Monday, November 9, 2015

Music Week

Music: Current count 25726 [25691] rated (+35), 439 [439] unrated (-0).

Fall is coming to Wichita several weeks later than usual this year, but we raked up a first bag of leaves yesterday (many more are still on the trees, but no longer green). That got me started thinking about EOY lists. My own lists-in-progress currently show 59 jazz and 42 non-jazz new records on the A-list (reissues/historic music: 6 + 5).

I added eight records to those lists this week. Michael Tatum reviewed the Chills in his latest column, and also tipped me off on two of this week's three rap albums (Blackalicious and Peaceable Solutions, although I was vaguely aware of the former). The third rap record was Paris, reviewed by Robert Christgau a while back. I had put it off because it's a double, and only gave it one spin, but it's so solid it's in my shopping basket (along with Laurie Anderson, Blackalicious, Lyrics Born, and Sleaford Mods) as a possible P&J contender.

Four jazz records too. Jörg Fischer has been sending me CDs for a couple years and Spicy Unit finally hit the spot. The other two -- Ochs-Robinson Duo and Michael Zerang & the Blue Lights -- I had to stream. I spent a big chunk of time last week scanning through The Free Jazz Collective's blog and adding all the new 2015 releases they reviewed to my 2015 release list file. I don't find their ratings to be very reliable, but they do cover a lot of avant-jazz. I probably added a hundred albums, noted a couple dozen to look up, and listened to a handful. The Zerang album is the Mars Williams-Dave Rempis joust of my dreams (and its companion is either more or less depending on your perspective). And the Larry Ochs duo is as clear a showcase for his powerful tenor sax as I can recall. The trawl also located a few links below.

The fourth jazz record was one I got in the mail and played a lot (4-5 times), wavering on the fence. Josh Berman is actually in Zerang's band, but he is better heard on his own new trio record. Probably would have been an easier call had I not played it right after Ochs and the two Zerangs and started worrying that everything was sounding A-worthy. (As I'm writing this, I'm playing random shit from the queue and not having that problem at all.)

The release list file is currently approaching 2500 entries (2389; about one-third are jazz: 813). I'll keep growing the file for a while, but eventually it will give way to an EOY List Aggregate file, like the one I did last year. EOY lists start showing up in mid-November, especially in the UK (which probably has more music magazines than the US does). The counter in the music tracking file shows 751 records either rated or in hand this year. Unlikely I'll hit 1000 this year, as I have done a couple of times in the past.

Recommended music links:

The first few links come from the Free Jazz Collective crawl.

  • Free Jazz Collective: To Ornette Coleman: A retrospective of pretty much all the albums. The Free Jazz Collective also did a 50-year series on AACM: Introduction, 1965-1974, 1975-1984, 1985-1994, 1995-2004, 2005-2015.

  • My trawl also neeted this interview with Tom Surgall, director of the free jazz documentary Fire Music, with his list of "important free jazz albums": his pick of John Tchicai's Afrodiasica spurred me to listen to a number of the Danish saxophonist's albums (see old music below).

  • Milo Miles: First Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Ballot: Goes through some rationalization about being "too good" to vote in Pazz & Jop (a status some of us have yet to achieve), then prints out a list of fifteen ballot choices for 2016 (any write-ins?). Then he asks, "which five did I vote for?" I wouldn't presume to know, but I wouldn't feel bad about voting for: Chic, The JB's, Los Lobos. After that it gets a bit dicier. Looking back, I see at least one A- grade for (C means a best-of compilation) for: Janet Jackson (2), Nine Inch Nails (3), The Smiths (1C). I wouldn't mind any of those, but they're not what I think of as all-time legends, and I bet I can find better acts the Hall passed over. I also see that Christgau has at least one A- grade for: The Cars (1C), Chaka Khan (1C), Steve Miller (1C), The Spinners (2+2C). I should probably give that Spinners comp another spin, maybe even check out the Atlantics I totally missed. The others: Cheap Trick (probably entertaining live), Chicago (maybe the worst rock band of all time, not that they started so bad), Deep Purple (nothing in my database, nothing I remember hearing, although I surely must have), N.W.A. (made a big impression on teens at the time), and Yes (very popular among my college friends, but I moved on).

PS: Sometime back I incorrectly got the group and album title swapped: should be The Spanish Donkey: Raoul (2015, Rare Noise). Group members are: Joe Morris, Jamie Saft, and Mike Pride. Grade: B.

New records rated this week:

  • Josh Berman Trio: A Dance and a Hop (2015, Delmark): A-
  • Blackalicious: Imani, Vol. 1 (2015, OGM): [r]: A-
  • The Chills: Silver Bullets (2015, Fire): [r]: A-
  • Marcelo Dos Reis/Angélica V. Salvi: Concentric Rinds (2013 [2015], Cipsela): [cd]: B+(*)
  • Robin Eubanks Mass Line Big Band: More Than Meets the Ear (2015, ArtistShare): [cdr]: B+(*)
  • Sergi Felipe: Whisper Songs (2011, UnderPool): [cd]: B+(*)
  • Sergi Felipe/Whisper Songs: Bombú Es Libre En El Espacio (2013, UnderPool): [cd]: B+(*)
  • Garrison Fewell: Invisible Resonance Trio (2013 [2015], Creative Nation Music): [r]: B+(***)
  • Mike Holober: Balancing Act (2015, Palmetto): [cd]: B+(**)
  • Hot Jazz Jumpers: The Very Next Thing (2015, On the Bol): [cd]: B
  • Guus Janssen: Meeting Points (1989-2014 [2015], Bimhuis): [cd]: B+(***)
  • Marco Mezquida Mateos: Live in Terrassa (2015, UnderPool): [cd]: B+(***)
  • The Monash Art Ensemble/George Lewis: Hexis (2013 [2014], Jazzhead): [r]: B+(**)
  • Ŕlvar Montfort/Lucas Martinez/Jordi Matas/Abel Boquera/Pep Mula: Underpool 4 (2014 [2015], UnderPool): [cd]: B+(*)
  • Larry Ochs/Don Robinson Duo: The Throne (2011 [2015], Not Two): [r]: A-
  • Paris: Pistol Politics (2015, Guerrilla Funk, 2CD): [r]: A-
  • Peaceful Solutions: Barter 7 (2015, self-released): [bc]: A-
  • Pol Pedrós/Noč Escolŕ/Albert Cirera/Rai Paz/Paco Weht/Ildefons Alonso: Underpool 3 (2014, UnderPool): [cd]: B+(*)
  • Martin Speicher/Peter Geisselbrecht/Jörg Fischer: Spicy Unit (2014 [2015], Spore Print): [cd]: A-
  • Spinifex: Veiled (2015, Trytone): [cd]: B+(**)
  • Jacob Varmus Septet: Aegean: For Three Generations of Jazz Lovers (2013 [2015], Crows' Kin): [cd]: B+(**)
  • Carrie Wicks: Maybe (2015, OA2): [cd]: B+(**)
  • Patrick Williams: Home Suite Home (2015, BFM): [cd]: B+(*)
  • Dave Wilson Quartet: There Was Never (2015, Zoho): [cd]: B+(*)
  • Michael Zerang & the Blue Lights: Songs From the Big Book of Love (2014 [2015], Pink Palace): [bc]: A-
  • Michael Zerang & the Blue Lights: Hash Eaters and Peacekeepers (2014 [2015], Pink Palace, EP): [bc]: B+(***)

Old music rated this week:

  • The Chills: Kaleidoscope World (1982-84 [1989], Homestead): [r]: B+(*)
  • Marty Grosz and the Collectors Items Cats: Thanks (1993, Jazzology): [r]: B+(**)
  • Marty Grosz Quartet: Just for Fun! (1996, Nagel Heyer): [r]: B+(*)
  • Marty Grosz: Left to His Own Devices (2000 [2001], Jazzology): [r]: B+(*)
  • Grant McLennan: In Your Bright Ray (1996 [1997], Beggars Banquet): [r]: B+(*)
  • Grant McLennan: Intermission: The Best of the Solo Recordings 1990-1997 (1990-97 [2007], Beggars Banquet): [r]: A-
  • John Tchicai: Cadentia Nova Danica (1968, Freedom): [r]: A-
  • John Tchicai and Cadentia Nova Danica: Afrodisiaca (1969, MPS): [r]: B+(**)
  • John Tchicai-Irene Schweizer-Group: Willi the Pig: Live at the Willisau Jazz Festival (1975 [2000], Atavistic Unheard Music Series): [r]: A-
  • John Tchicai & Strange Brothers: Darktown Highlights (1977, Storyville): [r]: B+(***)
  • John Tchicai: Put Up the Fight (1987, Storyville): [r]: B+(*)
  • John Tchicai: Darktown Highlights/Put Up the Fight (1977-87 [2012], Storyville, 2CD): [r]: B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • Dan Ballou: Solo Trumpet (Clean Feed)
  • Bathysphere: Bathysphere (Driff)
  • Scott Clark 4tet: Bury My Heart (Clean Feed)
  • Di Lontan: Power Trio (Clean Feed)
  • Jorrit Dijkstra: Neither Odd nor Even (Driff)
  • Jorrit Dijkstra/Pandelis Karayorgis/Nate McBride/Curt Newton: Matchbox (Driff)
  • Brian Fielding: An Appropriate Response: Volume One (Broken Symmetries Music): January 1
  • Daniel Levin/Mat Maneri: The Transcendent Function (Clean Feed)
  • Jack Mouse & Scott Robinson with Janice Borla: Three Story Sandbox (Tall Grass): January 1
  • Ivo Perelman/Mat Maneri/Tanya Kalmanovitch: Villa Lobos Suite (Leo)
  • Ivo Perelman/Matthew Shipp: Complementary Colors (Leo)
  • Ivo Perelman/Matthew Shipp/Whit Dickey: Butterfly Whispers (Leo)
  • Nate Wooley Quintet: (Dance to) the Early Music (Clean Feed)

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