legend: B+ records are divided into three levels, where more * is better. [R] indicates record was reviewed using a stream from Rhapsody ([X] is some other identified stream source; otherwise assume a CD). The biggest caveat there is that the packaging and documentation hasn't been inspected or considered, and documentation is especially important for reissues. But also my exposure to streamed records is briefer and more limited, so I'm more prone to snap judgments -- although that's always a risk.

For this column and the previous 96, see the archive. Total records reviewed: 3254 (2856 + 39.

Music: Current count 19845 [19806] rated (+39), 765 [762] unrated (+3). Was trying to work on another post Monday -- actually something left over from the weekend -- so I figured for once I'd slip the usual Monday post, but in the end I got neither done. But I also needed to get a couple records out of the way before Recycled Goods runs later this week, and the extra day helped with that. Right now, my plans (or should I say hopes?) are to get Saturday's political post out tomorrow, the Recycled Goods on Thursday, Downloader's Diary shortly after that, and Rhapsody Streamnotes shortly thereafter. The latter is currently very thin, something I've worked on very little the last 2-3 weeks, so I'd like to catch up there. On the other hand, the jazz backlog grew last week, so I'm probably screwed either way. Also have to write something on Steve Coll's big ExxonMobil book. My proposal to review Paul Krugman's new book was ignored, but I'm anxious to get to it as well. Plus new books on inequality by James Galbraith and Timothy Noah. And I got my own book to write. Maybe I should stop thrashing so much on music?

Ballister: Mechanisms (2010 [2012], Clean Feed): Sax trio, with Dave Rempis (alto, tenor, baritone), Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello, electronics), and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums). Second group album after the limited edition String. Three long cuts, free-wheeling improv with a lot of squawk, its cacophony largely redeemed by the very high energy level, its interest mostly in the electronics the cellist uses to extend his range and amplify his contribution. B+(**)

Pat Battstone and Richard Poole: Mystic Nights (2011, Bat's Tones Music): More commonly Patrick Battstone, pianist, b. 1954, studied with Joanne Brackeen, day job as a rocket scientist at Draper Labs. Second album with vibraphonist Poole; can't find much else they've done. Just the two of them, piano/vibes. Does a nice job of hitting its intended mark. B+(*)

Maureen Choi: Quartet (2011, self-released): Violinist, studied at Michigan State and Berklee, based in Detroit. Probably her first album, with Rick Roe (piano), Rodney Whitaker (bass), and Sean Dobbins (drums). Standards, starting with "Caravan," ending with "Donna Lee"; mostly set up by the piano, with violin sketching out the melody. B+(*)

Todd Clouser's A Love Electric: 20th Century Folk Selections (2012, Royal Potato Family): Guitarist, b. 1981, from Minneapolis, studied at Berklee, based in Los Cabos, Mexico. Called his last album A Love Electric, now promoting that title to group name, and promising three group records this year. The folk tunes here include pieces by Buddy Holly, Neil Young ("The Needle and the Damage Done," Nirvana, Velvet Underground ("Heroin"), Beastie Boys, Pearl Jam, Malvina Reynolds, and trad. Loopy, silky guitar, Fender Rhodes, some trumpet and/or trombone, Cyro Baptista on percussion. B+(**)

Jimmy Earl: Jimmy Earl (1995 [2012], Severn): Bass guitarist, b. 1957 in Boston, studied at Berklee, has two 1995-99 albums (newly reissued), many more side credits (AMG shows 90 lines). Musicians come and go here, although the keybs and drums are pretty interchangeable, the latter compatible with the programmed drums on several tracks. Not many horns (one trumpet track, two soprano sax). He's trying to keep it light, more jazztronica than funk, and often succeeds. B+(*)

Jimmy Earl: Stratosphere (1998 [2012], Severn): Presumably named for the thin oxygen and general chill, more hospitalable to the computers that seem to have taken over -- at some point subtlety risks turning into noodling. B

Wayne Escoffery: The Only Son of One (2011 [2012], Sunnyside): Tenor saxophonist (plays soprano on the last cut), b. 1975 in London, UK; moved to New Haven, CT when he was 11; studied under Jackie McLean; eighth record since 2001. Mainstream player, has always had a lot of flashy technique, is developing a sensitive, nuanced ballad tone, much evident here. With Orrin Evans on Fender Rhodes and piano, and Adam Holzman on keyboards -- the latter meant to suffice for strings, and just as well given how much worse a phallanx of strings could be. B+(***)

Lisa Hilton: American Impressions (2012, Ruby Slippers): Pianist, born "in a small town on California's central coast," studied at UCLA, based in Los Angeles, has 16 albums since 1997. Don't know if she's related to Paris. Her early albums (covers anyway) suggested light cocktail jazz -- one was actually titled Cocktails at Eight, others Feeling Good and My Favorite Things (with her draped over the piano, like Michelle Pfeiffer), but she's gotten more, um, serious, composing 10 pieces here (of 12, the others from Ellington and Mitchell), and has recruited a very serious band: J.D. Allen (tenor sax), Larry Grenadier (bass), and Nasheet Waits (drums). Maybe too serious: Allen, in particular, is severely underused, mostly providing color around the piano figures, which tend toward deep rumbling. America's getting to be an unsettling place. B+(*)

Joe McPhee/Ingebrigt Håker Flaten: Brooklyn DNA (2011 [2012], Clean Feed): McPhee's credit here reads, "pocket trumpet, soprano and alto saxophones," which may be why this duo with the Norwegian bassist doesn't hold up as robustly has their 2010 duo, Blue Chicago Blues (Not Two), where McPhee played tenor sax. Starts off with the catchy "Crossing the Bridge" -- a reference to Sonny Rollins, part of that Brooklyn DNA -- and gives Flaten ample opportunities to fiddle. B+(***)

Anders Nilsson: Night Guitar (2012, Soundatone): Guitarist, b. 1974 in Sweden, moved to New York in 2000. Has a fusion group called Aorta and various side projects and credits, rarely playing on an album where you don't find yourself perking up and wondering who that guitar player is. This one is solo, so you know, and like most solo albums this is a bit slower than usual; also more carefully rounded into coherent pieces, less explosive as such. B+(**)

Aruán Ortiz/The Camerata Urbana Ensemble: Santiarican Blues Suite (2011 [2012], Sunnyside): Pianist, from Cuba, came to US in 2003. Third album, commissioned by the Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre, performed by an ensemble with three violins, viola, cello, two basses, two pianos (Katya Mihailova in addition to Ortiz), flute, percussion, and some voice in one spot. Too classical for my taste, but the clave broke the ice, and the strings have an airy elegance that may proove appealing. B+(*)

RED Trio + Nate Wooley: Stem (2011 [2012], Clean Feed): Piano trio from Portugal: Rodrigo Pinheiro (piano), Hernâni Faustino (bass), Gabriel Ferrandini (drums, percussion; he was born in Monterey, CA, his father a Portuguese from Mozambique, his mother Brazilian). Their eponymous 2010 release was one of the best piano trios I've heard lately. They carry on here, crisp and crinkly, adding the trumpet player, who takes more of focus but doesn't do much with it. B+(**)

The Duke Robillard Jazz Trio: Wobble Walkin' (2011 [2012], Blue Duchess): Guitarist, b. 1948, co-founded Roomful of Blues, later played with the Fabulous Thunderbirds; started to edge into jazz on his 1997 Duke Robillard Plays Jazz and has continued to step that way. This trio includes Brad Hallen on acoustic bass and Mark Teixeira on drums. Four Robillard originals, nine covers -- standards like "All of Me" and r&b like "Hi-Heel Sneakers" -- done with a light guitar sheen that sounds more like Herb Ellis than Robillard. One vocal: guest Mickey Freeman on "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You." B+(*)

Mary Stallings: Don't Look Back (2011 [2012], High Note): Singer, in her 70s now; cut a record with Cal Tjader in 1961 then dropped out of site until Concord rediscovered her in c. 1990, when they were really good at that sort of thing, and she's produced ten albums since -- 2005's Remember Love is still my favorite. A dilligent, precise interpreter of the Carmen McRae school, she offers readings of a dozen standards here, as simply as possible, with Eric Reed on piano, sometimes Reuben Rogers on bass and Carl Allen on drums. B+(***)

The Thing with Barry Guy: Metal! (2011 [2012], NoBusiness): Released only as a 2-LP, edition limited to 600 copies; I'm working off a CDR. The Thing is a noisy Norwegian avant trio: Mats Gustafsson (saxes), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (bass), and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums). They have ten albums since 2000 (plus a 3-CD box), several with guests including Ken Vandermark (who uses each of them in various groups) and Jim O'Rourke (ex-Sonic Youth). This one adds the venerable English avant-garde bassist Barry Guy, who no doubt adds something but it can be hard to sort out just what anyway (short of headphones: Guy's got the right channel). When he's not tearing up the joint, Gustaffson groans monophonically, giving the others something to play off of. B+(**) [advance]

The Jens Wendelboe Big Band: Fresh Heat (2008 [2012], Rosa): Trombonist, from Norway, has at least a dozen albums since 1982, mostly big band (or Big Crazy Energy Band, as he put it); seems to have moved toward US lately, working with Westchester Jazz Orchestra and Blood Sweat & Tears. Conventional big band line up, only with piano and bass plugged in, and Deb Lyons singing. B

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Peter Appleyard and the Jazz Giants: The Lost Sessions 1974 (Linus)
• Ralph Bowen: Total Eclipse (Posi-Tone)
• Georg Breinschmid: Fire (Preiser)
• Chris Cortez: Aunt Nasty (Blue Bamboo Music)
• Rick Davies: Salsa Norteña (Emlyn)
• Luis Durra: The Best of All Possible Worlds (Lot 50)
• Orrin Evans: The Flip Script (Posi-Tone)
• The Harris Group: Choices (self-released)
• Frank Lowe: The Loweski (1973, ESP-Disk)
• Manner Effect: Abundance (self-released)
• Christina Morrison: I Love (Baronesa)
• Ben Powell: New Street (self-released)
• Jane Scheckter: Easy to Remember (self-released)
• Heiner Stadler: Brains on Fire (1973, P&C Labor, 2CD)
• Marzette Watts: Marzette Watts and Company (1966, ESP-Disk)
• Frank Wright Quartet: Blues for Albert Ayler (1974, ESP-Disk)

This is the second year I've voted in Downbeat's Critics Poll. As I went through their electronic ballot, I tried to take notes below. In most cases this consists of going through their suggestions and noting anyone who seems plausible, then going through my own previous notes and database and adding anyone who seems equally deserving. Then I pick three, and sometimes try to justify that pick. Or all to often I gripe about the category, the suggested ballot, the sometimes odd decisions about who to list in the "Rising Star" section. The ballot process inevitably takes more than a day, and can get quite painful. I hear they give voters a T-shirt for their trouble, but they didn't send me one last year.

To see the rest of my notes, go here.

Music: Current count 19806 [19772] rated (+34), 762 [763] unrated (-1). A fairly normal week, with about half of the newly rated records down in Jazz Prospecting below, the other half stashed away for Recycled Goods and Rhapsody Streamnotes in early May. Perhaps inspired by last week's massive bookkeeping clean up, I started off by picking well-aged items from the queue -- six 2011 releases, none remotely close to breaking into last year's list. I still have 40 2011 releases pending, so I'll try to keep knocking them down, but they sure don't look promising.

Clipper Anderson: The Road Home (2010-11 [2012], Origin): Bassist, originally from Montana, first album, leads a piano trio with Darin Clendenin on piano and Mark Ivester on drums. Wrote 6 of 11 pieces, the covers including two from Bill Evans. Mixed bag. The pianist most likely would be happy to play Evans all night, but there's also a piece where the bass actually leads, and another (less successful) where guest vocalist Gretta Matassa scats out front. Anderson croons one too, a lullaby, sort of. B-

Lynne Arriale: Solo (2011 [2012], Motéma): Pianist, b. 1957 in Milwaukee, 14-15 albums since 1993, pretty sure this isn't her first solo outing. Half originals, two Monks plus standards from Lerner & Lowe, Cole Porter, Billy Joel -- she nearly always drops in something from the rock era. B+(*)

Chris Brubeck's Triple Play: Live at Arthur Zankel Music Center (2011 [2012], Blue Forest): Dave Brubeck's son, plays trombone, bass, piano, sings. Triple Play adds Joel Brown (guitar) and Peter Madcat Ruth (harmonica, ukulele, hi-hat, jaw harp), both with more vocals. Cut live with special guests Dave Brubeck (piano) and Frank Brown (clarinet). Song list is evenly split between Brubeck standards and old blues ("Rollin' & Tumblin," "Phonograph Blues," "Black and Blue," "St. Louis Blues," "Brother Can You Spare a Dime"), so you find these stretches of fancy time-shifting piano in between the harmonica blues. Seems at odd with itself, but Chris Brubeck compounds the conundrum with a "5/4 boogie woogie" called "Mighty Mrs. Hippy" with a long intro to explain the pun, and that segues into a harmonica-led "Blue Rondo a la Turk." B+(***)

Mindy Canter: Fluteus Maximus: One Session, One Take (2011, Mindela Music): "16 songs were recorded live, in a small, one room studio in northern California. All songs were done in one take including Hammond B3 (dubbed in same session)." Canter, who has a few previous albums, plays flute and keyboards, backed with guitar, bass, and drums. All covers, from "16 Tons" and "Happy Trails" to "Watermelon Man" and "Do It Again" -- oh, and "Mercy Mercy Mercy." Light pop funk on the first half; then Denny Geyer starts singing, proving he's not Willie Nelson, Ray Charles, Tennessee Ernie Ford (nor Merle Travis). B-

Andy Clausen: The Wishbone Suite (2011 [2012], Table and Chairs): Trombonist, from Seattle, website says he's 19, has been a bandleader since 14, won a "Gerald Wilson Award for Jazz Composition" in 2009, graduated high school in 2010, studied at Juilliard that fall, returned to Seattle to cut this in 2011. Group is a quintet, with Ivan Arteaga (clarinet), Gus Carns (piano), Aaron Otheim (accordion & piano), and Chris Icasiano (drums & glockenspiel). Interesting combination of instruments, mostly soft sounds, reminds me a bit of Claudia Quintet, maybe a bit more baroque. Not what you'd expect from a trombonist, let alone a teenager. B+(**)

Romain Collin: The Calling (2012, Palmetto): Pianist, b. 1979 in France, won a Monk prize, studied at Berklee, based in New York, second album. Mostly piano trio (Luques Curtis and Kendrick Scott), with extra guitar on three tracks, plus overly sweet cello on two of those. Has a distinctive rhythmic sense, making this lean and dense, except when it isn't. B+(*)

Jared Gold: Goldenchild (2010 [2012], Posi-Tone): Organ player, based in New York; fifth album since 2009, a trio with Ed Cherry on guitar and Quincy Davis on drums. About half originals, covers starting with "A Change Is Gonna Come" and winding up with "When It's Sleepy Time Down South." Light touch, intricately weaved with the guitar for mild mannered funk. B+(*)

Jim Holman: Explosion! (2009-11 [2012], Delmark): Pianist, from Chicago, first album, a very upbeat affair, even a whiff of boogie woogie in the piano. Gets even more uproarious on the four cuts with tenor saxophonist Frank Catalano from the 2011 session. Finishes with four earlier cuts, two with alto saxophonist Richie Cole. B+(**)

Kenny & Leah: All About Love (2011, K&L): Soderblom is their shared last name. Kenny plays tenor sax, has a real nice tone. Leah sings, mostly standards, plenty of love songs for that, including "Corcovado" for the obligatory Jobim; has a crisp edge to her voice. Fifth album together, big age difference but for now it seems to work. Five songs with a big string orch drag a bit, but the combo pieces move along. B+(*)

Jocelyn Medina: We Are Water (2011, self-released): Singer-songwriter, studied at Berklee and Manhattan School of Music, based in Brooklyn, second album. One cover here, from Hermeto Pascoal. Band, built around Kristjan Randalu on piano with Rodrigo Ursala on tenor sax and flute, has a real jazz feel, and she likes to scat -- is more convincing then than with her lyrics. B-

Eivind Opsvik: Overseas IV (2011 [2012], Loyal Label): Bassist, from Norway, moved to New York in 1998; has average 5-6 side credits since about 2006. Describes Overseas as a band name, this being their fourth album. Group includes Tony Malaby (tenor sax, a frequent collaborator), Brandon Seabrook (guitar), Jacob Sachs (harpsichord, farfisa, piano), and Kenny Wollesen (drums, tympani, vibes). Rather rockish, but in using repeated rhythmic signatures and in indulging in complexly layered noise -- Seabrook's guitar leads more than the sax -- but the harpsichord offers an ironic nod to chamber music, as does the organ to church music. A-

Mark O'Toole: The Crooner (2011, self-released): Crooner, like he says, more Bennett than Sinatra, based in Las Vegas, where there is a market for this sort of thing. Songs are classic. Arrangements way past their expiry date. You may find yourself hating this and still feel compelled to sing along. You may even improve on it. C+

John Raymond: Strength & Song (2011 [2012], Strength & Song): Trumpet player, based in New York, first album, produced by Jon Faddis, with Gilad Hekselman on guitar, Javier Santiago on piano and Fender Rhodes, plus bass and drums -- pianist Gerald Clayton and alto saxophonist Tim Green get cover "featuring" credit for two songs each. Trumpet leads are strong and clear, and the guitarist does a notable job weaving in and out. B+(*)

Ro Sham Beaux: Ro Sham Beaux (2011 [2012], Red Piano): First album for Boston group: Zac Shaiman (saxes), Luke Marantz (keyb), Oliver Watkinson (bass), Jacob Cole (drums, glockenspiel). Don't know anything about the band or what they think they're up to. Wouldn't call this pop or fusion or experimental rock or much of anything else: name presumably means something else, but bounces around in my brain and comes out rambling shambles. B

Jim Van Slyke: The Sedaka Sessions (2011, LML Music): Singer, second album, does 15 Neil Sedaka songs, two duets with the auteur. Backed by piano trio, simple enough, the main question how to react to his voice, high-pitched, struck me as girly at first, but that may just have been "Love Will Keep Us Together." The later songs get more theatrical. B

Mark Weinstein: El Cumbanchero (2011, Jazzheads): Flute player, sixteen albums since 1996, nearly all of them Latin, at least since Algo Más in 2004. With Aruán Ortiz on piano, who also did the arrangements -- strings on most tracks. B+(*)

Dan Wilensky: Back in the Mix (2011 [2012], Speechless Productions): Tenor saxophonist, b. 1961 in Ann Arbor, MI; cut a record in 1997, and now three more since 2010. Mostly quartet with Mark Soskin (piano), Dean Johnson (bass), and Tony Moreno (drums), adding trumpeter Russ Johnson on four cuts. Nice, rich tone, shows off especially well on tunes like "Falling in Love With Love." B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• John Abercrombie Quartet: Within a Song (ECM): advance, July
• Arild Andersen: Celebration (ECM): advance, June
• Black Music Disaster (Thirsty Ear): advance, June 5
• Ablaye Cissoko/Volker Goetze: Amanké Dionti (Motéma)
• Florian Hoefner Group: Songs Without Words (OA2)
• Irène Jacob & Francis Jacob: Je Sais Nager (Sunnyside)
• Andy Jaffe: Manhattan Projections (Big Round)
• Jazz Soul Seven: Impressions of Curtis Mayfield (BFM Jazz)
• Steve Kuhn Trio: Wisteria (ECM)
• Jeremy Long: In Suspension (Innova)
• Hailey Niswanger: The Keeper (Calmit Productions)
• Sebastian Noelle: Koan (Fresh Sound New Talent)
• Gonzalo Rubalcaba: XXI Century (5Pasion, 2CD): May 29
• Louis Sclavis Atlas Trio: Sources (ECM): advance, June
• Tessa Souter: Beyond the Blue (Motéma)
• John Surman: Saltash Bells (ECM): advance, June
• Ben Tyree: Thoughtform Variations (self-released): June 26
• Matt Ulery: By a Little Light (Greenleaf Music, 2CD)
• Manuel Valera: New Cuban Express (Mayo)
• Florian Wittenberg: Artefacts: Solo Electronics (GEMA)
• John Yao: In the Now (Innova)

Music: Current count 19772 [19630] rated (+142), 763 [878] unrated (-115). Every now and then I find unrated records in the database that I know I've written up somewhere. After bumping into a few of those over the last couple weeks, I finally took a close look at the unrated list and found about 120 bookkeeping lapses. The actual rated count for this past week is probably close to 25 -- 16 Jazz Prospecting below, plus a few items for May's Rhapsody Streamnotes. There should be two major chunks on the unrated list: I bought a lot of stuff real cheap during record store closeouts c. 2002-03, before I started getting lots of new stuff in the mail, and those things have been sitting around ever since; then there's the new stuff I haven't gotten to yet. In between there are a few things I got and never bothered with -- Verity gospel, those United States Air Force Band sets, some prog-rock advances, a lot of Xmas records. I have a box with about 16-inches of low priority jazz stuff that I haven't looked at since I sorted it, and another box of advance-only things that are getting old. There are also some old LPs that I may not even have any more -- sold off most of the LPs when we left NJ in 1999, and there are things that may just be lost. But it's been depressing to have made so little progress in knocking down the unrated number, so I'm glad to find that such a large part of the problem has been bookkeeping error. (The unrated list is here. As I've been writing this, I've knocked five more records off it, which will be accounted for next week.)

Eric Alexander & Vincent Herring: Friendly Fire: Live at Smoke (2011 [2012], High Note): Two stellar mainstream saxophonists, Alexander on tenor, Herring on alto, flashy piano solos by Mike LeDonne, with John Webber on bass and Carl Allen on drums. Standards (except for Herring's closer) -- one I haven't heard in a long time is "Sukiyaki," a pop instrumental hit from the 1960s. Bright and upbeat, but no evidence of cutting -- very friendly, indeed. B+(**)

Terence Blanchard: Red Tails (2011 [2012], Sony Classical): Trumpet player doing soundtrack work -- the movie is based on the Tuskegee airmen who broke the color line as fighter pilots in WWII. He's done that before, starting with scoring Spike Lee's Malcolm X in 1992, and he has no qualms about cranking out clichéd movie pomp -- lots of brass frills and typmani here, storm clouds everywhere. Even works "America the Beautiful" into his "End Credits" here. The only respite comes with the four period tunes he didn't write tacked on at the end, credited respectively to Harry James, the Andrews Sisters, Maxine Sullivan, and the Ink Spots. C+

Michel Camilo: Mano A Mano (2011, Decca): Pianist, b. 1954 in the Dominican Republic, I count 17 albums since 1985, has the chops to have a real tour de force in there somewhere. This is a trio with Charles Flores on bass and Giovanni Hidalgo doing Latin percussion. Covers from Lee Morgan and John Coltrane, lots of originals, smart and savvy, nicely spiced. B+(**) [advance]

Oscar Castro-Neves: Live at Blue Note Tokyo (2009 [2012], Zoho): Brazilian guitarist, b. 1940 in Rio de Janeiro, has a dozen albums since 1987, now based in Los Angeles. Shares vocals with Leila Pinheiro on a mixed bag of tunes, some classic -- can't complain about the Jobim when it tops the show. B+(*)

Mike Cottone: Just Remember (2011, self-released): Trumpet player, from Rochester, studied at Eastman and Juilliard, based on New York. First album. Hard bop group, with Jeremy Viner on tenor sax, Kris Bowers on piano, the latter making the strongest impression. Nice "Stardust" at the end. B

Ryan Davidson: Ryan Davidson Trio (2010 [2011], Debris Field): Guitarist, in a trio with Ryan Hagler on bass and Ryan Jacobi on drums. Tight, electric sound, with a whiff of Americana (first song is "Ghost Riders in the Sky"). B+(*)

Conrad Herwig/Richie Beirach/Jack DeJohnette: The Tip of the Sword (1994 [2012], RadJazz): Trombonist, b. 1959 in Oklahoma, has close to 20 albums since 1987; veered into Latin jazz with his 1996 Latin Side of John Coltrane, and has rarely returned, but this earlier set has none of that. If anything he leans avant here, although Beirach's piano softens the tone. The drummer needs no introduction. B+(**)

In One Wind: How Bright a Shadow! (2011, Primary): Six-person group from somewhere -- website refuses to show me any info until I upgrade Flash, which I have blocked anyway -- only name I recognize is flute-clarinet player Steven Lugerner, but he's only here for decoration any way. Three singers, guitar, bass, and drums, plus extras whenever they feel the need for more flutes. I find the record unlistenable -- they seem incapable of sustaining a tempo more than two bars, but of course I mean unwilling -- but not uninteresting (which means they sometimes make it work, but not as often as, say, Captain Beefheart). C+

Josh Levinson Sextet: Chauncey Street (2011 [2012], self-released): Trumpet player, from Brooklyn, not aware of him having any previous records, although he's probably been around a while (for one thing, he dates the title song to the 1990s). Straightahead hard bop group, with Kenny Shanker on tenor (and soprano) sax, Noah Bless on trombone, Jeb Patton on piano, plus bass and drums. Beat has a funk influence and occasional Latin tinges, and the trombone helps. B+(*)

Alex Lopez: We Can Take This Boat (2011, Lopez Music): Tenor saxophonist, studied at New England Conservatory, which means Jerry Bergonzi and George Garzone. First album, piano-bass-drums plus guitar on 5 (of tracks. All originals. Mainstream, strong voice. B+(**)

Jeff Parker Trio: Bright Light in Winter (2011 [2012], Delmark): Guitarist, b. 1967 in Bridgeport, CT; based in Chicago, with a handful of records more/less under his own name, more than thirty side credits, mostly avant-leaning groups, not least Chicago Underground. This is a trio with Chris Lopes (acoustic bass, flute, synthesizer) and Chad Taylor (drums), all three writing pieces. Milder than I expected, focusing on delicate melodic lines. Grows on you. B+(**)

Enrico Pieranunzi: Permutation (2009 [2012], CAM Jazz): Piano trio, with Scott Colley on bass and Antonio Sanchez on drums. Seems like I'm always impressed but never have a lot to say about him. B+(***)

Eric Reed: The Baddest Monk (2011 [2012], Savant): Pianist, b. 1970, lots of records (AMG counts 23) since 1990, basically a mainstream player. Did a Monk-themed album last year, The Dancing Monk, which left much to be desired, but fixes those problems here. Taps Seamus Blake for Monk's favored tenor sax role, and adds Etienne Charles' trumpet for a change of pace and extra polish -- Matt Clohesy plays bass, and Henry Cole drums. The combo lights up the brightest pieces, especially "Bright Mississippi." "'Round Midnight" remains the odd song out, an irresistible choice even though it doesn't fit. The idea here is to turn it over to singer José James, and that's an idea. Two Reed originals meditate on Monk, including the title song done solo, which makes for an effective coda. B+(**)

Andy Sheppard/Michael Benita/Sebastian Rochford: Trio Libero (2011 [2012], ECM): Saxophonist (tenor and soprano here), b. 1957 in England. Won a prize with a record contract at Antilles in 1989: the one record I heard was a rather dazzling pop-fusion thing, leaving the impression that he's sort of the British David Sanborn, but I could be totally off. A string of records for Provocateur ended in 2004. Later I noticed him in Carla Bley's entourage, and now he has two records on ECM. This is a sax trio with Benita on bass and Rochford on drums, credits well distributed. Everything is done at a slow burn, repaying your attention all the way. A-

Melissa Stylianou: Silent Movie (2010 [2012], Anzic): Singer, from Toronto, fourth album since 2003. She co-wrote three pieces, one with pianist Jamie Reynolds, and combined them with nine widely mixed covers -- Paul Simon, Johnny Cash, James Taylor, "Smile," "The Folks Who Live on the Hill," "Moon River," one Brazilian tune (not by Jobim). With Pete McCann on guitar and Anat Cohen on clarinet and sax providing nice touches. B [advance]

Nils Weinhold: Shapes (2011 [2012], self-released): Guitarist, b. in Germany, based in New York, first album, trading leads with tenor saxophonist Adam Larson, backed by Fabian Almazan on piano/rhodes, Luques Curtis on bass, and Bastian Weinhold on drums. B+(*)

And these are final grades/notes on records I put back for further listening the first time around.

Gerry Beaudoin: The Return (2011 [2012], Francesca): Stumbled across this on Rhapsody, spun it once, and was disappointed. Later received a copy, so figured I'd give it another try, and it turns out to be pretty much what I had expected. Beaudoin's a tasty guitarist with a thing for swing, and his quartet here features hard-swinging tenor saxophonist Harry Allen, who elevates everything he touches. B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Amadou & Mariam: Folila (Nonesuch)
• Ballister: Mechanisms (Clean Feed)
• Budman/Levy Orchestra: From There to Here (OA2)
• Dan Cavanagh Trio: The Heart of the Geyser (OA2)
• Tom Harrell: Number Five (High Note)
• Boris Hauf Sextet: Next Delusion (Clean Feed)
• Florian Hoefner Group: Songs Without Words (OA2)
• Stacey Kent: Dreamer in Concert (Blue Note): advance, June 5
• Jonas Kullhammar/Torbjörn Zetterberg/Espen Aalberg: Basement Sessions Vol. 1 (Clean Feed)
• Steve Lacy: EstiEstilEstilhaços: Live in Lisbon (1972, Clean Feed)
• Joe McPhee/Ingebrigt Håker Flaten: Brooklyn DNA (Clean Feed)
• Aruán Ortiz Quartet: Orbiting (Fresh Sound New Talent)
• RED Trio + Nate Wooley: Stem (Clean Feed)
• Elliott Sharp Trio: Aggregat (Clean Feed)
• Rafael Toral/Davu Seru: Live in Minneapolis (Clean Feed)
• Larry Willis: This Time the Dream's on Me (High Note)

Raw numbers are up, as is the A-list: for one thing, more jazz is showing up here because it's not showing up in my mail box (although I did score the Scheinman after the review). Slow getting to the two choice underground hip-hop items (Jason Gubbels nabbed both before me). The Soriano isn't out yet, but will be later this month, and I've been sitting on a finished copy for a long time now. Tried to get a copy of Kevn Kinney but got no response: seems to me like Rhapsody screwed up, but could just be the record.

After doing the indexes, I see that the total number of records reviewed since I started Rhapsody Streamnotes has topped 2,500 -- 2,518 to be precise. Quite a resource for expanding the breadth of what I hear, even if it also means shallowing the depth.

These are short notes/reviews based on streaming records from Rhapsody. They are snap judgments based on one or two plays, accumulated since my last post along these lines, back on March 6. Past reviews and more information are available here.

Balkan Beat Box: Give (2012, Nat Geo Music): New York group, principally Ori Kaplan and Tamir Muskat, describes their music as "Mediterranean-influenced" although Eastern Europe and Middle East are more like it, pumped up with beatbox electronics. The beats win out here, so much so they can slack off and still lead, framing themes like "Political Fuck" and "Money" that lack the simplicity to become anthems but are no less pointed. B+(***)

BBU!: Bell Hooks (2012, Mishka): Chicago crew (Epic, Illekt, Jasson Perez, DJ Esquire), mixed by DJ Benzi, initials stand for Black, Brown, and Ugly, or Bin Laden Blowin! Up, or something like that. Beats rock, fast and hard but nice and regular, the words just flying off, dissing gangsta, denying star ambition, rubbing in some politics, also some party-time "woo woo" background. The "feat." from Das Racist is another clue. A- [bc]

Dierks Bentley: Home (2012, Capitol Nashville): Country singer, from Tempe, AZ; attended fancy East Coast prep schools, then settled into Nashville at Vanderbilt. Sixth album since 2003, pretty conventional, but makes a virtue out of it -- especially on the long, slow "Thinking of You." B+(*)

Andrew Bird: Break It Yourself (2012, Mom + Pop Music): Singer-songwriter, from Chicago, has been prolific since 1996, first instrument was violin although he probably plays more guitar now, knows his way around classical and jazz and folk and blues without showing much evidence of any of those. Thoughtful songs, likable for sure, nothing to get excited about. B+(**)

Blu: NoYork! (2011, New World Color): Los Angeles rapper, Johnson Barnes, started with an EP in 2003 and has cranked out a huge pile of material since 2008, none of it even remotely aboveground. Several rhythm tracks here veer toward incoherent, but he's just playing with you, going for a skewed vibe giving you a slice of life in a different light. Dozens of guests and nearly as many producers shift in and out. A- [bc]

Blu: No York E Mo Work (Rmx Z 1.3) (2012, download): Remixes 9 of 17 tracks from NoYork!, the cover replacing a natural disaster with a man-made one. The added sounds obscure the charms of the original while tripping over the tricky parts. Like the towers you expect the whole edifice to crumble in the end. B [bc]

Eric Bobo/Latin Bitman: Welcome to the Ritmo Machine (2011, Nacional): Bobo comes out of rap group Cypress Hill. Bitman is a DJ from Chile. Beats first, raps in Spanish are beats too; same with the less frequent English. B+(**)

Brother Ali: The Bite Marked Heart (2012, Rhymesayers, EP): Seven cut EP, 27:26, free download dropped as a Valentine's Day special. Nice, easy, steady vibe. B+(*)

Burial: Kindred (2012, Hyperdub, EP): English techno of some sort -- AMG's stylings of garage and dubstep don't begin to get at the collage mixup of voices and occasional horn samples, not to mention the underwater beats and vinyl noise. Two albums 2006-07, since then a DJ-Kicks and some EPs. This one runs three cuts, 30:45; substantial enough to allay my anti-EP prejudice, but I'm still on the fence -- this can be mesmerizing but not consistently, and it isn't big fun. Perhaps I should get hold of the LP everyone loves, Untrue, and reboot? B+(***)

Joe Cocker: Hard Knocks (2010 [2012], 429 Records): A succés d'estime as one of the few post-Elvis intrepretive rock singers, at least from 1969-72, after which no one much cared. Still, he's cranked out a new record every couple years since -- the biggest gap I see in his discography was 1978-82, and he's rarely waited more than two years. Still has enough voice to keep it out front ahead of the orchestras and gospel choirs and whatever, but producer Matt Serletic's songs (5 of 11) have never been and never will be standards, so what's to interpret? B-

Corrosion of Conformity: Corrosion of Conformity (2012, Candlelight): Punk-metal fusion band from North Carolina, cut seven albums 1983-96, a couple more up to 2005, so this is a comeback bid, same lineup as 1985. The chunky rhythm keeps this listenable, and the hoarse vocal snarl keeps it unintelligible, which is probably for the best. B

Die Antwoord: Tension (2012, Zef): South African rap group, second album up here, quite possibly as ignorant and crass as their detractors claim -- crass seems to be a given, and the skits are plenty creepy, but I can't help but enjoy "I Fink You Freeky" and more. Does help to get rid of the '$' fetish. B+(*)

Dr. Dog: Be the Void (2012, Anti-): Journeyman group, seems like they're reaching more for significance after nearly a decade when rocksteady sufficed -- "Lonesome," they call it. B+(*)

Dr. John: Locked Down (2012, Nonesuch): Word, attested to by the cover headdress, is that this represents the Doctor's return to the Nite Tripper gris-gris of the late 1960s. Word is partly right, in that this is both harder and denser than he's played in decades -- just not more fun. B+(**)

Craig Finn: Clear Heart Full Eyes (2012, Full Time Hobby): First solo album from the leader of Hold Steady (and before that Lifter-Puller), the main difference being that he has less volume and less rhythmic drive pulling his songs forward, which makes their frequent Jesus references -- a pervasive force in his song world, a crutch and a comrade -- stand out peculiarly. And what redeems them isn't faith much less glory. More like their human frailty. B+(***)

Melanie Fiona: The MF Life (2012, Universal Republic): Surname Hallim, from Toronto, parents immigrated from Guyana, second album: a credible r&b diva until a song called "Change the Record" comes on and makes you want to. B+(*)

Fun.: Some Nights (2012, Fueled by Ramen): Indie pop outfit formed by veterans of Format, Steel Train, and Jellyfish -- doesn't mean anything to me, either. Second studio album, some catchy tunes turning on the drum mix (cf. "All Alone"), but while "It Gets Better" may be well-intentioned I doubt it's true. B

Gangrene: Vodka & Ayahuasca (2012, Decon): Side project from producer Alan Maman, best known as The Alchemist, with rapper Oh No (b. Michael Jackson, son of Otis Jackson, nephew of Jon Faddis). Dense, dirty, a bit drug-addled (one title: "Livers for Sale"), although I couldn't follow it close enough to sort out the details. B+(***)

Robert Glasper Experiment: Black Radio (2012, Blue Note): Major label pianist, got a lot of hype early on as the guy who could bridge hip-hop and jazz. I don't doubt his chops, but I also don't think he's ever made either term in the equation work. Still, he gets some mileage here, almost by not trying: he offers simple settings for a dozen featured vocalists, mostly soft soul crooners of both sexes, Lupe Fiasco and Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) the lone rappers, and the softer the better. B+(*)

Kevin Gordon: Gloryland (2011 [2012], Crowville Media): Singer-songwriter from Louisiana, which slots him into Americana if not quite country. Songs are plain-felt and -spoken, so self-effacing he can't turn the title song into an anthem; guitar has some resonnance, and he loosens up with ZZ Top. B+(*)

The Habit: Lincoln Has Won (2010 [2011], Reel to Reel): Brooklyn band, aiming for all Americana, with credible songs about "Cowboys and Canyons" and "Wild Wild West." Three singers -- would like to hear the woman (Siobhan Glennon) more: she takes the lead on "War Is Done," which should have been a hit. B+(***) [cd]

Charlie Haden/Hank Jones: Come Sunday (2010 [2012], Emarcy): Bass-piano duets, one of the last things Jones did before death caught up with him at 91, a sequel fifteen years after their superb Steal Away: Spirituals, Hymns and Folk Songs. Pretty straightforward, with no interest in shaking things up. Sentimental, sure. B+(*)

Beth Jeans Houghton & the Hooves of Destiny: Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose (2012, Mute): Brit singer-songwriter, from Newcastle Upon Tyne, describes herself as an "anti-folk songstress." I've also seen her pegged as punk -- she does, after all, have a song that ends, "fuck off" -- but the word that occurs to me is baroque, what with all the fiddles and choppy birdy voices. B

I See Hawks in L.A.: New Kind of Lonely (2012, Western Seeds): Country-ish group from L.A., which has a legacy of such, ranging from the Flying Burrito Brothers to the Eagles, although this group has nowhere near the ego to scrap in that company. This one is done simple, acoustic in a circle, the harmonies inexpert but the songs observed, with twang. B+(*)

King Midas Sound: Without You (2011, Hyperdub): A project of Kevin Martin, aka The Bug, with London/Trinidad poet Roger Robinson and Japanese singer Kiki Hitomi, previously on an interesting 2009 album called Waiting for You. Same or similar song titles reworked here by Kuedo, Flying Lotus, Gang Gang Dance, Hype Williams, Kode 9, Maia, and a few others I don't much recognize. Less focused than the original, as usual. B+(*)

Kevn Kinney: A Good Country Mile (2012, self-released): Frontman for the Georgia band Drivin' n' Cryin' since 1985, branched out three albums in with a solo album in 1990, staggered them for the rest of the decade, leaning more toward his solo career from 2000 on. I gather his solo albums tend more roosty-acoustic, but this one is backed by Anton Fier's Golden Palominos -- Fier even co-wrote five songs -- who get to rev guitars like Lynyrd Skynyrd, except on two slower pieces where the leader holds his own. [NB: Rhapsody has about a minute where a high volume drum riff sounds stuck; disconcerting and annoying. Docked a notch for that, but will try to check further.] B+(***)

La Sera: Sees the Light (2012, Hardly Art): Branching out project by Vivian Girls bassist Katy Goodman: rock but doesn't rock hard, pop but doesn't hook tight, safely in between almost any set of qualifiers you can come up with, doesn't sound bad but then I've already forgotten what it sounds like. B

Lyle Lovett: Release Me (2011 [2012], Lost Highway): Eleven covers, starting with a trad instrumental, plus three Lovett songs, none especially fresh, fashioned as a label kiss-off. As an interpretive singer, he makes more out of "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" than "Baby, It's Cold Outside," let alone "White Boy Lost in the Blues," but he takes them all slow enough to stretch out to 51:55, a slow burn that picks up late on "White Freightliner Blues" then drops dead on the closer. B+(*)

Madonna: MDNA (2012, Interscope): New label, moving past her new ex-husband, she's focusing on arena dance anthems again, and she comes up with more than she has since, well, Music (2000) at least. Tails off toward the end, which suggests no need to bother with the "Deluxe Edition" -- I wouldn't mind losing "Falling Free" either. A-

The Magnetic Fields: Love at the Bottom of the Sea (2012, Merge): Stephin Merritt's band/vehicle offers fifteen more love songs, as perfunctory as the famous 69 Love Songs, but with extra percussion. I still find him too arch to be seductive, let alone sexy, but he's catchy enough to be a tease, and make you wonder past your initial doubts. B+(***)

Spoek Mathambo: Father Creeper (2012, Sub Pop): South African rapper, or so they say -- the guitars can sound like they could belong to any old alt/indie band on the label, but this also falls into keyb-dominated sloughs. Also, he sings more than he raps. One song did catch my ear: "Grave." B

The Men: Open Your Heart (2012, Sacred Bones): Brooklyn post-punk group, second album, patently generic name -- -- at least it's less ironic than Girls. They go acoustic on one song but can't think of a better title than "Candy" ("Ripped From CCR" occurs to me). After a screecher they just walk a lead riff for three minutes before adding some vocal dirge -- liked that intro better. B+(**)

Monolake: Ghosts (2012, Imbalance Computer Music): Berlin-based group, principally Robert Henke, with ten albums since 1997, utilizing some custom hardware Henke developed. Stays within a narrow range of beats, moderately paced, offset enough to keep your interest. Quite pleasing, really, although it also seems so easy you wonder how this fits into their oeuvre, and whether it is in any way distinct. Something to hedge for now, study later. B+(***)

The New Trio [Günter Baby Sommer/Floros Floridis/Akira Ando]: Melting Game (2010 [2011], Jazzwerkstatt): Floridis, from Greece with a discography going back to the early 1980s, plays alto sax, clarinet, and bass clarinet, so figure this as an avant-sax trio. Bassist Ando is from Japan, passed through New York in the late 1980s, recorded with William Parker and Billy Bang, and wound up in Berlin. The German drummer goes back further and is better known. But this is no blow out. The trio establishes their balance early, then toward the end picks up a little groove -- if not a tango, then something comparably seductive. A-

Nneka: Soul Is Heavy (2012, Decon): Born in Nigeria, based in Germany, sings (and sometimes raps) mostly in English, fourth album, draws on reggae and hip-hop and I'm not sure what else, breaking new ground here. B+(***)

Odd Future: The Odd Future Tape Vol. 2 (2012, Odd Future): LA collective, dropped their WGKTA (Wolf Gang Kill Them All), probably after being advised of their fifth amendment rights. Despite their rep as a collective, their group thing breaks down to featured individuals, and therein lies the rub. Best known and most distinctive artists here are Frank Ocean, a singer of exceptional subtlety and taste, and Tyler, the Creator, some kind of moron. B-

Jimmy Owens: The Monk Project (2011 [2012], IPO): Trumpet player from the Bronx, has a few 1968-78 records that aren't all that well regarded but somehow wound up arranging a bunch of Monk tunes into what sounds like a New Orleans tailgate party. All of the horns swagger, with Owens bouncing off Marcus Strickland featured on tenor sax, but especially the bottom dwellers: Wycliffe Gordon on trombone and Howard Johnson on baritone sax and tuba. B+(***)

Evan Parker/Zlatko Kaucic: Round About One O'Clock (2009 [2011], Not Two): Live at the 50th Jazz Festival in Ljubljana, Slovenia -- presumably where drummer Kaucic is from. Parker dedicates the record to fellow avant-saxophonist Mike Osborne, who died in 2007. He runs through long and intricate lines -- trademark stuff, especially the circular breathing. B+(**)

Perfume Genius: Put Your Back N 2 It (2012, Matador): Mike Hadreas, from Seattle, second album, has a penchant for slow, soft-toned sulks with a fuzzy aura to pretty them up. Captivating, as such things go. B

Punch Brothers: Who's Feeling Young Now? (2012, Nonesuch): Considered bluegrass mostly because leader Chris Thile plays mandolin, abetted by Noam Pikelny on banjo, Gabe Witcher on violin, plus guitar and bass but no drums. Considered "progressive bluegrass" because they don't sound like bluegrass. Took their name from a Mark Twain story, so seems fair to ascribe literary ambitions. I never could stand to read Twain myself, not that my inability should suggest that they might really have something in mind. B

Frankie Rose: Interstellar (2012, Slumberland): Singer-songwriter, came up as a drummer in Shitstorm, Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls, and Crystal Stilts. Has a previous album as Frankie Rose and the Outs, but plays this one inside, with moderately toned vocals surrounded by an aura of synthy echo. Could use a drummer. B

Jenny Scheinman: Mischief & Mayhem (2010 [2012], self-released): Violinist, has done striking work in the past and returns to form here. String-focused group, with Nels Cline on guitar, Todd Sickafoose on bass, and Jim Black on drums. Faster pieces take off, sometimes with bluegrass and sometimes with rock feel; slower ones open up and enjoy the atmosphere. A- [cd]

Shearwater: Animal Joy (2012, Sub Pop): Rock group, spun off from Okkervil River but not up to six albums. Big sound, better than I expected but not something I have any real interest in. That happens on this watch. B

The Shins: Port of Morrow (2012, Columbia): A huge alt/indie rock band at least for their 2001-03 albums, with only a 2007 effort between now and then. They're still big enough that Metacritic registered 30 reviews as of release date -- possibly the most of any new record this year (Springsteen and Guided by Voices have 34 and 33 respectively in my data file, but both were re-checked after their debut date) -- but the score is a relatively modest 71 (but Pitchfork still loves them). They have a sweet pop sound and good sense for hooks, backed by the usual guitar power. I'm not indifferent, but I'm not quite smitten either. B+(*)

Todd Snider: Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables (2012, Aimless/Thirty Tigers): Starts with two pointed political songs, the topical one meant to contextualize why New York bankers aren't just clever bastards, the other wondering why "we still need religion to keep the poor from killing the rich." Then he reaches for a Jimmy Buffett cover that extends the vibe without making his head hurt. If he was thinking more clearly, he'd see that it isn't envy of people having too much shit that drives the poor against the rich. It's injustice: the sense that the rich are free to live in ways the poor cannot. When you hear conservatives moan about this or that assault on freedom, they mean on their freedom, and you should ask free to do what, and to whom. A [cd]

Joan Soriano: La Familia Soriano (2012, IASO): A "bachatero" -- a guitarist and singer from the Dominican Republic where the shantytown music is called bachata. Has a previous album (El Duque de la Bachata) that promoted him above the names that fill up the compilation lists, and is even more impressive here -- partly because his sisters Nelly and Griselda take most of the vocal leads giving the affair pop/dance élan, but the contrast deepens the soulfulness of his leads, and his guitar carries it all along. A- [cd]

Esperanza Spalding: Radio Music Society (2012, Heads Up): Bassist, sings in a little girl voice that is thankfully free of gospel inflection, a combination that seems to have enormous appeal -- I felt the tug myself on her first two albums, but had to admit the music didn't deliver much. Then she won a Grammy on her third -- a dud if I've ever heard one -- and now it's gone to her head (or at least her producer's). Pianist Leo Genevese is her only steady companion, with drums split between Terri Lyne Carrington, Jack DeJohnette, and Billy Hart. The American Music Program (Big Band) appears on three cuts -- overstuffed when you look at the credits, underwhelming on wax. Plus scads of guests on one or two cuts each -- I won't bother listing them, since they're all pretty much wasted. B-

Speech Debelle: Freedom of Speech (2012, Big Dada): Soft-spoken Brit rapper, Jamaican descent, original name Corynne Elliot, has a couple albums and a Mercury Prize. When you just get satisfied with her easy flow, she picks up the beat. B+(**)

Bruce Springsteen: Wrecking Ball (2012, Columbia): Possibly his most political album, certainly his most polemical, and just as likely hise most obvious -- "Swallowed Up (In the Belly of the Whale)" is given its most literal treatment possible, seguing into the immigrant anthem "American Land" set to an Irish jig. Big gestures, big sound, just contained enough to acknowledge the energy crunch, a future not just greener but grayer. His early albums pumped up American myth so grotesquely it's not surprising that he believed in it. I prefer this scaled down version: his champions always insisted his integrity would prevail, and strangely enough it has. A-

Pete Swanson: Man With Potential (2011, Type): From Portland, OR, previously one-half of Yellow Swans, something of an experimental electronic noise band. Same deal here, with long stretches of repetitive patterns working sounds that are just on the cusp of being unpleasant -- especially the high-pitched warbles (good thing there are no dogs in the house). B+(*)

Tanlines: Mixed Emotions (2012, True Panther Sounds): Brooklyn duo: Jesse Cohen (drums), Eric Emm (guitar, vocals), some synths somewhere. Dance music, within its rather narrow niche, with no special wit but pleasant enough. B

THEESatisfaction: Awe Naturale (2012, Sub Pop): More capitalization nonsense, from a Seattle duo -- Stasia Irons raps, Catherine Harris-White sings -- who got their own shot after working on Shabazz Palaces' Black Up. Has a liquid feel that blurs everything together. B+(*)

Ana Tijoux: La Bala (2012, Relativity): Born in France, her parents Chileans who fled to escape Pinochet; she returned to Chile in 2004 and established herself as a hip-hop star. In Spanish I can't begin to follow, choppy little beats with synth backdrops, strikes me as dreamy, but what do I know? B+(*)

The Unthanks: Diversions, Vol. 1: The Songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony & the Johnsons (2010 [2012], Rough Trade): English folkie group, formerly Rachel Unthank and the Winterset, the simpler name more respectful to autharpist, singer, and sister Becky Unthank. Fifth album, "Live from the Union Chapel, London" on two nights, the six Antony Hegarty songs grouped up front, followed by nine songs by or associated with Wyatt (one by Anja Garbarek is from Comicopera). Antony's songs are radiantly pretty but trifling. Wyatt's are more varied and substantial, and it's interesting to hear with without his voice -- a marvel of nature, but so distinct it tends to overwhelm everything else. Applause and patter break the mood, for better or worse. B+(*)

Ken Vandermark: Mark in the Water (2010 [2011], Not Two): Another solo album: 2 cuts on clarinet, 4 each tenor sax and bass clarinet, each keyed to a legendary reed player (except for the one for bluesman Fred McDowell). The portrait of Coleman Hawkins and the piece for Joe McPhee are measured and eloquent. Some of the others -- especially the hyperventilation for Steve Lacy -- can get on your nerves. B+(*)

The Vandermark 5 [Special Edition]: The Horse Jumps/The Ship Is Gone (2009 [2010], Not Two, 2CD): After putting out a record nearly every year, the latest from Ken Vandermark's "flagship group" is a couple years old, a live double from Chicago's Green Mill, and without checking I'd say these are mostly old songs. Whether the group is defunct or just lying low, this shelf filler is pretty impressive. By "special edition," they mean that there are a couple extra musicians on stage: Magnus Broo (trumpet), and Håvard Wiik (piano) -- two/fifths of Atomic for more than a decade, veterans of various Vandermark projects, including two mash-ups between Atomic and School Days. When the noise breaks up, this can sound like one of those, but mostly it's more coherent, muscular, graceful. Dave Rempis, back to alto (and baritone) as Vandermark has reclaimed his tenor slot, is the big difference, but also Wiik is fast and clever enough to pick his way through a firestorm. A-

VCMG: Ssss (2012, Mute): Joint project of Vince Clarke (Erasure) and Martin Gore (Depeche Mode), highly agreeable synth dance beats with no vocals to strain credulity. Inspirational title: "Single Blip." Faux attempt at irony: "Skip This Track." B+(**)

Paul Weller: Sonik Kicks (2012, Island): A big deal in England, with a record damn near every year since 1992, following tours leading the Jam and the Style Council, but I've scarcely paid him any attention since the Jam's debut. This has a big beat, a flair for the dramatic, some interest as noise, but little appeal, least of all as a singer. B

Tommy Womack: There, I Said It! (2007, Cedar Creek): Singer-songwriter, started in a Kentucky rock group called Government Cheese (1985-92) -- wrote a book about them, Cheese Chronicles: The True Story of a Rock 'n' Roll Band You've Never Heard Of -- went on to the Bis-quits (1994) then landed in Nashville with a solo album in 1997, and five more since then. Title here comes from a song where he admits that he'll never be a rock star, although he holds out hope for his drummer son. B+(***)

Tommy Womack: Now What! (2012, Cedar Creek): Big step forward, not so much in the stories, which were richly detailed on the previous album, as in the way the words and music fit together. High point's "Guilty Snake Blues" which lays down dozens of clever couplets against a sax riff -- "it's been a downward spiral/and an uphill climb"; "I don't care about the facts/as long as you tell me the truth"; "you can pray for anything/but don't expect God to change his mind"; "politics bore me/let's not bring it up at all/you're either preaching to the choir/or talking to the wall." A- [cd]

Music: Current count 19630 [19580] rated (+50), 878 [882] unrated (-4). Rated count up this week, partly because I've been adding to an overstuffed Rhapsody Streamnotes (should be up tomorrow), partly because I've been streaming other stuff for May's Recycled Goods (more avant-jazz, but not from FMP), and partly because with all the poking around I caught quite a few bookkeeping errors where I had failed to note previous grades. Also, there's a fairly hefty slab of Jazz Prospecting below.

Also, under unpacking, you'll note that the previous week's mail drought ended -- although the hoped-for package from Clean Feed has yet to materialize (although one from our friends in Lithuania did). Need to think about future this week, especially now that lots of things that have dragged me down over the last month have started to clear up. [Update: The Clean Feed package arrived later today.]

Joe Chambers Moving Pictures Orchestra: Live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola (2011 [2012], Savant): Drummer, b. 1942, broke in big in 1964 on albums by Freddie Hubbard and Andrew Hill, and was a regular on Blue Note in the 1960s. Picked up the vibraphone along the way, and has a dozen or so albums under his own name -- but not much like this live big band effort. Chambers' "Moving Pictures Suite" -- three movement at the top of the record, plus the fourth at the end -- is a mess. But the five pieces in between let the nearly-all-star band shine -- especially the three that don't feature vocalist Nicole Guiland, especially the one that started out in Count Basie's big band. B

Meredith D'Ambrosio: By Myself (2011 [2012], Sunnyside): Singer, plays piano, b. 1941, 16th album since 1978, only her 2nd since 2001. She writes some, but this is all written by Arthur Schwartz, mostly with Howard Dietz's lyrics (also Maxwell Anderson, Johnny Mercer, and E.Y. Harburg, one song each). Done simply, just her piano and voice, nice and easy, a very quiet, intimate night music. B+(**)

Rick Drumm and Fatty Necroses: Return From the Unknown (2010 [2012], self-released): Drummer, first album as far as I can tell, the group name a reference to the cancer Drumm was diagnosed with in 2009. Like most drummers, he likes a groove. Guitarists Fred Hamilton and Corey Christiansen add to it, and the horns -- Pete Grimaldi on trumpet, Mike Brumbaugh on trombone, and especially Frank Catalano on sax -- build on that. B+(*)

Jürgen Hagenlocher: Leap in the Dark (2011, Intuition): Tenor saxophonist, b. 1967 in Germany. Website lists 10 albums since 1997 (AMG has three of them). This is a snappy post-hard-bop quintet assembled in New York: Alex Sipiagin (trumpet), David Kikoski (piano), Boris Kozlov (bass), and Nate Smith (drums). Moves right along, the rare slow bits just there to feature the rich tones. B+(**)

Jeff Hamilton Trio: Red Sparkle (2012, Capri): Drummer-led piano trio, with Tamir Hendelman on piano and Christoph Luty on bass -- no formal credits table on the package, but they are mentioned in passing in Leonard Maltin's liner notes. Hamilton has ten albums since 1982, but is best known as co-leader of the Clayton-Hamilton Orchestra -- the big band backup much favored by singers like Diana Krall. B+(*)

Ross Hammond Quartet: Adored (2012, Prescott): Guitarist, based in California (Sacramento, I think), has five previous records since 2003, nothing much in his bio. Quartet adds Vinny Golia (tenor/alto/soprano sax), Stuart Liebig (bass), and Alex Cline (drums), with producer Wayne Peet on piano for one cut. Not getting anything from Golia's Nine Winds label, it's a rare treat to hear him elsewhere, and he puts on a terrific performance here, fierce and lyrical. Harder to tell about the guitar. B+(***)

Billy Hart: All Our Reasons (2011 [2012], ECM): Veteran drummer, didn't have much under his own name until this star-laden group promoted him to front man, but he's responded this time by writing 4 (of 9) songs -- pianist Ethan Iverson and tenor saxophonist Mark Turner split the remainer, 3 to 2, with bassist Ben Street just helping out. Too bad the pieces aren't crisper: Turner isn't up to speed, and no one else picks up the slack. B+(*)

Steve Horowitz: New Monsters (2011 [2012], Posi-Tone): Bassist, based in San Francisco, has eleven (or more) albums since 1993, some with the group Mousetrap. Quintet, with two saxophones -- Steve Adams, from ROVA on alto and soprano (and flute), and Dan Plonsey on tenor -- plus piano (Scott Looney) and drums (Jim Bove). Actually, I'm not sure why this isn't Plonsey's record: he wrote all of the tunes (except for the Coltrane/Dolphy medley). Plonsey is another Bay Area performer I hadn't heard of: has a half-dozen albums since 1997, plus side-credits like Eugene Chadbourne, Anthony Braxton, and Tom Waits. The monsters on the cover strike me as an attempt to play up the humor while sneaking through what is by far the most avant record this label has yet released. B+(***)

Tommy Igoe and the Birdland Big Band: Eleven (2011 [2012], Deep Rhythm Music): Drummer, has one previous album in 1996, plus there's a 2007 album credited solely to Birdland Big Band. Igoe has scattered side credits going back to 1989, notably with New York Voices (which explains the two Darmon Meader songs here; no vocals, though). Band credits 19 members, but if you factor out the guests (only on some tracks) and the trumpet platoon it drops down to conventional size (no guitar, only three trombones). Don't recognize many names, but appreciate the crisp section work and rhythmic drive. You have to wonder why more big bands don't do "Moanin'." B+(*)

Sheila Jordan/Harvie S: Yesterdays (1990 [2012], High Note): B. 1928, but aside from the one-shot Portrait of Sheila in 1962 she didn't really get her career going until the late 1970s, and still hasn't been given her due -- although she's spent so much time travelling and teaching since 1990 I'm not finding dozens of aspiring jazz singers acknowledging their debts to her. Early on she paid plenty of dues, chasing Bird, and catching his pianist Duke Pearson. George Russell finally put her in front of a microphone: I'd put that on the list of his major accomplishments-- along with synthesizing Cuban be-bop for Dizzy Gillespie, teaching Miles Davis and John Coltrane how to use modes, introducing electronics to jazz, and inspiring a whole generation of Scandinavian jazz stars. I first ran into her on Roswell Rudd's mid-1970s albums -- the totally forgotten Numatik Swing Band and the even-more-marvelous Flexible Flyer -- and followed her through Steve Kuhn's group, into her solo albums -- many with nothing more than bass fiddle for accompaniment. This set, recorded "live in concert, circa 1990," is one of those, with the former Harvie Swartz on bass. More standards, less be-bop/vocalese, than her studio albums, which means more touchstones you think you know but will hear something new in here. Her control is so remarkable that even though she breaks up laughing in the Fats Waller medley she never misses a note. Only in the closer, "I Could Have Danced All Night," does she finally lose it, a joke you can't help but enjoy. A-

Anders Jormin: Ad Lucem (2011 [2012], ECM): Bassist, b. 1957 in Sweden, has at least a dozen albums since 1988. Song cycle, texts in Latin, commissioned for Swedish Jazz Celebration 2010, with two vocalists: Mariam Wallentin (of a group I've heard of, Wildbirds and Peacedrums) and Erika Angell (of two I haven't: Thuswls, The Moth). The vocal pieces, which aren't quite art-song or choral, let alone folk or pop, don't especially interest me. The instrumental passages, with Jon Fält on drums, lots of plucked bass, and superbly tasteful clarinet and tenor sax by Fredrik Ljungkvist, do. B+(*)

Jonny King: Above All (2010 [2012], Sunnyside): Pianist, b. 1965 in New York, studied at Princeton and Harvard Law, had three albums 1994-97, and now a fourth, a trio (Ed Howard on bass, Victor Lewis on drums), all original pieces. Mainstream piano jazz, fast and assured. B+(**)

Guy Klucevsek: The Multiple Personality Reunion Tour (2011 [2012], Innova): Accordion player, b. 1947 in Pittsburgh, AMG classifies him as avant-garde but in many ways he's a traditionalist, poking his way through European folk music. Eclectic mix here, with three Satie pieces, progressive folk group Brave Combo on six more, scattered jazz musicians like Dave Douglas, Marcus Rojas, and John Hollenbeck, some talk, some song, lots of accordion. B+(**)

Neil Leonard: Marcel's Window (2009 [2011], Gasp): Plays alto and soprano sax, originally from Philadelphia, teaches at Berklee. Looks like he also has a 2001 album (Timaeus), although his website doesn't mention it. Postbop quartet, pianist Tom Lawton nearly steals the show in a couple of sections, plus Lee Smith on bass and Craig McIver on drums. B+(*)

Davy Mooney: Perrier Street (2011 [2012], Sunnyside): Guitarist-vocalist, originally from New Orleans, now based in New York; has two previous records. As a vocalist, has a Chet Baker affectation, giving way to Johnaye Kendrick on five songs. As a guitarist, he's too buried to tell, although the slinky postbop occasionally takes shape, at least when saxophonist John Ellis takes charge. C+

Piero Orodici: Cedar Walton Presents (2011 [2012], Savant): Fine print: "with the Cedar Walton Trio" -- Walton (piano), David Williams (bass), Willie Jones III (drums). One thing that sets Walton apart from nearly every other pianist since he started in the mid-1960s is his featured use of saxophonists (both on his own records and, especially, as Eastern Rebellion). It's relatively easy to focus on his piano here, because what he does goes way beyong comping -- he sets up all the structure the saxophonist needs. The saxophonist in question, Odorici, was b. 1962 in Bologna, Italy, and has a fistful of records on Italian labels, starting with First Play in 1989. Odorici's tenor sails through six standards and one original each by Odorici and Walton, an impressive intro, although it's the rhythm section that makes this special. B+(***)

Johnny Padilla: Bright Morning (2012, self-released): Saxophonist (soprano, alto, tenor -- the latter is pictured), second album (I've been able to find) after one in 1998. Likes to play long and fast bebop runs, with guitarist Zvonimir Tot getting some similar solo space. Bits of Latin percussion add little, and the delicately colored change-of-pace is dull. B

Marc Rossi Group: Mantra Revealed (2009-11 [2012], Innova): Pianist, teaches at Berklee, AMG lists three records since 1988. This one starts off with a piece for Carnatic guitarist Prasanna and moves on in genre-hopping world-fusion fashion. B+(*)

Cinzia Spata: Into the Moment (2010 [2011], Koine): Singer, from Italy, where I gather she has a considerable reputation, now based in New York. Second album (as far as I can tell), backed by pianist Bruce Barth, bass and drums, with some trumpet by Ken Cervenka and tenor sax by George Garzone. Mostly standards -- "My Favorite Things," "Soul Eyes," "Tea for Two," "East of the Sun" -- horns nicely arranged, striking voice, likes to scat. B+(**)

Thollem/Parker/Cline: The Gowanus Session (2012, Porter): Thollem McDonas is a pianist from San Francisco, has played on 20-some albums since 2005; might file half under his name, since his specialties seem to be solo and duo sets. The others are bassist William Parker and guitarist Nels Cline. Group improv, broken into six tracks but pretty much one movement, with a lot of rough spots along the way. B+(***)

TriBeCaStan: New Deli (2011, Evergreene Music): Mostly John Kruth, who writes most of the material, and Jeff Greene, plus assorted hangers on, guests, and "special guests," on their third group album. Kruth and Greene play scads of world instruments, Kruth leaning toward mandolin/banjo, Greene more of a percussion guy. Steve Turre and Claire Daly are among the better known guests, and Badal Roy is a "special guest." I applaud the cosmopolitanism, but in three albums they've never managed to turn this into more than a very agreeable mix. B+(**)

Anne Walsh: Go (2011 [2012], self-released): Standards singer, mostly (wrote one original here). Originally from Massachusetts. Fourth album since 2006. Nice, clear voice, a light bounce to the arrangements, not the strings help. B+(*)

Mike Wofford/Holly Hofmann Quintet: Turn Signal (2010 [2012], Capri): Piano and flute, respectively; married in 2000, which has intertwined their discography. With Downbeat's poll approaching, I'm reminded that Hofmann will be near the top of the flutist list -- she has a dozen or so albums since 1989, and there aren't many flute players in jazz -- and Wofford -- with twice as many albums going back to 1966 -- won't even make the piano ballot. He is a superb player, but not quite someone you'd slot ahead of contemporaries like Ran Blake and Paul Bley. He carries the album here, with Hofmann and trumpet player Terell Stafford scratching and clawing to keep up. For once I don't mind the weakness of the flute, but the sound is tuned down so low that Terrell's trumpet doesn't sound any brighter. B+(*)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Todd Bishop Group: Little Played Little Bird: The Music of Ornette Coleman (Origin)
• Ran Blake/Christine Correa: Down Here Below: Tribute to Abbey Lincoln Volume One (Red Piano): April 24
• Dirty Dozen Brass Band: Twenty Dozen (Savoy Jazz)
• Amit Friedman Sextet: Sunrise (Origin)
• Narada Burton Greene: Live at Kerrytown House (NoBusiness)
• Jazz Punks: Smashups (self-released)
• Guilermo Klein/Los Gauchos: Carrera (Sunnyside): May 22
• Andrew Lamb: Rhapsody in Black (NoBusiness)
• Joel Miller: Swim (Origin)
• Tony Monaco: Celebration: Life-Love-Music (Chicken Coup/Summit)
• Miles Okazaki: Figurations (Sunnyside)
• Nate Radley: The Big Eyes (Fresh Sound New Talent)
• Anne Sajdera: Azul (Bijart)
• Tom Tallitsch: Heads or Tails (Posi-Tone)
• The Thing with Barry Guy: Metal! (NoBusiness): advance
• Henry P. Warner/Earl Freeman/Philip Spigner: Freestyle Band (1984, NoBusiness)
• Spike Wilner: La Tendresse (Posi-Tone)
• Nate Wooley/Christian Weber/Paul Lytton: Six Feet Under (NoBusiness): advance
• Brandon Wright: Journeyman (Posi-Tone): May 25

by Michael Tatum

This column's newly expanded format (suggested by Noisecritic's Joey Daniewicz) has presented me with a few unexpected problems. Where once I could merely dump a record under the "trash" heading and wipe my hands clean of it, now I'm forced not only to assign each a letter grade, but also concoct a succinct dismissal to justify it -- a task that might sound easy, yet I've been finding myself at a loss to describe such inexplicably hyped items as Ital's Hive Mind, Grimes' Visions, and Jon Talabot's Fin, even after subjecting myself to more than the requisite five listens. I suppose the best way I could (as a for example) sum up the Ital record for the curious reader would be to attempt a sort of post modern review in which I repeated the phrase it doesn't matter if you believe in him it doesn't matter if you believe in him it doesn't matter if you believe in him for a few pages, like that climactic scene in The Shining, but something tells me you'd rather hear about music more worth your consideration. So would I. Onward.

Air: La Voyage Dans La Lune (Astralwerks) As fans of George Orwell and Disneyland's defunct Adventure Thru Inner Space ride know, what its contemporaries regard as futurism has a nasty way of dating itself very quickly -- in the introduction to his collected short stories, J.G. Ballard glibly recalls how a reader took him to task for describing his poetry-composing computers as operating on "valves" rather than chips and wires, after which the author bemusedly notes he didn't have the foresight in the early sixties to imagine PCs and pagers either. Georges Méliès' 1902 science fiction classic doesn't fall into that trap -- relying more on the whimsical and the fantastic, Méliès ridicules his scientists and scholars, shoots his heroes' rocket into l'oeil de l'homme lune, and populates the moon's surface with little green men. This makes the duo of Nicholas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel, no stranger to beautiful but otherworldly kitsch -- fromage-vert, you might say -- perfect for scoring the restoration of this film's once-thought-lost hand-colorized version. The resulting fifteen minute film can be easily found online and is worth watching to appreciate how well Godin and Dunckel understand their countryman's sensibility -- they decorate the theme for the "Astronomic Club" with mock-regal drum rolls and synth-brass proclamations that lampoon the explorers' befuddlement, while the brief snippet that plays underneath the factory scene (frustratingly absent from the album) rattles with evocative clinks and clanks redolent of hammers hitting anvils. Padded out with material not used in the film, including two tracks featuring the usual vocalists for hire, the track order might initially be confusing, forsaking the film's chronology to sequence the more atmospheric material toward the end. But this is a minor quibble: their soundtrack to Sofia Coppola's 2002 The Virgin Suicides was arid by necessity, as it filled empty space in a dialogue-heavy film, but because here they're providing music to supersede the original narration, they're forced to be more creative in their attention to detail. The result: their most consistently beautiful and beguiling record since the last time they took a safari to the moon, way back in 1996. A–

Chiddy Bang: Breakfast (Virgin) Drexel dropouts whose combined ages barely surpass that of your humble downloader, Chidera "Chiddy" Anamege and Noah "Xaphoon Jones" Beresin came up through mixtapes, one of which brought them to the attention of England's Parlophone Records, best known to you and me as the label that gave the world the Beatles -- perhaps a propos for a duo who claim to have a thing for British shorties and sample such non-R&B entities as Sufjan Stevens, MGMT, and Radiohead. But don't fall under the impression they're arch or arty, even in the slightest: musically, this duo is a nonstop pleasure machine, doling out playful hook after playful hook, mining kiddie pop sources as disparate as Sweden's Icona Pop and British soul singer VV Brown and incorporating them into a seamless, sparkling production style that gives you plenty of sweet stuff to chew on. But speaking as someone who rarely indulges in the meal that nutritionists always remind us is the most important, their aesthetic is less ham and eggs than Count Chocula, especially when you hone in on the lyrics. Although heartwarmed by Amamege's admission in the delightful "Mind Your Manners" that he had a crush on his junior high school principal -- "I guess I was turned on by the leadership," he muses, which I doubt, but okay -- I don't find much evidence of the intelligence that he vows not to dumb down in the title cut. He's clever for sure, but that's slightly different -- I'm not wanting wisdom or enlightenment as much as I am a little imagination, or at least a worldview that extends beyond the mundane pursuit of girls and weed, not necessarily in that order. Certainly, anyone whose list of life goals includes getting high with Keith Richards probably shouldn't have to ponder why the women in his uncomfortably naïve relationship songs keep telling him to grow up. Then again, I was probably a lot like Anamege when I was his age -- only a great deal less witty, warm, and outgoing, all qualities best appreciated on the dynamite "Ray Charles," which turns Anamege's obliviousness with the ladies into one of this year's must-hear singles. And if you're wondering why those qualities can't quite sustain a whole record, fast forward to the finale, in which he vows to go out "hard in the fourth quarter," at least two quarters too late. A–

Karantamba: Ndigal (Teranga Beat) Gambia's Bai Janha is the consummate Afropop journeyman -- as a writer, arranger, and guitarist, his résumé includes Black Star, the Whales Band, Fabulous (later "Supreme") Eagles, and the Alligators. The latter group disbanded, reformed without Janha, and recorded as Guelewar, the band whose 1982 live recording Teranga Beat label founder Adamantios Kafetzis excavated and released as 2011's Halleli N'Dakarou. By this point in his career, Janha had moved on and founded this aggregation, essentially a "school of mbalax" for young, upcoming musicians, which as legend has it beat Youssou N'Dour and Super Etoile de Dakar by two places in Senegal's Zone II Music Festival -- must have been a sensational night. This particular item captures Janha and his charges in a live recording from Janha's Club Sangomar in Thiés, Senegal, and if it's as not as hot as prime Etoile de Dakar, that's not to say it doesn't often come close. As you might expect, Janha's wailing guitar reflects the standard Santana influence so common to West African musicians, and his authorative tenor commands impressive gravity, but in all fairness, this is not his record: the explosive synergy and blazing groove is dominated by the woefully uncredited percussionists, who thump their sabar drums so forcefully they muscle their way center stage for the entire set. I don't know if these nameless players wound up going to medical school or driving taxis. But they deserve far more than the one night they got. A–

The Magnetic Fields: Love at the Bottom of the Sea (Merge) Stephin Merritt must have secretly loathed recording for Nonesuch. Sure, among major labels the patience and latitude extended to its roster, from humoring Jeff Tweedy's migraines to providing a forum for various world music summits, approaches a rare degree of corporate sainthood. Nevertheless, they do exude a certain aura of propriety, the kind that turns up its judiciously-trimmed nose and sniffs: "Yes, I listen to NPR on my drive to work, read The New Yorker on my lunch hour, and take two brisk, environmentally conscious showers every day." This might explain the relative conservatism of most of Merritt's projects for that label, which aside from last year's vault-clearing Obscurities included four soundtracks and the Magnetic Fields' so-called "synthesizer free" trilogy -- note that in the former category, the sole standout is the hilariously macabre Gothic Archies companion to buddy Daniel Handler's Lemony Snicket books, while his proper band's outré Jesus and Mary Chain homage Distortion trumped the limply soft-rock i and the sterile Joshua Rifkin simulation Realism. Now back on Merge, the triumphant return of cheap synths and cheaper jokes suggest the delight of a young boy who's just discovered he can get away with dropping f-bombs without the censure of his parents -- subjects here include premarital sex, vibrators, orgies, putting out a contract on your ex's new flame, running away to join the fairies, and leaving the big city for Laramie, Wyoming, all executed compactly between 2:01 and 2:35. As both a fan and unapologetic dispenser of lowbrow humor, I wholeheartedly approve. But what's missing is that moment when the artist lets his guard down and reveals the vulnerability that sarcasm so often veils -- the only song that approaches anything resembling depth is the gender-fucked "Andrew in Drag," about falling in love with a girl who doesn't exist, because he's actually a guy (and contains the most loving use of the epithet "fag" you've ever heard). Nothing wrong with plumbing the lowbrow depths. But a moment or two of profundity might have made these fifteen quickies as memorable as the sixty-nine he made back before the taste makers crammed him into the respectability box. A–

Nicki Minaj: Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (Universal Republic) "[On] my first album I was very guarded," the artiste revealed to Ryan Seacrest last Valentine's Day. "I felt like I was making music to please everyone else. I had to be politically correct, but on this album I am just creating music, and there's such a big difference." But then, only a breath later, she adds: "I've tried to make it very, very balanced, because I don't ever want to be boxed in, and that's always what drives me. So I made a very diverse album." If those two thoughts read like they contradict each other, you'll have no problem sorting out this semi-disappointing sophomore effort's incommensurate halves. The first seven tracks thrill in the same way that Terminator X's beats and samples once did: they're abrasive and hard to hear, but not because of the music per se, which of course is high grade, juiced-up commercial hip hop, but because of Minaj's voice, which grunts, growls, and whines without sacrificing any of her innately pleasurable musicality. And the joy she takes in allowing her id to run rampant in this sequence is palpable, especially in the much-maligned "put my dick in your face" segment, which I think is hysterical -- first manipulating her voice with studio effects to ugly it up even more, then sweetening her delivery for an uproarious a cappella breakdown: the musical equivalent of what's she's threatening to do. After that, she hits the brakes and cruise-controls through what's basically a quality Rihanna record -- except for the bathetic power ballad "Marilyn Monroe," which dubiously updates Bernie Taupin for the Reality TV generation, fine as such stuff goes, but completely safe. More importantly, alter-ego Roman Zolanski completely disappears, materializing again only for the outlandish, endlessly repeatable, whoop-whooping finale, "Stupid Hoe." "I am the female Weezy," she brags as the song screeches to a halt, and sometimes I find myself marveling how close she comes. I just wished she also didn't have designs to be the Trinidadian-American Fergie. B+

Skrillex: Bangarang (Atlantic, EP) Sonny Moore's impressively swift ascendancy to the dance-pop heap offends snooty John Talabot fans, and I'll say this for him: any hairstyle that resembles a palomino's hindquarters when viewed from an elevated height commits cosmetological crimes so outrageously grotesque they could send Korn's Jonathan Davis into a raging fit of trichotillomania. Fortunately, these follicular quibbles have minimal impact on Moore's electrifying, exhilarating dance-pop -- anyone who champions Sleigh Bells has no right to be slamming this guy. Like that band's Derek Miller, Moore harbors a weakness for '70s stadium rock that he updates with dynamic, sledgehammer beats, although since ravers rather than rockers constitute Moore's target audience, his mallet-blows to the head are more cannily timed, a boon to those mindful of their aspirin consumption. Perhaps absurdly, I'm reminded of R.E.M.'s "King of Comedy," a song I'm certain Moore has never heard, but might serve as a suitable entry point for all of you agnostics out there who still cling to the fallacy, like the chump Moore samples at the beginning of 2010's Grammy-validated Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites, that musical artistry equals two guitars, a bass, and a drum. On this EP comprising seven songs and no remixes -- which in itself signifies as an improvement over his 2010 EP -- Moore elaborates on his industrial-strength minimalism by enlisting numerous collaborators and experimenting with arrangements, unquestionably peaking with the sensational "Breakin' a Sweat," in which the surviving members of the Doors not only re-affirm that people are strange, but also kindly donate a snippet of the Lizard King intoning from beyond the grave about a future in which lone musicians rely solely on "tapes, machines, and electronics." Now, I've personally always regarded as ravers as the present day hippies. But won't those sixties holdouts freak when they not only realize their sainted Jimbo really was a prophet -- was there any doubt? -- but that he forecasted the existence of the very music that sends so many of them into apopletic convulsions? I'm playing it for my father the first chance I get. A–

Sleigh Bells: Reign of Terror (Mom + Pop) The kids are bummed about this one, but hey, aren't the kids always bummed about something? Once a debut lays down the ground rules, noise technicians as severe as these only have a few options when it comes time to return the studio: they can repeat themselves, in which case they'll be accused of playing it safe. They can take the dissonance even further, in which case they run the risk of alienating their audience. Or, they can do as what Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss do here: experiment and branch out, which as you might expect has confused a few of their former supporters, many of whom have taken an annoying amount of smug satisfaction in reminding us Krauss clocked hours in a teen R&B outfit. But if we're to trust interviews over liner credits (which blur the details somewhat) and Krauss contributed more to this record than 2010's Treats, her input actually ups Miller's game, introducing him to such pop conventions as middle eighths, the 6/8 time signature, trickily layered harmonies, deft countermelodies, and even a dash of optimism for "Comeback Kid." Most importantly, the new lyrics speak to teenagers, directly, in their language, rather than condescending to them with stray references to good grades, telephone calls, and what your boyfriend might think about your new braces -- bet Krauss wrote the lyric for the painful morning-after plaint "End of the Line" and post-breakup "Leader of the Pack." Leaving Miller to pursue his perverse dream of transforming himself into the indie rock Roy Thomas Baker, which he damn near accomplishes. A–

Todd Snider: Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables (Aimless) Preferring songwriters to mere storytellers, I was comparatively mild on Snider's 2011 live double -- sure, his sardonic sprechgesang never fails to put his words over, but as with most acerbic guys with acoustic guitars, he often needs musical color to drive those words home. Hence, his proper studio albums are the best place to access his righteous sarcasm and caustic wit, and this ranks as his best since 2006's The Devil You Know. The major advance here is the addition of backing vocalist and violinist Amanda Shires, who saws at her strings as if felling an oak, the perfect musical foil for songs that in one bitter lyric after another address the Americans that have fallen straight thought Mitt Romney's mythical safety net, from a New York banker who rips off an entire school faculty's pension fund to an cranky small-town reactionary who kindly suggests the local rabblerousers improve their lot by picking up trash in the park. Of course, there are scores of Martin-toting wags similarly sticking it to the one-percent, if not with such wit and accuracy. What separates Snider from so many other smartasses is the purposefully uncultivated grain of his music -- compare Jimmy Buffett's original "West Nashville Grand Ballroom Gown," which plays out like a kitchen-sink melodrama and sinks its potent punch line in a morass of strings, to Snider's striking cover, which makes every consonant smack like a slap in the face and doesn't stoop to reducing a young woman's life to a cheap genre exercise. And pithy truisms like "Good things happen to bad people" and "The best revenge is revenge" sting all that much more soaked in the vinegary tang of Snider's out-of-tune guitar. A

Honorable Mentions

Bruce Springsteen: Wrecking Ball (Columbia) Lee Greenwood for Liberals ("Shackled and Drawn," "Death to My Hometown," "Easy Money") ***

Carolina Chocolate Drops: Leaving Eden (Nonesuch) More soulful than a Civil War re-enactment, but equally as unconvincing in that you sense they're not too keen on deviating from the script ("No Man's Mama," "Country Girl") ***

Balkan Beat Box: Give (Nat Geo) Ori Kaplan and Tamir Muskat once again DJ the bar mitzvah of your dreams, but Tomer Yosef's simplified sloganeering suggests a future career emceeing at Reggae Sunsplash ("Political Fuck," "Money") ***

Escort: Escort (Escort) The spirit of August Darnell exits their disco dance party far too early ("Chameleon Chameleon," "Cocaine Blues") ***

The Shins: Port of Morrow (Columbia) Won't change your life, but will certainly perpetuate the one you already have ("No Way Down, "Simple Song") **

Lee Ranaldo: Between the Times and the Tides (Matador) More tuneful than Bill Callahan, but still needs Kim and Thurston for roughly ten changes of pace ("Xtina as I Knew Her," "Shouts") **

Sinéad O'Connor: How About I Be Me (And You Be You)? (One Little Indian) I do not want what I haven't got, I do not want what I haven't got, okay maybe I do ("4th and Vine," "The Wolf is Getting Married") **

Wire: The Black Session: Paris: 10 May 2011 (Pink Flag) And now for something truly perverse: the quintessential frigid art-punks at their warmest ("Drill" "Map Ref. 41°N 93°W," "Two People in a Room") **

Jamie Woon: Ghostwriting (Verve) Sino-Briton Woon plays Craig David to William "Burial" Bevan's Tricky, and guess who's the weaker link ("Shoulda," "Lady Luck") *

Lilacs and Champagne: Lilacs and Champagne (Mexican Summer) Half of the post-rock quartet Grails imagine an aural utopia in which Josh Davis would never dream of trolling record stores to sneak his product into the hip hop section ("Nice Man") *

Trash

The Men: Open Your Heart (Sacred Bones) Superficially, this improves upon last year's Leave Home by bearing down on a fierce groove that rarely lets up -- clearly, touring has tightened these Brooklynites' brutal prog-punk. But while it's hard not to be impressed by the velocity of a fast moving freight train, what sort of goodies do these guys have stowed in their hopper car? Lyrics? Tunes? None that I can discern. They can't even be said to craft hot guitar riffs -- most of the tracks here, especially the longer ones, are really only extended one-chord vamps on which guitarists Mark Perro and Nick Chiericozzi solo, and not especially imaginatively at that. In fact, the only reason they choose "Open Your Heart" as the title track isn't because they want you to think they're succumbing to unguarded vulnerability, but rather because that song is the closest they get to traditional verse-chorus-verse, not counting the totally bizarre Laurel Canyon ringer "Candy," in which they attempt the kind of bone-simple country rock that wouldn't have gotten John Fogerty a quarter mile out of Lodi. B–

Tennis: Young and Old (Fat Possum) I too am charmed by kissy-face newlyweds, but in this case, a record whose most dramatic moment occurs when the two principles miss each other in a train station only goads me into secretly hoping one of them develops a severe drinking problem. B

The Cranberries: Roses (Downtown) These roses are blue, and will never be read. C+

Dierks Bentley: Home (Capitol Nashville) The gag-worthy "Diamonds Make Babies" cements this Arizonian's well-deserved rep as the finest country singer ever to graduate from New Jersey's prestigious Lawrenceville prep school. C+

Belbury Poly: The Belbury Tapes (Ghost Box) Air gets Georges Méliès; Jim Jupp makes like Robert Moog out to score a colorization of Ed Wood. C+

Heartless Bastards: Arrow (Partisan) Humorless actually-the-youngest-of-two Erika Wennerstrom compares life to a marathon for an endless 6:10 and actually titles her "redemptive" anthem "Got to Have Rock and Roll," by which I presume she means '70s AOR -- her band sure does. C+

The Hunger Games: Songs From District 12 and Beyond (Republic) I have seen the post-apocalyptic future, and its impoverished survivors still apparently record their music in sports arenas and coffee shops. C

Wilson Phillips: Dedicated (Sony Masterworks) If they really wanted to be honest to their birthright, they'd re-name themselves "Gilliam Rovell." D

This is the 19th installment, (almost) monthly since August 2010, totalling 499 albums. All columns are indexed and archived here. You can follow A Downloader's Diary on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Once again, a few days short of the end of the month I looked at the working file and it was nearly bare (four records, I think). Don't have much on the shelf either -- big thing is Woody Shaw's The Complete Columbia Albums Collection; little things: Sufis at the Cinema: 50 Years of Bollywood Qawwali and Sufi Song 1958-2007 and a 1980-98 Aretha Franklin comp -- so I'm ever more dependent on streaming (and for some reason, Rhapsody is real weak when it comes to picking up recent compilations, but part of that may be that their browsing tools are so poor I just can't find things).

After hustling a bit I wound up with 18 records, down one from March, up one from January. Seems to be the new norm, a far cry from the 50-60 per month when I was posting on Static.

Government Cheese: Government Cheese: 1985-1995 (1985-95 [2010], Cedar Creek, 2CD): Postpunk group from Bowling Green, KY, named for a processed cheese the USDA generated from milk price support surplus and palmed off on welfare recipients. They released an EP in 1985, another in 1987, a live LP in 1989, the inevitable eponymous album in 1992, and a single in 1995: presumably most or all of that is here, along with some miscellany -- set starts off with an unreleased cover of "People Who Died," then drops into an original that quotes Stephen Foster. I figure they were scrounging for bait, but their basic three-chord thrash holds up admirably over the long haul. Bound for obscurity, they were revived by leader Tommy Womack's book (Cheese Chronicles: The True Story of a Rock 'n' Roll Band You've Never Heard Of), a reunion based on Womack's solo career, and this compilation. I checked this out because of Womack's recent solo albums. His songcraft starts to peek through on Disc 2 with "For the Battered." B+(***) [R]

Julius Hemphill: Dogon A.D. (1972 [1977], Arista Freedom): I've missed my chance to pick this up twice now: once in 1977 when Arista picked up the Freedom catalog and I managed to snag most of their reissues, and again last year when International Phonograph decided to make their reissue one of those limited editions that is already an out-of-print collector item -- judging from year-end polls I seem to be about the only jazz critic in the US not served with a copy, and I'm only hearing this now thanks to a reader. This was Hemphill's first album, with Baikida Carroll on trumpet, Abdul Wadud on cello, and Philip Wilson on drums. The alto sax leads a weird dance which breaks free even when the rhythm holds tight -- Wilson is especially impressive. Then they do it again with the leader on flute, even bluesier. The 2011 reissue adds a 20:07 bonus cut, "The Hard Blues," cut at the same session with baritone saxman Hamiet Bluiett added, also available on Hemphill's second album, Coon Bid'ness. A- [cdr]

Bill Hicks: Philosophy: The Best of Bill Hicks (1990-93 [2001], Rykodisc): Comedian, died in 1994 at age 32 -- pancreatic cancer, a cruel irony for a guy who spent much of his time in public extolling cigarettes and drugs. Like Lenny Bruce, he blasphemes religion and flirts with philosophy, but he tends to fall back on loud and dumb, and would rather go on about porn: the two quotes I jotted down are "all governments are cocksuckers" and "by the way, there are more dick jokes coming." Should have grabbed the one about if there are any gays dumb enough to want to join the military, power to them. B+(**) [R]

Sheila Jordan/Harvie S: Yesterdays (1990 [2012], High Note): Born 1928, but aside from the one-shot Portrait of Sheila in 1962 she didn't really get her career going until the late 1970s, and still hasn't been given her due -- although she's spent so much time travelling and teaching since 1990 I'm not finding dozens of aspiring jazz singers acknowledging their debts to her. Early on she paid plenty of dues, chasing Bird, and catching his pianist Duke Pearson. George Russell finally put her in front of a microphone: I'd put that on the list of his major accomplishments-- along with synthesizing Cuban be-bop for Dizzy Gillespie, teaching Miles Davis and John Coltrane how to use modes, introducing electronics to jazz, and inspiring a whole generation of Scandinavian jazz stars. I first ran into her on Roswell Rudd's mid-1970s albums -- the totally forgotten Numatik Swing Band and the even-more-marvelous Flexible Flyer -- and followed her through Steve Kuhn's group, into her solo albums -- many with nothing more than bass fiddle for accompaniment. This set, recorded "live in concert, circa 1990," is one of those, with the former Harvie Swartz on bass. More standards, less be-bop/vocalese, than her studio albums, which means more touchstones you think you know but will hear something new in here. Her control is so remarkable that even though she breaks up laughing in the Fats Waller medley she never misses a note. Only in the closer, "I Could Have Danced All Night," does she finally lose it, a joke you can't help but enjoy. A-

In Series

Back in December I got a letter from the good folks at Destination Out with a proposal that "We could easily furnish gratis downloads for you to listen to" if I would agree to review their FMP reissues over at their Bandcamp store. I dawdled a bit, then wrote back and explained that I had already reviewed most of what they had available (see April 2011 and November 2011). The key to reviewing them, of course, was that they had the entire records available for streaming (as well as purchase) -- that is common (but not universal) practice at Bandcamp, and has made it possible to supplement my Rhapsody Streamnotes with some of their fare.

I never heard back from them, and when I decided time had come to scoop up another helping of their reissues, I discovered a not-so-funny thing had happened at their store: a lot of previously available tracks disappeared. Moreover, most new records were presented only with samples -- generally about half of the album, sometimes less. That may be enough for prospective buyers, but it's not enough basis for me to review on. So I did a careful sort of what they have available, and wrote up notes (below) on the releases I hadn't previously reviewed that are still available complete. This will probably be the end of the road for me -- unless they respond by giving me access to complete downloads (which is less convenient than streaming for me, but presumably higher quality and burnable), or they change their business strategy and go back to free public streaming.

Meanwhile, the incomplete records on the site that I haven't been able to review are:

• Brötzmann/Bennink: Ein Halber Hunt Kann Night Pinkeln (1977, FMP) [6/10]
• Brötzmann/Oliver/Kellers/Schoof: In a State of Undress (1989, FMP) [2/5]
• Peter Brötzmann/Alfred 23 Harth: Go-No-Go (1987, FMP) [6/13]
• Globe Unity Orchestra and Guests: Pearls (1975, FMP) [2/3]
• Kellers/Brötzmann: Edelgard . . . Maar Helaas! (1980 [1981], FMP) [1/2]
• Steve Lacy Quintet: Follies (1977 [1978], FMP) [2/4]
• Butch Morris: Conducts Berlin Skyscraper (1995 [1998], FMP, 2CD) [6/8]
• Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky: SelbDritt (1980 [1981], FMP) [2/5]
• Hans Reichel: Bonobo (1975 [1976], FMP) [6/11]
• Hans Reichel: The Death of the Rare Bird Ymir/Bonobo Beach (1979-81 [1993], FMP) [7/12]
• Hans Reichel: Shanghaied on Tor Road (1992, FMP) [10/18]
• Sam Rivers & Alexander von Schlippenbach: Tangens (1997 [1998], FMP) [2/5]
• Hans-Günther Wauer/Günter "Baby" Sommer: Dedication (1981 [1982], FMP) [2/4]

My biggest regret there is the late Hans Reichel. Destination-Out recently ran a piece calling him The Greatest Guitarist You've Never Heard Of. As someone who's poked through every page of nine editions of The Penguin Guide, I had indeed heard of him, but hadn't actually heard him until I reviewed Erdmännchen back in November (graded it A- in November, and it's still available whole, well worth checking out -- while you still can).

Somewhere between a third and half of the records I reviewed have been pruned back. I am, however, almost certain that this occurred after I reviewed them -- I really doubt that I wouldn't have noticed the cuts before.

Willem Breuker & Leo Cuypers: . . . Superstars (1978, FMP): Of the Dutch avant-garde, anyway, usually heard in larger conflagrations, but just the two of them here, Breuker on various saxes and clarinets, Cuypers piano; not intimate, nor even much of a duo, the two mostly switching off like tag team wrestlers, Breuker often reaching not for the right note but the funny one, and playing two saxes simultaneously on his "Kirk" tribute. B+(***) [bc]

Günter Christmann/Detlef Schönenberg Duo: We Play (1973, FMP): Trombone player, born in Poland during the war, like Roswell Rudd in many ways, including his ability to tap into Kid Ory while playing stuff from another world: free grunge, kicked left and right by his percussionist cohort. B+(***) [bc]

Globe Unity Orchestra: Globe Unity 73: Live in Wuppertal (1973, FMP): Alexander von Schlippenbach's pathbreaking free jazz orchestra, ten horns -- counting Peter Kowald's tuba -- plus piano, bass and drums; I might be happier had they explored "Wolverine Blues" further -- their trad jazz deconstruction anticipated Air -- or if they dabbled more in recognizable forms, like their idea of a "Bavarian Calypso" or the march "Solidaritätslied," but there's no energy crunch here: their full bore cacophony -- Schlippenbach and Kowald are credited with "conduction," more like artillery guidance, as the "Maniacs" finale brings down the house. A- [bc]

Georg Gräwe Quintet: New Movements (1976, FMP): Pianist-led group, with trumpet, sax, bass, and drums -- no names that I instantly recognize -- in what may be his first record, more than a decade earlier than anything AMG or Discogs list; the 20-year-old pianist would have been the most unknown of the lot at the time, but he shows remarkable poise in the midst of a very lively free-for-all. B+(**) [bc]

Peter Kowald: The Complete Duos: Europa America Japan (1986-90 [2003], FMP, 2CD): The German avant-garde's premier bassist cut many duets, including three albums (Europa, America, and Japan, for where they were recorded) shuffled into two CDs here -- an initial sampler released in 1991, and a second volume in 2003; 37 cuts, ranging from 2:19 to 7:00, with 26 partners, the Berlin and New York sessions with familiar names and instruments, the Tokyo sets much less so, a peculiar form of exotica; one could whittle this down -- a first approximation would be to keep the saxes, drums, and the remarkable pianist Irène Schweizer, while dropping the vocalists and thinning out the Tokyo sessions -- but largesse is the essence here, the more contexts the bassist navigates, the more impressive. B+(***) [bc]

Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky: SelbViert (1979 [1980], FMP): Saxophonist, b. 1933 in Germany and wound up in the East after the war where he seems to have been an important figure, although the records I've noted him on have been free jazz efforts in the West, including his work with Globe Unity and Zentralquartett; this is a freewheeling quartet with Heinz Becker's trumpet bouncing off his soprano, alto, and clarinet, with Klaus Koch on bass and Günter Sommer on drums; rough at first, but one dare devil move after another works, improbably for sure. B+(***) [bc]

Michael Smith Quartet: Live in Berlin: Austin Stream (1976 [1977], FMP): A pianist from Kentucky, moved to France in 1972 and cut this and one more album before returning to the US in 1980; with Claude Bernard (alto sax), Kent Carter (bass), and Laurence Cook (drums); the saxophonist makes a strong impression, as do the piano leads. B+(**) [bc]

Günter Sommer: Hörmusik (1979 [1980], FMP): German drummer, a significant figure in the avant-garde, tries his hand at a solo album -- not all drums, but everything that doesn't go bang at least flutters and twitters; one piece, 34:49, originally split over two LP sides, now pasted back together. B+(*) [bc]

Keith Tippett & Louis Moholo: No Gossip (1980 [1982], FMP): Piano-drums duets, an intense fury of percussion from both artists, with titles suggesting the South African's politics, not that anyone here dissents. B+(***) [bc]

Briefly Noted

Ruby Braff: Hi-Fi Salute to Bunny (1957, RCA): A tribute to 1930s trumpeter Bunny Berigan with clarinetist Pee Wee Russell, pianist Nat Pierce, and others, bright, richly toned, a latter-day swing classic; reissued on CD in 2007 by Mosaic Select, and now dumped out digital-only. A- [R]

Alex Chilton: Free Again: The 1970 Sessions (1969 [2012], Omnivore): The missing links between the teen-pop Box Tops Chilton fronted (1967-70) and the pathbreaking new wave band Big Star (1971-75) he led, although it takes a lot of redundancy to stretch them out to CD-length. B+(**) [R]

Karen Dalton: 1966 (1966 [2012], Delmore Recording Society): A folksinger from Oklahoma, had an underground reputation in Greenwich Village in the 1960s, yielding only two 1969-71 albums that are treasured and not bad; these newly unearthed home recordings are a minor event, mostly trad., Tim Hardin (4), and Fred Neil (2), plus a "God Bless the Child" to test her Billie Holiday rep, pinned down by the weak sound and dynamics. B [R]

Goldfrapp: The Singles (2000-12 [2012], Mute): A decade's worth of less-than-hit electropop, plus two spare tunes the now-former label figured they might as well use as bait -- uh, singles; I liked their 2010 album and still like its singles here, but instead of bringing the older material into focus all too often they fade into fuzzy utopian dreamscapes. B+(*)

Tronics: Love Backed by Force (1981 [2012], What's Your Rupture?): Non-group front for a Brit named Ziro Baby, who sounds a bit like a cross between Syd Barrett and Brute Force aping the Ramones ("My Baby's in a Coma") or the Modern Lovers ("Love Tan"); tacking on the contemporaneous single "Shark Fucks" would have added to the historical import, but they settled for a straight 36:20 LP reissue. B

Legend: B+ records are divided into three levels, where more * is better. [R] indicates record was reviewed using a stream from Rhapsody ([X] is some other identified stream source; otherwise assume a CD). The biggest caveat there is that the packaging and documentation hasn't been inspected or considered, and documentation is especially important for reissues. But also my exposure to streamed records is briefer and more limited, so I'm more prone to snap judgments -- although that's always a risk.

For this column and the previous 95, see the archive. Total records reviewed: 3199 (2801 + 39.

Music: Current count 19580 [19545] rated (+35), 882 [889] unrated (-7). Saw a report this week that Wichita is the 6th worst city in the country for allergies right now, and I must say I've rarely been more miserable. Don't think it got to the predicted 90° mark yesterday, and doubt that it will today either, but it will come close enough -- closer to summer temperatures than spring, but I can remember snow this late in the year. Rainy cold front in a couple of days should provide a bit of relief, but the rebound from that should be really awful. Allergies have bothered me for more than 25 years now, and they're always worse in spring. Thought I was escaping the worst when we moved to Wichita from NJ, but it seems to have caught up with us.

Spent most of my listening time preparing for Recycled Goods, which should appear tomorrow, and Streamnotes -- which I'll hold until after A Downloader's Diary appears, probably midweek. So I didn't write up much Jazz Prospecting this week (and wound up holding back one piece, since it's a dupe from Recycled Goods -- at least so far). I figured I wouldn't have enough this week, but this batch has enough quality I might as well let it go. Also, I got so little incoming mail this past week I don't want to further the impression that I'm a has been. Still hoping it's just slow mail keeping me from the new batch from Clean Feed. If not, I probably am done for.

François Carrier/Michel Lambert/Alexey Lapin: In Motion (2010 [2012], Leo): Third record for this trio in the last year or so, after Inner Spire (Leo) and All Out (FMR), and they're all pretty close to interchangeable: Carrier's alto sax always probing and poignant, his decade-plus relationship to drummer Lambert has long been telepathic, the Russian pianist something of a mystery, but he's by now so tightly entwined he's integral to the set. A-

Ellery Eskelin/Dave Ballou/Michael Formanek/Devin Gray: Dirigo Rataplan (2011 [2012], Skirl): I filed this under drummer Devin Gray, who wrote all the music and dominates the publicity materials, but the cover suggests the attribution above. Starts off with a section that sounds like they're trying to find their key, but once they settle down this starts to get interesting -- the two horns (Eskelin on tenor sax, Ballou on trumpet) slipping in and out of synch, the bass and drums fluttering about. B+(***)

John Moulder Quintet: The Eleventh Hour: Live at the Green Mill (2011 [2012], Origin): Guitarist, has 5-6 albums since 1993, figure him for postbop but don't put too much weight on what that might mean. Group includes Geof Bradfield (saxes, bass clarinet), Jim Trompeter (piano), Larry Gray (bass), and Paul Wertico (drums). Live in Chicago, a long set, Bradfield is typically strong which gives the guitar something to play off against. Struck by how the finale rises at the end, like a rock band would do. B+(*)

Evan Parker/Wes Neal/Joe Sorbara: At Somewhere There (2009 [2011], Barnyard): Parker, of course, is one of the giant figures in the English/European avant-garde, with well over 100 records since 1967 -- with Globe Unity Orchestra, followed in 1968 with appearances on Peter Brötzmann's Machine Gun and Spontaneous Music Ensemble's Karyobin. The latter two are Canadians, playing bass and drums, part of the free-ish AIMToronto Orchestra, in effect Parker's local pick-up band for this live, single-cut improv blast. With so many albums, it's hard to pick and choose, but I like this one because he sticks to tenor sax and keeps it short (39:56) and simple -- but not too simple. A-

Scott Tixier: Brooklyn Bazaar (2011 [2012], Sunnyside): Violinist, b. 1986 in France. First album, with guitar, piano, bass, and drums (bassist Massimo Biolcati is the name I recognize); wrote all his own pieces, and makes an impression dashing through the less interesting arrangements. Vocals on one piece add to the chamber music aura. B

The Michael Treni Big Band: Boy's Night Out (2011 [2012], self-released): Trombonist, from Falmouth, ME; studied at University of Miami, taught there and at Berklee; ran a technology company from 1985 on, and claims a couple patents. Booklet starts with the line: "the history of jazz is rife with dramatic comebacks where big league musicians returned to the spotlight with renewed power and conviction after years of scuffling in obscurity," citing examples Bunk Johnson, George Lewis, Frank Morgan, and Henry Grimes. About all I can find for Treni's pre-hiatus period is a side credit with Bobby Watson, but he returned with an album in 2009, and a better one here. Conventional big band (piano, no guitar), plus a string quartet on two cuts, tightly arranged, flows exceptionally well, not a lot of solo space, few names I recognize (Jerry Bergonzi is the major exception). B+(**)

Upper Left Trio: Ulternative (2011 [2012], Origin): Piano trio -- Clay Giberson (piano, keyboards), Jeff Leonard (basses), Charlie Doggett (drums) -- fourth album, all write (but Doggett only gets one song in). Very solid postbop group, nothing spectacular but I've played this a half dozen times and it's never been less than engaging. B+(***)

Piet Verbist: Zygomatik (2010 [2012], Origin): Bassist, b. 1961 in Belgium; graduated Brussels Conservatory in 1994. First album; doesn't have much of a side discography either, but wrote all the pieces, leading the album off with a bass intro a la Mingus. Uses Fender Rhodes instead of piano, and features tenor sax, adding a bari sax on three cuts. The tenor is split between Fred Delplancq early on and Matt Renzi on the latter half. No surprise that Renzi bumps this up to a higher energy level, adding the edge that makes this album memorable. B+(***)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• David Boswell: Windows (My Quiet Moon)
• Tommy Womack: Now What! (Cedar Creek)