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An occasional blog about populist politics and popular music, not necessarily at the same time. LinksLocal Links My Other Websites Music Politics Others Networking Music DatabaseArtist Search: Website SearchGoogle: Recent Reading
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Tuesday, December 3, 2024 Music Week
December archive (in progress). Music: Current count 43255 [43229] rated (+26), 12 [21] unrated (-9). Another short week, attempting to revert to a normal (or at least more customary) publication date of Tuesday (or Monday). But also because we're expecting company from late tonight through the weekend, so I'm not expecting much more time to work on this (or anything else). We finally moved back into our wrecked-and-renovated upstairs room, with all the dislocated clutter if not back in its original resting space at least stashed away somewhere we won't accidentally trip over. I'll still need to figure out some organization for the now empty closet space, but that's no longer on the critical path to something else. And if we do manage to declutter some, we might not even need it. I wish I could say the 19th annual Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll was properly shaped up, but I've bumbled through another week of deep thought and lightweight hacking, making only small measures of progress. The initial round of 230 invites went out on or near Nov. 20. (The 8 bounces have since been reduced to 5. Anti-spam problems persist, even within the rather compact jpadmin mail list. (I'm overdue to send a reminder to the more global jazzpoll mail list, but I keep thinking I'll have better news soon.) The website Voter Notes have a lot more detail, but are still unfinished. The more urgent project is to get a second round of ballot invites out, which may take as long as the end of the week. If you're expecting one and haven't heard yet, please nag me. I've counted 27 ballots, and have 4-5 in my inbox today that I'll get to after posting this. The pace should pick up steadily from this week, although it's impossible to predict whether we will wind up with 120 or 150 or 180 ballots (or maybe even 200 if the second round really explodes). The biggest uncertainty is how much mail is actually getting through to voters, as there is no way (at least that I know of) to ensure or even accurately measure delivery. In the past, I've urged people who read this to spread the word, but I've never seen any evidence of that working. So I'm torn between feelings of panic and que sera sera, with the coming distraction favoring the latter. No new work on the ultimate Speaking of Which. I glanced briefly at The Intelligencer today for the first time in a week or two, discovering that Biden pardoned his son -- which at least short-circuits the question of whether Trump would have done so (in the hollowest gesture of bipartisanship imaginable). Also Ed Kilgore attacking "Sanders, Warren, and other progressives" for "looking to steal some of Trump's populist street cred" and "just deny Democrats a united front" (against what? street cred?). Nothing there on South Korea yet, where the right does seem to have provoked a "united front" in defense of democracy. Meanwhile, I've moved from Marshall Berman's All That Is Solid Melts Into Air to another old book I've long meant to read, Eric Hobsbawm's The Age of Capital: 1848-1875. I have two more Hobsbawm volumes lined up after that, with The Age of Extremes on a shelf hereabouts since I bought it hot off the press. I might also note that I did manage to take a break Sunday to fix a very comfy dinner. Had leftovers tonight, and they were delish. With company, hopefully I'll get to cook some more. Helps relieve stress, even though it does tend to come back on you. I haven't filed my own ballot yet, but will do so this week. For a rough draft, you can look at my Jazz list. I have to reconsider the order, which has always been slapdash, but the leading candidates haven't changed much in well over a month -- the adds have been way down the list, which currently is up to a possible record-high 89 A-list jazz albums. One likely change is that I'll combine the Lowe volumes into one entry and make it my top pick. (The Pollmaster has allowed that to be legal. See the op. cit. Voter Notes.) I'll publish whatever I come up with next week, along with whatever news crops up. Meanwhile, my Non-Jazz list remains relatively lame, with a mere 49 A-list new albums, which Lamar Kendrick barely missed this week. I've done a little bit of EOY Aggregate work, but not much. I'll have time to catch up later. One thing I have zero interest in right now is 2025 releases. My 2024 demo queue is down to 6 albums right now. I should knock them down next week. As for saved download links, not my problem right now. I've skipped past much bookkeeping work over the last month or so, and doubt I'll make any progress on it for a couple more weeks, but eventually I'll get to it. Looking forward to changes, around here if not out there, after the Poll. New records reviewed this week: Jacqui Dankworth: Windmills (2024, Perdido): British jazz singer, daughter of saxophonist John Dankworth and singer Cleo Laine, started in theatre, at least eight albums since 1994. Standards, in orchestral arrangements, does offer a quite nice "Send in the Clowns." B+(*) [sp] Djrum: Meaning's Edge (2024, Houndstooth, EP): British electronica producer Felix Manuel, has mostly singles and EPs since 2010 (Discogs lists 2 albums, from 2013 and 2018, but counts this 5 tracks, 31:59 as an EP). B+(**) [sp] Taylor Eigsti: Plot Armor (2024, GroundUP Music): Pianist, ninth album since 1999, won a Grammy last time out, Tree Falls (2021). Many guest spots here, including trumpet (Terence Blanchard), sax (Ben Wendel, Dayna Stephens), and vocals (Lisa Fischer, Gretchen Parlato, Becca Stevens), plus "many appearances by a layered string section." B- [sp] Floros Floridis/Matthias Bauer/Joe Hertenstein: Temporal Driftness (2023 [2024], Evil Rabbit): Greek clarinet player (mostly bass clarinet here, also alto sax), studied physics and math before choosing music, first albums 1979-80, has a fairly steady stream of albums (not huge, but Discogs places him on five 2024 releases), seems to be based in Berlin now. Free improv trio with bass and drums, working their way through 11 numbered "Drift" pieces, nothing spectacular but a fine example of how it's done. A- [sp] Joe Fonda Quartet: Eyes on the Horizon (2024 [2024], Long Song): Free jazz bassist, many albums since 1981, Discogs counts 43 under his own name, but that skips many groups he led or co-led -- e.g., the Fonda/Stevens group, and FAB Trio (with Billy Bang). (Discogs has 182 album performance credits). He draws on longtime collaborators here: Satoko Fujii (piano, 5 duo albums since 2015), Tiziano Tononi (drums, 7 albums since 2018), and (going way back) Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet). Exemplary work all around. A- [cd] Ben Goldberg/Todd Sickafoose/Scott Amendola: Here to There (2024, Secret Hatch): Clarinet player, including bass clarinet, backed by bass and drums/electronics, offers new tunes based on Thelonious Monk "bridges." B+(**) [cd] Mickey Guyton: House on Fire (2024, Capitol Nashville): Nashville singer-songwriter, second album after several EPs and the breakout single "Black Like Me." Sounds more pop than country. B+(*) [sp] Tom Harrell: Alternate Summer (2022 [2024], HighNote): Trumper player, debut 1976, by which time he had played with Kenton, Herman, and Horace Silver. Postbop group, all original pieces, with either Mark Turner or Dayna Stephens on tenor sax, Charles Altura on guitar (4 tracks, of 10), backed by a rhythm section of Luis Perdomo, Ugonna Okegwo, and Adam Cruz. B+(**) [sp] Cliff Korman Trio: Urban Tracks (2021 [2024], SS): Pianist, from New York, has side credits back to 1984, many with Brazilian connections. Trio with bass and drums. B+(*) [cd] [12-06] Marie Krüttli Trio: Scoria (2023 [2024], Intakt): Swiss pianist, several albums since her first trio in 2015, this one with Lukas Traxel (bass) and Gautier Garrigue (drums). B+(*) [sp] Kendrick Lamar: GNX (2024, PGLang/Interscope): Los Angeles rapper, started as K.Dot, sixth studio album after a widely admired 2010 mixtape (Overly Dedicated), this one came with no advance hype, and no overarching concept. Some good bits here, but not much I'm connecting with. B+(***) [sp] Hayoung Lyou: The Myth of Katabasis (2024, Endectomorph Music): Pianist from Korea, studied at Berklee and New England Conservatory, based in New York. Second album, trio with Thomas Morgan (bass) and Steven Crammer (drums). The focus is very much on the piano, wending its way from "syrupy Russian piano music" to the "hard-fought freedom into jazz." B+(**) [cd] Rob Mazurek Quartet: Color Systems (2022 [2024], RogueArt): Trumpet player (+ piccolo trumpet, bells, electronics), many albums since 1995, practically trademarked the idea of Chicago Underground, and has expanded on that in various directions (even developing a Sao Paulo franchise). Stellar quartet here with Angelica Sanchez (piano), Tomeka Reid (cello), and Chad Taylor (drums). B+(***) [cdr] Kresten Osgood Quintet: Live at H15 Studio (2017 [2024], ILK Music): Danish drummer, 120 performance credits since 2000, organized this group for a 2018 album, Kresten Osgood Quintet Plays Jazz, with this a live set from the same month (but repeating no songs). With Erik Kimestad Pedersen (trumpet), Mads Egetoft (sax), Jeppe Zeeberg (piano), and Matthias Petri (bass). B+(**) [sp] Reut Regev's R*Time: It's Now: R*Time Plays Doug Hammond (2023 [2024], ESP-Disk): Trombonist, also plays "flugabone," based in New York, introduced R*Time band in 2009, plays some fusion of gutbucket blues and free jazz, married to drummer Igal Foni -- present here, along with Jean-Paul Bourelly (guitar) and Eric Revis (bass), with Hammond writing the songs and singing most of them. As usual, the vocals are the weak spot, but not without interest. B+(***) [cd] Sara Serpa: Encounters & Collisions (2023 [2024], Biophilia): Jazz singer, from Portugal, studied in Boston, based in New York since her 2008 debut, dozen albums, some kind of art song, a style (slow, articulate, contorted) I've never cared for. The singing alternates with spoken word stories I have trouble hearing and instrumental backing -- Ingrid Laubrock (sax), Angelica Sanchez (piano), and Erik Friedlander (cello) -- I do enjoy. B+(*) [cd] Skyzoo: Keep Me Company (2024, Old Soul Music): New York rapper Gregory Taylor, still underground after twenty years. "The only thing that sounds better muted is trumpet." B+(***) [sp] Margaret Slovak & Chris Maresh: A Star's Light Does Fall (2024, Slovak Music): Nylon string guitar for that delicate touch, duets with acoustic bass, nicely ambient. B+(*) [cd] Sun Ra Arkestra [Under the Direction of Marshall Allen]: Lights on a Satellite (2024, In+Out): Sun Ra's ghost band, still under the steady leadership of long-time alto saxophonist Marshall Allen, who had just passed 100 when he brought the 24-piece band to New York's Power Station to record this double-LP, starting with a 10-minut run through the title song (from 1961), before going earlier and later. After all the space talk, they wind up "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans." A- [sp] Pat Thomas: The Solar Model of Ibn Al-Shatir (2024, Otoroku): Avant-pianist, based in London, early albums with Lol Coxhill (1993) and Derek Bailey (1997), has drawn on Arabic models, especially for his solo work (starting with Nur in 1999, and most impressively in his Ahmed group). B+(**) [sp] Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries: Duck Baker: Breakdown Lane: Free Jazz Guitar 1976-1998 (1976-98 [2024], ESP-Disk): Guitarist, acoustic fingerstyle, straddles folk and jazz, first album 1975, scattered solos and duos with Eugene Chadbourne. B+(**) [cd] Miles Davis Quintet: Miles in France 1963 & 1964 [The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8] (1963-64 [2024], Columbia/Legacy, 6CD): Another treasure trove of live quintet sets, with the young Herbie Hancock-Ron Carter-Tony Williams rhythm section, plus George Coleman (tenor sax) on the 1963 Juan-Les-Pins festival sessions, replaced by Wayne Shorter for the 1964 sets at Salle Pleyel. The 7/27/1963 set mostly appeared in Miles Davis in Europe (1964), but everything else was previously unreleased, with the extra focus on Coleman most appreciated. Overall, sounds about par for live Davis from the period -- which is to say, instantly recognizable and often sublime -- like The Complete Concert 1964 (with Coleman), Miles in Berlin (with Shorter), and the most intriguing path not taken, Miles in Tokyo (with Sam Rivers). [CD packaging is remarkably compact, unlike the earlier Bootleg Series vaults, or the pricey 8-LP.] A- [cd] Miles Davis: Miles '54: The Prestige Recordings (1954 [2024], Craft, 2CD): Or 4-LP, which is probably the point, but the label takes their remastering seriously, and offers a range of formats. This collects four sessions from the pivotal year in Davis's 1951-56 tenure at Prestige, starting with three tracks (including "Four") from the back half of a 10-inch LP, followed by star-laden sessions eventually released as Walkin', Bags Groove, and Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants -- some with Sonny Rollins (tenor sax) or Milt Jackson (vibes), with Horace Silver or Thelonious Monk on piano, Percy Heath (bass), and Kenny Clarke (drums), with two tracks each for Jay Jay Johnson (trombone), Lucky Thompson (tenor sax), and Dave Schildkraut (alto sax). A- [sp] B.B. King: In France: Live at the 1977 Nancy Jazz Pulsations Festival (1977 [2024], Deep Digs/Elemental Music): Memphis blues guitarist-singer (1925-2015), his classic singles date from the early 1950s, but with 1964's Live at the Regal he started to gain a rock audience, as well as hitting up a few jazz festivals, and he remained a popular figure past 2000. He rolls out the horns here, and puts on a good show, with the flagship 2-LP product squeezing neatly in to one 79:17 CD. B+(**) [cd] Sun Ra: Lights on a Satellite: Live at the Left Bank (1978 [2024], Resonance, 2CD): Confusing to have this reissue share the same title as the new album by the ghost Arkestra -- song title goes back at least as far as 1961's Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow. This was a prime period for the big band, with their consummate knack of making a circus out of their imagined cosmos: while they can fall into schtick, or break down in chaos, their flights of fantasy are as primal as they are astonishing. A- [cd] Old music: Sun Ra & His Arkestra: Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow (1961 [2014], Enterplanetary Koncepts): Two New York sessions, shortly after the band moved from Chicago, including their first take on "Lights on a Satellite," the title of two prominent 2024 releases (one a 1978 live shot, the other a celebration of Marshall Allen's 100th birthday). Some early sonic experiments, but the underlying swing is strong, and a bonus track reminds you how hard John Gilmore could play. A- [bc] Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
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